It is hard to exaggerate the courage of Dr Wafa Sultan. A psychiatrist who was raised in Syria, she became an overnight sensation after she delivered an extraordinary broadcast on al Jazeera TV in which she told the Arab world the truth about itself. As the New York Times reported:

In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries. She said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence...

Perhaps her most provocative words on Al Jazeera were those comparing how the Jews and Muslims have reacted to adversity. Speaking of the Holocaust, she said, ‘The Jews have come from the tragedy and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling.’ She went on, ‘We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people.’ She concluded, ‘Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them.’

...‘The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations,’ Dr. Sultan said. ‘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.’

For a former Muslim woman to say such things to a Muslim audience is an act of the most astonishing bravery. Subsequently she gave a scarcely less remarkable interview on Israel radio, in which she described the way she had been brought up to think:

Up to the very very first day I emigrated to the United States I used to believe that Jewish people are not human creatures: they had different features; they had different voices than humans. Unfortunately, this was the way I had been raised. By getting to know and work with them here, in the States, I have discovered how wrong we were. And the more I work with them, the more I believe we are all human beings. You know, Mr. Singer, there is a common saying: ‘Get to know your enemy in order to be able to fight him.’ Far from this saying, I would say to both sides, ‘Get to know your enemy in order to be able to befriend him.’ Because once you know how much suffering your enemy is going through you would be more compassionate - and eventually more tolerant. Get people at both sides - know each other, communicate with each other, and this is the way to become tolerant and more compassionate.

Now Dr Sultan is receiving death threats. The free world must protect and support her, and others like her -- not just by preventing any harm from coming to her but by spreading what she is saying as far and as widely as possible. Lies and hatred survive and fester in direct proportion to the silence with which they are received. The truth, by contrast, drives them out. This monster that we are facing is driven by the lies -- and the hatred and murderous hysteria that are fostered by those lies -- that have taken up residence in people’s heads. By nurturing the Dr Sultans of this world, by putting them on TV and radio and publishing what they are saying, the great weapon of truth can be mobilised to defeat this hatred and this madness.

Posted by melanie at March 14, 2006