Islam's Ann Coulter The seductive and blinkered belligerence of Wafa
Sultan. By Stephen Julius Stein, STEPHEN JULIUS STEIN is a rabbi at Wilshire
Boulevard Temple, where he also directs inter-religious programming.
June 25, 2006
RECENTLY I WAS one of about 100 L.A. Jews invited to attend a fundraiser for
a Jewish organization that seeks to counteract anti-Israel disinformation
and propaganda. The guest speaker was Wafa Sultan, the Syrian American woman
who in February gave a now legendary interview on Al Jazeera television,
during which she said that "the Muslims are the ones who began the clash of
civilizations" and "I don't believe you can reform Islam."

The audience warmly greeted Sultan, a psychiatrist who immigrated to
Southern California in 1989. One of Time magazine's 100 "pioneers and
heroes," she said she was neither a Christian, Muslim nor Jew but a secular
human being. "I have 1.3 billion patients," she quipped early in her
remarks, referring to the global Muslim population. Sultan went on to
condemn inhumane acts committed in God's name, to denounce Islamic martyrdom
and to decry terror as a tool to subjugate communities. Those statements all
made perfect sense.

 Then this provocative voice said something odd: "Only Arab Muslims can read
the Koran properly because you have to speak Arabic to know what it means —
you cannot translate it." Any translation is, by definition, interpretation,
and Arabic is no more difficult to accurately translate than Hebrew. In
fact, the Hebrew of the Bible poses many more formidable translation
problems than Arabic. Are Christians and Jews who cannot read it
ill-equipped to live by its meanings?

Another surprising remark soon followed: "All Muslim women — even American
ones, though they won't admit it — are living in a state of domination." Do
they include my friend Nagwa Eletreby, a Boeing engineer and expert on
cockpit controls, who did not seek her husband's permission to help me dress
the Torah scroll? Or how about my friend Azima Abdel-Aziz, a New York
University graduate who traveled to Israel with 15 Jews and 14 other Muslims
— and left her husband at home?

There is no subjugation in the homes of these and other American Muslim
women I know. They are equal, fully contributing members of their families.

The more Sultan talked, the more evident it became that progress in the
Muslim world was not her interest. Even more troubling, it was not what the
Jewish audience wanted to hear about. Applause, even cheers, interrupted her
calumnies.

Judea Pearl, an attendee and father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, was
one of the few voices of restraint and nuance heard that afternoon.* *In
response to Sultan's assertion that the Koran contains only verses of evil
and domination, Pearl said he understood the book also included "verses of
peace" that proponents of Islam uphold as the religion's true intent. The
Koran's verses on war and brutality, Pearl contended, were "cultural
baggage," as are similar verses in the Torah. Unfortunately, his words were
drowned out by the cheers for Sultan's full-court press against Islam and
Muslims.

My disappointment in and disagreement with Sultan turned into dismay. She
never alluded to any healthy, peaceful Islamic alternative. Why, for
example, didn't this Southern California resident mention the groundbreaking
efforts of the Islamic Center of Southern California, the leading exemplar
of progressive Muslim American life in the United States? Why didn't she
bring up the New Horizon School-Pasadena that the center started, the first
Muslim American school honored by the U.S. Department of Education as a
National Blue Ribbon School?

You might wonder why a rabbi is so uneasy about Sultan's assault on Muslims
and Islam. Here's why: Contrary to practically every mosque in the U.S., the
Islamic Center has a regulation in its charter barring funding from foreign
countries. As a result, it is an American institution dedicated to
propagating an American Muslim identity. Maher and Hassan Hathout are the
philosophical and spiritual pillars of the mosque. They also have been
partners of Wilshire Boulevard Temple rabbis and others throughout L.A. for
decades.

The Hathouts' mosque has twice endorsed* *pilgrimages to Israel and the
Palestinian territories, its members traveling with fellow L.A.-area Jews
and Christians. It invites Jews to pray with them, to make music with them,
to celebrate Ramadan with them. This is the mosque whose day school teaches
students about Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah alongside lessons in
Arabic and the Koran. Recently, the Islamic Center joined the food pantry
collective of Hope-Net, helping feed the hungry and homeless.

Make no mistake: I am not an Islamic apologist. But Sultan's over-the-top,
indefensible remarks at the fundraiser, along with her failure to mention
the important, continuing efforts of the Islamic Center, insulted all
Muslims and Jews in L.A. and throughout the nation who are trying to bridge
the cultural gap between the two groups. And that's one reason why I
eventually walked out of the event.

Here's another: As I experienced the fervor sparked by Sultan's anti-Muslim
tirade and stoked by a roomful of apparently unsuspecting Jews, I thought:
What if down the street there was a roomful of Muslims listening to a
self-loathing Jew, cheering her on as she spoke of the evils inherent in the
Torah, in which it is commanded that a child must be stoned to death if he
insults his parents, in which Israelites are ordered by God to conquer
cities and, in so doing, to kill all women and children — and this imagined
Jew completely ignored all of what Judaism teaches afterward?

In a world far too often dominated by politicians imbued with religious
fundamentalism of all flavors — Jewish, Christian, Muslim — we need the
thoughtfulness, self-awareness and subtlety that comes from progressive
religious expression. We have that in Judaism, in Christianity — and in
Islam, right in our backyard. If only Sultan, applauded in many quarters yet
miscast as a voice of reason and reform in Islam, were paying attention.



*Please thank Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein by sending him an e-mail at **
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-stein25jun25,0,3931395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions





------------------------------






---

Brief CV of Jusfiq Hadjar



Jusfiq Hadjar, a christian, 66 years old, is an Indonesian living in the
Netherlands. He currently lives together out of wed-lock with Marlene Van
Doorn - a documentalist in African Studies Center (ASC) library - in Leiden.



Jusfiq Hadjar has, thus far, succesfully deceived many NGOs into believing
that he is a human rights activistist. One of the NGOs that has been trapped
in his lies is a Muslim human rights group, the Movement against Racism and
for Friendship among Peoples.



Jusfiq Hadjar is very active in his campaigns against Islam and Muslims on
the Internet, especially in several Indonesian mailing lists. He will spread
massive amounts of offensive, slanderous, lying statements against Islam and
Muslims day in and day out and at the same time claiming that he is a
Muslim.



Undoubtedly, Jusfiq Hadjar is one of those people who still thinks that
adhering to a daily routine of cursing and swearing on the Internet would
help to make him look intelligent and preserve his sanity. It shoots no
wonder then if you find mosts of his writings on the Internet are just about
cursing and swearing at Muslims and licking the ass of his christian
friends.



Jusfiq Hadjar has joined several mailing lists in order to spread his severe
hatred against Islam and Muslim on the Internet:



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamkristen/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apakabar/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minangnet/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/istiqlal/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/partai-keadilan/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ijtihad/<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/partai-keadilan/>



Marlene Van Doorn is very supportive of his life partner's evil activities
on the Internet, and gives her financial support by providing him with
meals, accomodation and Internet connection. He is also allegedly financed
by Leiden church.



He has no children.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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