The jihadis would, if they could
Pamela Bone notes that Islamists hate women.
The fear of women, of women’s freedom, and most of all, of women’s sexuality, runs through Islamism. It is a large part of Islamist hatred of the West. “The issue of women is not marginal,” writes the Dutch scholar Ian Buruma. “It lies at the heart of Islamic occidentalism (anti-Westernism).” It is the “deep, ignored issue”, writes Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism. Why, I wonder, is it mainly men who are making these points?
Well, I’m not sure it is, really; it may be just that the men who are making these points are bigger names than the women who are making them are, but there are a good few women making them. Gina Khan, Homa Arjomand, Azar Majedi, Marieme Hélie-Lucas, Maryam Namazie, Houzan Mahmoud, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and many many more. I consider myself one of them, in my own small way. There are lots of us. Eventually the drip drip drip of water will wear away the stone.
Al-Qa’ida has made it perfectly clear that its aim is an Islamic caliphate, first in all nominally Muslim countries and ultimately in the whole world. The jihadis would, if they could, impose the same rampant misogyny on women worldwide as was, and still is to a large extent, imposed on the women of Afghanistan.
Of course they would. Otherwise what’s the point? Rampantly misognyist oppression and suppression of women is the chief, central, throbbing reward of being an Islamist; without that the game is hardly worth the candle. (What, you get to force everyone to pray five times a day? Where’s the fun in that?) That’s why I went into a prolonged fit of rage and despair when I turned on the news in San Francisco last Friday; that’s why I don’t think Islamism is the hot new form of radicalism that’s going to make the world a better happier freer place; that’s why I dislike putative leftists who have a soft spot for Islamism. I take it personal-like.
Is that what-about-ery too G?
Yes it is, which is why I’m about to delete it.
Have you learned nothing from Orwell? It isn’t enough to erase the unperson, you have to erase all evidence of the erasure….
Hey, GT, you’re the only one who knows what you said: it’s gone, innit? I was merely pointing out the absurdity of leaving 2 comments which solely exist to reference one that is no more, has gone to join the choir eternal, etc.
Yeah I know it’s absurd to leave the two comments that refer to a vanished comment, but I’m reluctant to delete other people’s comments along with Tingey’s.
To answer the question: pointing out ‘what-abour-ery’ was not wanted in this case 1) because of all the typos and 2) because of the ‘so what’s new?’ question it started with and 3) because it didn’t add anything.
“I consider myself one of them, in my own small way. There are lots of us. Eventually the drip drip drip of water will wear away the stone.”
Keep at it OB, you are a rare breed. Along with the rest of the names you mentioned in the N&C.
By their fruits ye shall know them indeed!
“one of the September 11 hijackers who — despite having spent his last nights in the US going to strip clubs — wrote in his will that no pregnant woman or other “unclean person” should come to his funeral and that no woman should visit his grave.
Mohammad Atta, thought it ‘clean’ to go to a strip club – to use women, and in all probability, have them stand over him in the strip club – while he, in all likelihood surveyed the contours of their unclothed bodies. Yet with the same token he did not want the same fully clothed women at his funeral or have the standing over his grave side.
It is confusing to say the least – the fanatical principles of men of his ilk.
Unclean people, be warned!
With the insensitivity of the pedant, I wish to point out that dripping water is not the effective means of eroding the stone. In fact, the water carries at certain times a charge of abrasive sand and grit, even rocks, and these do most of the eroding. Experimental work has confirmed that water alone doesn’t effect much change.
This result affirms it is right to be abrasive in the service of change, OB.