Anyone interested in Islam needs to read the interview (below) Wafa Sultan gave a few days ago to a Dutch journalist. Sultan, a medical doctor and former Muslim (and author of A God Who Hates reviewed here) is in the Netherlands to provide expert testimony in the Amsterdam Court "show trial' of Geert Wilders, leader of the PVV (Freedom Party) and courageous critic of Islam.
From Atlas Shrugged:
. . . Interviewer: What do you make of his [Geert Wilder's] message?
Wafa Sultan: It is very good. It is very good for someone to stand up against the violent Islamic teachings and try to protect his country and his values, his freedoms, his way of life. I admire every man who does what Mr Wilders is doing. You need to stand up and speak up against it.
Interviewer: What do you make of this trial against him?
Wafa Sultan: It is scary. It is a very scary message that you are threatened, that Islam might be able to take over. You accuse, I mean you know, the Dutch Court accuses Mr Wilders of hate speech and I wonder why they don't call the Qur'an a Hate Message. When you read the Qur'an do you consider it a Love Message? So why do you allow Muslims to teach their violent teachings to their young children while you don't allow people like Mr Wilders to criticise those teachings? This is the question.
Interviewer: I don't know exactly what the Judge will ask you tomorrow but Mr Wilders is well known here for saying that Islam is a backward culture and he has said many times in public that he has, as far as he is concerned, the Qur'an should be banned. And people wearing headscarves should be taxed accordingly.Wafa Sultan: I 100% agree with him, because he knows a great deal of what the Qur'an is about. Once you know, you are going to take a stand, the same way he did. Because I believe, you, the Dutch, won't allow someone to destroy your way of life. So my message to the Dutch people, get familiar with the Islamic teachings. Read the Qur'an and
read the life of Muhammad. You need to understand that Muhammad is the role model for every Muslim man on Earth.
Interviewer: Now why is that a bad thing?
Wafa Sultan: Because the way they behave against non-Muslims. They are brainwashed to believe, indoctrinated to believe, that their mission on Earth is to take over and to force non-Muslims to become Muslims. Believe me, the Islamic values don't match with the Western values. They are not for freedom. You have to follow strictly what Islamic Sharia asks you to do. Especially when it comes to women. I don't know if Dutch women will accept to live the life, or to be treated the way Muslim women are treated under Islamic Sharia. They are not familiar with Islamic Sharia that is why they don't stand up against it, but once you educate the Public about it, then many more like Wilders will speak up.
Interviewer. You have said many times that you are fighting Islam. Do you see Wilders in that same group?
Wafa Sultan: Yes, he is. Yes, we are not fighting Muslims, we are not against Muslims. Even Mr Wilders has said that many many many times. We have to distinguish between Islam and Muslims. We are not against Muslims but we are totally against Islam. Because it is a very hateful political ideology which doesn't match the Western laws and the Western way of life.
Interviewer: A large group of the Dutch population does not agree with you, does not see it that way. What don't they understand about Islam?
Wafa Sultan: Anything. They don't understand anything about Islam. How many Islamic texts have been translated to Dutch so far? So how do they know? There are a few, I don't know the situation in Holland if it is the same as it is in the United States, there are a few books which are sugar coated which were distributed by the Saudi's. Those books do not have the truth about Islam. They are very sugar coated, especially the translation of the Qur'an, because in Islam it is forbidden to translate the Qur'an. If you take a look at the translation of the Qur'an in English you will see the meaning of our Holy Book, it is not the literal translation, it is not word for word, it is very much sugar coated. So you need to translate it in a very honest way. The Islamic text from its orginal Arabic text to Dutch and have people read it and then let them make their judgement.
Interviewer: So you are saying that the Dutch in general, those who say say that Islam is not a hateful religion, you are saying that they misunderstand?
Wafa Sultan: Of course they do. They don't understand the whole idea about Islam.
Interviewer: There are 800,000 Muslims living in the Netherlands. Do you see them as a threat to the Dutch way of life?
Wafa Sultan: Not every Muslim is a threat. I am sure that many Muslims are very moderate.
Interviewer: But some aren't?
Wafa Sultan: Some are dangerous and some are playing the Al-Taqqiya. The concept of Al-Taqqiya, which allows Muslims to cheat, to lie and to cover their feelings in order to reach their objective. How many percent of those, I really don't know. But we can not consider that every Muslim is a threat. It depends how deeply he understands his religion and sticks to his teachings.
Interviewer: But if you are saying that, you have just said you don't have a problem with Muslims but have
Wafa Sultan: No doubt about it, I don't want to generalise my attitude. Of course I have a problem with some Muslims, but I don't want to say every Muslim is a threat, that is not fair.
My Mother is a Muslim and she is still practicing Islam. She is the most peaceful woman on Earth, but she is illiterate, she has never read the Qur'an or the life of Muhammad. She practices Islam the way she heard her Mother and her Grand Mother talking about Islam, so that is what I mean. I can not consider my Mum as a threat. She doesn't know much about Islam. I am worried about Muslims who know the exact Islamic message and they stick to it. That is what worries me. I am sure that there are some of them who do that.
Interviewer: What happened to you that you didn't follow in your Mother's footsteps?
Wafa Sultan: I have had very unique circumstances. When people ask me why we don't hear more Muslim women like you that express themselves in the same way. I believe you have to have or need a special character in order to be able to go against your own religion, against your own culture, it is not easy, it has been very draining. After all that I have ever said about Islam, my life would never be the same, so I understand why Muslim women don't do it more often. Because it is very draining. As I said, you have to be equipped with a special strength to do that, as I have.
Interviewer: Those special circumstances in your life, like what? What was the pinnacle event in your life?
Wafa Sultan: I am a Medical Doctor and it helped me to evaluate my teachings under my scientific microscope. I was born and raised as a Muslim and I lived for 30 years of my life under Islamic Sharia, then I moved to a free country where I felt that I was protected by the Law and I was free enough to express my life. Plus, my Husband played a role in shaping, helping me to actually to shape my thoughts about Islam.
Interviewer: I have heard you tell the story of your Niece.
Wafa Sultan: Yes, I have had many experiences, many many experiences. It took a book, called the 'God who Hates', to answer your question. It didn't happen overnight. There were many turning points of my life and the story of my Niece was one of them. I didn't realise the reason behind my Niece's tragedy until I went and I lived in a free society.
Interviewer: What is it that you realised about Islam that is so bad?
Wafa Sultan: I'll give you one example. My Niece was forced to marry her cousin when she was 11 years old and he was over 40 years old. He was a very abusive man and she didn't have the right to ask for divorce. Her Father was not able to help her. Many times she escaped from her husband's house to her Father's, begging her Father to allow her to stay with her family and he would say it was a shame for a Muslim woman to leave her Husband's house without his permission, go back, I will talk to him, I promise you it will be better. Eventually she committed suicide leaving 4 children behind. Her marriage was valid under Islamic Sharia and that is where I started questioning myself. What kind of religious Law is it that allows for a man over 40 years old to marry a child at the age of 11? When I found out, even I knew that before, but I wasn't able to distinguish between right and wrong. I was brainwashed to the point where I wasn't able to distinguish between right and wrong.
I knew that Muhammad married his second wife Aisha when she was 9 years old, some text even say she was 6 years old. He (Muhammad) was over 50 years old. I didn't realise when I was living under Islamic Sharia that it is not acceptable. So, living in the United States has helped me to open my mind, to open my eyes and I started to question myself. What kind of Prophet marries a very young girl of 9 years of age and he was her grandfathers age. So I started from there. Eventually I have become who I am today.
Interviewer: But what you described a moment ago, it is not legal in the Netherlands. You cannot marry someone who is underage.
Wafa Sultan: Some Muslims are trying to apply Islamic Sharia.
Interviewer: Here in the Netherlands?
Wafa Sultan: I have heard everywhere. Everywhere in the West. I was very involved with my Muslim Community in the United States and I heard it a million times that they were here to eventually replace the American Constitution with Islamic Sharia. This is their goal, this is their mission. It is to spread Islam and to take over. This is the underlying foundation of Islam. We are indoctrinated at a very early age to believe in it. To believe that we have to fight for the sake of Allah. Some of them don't because they are too weak to do it. They don't have the means to do it, and once they do, they will do it.
Interviewer: You have said that you decided to fight Islam itself not just extremisim and Wahhabism, but Islam.
Wafa Sultan: Because I don't believe there is radical Islam. I truly believe that using the term 'radical Islam' is a Western trademark, the West invented this term for the sake of being politically correct. Growing up in Syria I had never heard of radical Islam, Wahhabi Islam; militant Islam; political Islam - I heard only of one Islam, the normal Islam.
Interviewer; You say all Islam is bad?
Wafa Sultan: No doubt about it. In order for you to understand what I mean by that, you need to read the Qur'an. The biggest problem is with Muhammed's life, the way he conducted his life. At the age of 8 and 9 yrs old we were taught at School that Mohammad beheaded 800 Jewish men in one night and proudly we read in our books that he slept, they said he married, but he slept with a woman, a Jewish woman whose husband, her Father and her Brother were killed the same night. So what kind of message are you sending to your young children when you teach them this type of teaching?
I am doing what I am doing for the sake of Muslims. I am not against Muslims. I dream of the day that my country will become a free country like Holland. I don't want to see Holland, or any other Western country to become a country like Syria, oppressed, an oppressive country like mine. This is my dream. I am doing it for the sake of Muslims, especially Muslim women. They have been suffering for 1400 years. They have never been challenged or forced to take a deep look into their teachings and to reform these teachings. We need to do it.
Interviewer: You became a Youtube hit through Al Jazeera in 2006 - in your speech you referred to a clash of civilisations. What kind of clash did you see?
Wafa Sultan: Between civilisation and Islam's backwardness. That is how I see it. The way Islam treats Women and treats non-Muslims is not civilised and they need to be stopped. For the sake of every country on Earth. They need to be stopped. This is my message.
Interviewer: Spreading the message has come with personal price?
Wafa Sultan: Of course, I am paying a very high price. I receive death threats on a daily basis. It has become a way of life. I told you, my life will never be the same. As I said before, I feel like I am equipped to do it. So, the question is, why not? Especially, that I am living in a free country and I am protected by the Law to say what I am saying.
Interviewer: Do you see yourself as a Crusader?
Wafa Sultan: It depends how you mean by Crusader. I feel like now I interact with my readers in the Arab world. I am a well known writer in the Arab world. I feel like I have created, believe it or not, a vacuum in the Arab world. People now have started to ask, what next? We left Islam, what next? They are looking for something spirtual to hold onto. I don't want to be perceived as a spiritual leader. I don't want to be another Muhammad in the Islamic world. I want to keep my message as secular as I could and looking at Islam through my scientific microscope as a medical Doctor and telling my people the truth about it from my point of view. I don't want to become a spiritual leader but I feel like I have created a vacuum in their lives, so, my next step in Arabic, I am saying, is to create a system of values, because Islam lacks values. Islam lacks a code of ethics - the crisis in the Islamic world is a lack of morality. We don't have a code of ethics.
Interviewer: When you read the Bible there are passages in there that people these days 2,000 years on, would consider, to put it mildly, not very nice. Do you see Christianity as a better religion than Islam?
Wafa Sultan: I don't know much about Christianity. You mean.....
Interviewer: America is a country you enjoy, which is a very Christian nation.
Wafa Sultan: Look, my mission is to create doubt about Islam. My message for Muslims is to take a deep look into their teachings. Once they have left, or lets say I don't believe Islam can be reformed, some people claim they are able to do that. My mission is to guide them, to take a look at their teachings, to leave it or to reform it. The next step is their business. I don't follow a specific religion. I do believe in God but I don't believe in any religion. I am not trying to convert Muslims to Christianity and I couldn't care less about what religion they are going to have after they leave Islam. So, this is my point. I don't know if I have answered your question.
Interviewer: You say you believe in a God but you are not religious?
Wafa Sultan: No, I am not. I don't follow any religion. I don't know much about Christianity, I don't know much about any other religion and I don't really care to know.
Interviewer: But do you see, for example, parallels in America being such a great free speech nation, with Christianity?
Wafa Sultan: I have read in history that America was based on Judasim and Christianity values which I really admire and appreciate. It was based on the Ten Commandments. You don't see the Ten Commandments in Islam. There is no Qur'anic verse that says 'don't kill' - there are 3 times that the Qur'an mentions 'don't kill, except in a way of justice'. So, you have to ask what the Muslim concept of justice is - the concept of justice commands them to kill Wafa Sultan, because she is criticising Islam. But the Ten Commandments, what I do know is, says: 'You shall not kill' and that is it. There is no justification in the Ten Commandments for any killing.
Interviewer: Sounds like you are liking Christianity better than Islam?
Wafa Sultan: That is what I know from the Ten Commandments. What I like about Christianity is the life of Jesus, because I am always asked: Why are you saying that Islam cannot be reformed. Why the Christians were able in the Middle Ages to reform Christianity. My answer is, they reformed themselves not Christianity. Because they went back to the life of Jesus, and they were able, based on Jesus's life, to reform their behaviour. But the problem with Islam, if we go back to the life of Muhammad we will be in a much more worse situation than we are now. We will end up with people like Osama Bin Laden. Do you understand my point? I don't know much about the Bible but I have never heard that Jesus beheaded anyone or killed anyone. But when you go back to the life of Muhammad, it is full of killings. It is something you can not believe in. This is what I am aware of, there is a difference between Christianity and Islam.
Interviewer: You say you are on a mission. When is the mission successful? Mission accomplished?
Wafa Sultan: I consider it successful from the very beginning. Once you believe in something and you are determined to do it, you can succeed. Essentially we will win - I have no doubt about it.
Interviewer: How do you define success? What is the goal?Wafa Sultan: My goal is to create a new Muslim mentality, clean of hatred. My goal is to raise the awareness in the West about what is written in the Qur'an and in the life of Muhammad. My mission is to protect my adopted country that I love with all my heart. If America was taken by Muslims where else can I go and be able to be who I am today. This is my mission. My mission and my dream as I told you before to see my Mother country Syria, a free country, like any free country in the West. This is my message and I can see the change coming. a problem with Islam, now it seems you have a problem with at least some Muslims?
Me: In addition to the review of Sultan's book, A God Who Hates, which I mentioned earlier, I previously posted Wafta Sultan's plea on behalf of Rifqa Bary, and an article of hers, "Obstacles in Liberating Islam."