XPost: soc.culture.israel, soc.culture.jewish, soc.culture.lebanon   
   From: salahjafar@hotmail.com   
      
   from obscurity to fame, rags to riches.   
      
   She has been described as a hero, a reformist, a crusader, and a brave woman   
   who defied the Muslim world and stood up for what she believed in. In 2006,   
   Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people "whose power,   
   talent or moral example is transforming the world." Dr. Wafa Sultan has been   
   honored countless times for her now famous appearance on Al-Jazeera   
   television opposite a Muslim cleric named Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouly on February   
   21, 2006.   
      
   In that memorable clip widely distributed by MEMRI (Middle East Media   
   Research Institute), Sultan referred to the current conflict between the   
   West and militant Muslims as "a clash between a mentality that belongs to   
   the Middle Ages and another that belongs to the 21st century... a clash   
   between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the   
   primitive, between barbarity and rationality." The clip spread through the   
   internet like wild fire and landed Sultan in the LA Times, the New York   
   Times and CNN among others. MEMRI estimated that the video was viewed at   
   least one million times.   
      
   All of a sudden, and out of obscurity, Sultan found herself the center of   
   both attention and controversy. On the one hand, she became the darling of   
   many right wing media pundits and mainly pro-Israel groups who viewed her as   
   a beacon of reform that stood up to what was wrong with Islam and Muslims.   
   On the other hand, Muslims contended that by making broad, unfounded and   
   ignorant proclamations about their faith, Sultan was nothing more than a   
   pawn playing into the hands of Islamophobes, and an opportunist who   
   intentionally pushed the divide between the Islamic world and the West to   
   further ulterior motives that included fame, fortune and immortality.   
      
   Reformist or opportunist, Sultan continues to enjoy the spotlight as she   
   routinely figures prominently as a guest speaker at many functions and   
   fundraisers across the country. As her fame grows, so do her admirers and   
   detractors.   
      
   Born in 1958 in the coastal town of Baniyas, Syria, Wafa Sultan grew up in a   
   modest middle class Alawite family. She attended the University of Aleppo   
   where she majored in medical studies (source: wikipedia).   
      
   In an interview with the New York Times, Sultan claimed that in 1979, gunmen   
   from the Muslim Brotherhood burst into a classroom at the university and   
   killed her professor before her eyes. It was then that her disillusionment   
   and anger with Islam started. According to the same interview, Sultan, her   
   husband Moufid, who goes by the Americanized name David, and their two   
   children applied for a visa to the United States in 1989 and eventually   
   settled in with friends in Cerritos, Calif.   
      
   Post 9/11, Sultan reportedly began writing for an Islamic reform Web site   
   called Annaqed (The Critic) run by a Syrian expatriate in Phoenix. She wrote   
   an angry essay about the Muslim Brotherhood and her writings eventually drew   
   the attention of Al-Jazeera television, which invited her to debate, first   
   an Algerian Islamist in July 2005 and then Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouly, a lecturer   
   at the prestigious Al-Azhar University, in February 2006 (New York Times,   
   March 11, 2006).   
      
   It was the second debate, excerpts of which were translated and circulated   
   by MEMRI that garnered her worldwide attention. Sultan went from obscurity   
   to fame in a matter of weeks.   
      
   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   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)