A Progessive Rabbi Reveals Himself…
Posted on September 7, 2009
Filed Under Honor killing, Infidel-o-Phobia, International, Liberalism, Michael Savage, Muslims, Progressive Rabbis, Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein, Radical Islam, Religion, Religious intolerance, Sharia law, Wafa Sultan, Wishire Boulevard Temple, freedom of religious choice, hatred of Christians, hatred of Jews, honor killings, ignorance of history, ignoring the facts, intimidation, intolerance, islam, misogynism, misogyny, moral turpitude, political naivete, progressives, religious intimidation, stifling free speech, suppressing the facts, uneducated Americans, verbal violence against women, violence, violence against women, women, women as chattel, women's rights | 2 Comments
For a long time I took Michael Savage’s signature phrase and book title “Liberalism is a mental disorder,” as merely an attention getting but funny put down of his political opponents. I now suspect that Savage may be on to something… A brainless, pompous rabbi fool, for the sake of a very anticultural multiculturalism or perhaps just to score a few personal points, slams the courageous Dr. Wafa Sultan.
Dr Wafa Sultan debating an Islamic Cleric on Al-Jazeera TV
A friend from Virginia just forwarded me an email containing the following:
Friends,
I am sure all on my list remember Wafa Sultan, the courageous woman from Syria who on live Al Jazeerah television told millions of Muslims that they were backward, and treated women like animals. She continues to receive death threats. What is harder to believe, is that some of the harshest criticism she’s gotten comes from a California Rabbi, director of inter-religious programming at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, who slammed her for telling the truth.
To Sultan’s remark in a speech that:“all Muslim women—even American ones, though they won’t admit it—are living in a state of domination” Stein replied: “There is no subjugation in the homes of American Muslim women I know. They are equal, fully contributing members of their families.” Right, the big expert on Muslim women. Stein was also “dismayed” that Sultan “never alluded to any healthy, peaceful Islamic alternatives.” Like he’s read the Koran in Arabic?
This reminds me of the days in which good Jewish communists refused to believe Stalin was slaughtering millions of Russians. They kept defending him, especially American Jewish communists, and vilifying anyone who dared say the truth.
From a Jewish woman who has written a number of books critical of my own Jewish community, my deepest apologies to Wafa Sultan. I think I speak for most in the Jewish community whose brains are still in tact, and who have the guts to think independently. Bravo Wafa. You are my hero.
Below, Wafa Sultan’s own words about Rabbi Stein. An absolute must read.
Naomi Ragen
September 3, 2009 6:30 AM
by Wafa Sultan
Obstacles in Liberating Islam
<http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/09/problems-in-liberating-islam.php>As an Arab woman who suffered for three decades living under Islamic Sharia, it is clear to me that Islam’s political ideology and Sharia must be fought relentlessly by Western civilization to prevent its application in a free society.
However, I have found myself fighting on two fronts. The first front i against Islamists, a daunting fight indeed. But the other front is one shaped by too many uninformed individuals who like to view themselves as open minded “progressives”. They seem to somehow claim superiority on compassion, on peace, on open-mindedness and on appreciation of other cultures. Regarding themselves as tolerant, free thinking individuals, they avoid questioning Muslims’ harmful intentions. They restrict themselves to
self-criticism, and make politically-correct excuses for Islamism. Regrettably, they show their indisputable acceptance of ‘others’ at the expense of the public’s responsibility to learn the truth about Islam’s detrimental tenets.It is crucial for these so called “progressives” to realize that Islam is indeed based on an anti-liberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism oppose the liberal values they cherish. And equally important, they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and in the West, today.
For me, confronting those who adhere to multicultural relativism is a most painful battle. Their standpoint makes the efforts of Muslim reformers more challenging. When Westerners make politically-correct excuses for Islamism, it actually suppresses and weakens my voice and that of others who are in this fight.
Simply put, too many individuals, and institutions stand in the way of overcoming Islamic political ideology. With their appeasing approach they obstruct the pressing effort to modernize Islam.
When I first immigrated to the US, I learned to my dismay that Islam has been labeled by many as “a religion of peace.” But for me, as a Syrian who grew up in Islamic country, a set of beliefs that insists that women are wicked is an evil set of belief. A pious ideology – - that obliges non Muslims to live as subjects under it as unequal – - is an immoral pious ideology.
Regrettably, we frequently experience politically correct harsh responses to criticism of Islam by those who admonish liberated Muslims or Arabs. They often use clichés such as, “There are violent stories in all religions texts,” or “How can we bulk all Muslims into one group?” Or, “Among Christians and Jews there are also zealots who have done horrible things to others.” All of these excuses are made without considering critical Islamic doctrines which play detrimental role in Islam’s march towards Western decline.
Two years ago Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein published an article in the Los Angeles Times criticizing me in an unjust manner. Recently Rabbi’s Stein article came back to life when an Arab man who happens to follow my writings translated the Rabbi’s article into Arabic and published it in an Arabic website under the title “A Jewish Rabbi scandalizes Wafa Sultan”.
Among other claims, Mr. Stein mentioned that he could not imagine a “Jewish woman standing among a group of Muslims and criticizing Judaism the same way Wafa Sultan criticizes Islam”.
Is Mr. Stein lacking basic knowledge about Islam and demonstrating duplicity in regard to his own Jewish religion?
Here are few hypothetic scenarios:
If a group of fanatic Jews beheaded an innocent Muslim, justifying their gruesome act as permissible according to Jewish texts, is there any doubt that countless of Jewish women would publicly criticize the tenets of Judaism that permit these outrageous creeds?
Had Jewish women been relegated to the status of animals as a result of their religious teachings, would one doubt Rabbi Stein’s obvious support for Jewish women rebelling against their own traditions?
Recently, a well known Egyptian female lawyer called on national Arabic TV, to incite young Palestinian men to harass and rape Israeli women as part of their war against Israel (you can view her clip on MEMRI.org).
Had an Israeli lawyer declared publicly on a National Israeli TV the same type of incitement against Arabs, would Rabbi Stein object to Jewish women’s unequivocal rejection of this hateful provocation?
Also, I am quite amazed at Rabbi Stein’s ignorance of the intrinsic nature of Islamic anti-Semitism. One would assume that his obligation as a teacher and a leader of his Jewish community is to educate and protect his people. Unfortunately, his criticism only weakens Jews, and further strengthens Muslim anti-Semitism. (Please read Dr. Andrew Bostom new book; “The Legacy
of Islamic Antisemitism.”)One Islamic concept in particular is called in Arabic “Al Taqyya.” It allows and encourages Muslims to lie and deceive others in order to reach their ultimate objective which is submitting the world to Islam under Sharia Law. To be sure, Islamists who follow the political ideology of subverting non Muslims under Islam do use the concept of Al Taqyyaa.
Hence, a destructive relationship is created: on one hand, Islamists lie to the gullible non – Muslims and on the other hand, many non Muslims, in particular proponents of interfaith dialogue accept their lies and avoid asking harsh and necessary questions to expose their dangerous intentions. In that context, the Muslims’ Al Taqyyaa and the West’s naiveté and ignorance about the true intentions of Islamists are both harmful models of engagement.
Further, they both violate our right to know the truth, regardless of how evil or unintentional each side’s objective is. Thus, Al Taqyyaa and political correctness are recipes for irreversible damage to the values of freedom and liberty, which are the foundation of our US constitution and other Western liberal democracies.
Rabbi Stein is one in a group of countless others who practice political correctness to avoid hurting those he claimed to be “his Muslim friends,” as he mentions in his article. People who avoid facing the gloomy facts regarding Islam, have no moral authority to admonish liberated Arabs like me. Those who cannot confront Islamic doctrine boldly and will not allow themselves to question openly dreadful components of Islam are on the wrong side of this conflict.
I have often been asked to soften and compromise my message. I refuse to do so. I believe the way to solve this Islamic predicament is to highlight and confront it in a most truthful and subsequently painful manner. As we allwould agree, at times, an acute disease must be treated aggressively rather than with a benign medicine like Aspirin.
Lastly, I will carry on my mission because I love Muslims. I dream of a future when all Muslims, especially from the Middle East, who yearn for better life outside their suppressive environment, can savor the taste of the freedom we all experience here in the US. This is not just Dr. King’s dream; this is a dream that should be granted to all humanity – including those in the Muslim world.
Dr. Wafa Sultan is a Syrian-born certified psychiatrist, human rights activist, & author of the forthcoming book “A God That Hates.”
Rabbi Stein would best serve his community and his congregation were he too remember the time proven dictum of the Jewish Sages that “Kol mi shena’aseh rachman al achzarim, na’aseh achzar al rachmanim – He who is merciful to the cruel, will become cruel to the merciful. (Midrash Zuta on Kohelet [Ecclesiastes] – Buber Edition - Seventh parshah and other places).” I must ask the good rabbi if he really believes that honor killings, so prevalent throughout Islam, bespeak of happiness among women and their equality to men? Does the fact that the Qur’an teaches that a man is worth double and has double the credibility than a woman bespeak of happiness among women and their equality to men? He says, “There is no subjugation in the homes of American Muslim women I know. They are equal, fully contributing members of their families.” Really?!?!? Does he know what goes on behind closed doors in far too many Islamic households (here in the USA), away from the prying eyes of infidels? Does he care? Would he dare make such a statement about woman’s current equality in Islam to Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein’s face?!?!? Or is his “progressive” R A C I S M and misogyny showing, as he holds Muslimas to be worth half their male counterparts?
Perhaps anyone who believes in full equality for both genders, anyone (Muslim, Christian or Jew) who truly believes that the flag of Islamic extremism and Sharia law should never be allowed to establish itself on Western soil, should write LA’s Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Bombard them with letters and phone calls protesting the brainless, dangerous, pronouncements of Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein.
Their address is:
3663 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA, 90010
Their phone and fax numbers:
Tel: (213) 388-2401
Fax: (213) 388-2595
The Jewish calendar is now in the bottom third the month of Elul. This month is, traditionally, one of retrospection as a Jew readies himself for Rosh Hashana (which this year falls on the evening of September 18th) and Yom Kippur, the most important and solemn Jewish Holy Day. Judaism believes that on Rosh Hashana (the Hebrew New Year) we are judged according to our deeds of the just ended year, we then go into the Asseret Yemey Tshuvah – Ten Days of Penitence (Repentance) when we are given a chance to reverse any negative judgment for the coming year. The final judgment gets sealed on Yom Kippur.
There is nothing “progressive” about covering up misogyny, there is nothing “progressive” about defending oppression and attacking courageous voices like Dr. Wafa Sultan. I would humbly suggest that Rabbi Stein heed the words of the Sages, reflect upon the effect of his foolish words and promptly make amends.
Chaim
A FEW RELATED ARTICLES
A Voice of Courage – A Muslim Speaks Out
Infidel-o-phobia – In the Name of Allah?!??!?
The Islamist World View – Part II, Women
Men Are Human, Women Are Not! Got That?!?!? – Part VII
Men Are Human, Women Are Not! Got That?!?!? – Part VI
Men Are Human, Women Are Not! Got That?!?!? – Part V
Men Are Human, Women Are Not! Got That?!?!? – Part IV
Men Are Human, Women Are Not! Got That?!?!? – Part III
Men are Human, Women are not! Got That?!?!? – Part II
Men are Human, Women are not! Got That?!?!?
Women in Islam, From a Muslim Woman’s Perspective
—-)xox(—-
****UPDATE****
Commenter Barbara (below) graciously included, in her comment, an online contact form for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Please use it to complain about Rabbi Stein’s misguided attack on Dr. Wafa Sultan (before they decide to take the page down!). Let’s avail ourselves of the resource, let them know IT IS NOT “PROGRESSIVE” to sweep a tragic truth under the carpet! Let them know misogyny must be fully exposed in the very pursuit of progress!!!!
Comments
2 Responses to “A Progessive Rabbi Reveals Himself…”
Leave a Reply
Support our site, vote for us!
Follow Us
Give us some kudos!
Jrants
Feedburner
Track who’s online
Technorati
-
The American Conservative
Webrings
the reformist congregations dont have Judaism to offer so they follow and pander to the much easier way of life called liberalism. there is no moral or ethical justification in upholding the rights of the savage over the helpless.
This isn’t progressive and this Rabbi is an idiot. What planet is he living on? Obviously he can’t read either as the news frequently has stories of young Muslim women being killed over “family honor” in the U.S.
One would think a Rabbi at a Temple in a busy part of California would have a bit more brains and connections to reality. Apparently he doesn’t.
BTW – the Temple where he is has an Online Contact form:
http://www.wbtla.org/forms/contact/homepage
Terrific Post!