Speaking Truth to Barbarians

On March 11, the New York Times ran a remarkable profile of the courageous Syrian-American psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan, who is telling it like it is:

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."

Dr. Wafa told Al Jazeera,

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.

The Times reports that this video clip has been downloaded around 1 million times so far. I STRONGLY recommend watching the whole thing. It's inspiring.

Correction: Original post read that the clip had been downloaded a million times in Muslim countries. I misread the Times report. My apologies for the confusion. However, I still hope that that will happen.