Dr. Wafa Sultan: The MEMRI Manipulate
An upset and irate friend sent me one of those strange "you must be informed of this during this war" emails today. The email had been blindly forwarded to her, another email address added to a list of names of people she drank beer with on saturday (monday, tuesday, wednesday) nights in multicultural new york. She was so distressed, she called me--across the country--to make sure I had received it and to find out what I thought.
The email contained a video clip of the now famous Dr. Wafa Sultan speaking in an interview on Al Jazeera television in February 06. As I watched the video and listened to Sultan's powerful voice echo through my computer, I took in her frightening words. “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."
Who was this bold and powerful woman? She is amazing in many ways; she appears powerful, lucid, strong. But what is she saying? This DC-based Syrian psychologist was using the same argument colonialsts and imperialists have used throughout time to justify war! As Israel continues to bomb Beirut, how could she possibly be implying that all Muslims are 'backward,' 'primitive,' and 'irrational?' She is a mirror of classic U.S. foreign policy justifying the pillaging of entire regions. The idea that the "somewhere else's of this world have much to be desired," and "need to be taught," as a University Professor once explained to me is woven throughout our colonial history.
Another professor, Mahmood Mamdani explains how this concept of Culture has played out in recent history in order to justify bombings and occupations in his book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim. "During the Cold War, Africans were stigmatized as the prime example of peoples not capable of modernity.....[But], Islam and the Middle East have displaced Africa as the hard premodern core." The difference, he explains, is that while Africans were perceived as 'incapable of modernity,' the Middle East, is seen as not only incapable but also resistant to modernity. An "enemy of civilization" was created in the minds of the west and after 9/11 George Bush publicly evoked 'the crusade," alluding to this 'clash of civilizations.' This perception produces fear and military action, as we have witnessed.
The New York Times, ran a story about the Sultan video. They wrote, "Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries." The Times noted that the video had been redistributed by MEMRI TV and drew in a million viewers. What the Times failed to tell its readers is that MEMRI TV is a DC based project of a former Israeli colonel in order to "inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East."
If you watch this video, be wary of the manipulative edits by this right-wing organization, clearly interested in spreading a particular propaganda. The voice of Sultan reverberates as if she is speaking on a bullhorn to a large outdoor assembly. The voices of interviewer and guest Ibrahim Al-Kouly are normal and have not been put on a reverb. It is also clear that severe (and bad) edits have been made, editing out the more rational and contextualizing remarks of host, Faisal al Qassam.
The Times' writer assumes, perhaps hopefully, that Sultan is speaking only of "clerics, holy warriors and political leaders," but is she? I hope so, though in her interview she is not careful to distinguish between "muslims' and "extremists." There is one line in her interview that makes perfect sense -- and if we throw out much of the rest -- we are left with this bit of sense: "Extremism is a social illness."
My friend's story ends well: She wrote a response to her group of friends, many of them Israeli-New Yorkers, reminding them of the diversity within religions, within nations. She reminded them how easily we are all manipulated by media and by their "undisputed truth." Hours passed. Finally as the day came to a close, she received her responses. Just so you know, there is much hope in that little corner of New York: for the diversity of understanding, for criticism of face-vale...and for the end of war.
To read the complete transcript of this video --NOT the biased and cut one provided by MEMRI, go to this PDF file: http://aqoul.com/images/wafa_sultan.pdf
For a progressive view on the war in Lebanon, try this article, emailed to be by another friend: http://tinyurl.com/ofsj7
The email contained a video clip of the now famous Dr. Wafa Sultan speaking in an interview on Al Jazeera television in February 06. As I watched the video and listened to Sultan's powerful voice echo through my computer, I took in her frightening words. “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."
Who was this bold and powerful woman? She is amazing in many ways; she appears powerful, lucid, strong. But what is she saying? This DC-based Syrian psychologist was using the same argument colonialsts and imperialists have used throughout time to justify war! As Israel continues to bomb Beirut, how could she possibly be implying that all Muslims are 'backward,' 'primitive,' and 'irrational?' She is a mirror of classic U.S. foreign policy justifying the pillaging of entire regions. The idea that the "somewhere else's of this world have much to be desired," and "need to be taught," as a University Professor once explained to me is woven throughout our colonial history.
Another professor, Mahmood Mamdani explains how this concept of Culture has played out in recent history in order to justify bombings and occupations in his book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim. "During the Cold War, Africans were stigmatized as the prime example of peoples not capable of modernity.....[But], Islam and the Middle East have displaced Africa as the hard premodern core." The difference, he explains, is that while Africans were perceived as 'incapable of modernity,' the Middle East, is seen as not only incapable but also resistant to modernity. An "enemy of civilization" was created in the minds of the west and after 9/11 George Bush publicly evoked 'the crusade," alluding to this 'clash of civilizations.' This perception produces fear and military action, as we have witnessed.
The New York Times, ran a story about the Sultan video. They wrote, "Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries." The Times noted that the video had been redistributed by MEMRI TV and drew in a million viewers. What the Times failed to tell its readers is that MEMRI TV is a DC based project of a former Israeli colonel in order to "inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East."
If you watch this video, be wary of the manipulative edits by this right-wing organization, clearly interested in spreading a particular propaganda. The voice of Sultan reverberates as if she is speaking on a bullhorn to a large outdoor assembly. The voices of interviewer and guest Ibrahim Al-Kouly are normal and have not been put on a reverb. It is also clear that severe (and bad) edits have been made, editing out the more rational and contextualizing remarks of host, Faisal al Qassam.
The Times' writer assumes, perhaps hopefully, that Sultan is speaking only of "clerics, holy warriors and political leaders," but is she? I hope so, though in her interview she is not careful to distinguish between "muslims' and "extremists." There is one line in her interview that makes perfect sense -- and if we throw out much of the rest -- we are left with this bit of sense: "Extremism is a social illness."
My friend's story ends well: She wrote a response to her group of friends, many of them Israeli-New Yorkers, reminding them of the diversity within religions, within nations. She reminded them how easily we are all manipulated by media and by their "undisputed truth." Hours passed. Finally as the day came to a close, she received her responses. Just so you know, there is much hope in that little corner of New York: for the diversity of understanding, for criticism of face-vale...and for the end of war.
To read the complete transcript of this video --NOT the biased and cut one provided by MEMRI, go to this PDF file: http://aqoul.com/images/wafa_sultan.pdf
For a progressive view on the war in Lebanon, try this article, emailed to be by another friend: http://tinyurl.com/ofsj7
posted by Digital Prof at 2:18 PM
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