A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam [Hardcover]

Wafa Sultan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 13, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0312538359 | ISBN-13: 978-0312538354

From the front page of The New York Times to YouTube, Dr. Wafa Sultan has become a force radical Islam has to reckon with. For the first time, she tells her story and what she learned, first-hand, about radical Islam in A God Who Hates, a passionate memoir by an outspoken Arabic woman that is also a cautionary tale for the West. She grew up in Syria in a culture ruled by a god who hates women. “How can such a culture be anything but barbarous?”, Sultan asks. “It can’t”, she concludes “because any culture that hates its women can’t love anything else.” She believes that the god who hates is waging a battle between modernity and barbarism, not a battle between religions. She also knows that it’s a battle radical Islam will lose. Condemned by some and praised by others for speaking out, Sultan wants everyone to understand the danger posed by A God Who Hates.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Wafa Sultan paints a scorching, unforgettable portrait of Syrian Muslim society, especially the degradation of its women, and lyrically appreciates her adopted American homeland, which she calls “the land of dreams.” But she also worries that Middle East customs are encroaching on the West and writes with passion to awaken Americans to a menace they barely recognize, much less fear.”--Daniel Pipes, Director, Middle East Forum

“A searingly personal and deeply affecting indictment of the oppressing and life-destroying features of Islamic teachings and Islamic societies -- and a moving testimony to the hope that America still offers to the world with its principles of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and equality of rights of women and men (all of which are denied by Islamic law). Wafa Sultan is a great heroine of our times, willing to risk everything to stand up to these immense evils when most people are too fainthearted or politically correct to do so. A God Who Hates should be read closely and studied by the President, European leaders, and all Western policymakers and opinion-shapers -- before it is too late."-- Robert Spencer, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

WAFA SULTAN is a Syrian-born American psychiatrist included on Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2006. She created a firestorm on Al-Jazeera as the first Arab Muslim woman on that network who demanded to be heard.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312538359
• ISBN-13: 978-0312538354
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #500,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > History > Middle East > Syria
  • #74 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > Women in Islam

More About the Author

WAFA SULTAN is a Syrian-born American psychiatrist included on Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2006. She created a firestorm on Al-Jazeera as the first Arab Muslim woman on that network who demanded to be heard.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

318 of 341 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read Book! October 29, 2009

By David Cashin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have just completed my reading of Wafa Sultan's book, "A God Who Hates". This is a must read book! Many are familiar with her brilliant debate with a Saudi Sheikh on al jazeera television in which she excoriated the coercive violence endemic to the Muslim world. Here she reviews the sources and foundations of that worldview that creates such pathologies. Many accuse her of hating. What I found in her book was a passionate love for Muslims and a desire to open their minds to escape from the oppression that is endemic to Islam...Period. This is a woman who has received hundreds of death threats for simply telling the truth as she experienced it. Having just completed my own careful reading of the Qur'an using Muslim commentaries I affirm that her picture of the message pervasive in the Qur'an is absolutely accurate. She devastates the usual arguments brought against so-called "cherry-picking" of negative things in the Qur'an. Most importantly, she shows, with the acumen of a trained doctor, the results of a consistent application of this world-view to children and adults. The results are devastating. The closer you get to orthodox Arabic Islam, the worse it gets. Having lived in Muslim countries for 11 years I found myself over and over saying, "wow, for the first time I have an explanation for the behaviors that I saw". This is a book that I am going to buy 50 copies of and give to friends, especially Muslim friends. They may become angry, but some will quietly admit, this is the problem. The problem of the Muslim world is not its lack of application of Islam. The problem of the Muslim world is Islam...period. We need to have the love, courage and compassion to give Muslims an opportunity to consider an insider's critique of their own system. Growth only comes through challenging long established assumptions. Doubt is not a "shaytan". In fact, when extreme oppression is established, it is a "word" from God and a "spirit" from God. That God is love, not hate. Thank you, Wafa, for your great courage! You have inspired me to love my Muslim friends enough to challenge their assumptions.

145 of 162 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish Muslims would read this book without denial and defensiveness November 5, 2009

By Parviz

Format:Hardcover

Under Islamic Sharia Laws and the teachings of Muhammad and Quran, atrocities has been committed against many over the centuries . Since 9/11 these acts, specially towards women, honor killings, rapes, stoning, murders and slavery have been noticed more. Between 1979, the beginning of the Iranian Revolution and formation of the Islamic Republic Of Iran till 1997, some 1500 Iranian women have been hanged, some as young as 10 years old. Thanks to the writings of brave women like Wafa Sultan, Brigitte Gabriel, Nonie Darwish and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who have put their lives on the line by pouring their gut wrenching stories out in the open, about their personal lives under Islam, the western world seems to be waking up, howbeit still not fully. Then we read the reviews of Sultan's book by 2 folks on this space by the name of, you guessed it, Muhammad, who much in vain and with total hypocrisy call her unqualified for telling the truth about Islam's treatment of women. They attempt to discredit Dr. Sultan simply because she hasn't been educated in " theology of Islam ". What a farce. What a theology !

How can these people live with themselves for denying what is so obvious to the entire world except to those who follow such a dark and hateful religion.

" A God Who Hates " must be read by all curious minds, as well as a book which will show the reader as why Islam is the way it is, by showing who Muhammad really was. "Understanding Muhammad, A Psychobiography" By: Ali Sina

131 of 147 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A warning about a hateful ideology by one of its victims October 20, 2009

By ChrisLA

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wafa Sultan does not claim to be an Islamic scholar, but she has seen Islam close up for the first thirty years of her life. The ogre that has a billion and a half people cowering in fear and shame is reflected in the oppressed lives of his subjects. What is so gripping about Dr. Sultan's account is how the affliction is passed from one generation to another -- diminished women give birth and nurturing to children who end up equally diminished. Worse yet, women embrace their defectiveness in a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. Dr. Sultan writes, "[W]omen have become convinced of their defectiveness and have indeed sanctified that defectiveness as divine decree." The solution, according to Dr. Sultan, is for Muslims and non-Muslims to read the Islamic sacred documents first-hand without distortion or falsification.

Dr. Sultan writes from the heart but has the insight of not only a medical doctor but also a mother and patriotic American. Her book is a highly readable, personal account that will have you laughing and crying as you follow her journey from the sad valley of the ogre to the land of opportunity, hope, and a God who loves.

While this is Dr. Sultan's first book in English, she is widely read in the Arabic media, and she is sometimes called the "Dear Abby" of the Muslim world. It is noteworthy that the two readers who panned her book (so far) are named Mohamed.