Wafa Sultan Takes on the Wrong Direction Islam is Heading

In trying to understand Islam, most Westerners are at a loss. But there is one thing we do know, that out of the ranks of Islamic followers come a certain breed of Islamic extremists, and as they blow up their bomb, or shoot that infidel, then they invoke the name of their God, usually saying "Praise Allah."

On Al-Jazeera TV February 21, 2006, an interesting debate occurred between an Arab American scholar from L.A. and a religious Imam from the Mideast. Similar to the cartoon controversy, there is now thousands of death threats against Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan.

The Imam also declared that she is heretic who insults Islam, and if you read between the lines, according to Sharia law, that amounts to a death warrant. Al-Jazeera has made this debate available across the internet and so far it has been viewed over a million times. If you haven't seen it, the video is in Arabic, but with English subtitles. If you prefer to read rather than view, a transcript of the debate is here.

Here is a taste of what Wafa Sultan said:

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship."

It gets more intense after these opening remarks.

Why is Al-Jazeera making this public? Well, from their point of view, they want to get out her slanderous statements about Islam. I am sure the unintended result is the exposure of what is going wrong with Islamic extremists, and the reason why.