I am sure many of the readers have heard of Wafa Sultan, the secularist 'humanist', the neither Muslim nor Christian nor Jew, the one who still describes herself a Muslim, but insists that "I don't even believe in Islam". No surprise there, after all it is more profitable to bash Islam while still claiming "Muslimship", ask Irshad Manji.
Originally Syrian, she is from an Alawi family, which kind of explains how she could be still a Muslim, yet not believe in Islam. I am glad that she admits this, in a sort of self-incriminating way, that Alawites are only Muslim by name, not really by their belief in Islam. After all, could this 'Alawite-Islam', which includes believing in Ali's (RD) divinity, almost similar to Christian belief in Jesus, be the Islam delivered by the Messenger of Allah (S)? I think not.
Last year, Wafa's claim to fame was via her appearance on Al-Jazeera, a piece of which was aired by the neo-con, Israeli-planted web-channel, MEMRI opposite Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli. Unfortunately, as with most of our Shayookh, they are good in what they do (Islamic education), but not good in what they don't (appearing in the media). Coupled with the fact that this was a MEMRI hit-job (apparently the Al Jazeera clip was edited out of context as per the transcript of the interview at the Annaqed website), Dr. Ibrahim didn't do too well. And the video resulted in pushing Wafa to a pedestal that she deserves not the least bit, not because she is an Islamaphobe, but because she doesn't have any real credentials, or any intellectual arguments. Amazingly, and this is an utter testimony to the media bias against Islam, she was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. Perhaps, I should start the list of the 100 most successful liars, and she definitely will get a ticket to the top 10!
Wafa claims that said she was shocked into secularism (from Alawism-- not sure what is really worse, hmm...) by the 1979 atrocities committed by Islamic extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood against innocent Syrian people, including the machine-gun assassination of her professor, Dr. Yusef al Yusef. Well, that is what she CLAIMED. Of course, the media does not care about checking facts... any self-described Muslim 'refuse-nik' is immediately elevated to media-darling status. But, fortunately for the sake of truth, someone did, and it seems that Ms. Sultan's story is full of holes, and her image is (hopefully sooner than later) imploding. Here is a catch from CAIR's email:
[See also this scathing post from Dr.M, the master of pro-regressive analysis!]
WAFA SULTAN: REFORMIST OR OPPORTUNIST?
By Abdussalam Mohamed, InFocus, March 2007
While Sultan's admirers have nothing but praise for her, detractors charge that many of her public claims do not corroborate with facts. Moreover, they assert that the reasons behind her rise to fame have more to do with her personal life than with her desire to reform Islam.
Adnan Halabi*, a Syrian expatriate who met and got to know the Sultans when they first came to the United States, spoke at length about the Wafa Sultan that very few people know.
According to Halabi, Dr. Wafa Ahmad (her maiden name) arrived in California with her husband Moufid (now changed to David) in the late 80s on a tourist visa. Contrary to what she told the New York Times, they came as a couple, leaving their two children back in Syria.
Another source named Nabil Mustafa, also Syrian, told InFocus that he was introduced to Moufid Sultan through a personal friend who knew the family well, and both ended up having tea at the Sultans' one-bedroom apartment one evening in 1989. It was then that Moufid told Mustafa the story of how he was reunited with his two children. According to Mustafa, Moufid Sultan told him that a short time after they arrived in the country, his wife, Dr. Wafa Sultan, mailed her passport back to her sister Ilham Ahmad in Syria (while the passport still carried a valid U.S. tourist visa). With Ilham bearing a resemblance to her sister Wafa, the plan was to go to the Mexican Embassy in Damascus and obtain a visa to Mexico, making sure that the airline carrier they would book a flight on would have a layover somewhere in the Continental United States.
With an existing U.S. visa on Wafa Sultan's passport, Ilham Ahmad had no trouble obtaining an entry permit to Mexico. Shortly after, Ilham and Wafa's two children landed in Houston, Texas. She and the children then allegedly made their way through customs and were picked up by Moufid and brought to California.
Taking advantage of an amnesty law for farmers, the Sultans applied for permanent residency through a Mexican lady who worked as a farm hand. She helped Moufid with the paperwork by claiming he had worked as a farmer for four years. The application went through and the Sultans obtained their green cards.
As incredible as the story sounds, Mustafa told InFocus that to the best of his recollection, this was the exact account he heard from Moufid Sultan. Halabi, who is not acquainted with Mustafa, corroborated the story, which he heard from Dr. Wafa Sultan herself but with fewer details. Dr. Wafa Sultan declined InFocus' repeated requests to be interviewed or comment on the allegations. InFocus contacted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to check on the veracity of the story but an official said that they would look into the allegations, which could take months to investigate.
Halabi alleges that Ilham Ahmad lived as illegal resident with her sister Wafa for years until she met an Arab Christian named Khalid Musa Shihadeh whom she ended up marrying (they were married in Nevada on 12/8/1991 and filed for divorce in 2002). It was during that time that Halabi got to know the Sultans well.
Halabi alleges that the Sultans lived in dire poverty. "Their rent was over $1,000 per month and Moufid was only making $800," he said. Dr. Wafa Sultan was forced to rent out a room in her apartment and work at a pizza parlor in Norwalk, Calif. where a personal friend used to pick her up and drop her off daily. This same friend used to help the Sultans out with groceries and occasionally loaned them money just so they could make it through the month. "It was a serious struggle," Halabi recalled. "The Sultans lived hand to mouth for years on end." Further, Halabi said that at no point during the period he knew the family did Sultan ever discuss religion, politics or any topic relevant to her current activities. "She is a smart woman, articulate and forceful, but she never meddled in religion or politics to the extent she is doing now," Halabi said.
As to the claim that her professor (thought to be Yusef Al-Yusef) was gunned down before her eyes in a faculty classroom at the University of Aleppo, Halabi said the incident never took place. "There was a professor who was killed around 1979, that is true, but it was off-campus and Sultan was not even around when it happened," he added.
InFocus contacted the University of Aleppo and spoke to Dr. Riyad Asfari, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, who confirmed Halabi's account. "Yes, the assassination took place off-campus," he said. Dr. Asfari was keen to add that no one had ever been killed in a classroom anytime or anywhere at the university.
Syrian expatriate Ghada Moezzin, who attended the University of Aleppo in 1979 as a sophomore, told InFocus that she never heard of the assassination. "We would've known about the killing if it had happened," she said. "It would have been big news on campus and I do not recall ever hearing about it." Moezzin, who lives in Glendora, Calif., added that government security was always present around the university given the political climate in Syria at the time.
What are perceived as inconsistencies and half-truths like these convince Sultan's critics that the motive behind her invectives against Islam and Muslims is other than her alleged desire for reform. (MORE)
