March 04, 2006

Incredibly bold opinion offered on Al-Jazeera Dr. Wafa Sultan is a Syrian expatriate and psychologist. In this video, she offers up an incredibly brave statement on Al-Jazeera television that the extremist Muslims must learn to co-exist with the West, rather than attempt to convert-or-exterminate them. It's about 5 mins long, but well worth the watch.
posted by neek 18 years ago
  • Boy, how come nobody ever thought of THAT before? Smooth sailing from here on out, people.
  • I have a bad feeling about this.
  • I have a bad feeling about her safety.
  • What? You guys see some sort of snag?
  • how very generous of IDF Likud MEMRI to translate and make such an informative video available.
  • Kudos to Al-Jazeera for running something like this though.... ...and here in Canada, they were refused a broadcast cable license after lobbying from Jewish groups.
  • neek - I'd like to be able to send a link to the Iraqi bloggers I read to see what they think of her statement, and what they think the consequences might be for her, but your post goes directly to the video, and I don't know how to derive a url. Help?
  • http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null
  • Thank you!
  • Everything she said was exactly what the problem is with these Arab Muslims. WTF have they ever offered the world or humanity? Nothing! No science, art or anything of substance yet they demand respect. Just religion, war and death is all they offer. I hope it doesn't take too many more generations of these ignorant people to end this BS and join the human race. Over 5,000 daughters and sisters are killed each year for so-called "HONOR KILLINGS". It's so hard for me to have compassion or understanding for a culture that allows father's to kill their daughters and approves of this disgusting/evil behaviour. Suicidal bombings with innocent victims and destruction of churches because other people don't want to embrace their back-assward Muslim beliefs. What has any prominent Muslim ever contributed to anything good in this world?
  • Nothing! No science, art or anything of substance yet they demand respect. There's this thing called "algebra." You may have heard of it.
  • That's a joke, right?
  • The Greeks came up with Algebra. In the 3rd century, the Greek mathematician Diophantus of Alexandria wrote his book Arithmetica. Of the 13 parts originally written, only six still survive, but they provide the earliest record of an attempt to use symbols to represent unknown quantities. Muslims came up with nothing except religion, ignorance and violence.
  • Not to mention their work in medicine (back when Christians were barred from performing dissections Islamic physicians were making amazing progress in understanding human anatomy, plus they had a decent understanding of blood circulation and the spread of infection), astronomy, geometry and so forth. Plus, they were the first to come up with a symbol representing the idea "zero." I'm sure you can understand why that's important. As far as art goes, look at Islamic architecture and geometric art. Read the poetry of the Sufis. All of this stuff is badass. On preview: but they provide the earliest record of an attempt to use symbols to represent unknown quantities. Maybe so, but Islamic mathemeticians and philosophers created an entire modern mathematical discipline using these ideas. That's a little more impressive.
  • She's been on Al-Jazeera before. Al Jazeera has lots of controversial people on, it is how they get ratings. They want to sell themselves as a station that offers a chance for Arab to make their voices heard. They draw from people from rather conflicting viewpoints and pit them against each other. I guess this stuff isn't usually translated and made digestable for western audiences, so whenever they see what kind of content is on the station, they think some sort of breakthough just occurred. That being said, her whole clash of civilization mentality is foolish. It happens to be the same simplistic black and white worldview the extremist types used, just flipped around.
  • Furthermore: Part of the reason that Muslims were so scientifically advanced (relative to Europeans) during the medieval period is because they were able to reconcile their faith and science. As a culture, Islamic societies historically did a much better job promoting learning and scientific discovery than Christian ones... Christianity has always had an anti-intellectual streak. I leave the task of coming up with modern examples of this Christian disdain for science as an exercise for the reader. The phrase "Muslims came up with nothing except religion, ignorance and violence" is arguably one of the most bafflingly ignorant statements I've ever read on MoFi.
  • MrJohnson, you're the biggest troll we've had around here for a while. Please let me know if I should ban you or whether you have something of actual intellect to contribute. Thanks in advance!
  • the_bone _ You got ZERO right. Everything you mention are contributions made to humanity during midevil times and even the things you mention are not much. You had the origons of ALGEBRA dead wrong. Did you give Muslims credit for ALGEBRA because it sound like with AL Jazeera. I should have asked "What has any prominent Muslim contributed to the world in the last 1000 years?". Your arguement is pathetic. They are mostly a back-asswards, ignorant and violent culture. Put up or shut up.
  • Banned it is. Thanks for the quick response.
  • Did you give Muslims credit for ALGEBRA because it sound like with AL Jazeera. No, I didn't do it because "it sound like with [sic] AL Jazeera..." I did it because I HATE FREEDOM and LOVE HITLER! HITLER!
  • Now that MrFuckingmoron has been banned and Hitler has been mentioned, the thread is now over. I'm off to brunch!
  • We now return to our scheduled program on algebraAl Jazeera.
  • Get over it. Justify your censorship however you please.
  • Oh, wow... check this out! MrGophercock's argument here was cut-and-pasted word-for-word (without attribution) from this website on "the history of algebra for high school students." I kind of figured that it wasn't original work because, unlike the other screeds, it was a lucid paragraph with correct spelling. The lesson here is, "learn to paraphrase so you don't look even more lame when someone Googles stuff you've 'written.'"
  • Johnson is no pushover.
  • Aw, he's all grumpy that he can't be a bigot on MoFi. How sad.
  • But he did apoligize for being a dipwad.
  • Yes, and I have emailed him.
  • It's clear that intelligent debate does not exist on that other forum I love how when someone is called out for being an ignorant dumbfuck, they always complain that it's the other people who aren't debating intelligently. So predictable!
  • He's full of balls and bullshit over here, and like a limp noodle over there. What gives? Afraid that the big boys over in the Blue will tear him a new one if he was as much of a troll there as he is here?
  • The sad part is, though I disagree with a lot of what the lady had to say, the segment would make a fine catalyst for intelligent debate. Thanks tracicle. That banninated person has helped no cause other than a general raising of blood pressures.
  • I thought, briefly, that MrJohnson had mistakenly attempted a satirical comment over here, after reading his apology on Mefi. Then he dug himself into what looks to be quite a deep pit over there. And then I remembered where I'd heard of him before. I sent him an email saying that if his comments were indeed really, really bad satire, that I'd consider reinstating his account. But I think he genuinely believes what he's saying, and that disturbs me. He reminds me of Mr "There is no 'peace' in this religion".
  • I think he really believes what he posts (quite self-centered at that). What disturbs me almost as much as his very narrow vision, is this ease with which objectionable ideas are shut down not by other ideas but by fiat.
  • You can take questions like this to...MonkeyFilter. Oh no, please don't. posted by tracicle at 8:34 AM on February 6 [!] Heh!
  • Incredibly bold opinion offered on Al-Jazeera Erm, actually, it's neither incredible nor bold. Not to rain on the "AlJazeera is great for showing this" parade, but actually, they're one of the most unbiased major news organizations in the world. They show stuff like this all the time. A few quotes from articles currently on english.aljazeera.net:
    "It is not inevitable if they are (westerners) faithful to democracy. Let them allow the free market of ideas to take its course." Jarar believes that while the cartoon crisis has a negative aura, and might rekindle old prejudices, it will eventually have a positive income. "I believe this is going to be a good lesson for both Muslims and Westerners. It might lead to a greater understanding in the long range." Islam and the West They added that the clashes over the caricatures "revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. The struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. "It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats." ... "Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present." They called for the universal right to lift the oppressed and discriminated out of the "Islamists' domination" and said "we refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of Islamophobia." Writers Slam Islamic "Totalitarianism" Let us not be deceived about this rhetoric of liberalism and free speech. The Danish cartoons have nothing to do with freedom of expression and everything to do with hatred of the other in a Europe grappling with its growing Muslim minorities, still unable to accept them. Muhammad, who had been depicted in medieval legends as a bloodthirsty warrior with a sword in one hand and a Quran in another, is now made to brandish bombs and guns. Little seems to have changed about Western consciousness of Islam. Islamophobia masquerading as free speech
    For anyone who thinks AlJazeera is this Islamic news organization, check out Control Room. They're about as Islamic as MSNBC is Christian. And like any good news organization, they always have multiple viewpoints from all sides of stories.
  • Midevil times - wasn't that the time the Devil came to Michigan?
  • All I can say is I am SO incredibly glad that you are a don't-take-shit admin, banning unrepentant dumbfucks who think that MoFi is the Metafilter kiddie pool (and come over here, as alnedra said, full of balls and bullshit when he's quite docile in comparison over there). At the risk of sounding biased, you're a much, much better admin than their user #1 -- none of that handholding "I'll ban you for a week so you can think about what you've done" on a repeating basis when said users, and you know which users they are, are more than deserving of the Everlasting Banhammer.
  • *buffs up Everlasting Banhammer, hangs it back over Monkeybashi throne*
  • I still think tracicle was too hard on cock.
  • i would like to back up ian would say. every journalist i respect admires al jazeera and i can't wait for al jazeera international, their english service. i recently attended a conference organised by the channel and was very impressed by their courage and honesty. you might be interested in a couple of interviews i did whilst there: Hugh Miles author of al jazeera: how arab mews challenged the world Lieutenant Commander Steve Tatham author of losing hearts and minds: the coalition, al jazeera and muslim public opinion
  • Yeah, but apart from all that, what have the Muslims ever done for us?
  • how arab mews challenged the world rrrowr!
  • I found a video of Mr Johnson! He's a honey
  • What has any prominent Muslim ever contributed to anything good in this world? One thing that immediately sprang to my mind was Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen bank model of microfinance, which emerged in Bangladesh. Its success has been widely copied in anti-poverty efforts worldwide.
  • Yeah! And what about Muhammud Ali?
  • He just hit people for money. Violence, you see?
  • Hitting people for fun is violence. Hitting people for money is Business!
  • Don't be dissin' the sweet science.
  • al miaou!
  • I totally can't wait for AlJazeera International. If it takes a 30 foot parabolic on me house I'm doing it. It might even be enough to wrangle me away from my love affair with Keith Olberman (oh Keithy, you sexy beast, if you read this I hope you can understand)
  • I just love that the AJE has “more foreign correspondents in world capitals than all the U.S. networks combined.”
  • I can't find it now, but I seem to remember seeing Al-Jazeera being slighted in the English media, even by BBC, as being biased - but I've never heard any actual evidence of false reporting or anything. (A definate Arab-focus, just as Canadian news has a Canadian-focus.)