Quotable quotes from the wonderful world of free speechers ... Part 25

Dr. Wafa Sultan,  American (born in Syria), psychiatrist, journalist and author

"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."

"I'm not speaking up against Islam to please anyone but my conscience."

"Knowledge has released me from this backward thinking. Somebody has to help free the Muslim people from these wrong beliefs."

"I want you to know I'm not here to incite anyone against Muslims. Muslims are my family: my Mom, my brother, my sister. You know, I cannot peel off my own skin. I feel sorry for them because they are victims of a very hateful ideology."

"We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people. Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

"I have no fear, I believe in my message. It is like a million-mile journey, and I believe I have walked the first and hardest 10 miles."

 "Why does a young Muslim man, in the prime of life, with a full life ahead, go and blow himself up?  In our countries, religion is the sole source of education and is the only spring from which that terrorist drank until his thirst was quenched."

"People in the West live by the Western ethical code which doesn't allow them to judge people based on their religion - and there's nothing wrong with that-but they need to know that Islam is not merely a religion: it is also a political ideology and that's what I am fighting. That's what I am speaking up against."

"Muslim women have everything to gain by a transformed Islam and nothing to lose. They’ve already lost everything."

On Obama's speech in Cairo:
"Mr. Obama is a politician, and a very astute one. However, his speech revealed that his view is unduly influenced by naive desire. His perception of Islam and the reality of Islam need to be synchronized. I am a physician and a realist who has lived and experienced the effect of my Arab culture and Islamic religion since childhood.
The president pandered to Muslims: praised their accomplishments, commiserated with their grievances, and apologized for injustices done to them by centuries of colonialism -- without once mentioning the history of rampant and violent Arab colonialism. He avoided any mention of Jihadi tenets, or of the Islamic political ideology of supremacy over non Muslims -- principles embedded in Sharia law. These are taught and sanctioned openly by Al-Azhar, the university that hosted him, the foremost center of Sharia studies. Obama underscored the supposed American mistreatment of terrorists and apologized for torture in Guantanamo, forgetting that Islamic regimes are brutal to their own people. The president also repudiated significant U.S. contributions in both the lives of its soldiers and humanitarian aid to Muslims across the globe made throughout history -- despite Muslim attacks against America and Americans. In short, parts of his speech sounded like a new Pan-Arab messiah come to usher the Arab world back into its rightful world dominion."