More Muslims Must Stand Up Against Radical Islam
Terror and intimidation are the powerful weapons extremists hold over the heads of more moderate voices. Few are willing to risk their lives and the lives of their families to stand up for their ideals. One such courageous Muslim is profiled in the December issue of Reader's Digest (click the link to read the article).
Fleeing the fundamentalist violence that engulfed Syria, Wafa Sultan immigrated to America with her husband and two small children in 1988. Troubled by the point-blank shooting of a professor during a college class, and later as a doctor by the vicious beatings endured by women in incidents of domestic violence, Sultan questioned the interpretation of Islam that bred terrorists and wife-beaters. Once in America, she began to write opinion pieces for local Arab newspapers, leading to an appearance on Al Jazeera in 2005.
"Religion in our countries is the sole source of education. It is the sole source from which terrorists drink," Sultan said, citing a litany of extremist atrocities against innocent Arabs. Rejecting terrorists' claims that such acts were directed against America or Israel, she asked if these were instead acts of revenge "to satisfy the savage and barbarian instincts aroused by teachings that call for refusing the other, killing him?"
It was a life-changing moment. Sultan was asked to speak at universities and conferences. Earlier this year Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
This wife and mother became the courageous voice of Muslim moderation. Today Sultan lives in hiding while she works on a book titled The Escaped Prisoner: When Allah Is a Monster. She was unprepared for the venomous death threats that daily fill her answering machine and e-mail. She fears that Islamic extremists will find and kill her, or even worse, attack her children or her husband. Yet she is determined to stand up to the extremists and terrorists.
In a second Al Jazeera appearance, Sultan declared, "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 that belongs to the 21st century."
Despite the risk, Sultan exhorts fellow Muslims to shake off the bondage of terror. Living in America, distance and law provide her a modicum of safety. For moderate Muslims in the Middle East, revenge is swift and violent for those who speak out. Few seem willing to sacrifice themselves and their families for their ideals. But more Muslims must stand up and speak out against extremism and terror or face world condemnation of Islam.
In a recent column, Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel, in a column calling on Muslims to reclaim their religion, wrote about the novel Magic Time by Doug Marlette (click the link to read the article). The novel compares today's terrorism with "the bitter, resentful, powerless religious fanatics of the American South" who waged war on civil rights workers in the 1960s and '70s. In her column, Parker said these prophetic words:
"It seems that every generation is doomed to test itself or be tested, and evil is ever resourceful. The trick is recognizing evil for what it is and having the courage to face it down. ... If Muslims want theirs [religion] to be taken seriously as the religion of peace they claim it to be, they will have to marginalize and condemn those they insist have hijacked their religion. ... In the final analysis, good people do not turn away."
