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

ISBN-10: 0312538359 | ISBN-13: 978-0312538354 | Publication Date: October 13, 2009

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

"An absorbing book, full of Dickensian details."--Forbes
"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
“Wafa Sultan experienced firsthand the immense contempt of human dignity Islam harbours, and the unimaginable cruelty Muslim women have to endure on a daily basis, resulting from it. Her compelling book is a touching life story filled with bone chilling examples of what it is like to live in a society that is ruled by Islam and how valuable our Western freedom truly is. It is because brave women like Wafa Sultan have the courage to speak out against this doctrine of hate that we in the West have been forewarned. I hope that everyone reads this book and takes note of the important message it contains. We must defend our precious liberties, our Western freedom and never give in to Islam.”-- Geert Wilders, member of the Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom
"With rare courage and candor, Wafa Sultan throws open the shuttered windows on Islam, letting clean, bright sunshine pour into its darkest corners to illuminate Islam from the inside. This is where she lived it, confronted it, and ultimately rejected its sacralized teachings--on women, on marriage, on children, on Christians, on Jews, on freedom of conscience, on war, on world domination—as a humanity-warping pathology based on hate and fear. Such is the fascinating psychological analysis that is the underpinning achievement of A God Who Hates: With unique insight and unstinting compassion, Wafa Sultan, a trained psychiatrist, employs her expertise to put Islam on the couch. The results of her analysis will startle, engage, deepen and transform every reader’s understanding of Islam forever."-- Diana West, author of The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization
“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
 “Like thousands of others, I first encountered Wafa Sultan on a stunning YouTube video.  Here was a woman on Al-Jazeer a TV, eloquently and courageously defending Western civilization, individualism and reason against the barbarity and mysticism of radical Islam.  Her performance was mesmerizing.  She was articulate, self-confident, and outspoken.  She stunned the audience, the interviewer and the pathetically out-matched Imam who opposed her.  Now Wafa Sultan has written her life story in this powerful book. She exposes the ugliness that is Muslim society in theMiddle East, while unapologetically defending the Western values she adopted when rejecting the religion of Islam.  If you want to understand this courageous woman, who continues to fight for her beliefs in spite of death threats, and to understand her views on the conflict between Islam and the West, this is a must read.”--Yaron Brook, Ph.D., President and Executive Director, The Ayn Rand Institute

--This text refers to the Paperback 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: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #332,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

292 of 311 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

David Cashin "bengalidgc" (Columbia, South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam (Hardcover)

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.

132 of 144 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 (Gurnee, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam (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

125 of 138 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 (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam (Hardcover)

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.