XPost: soc.culture.israel, soc.culture.jewish, soc.culture.lebanon   
   From: ngzr@cogeco.ca   
      
   I saw her debate with the two Muslim morons who were no match for her at   
   all. The best they could do was call her a heretic. She flustered them so   
   badly they couldn't respond.   
   She defines herself as a humanist.   
      
   "Salah Jafar"  wrote in message   
   news:MelHh.1377$9h.210@trnddc03...   
   > 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.   
   >   
      
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