ISLAM & MODERN CROSS-CULTURAL DISCOURSE
A Reflection on Wafa Sultan and the Media
Peter D. G. Moore
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(...) Furthermore, [Wafa] Sultan’s sudden prominence is not largely due to any intrinsic respect her claims deserve. Rather, because she is of Muslim and Middle Eastern origin, her words allow Westerners the permission to say loudly and vicariously what some had previously only thought: that Islam as such—that is to say, even in its ideal forms rather than historically and temporally— is a backward creed, that it cannot be taken seriously, that ultimately, it does not deserve to exist. For some Americans, Sultan embodies the permission to refuse to engage seriously with a global religion. Do a Google search on Wafa Sultan and look at the results: many bloggers were just waiting for permission to get their anti-Islamic sentiments out. And for his part, judging from the transcripts of the program, [Ibrahim] al-Khouli does an extremely poor job of thoughtfully speaking for his religion. In fact, it would be far more useful for the post-Enlightenment West to be more concerned about al-Khouli’s words and less celebratory about Sultan’s. (...) PETER D. G. MOORE is a writer and teacher of humanities at the University of California at Irvine. He grew up in India, Kenya and Pakistan, and attended university in the United States. |
