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The lives of women are…different, harder, not better. And no, American imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and racism have not caused the shameful and endemic abuse of women in developing Muslim countries. In fact, Islam has quite a history of its own in terms of imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and racism—and it is the largest practitioner of both gender and religious apartheid.
The bravest Muslim and ex-Muslim dissidents agree with me on this. There are Muslims, religious and secular, who oppose the kind of Islamism that you seem to support and that the London Guardian is willing to publish.
Try building a church, a Hindu Temple, or a synagogue in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else in the Islamic world. Building mosques in the West—yes; reciprocity, tolerance for other religions in the Muslim world—no.
American imperialism and Israel’s existence have not caused Muslims to force their daughters to marry their first cousins when they are ten years old, nor has it forced Muslims to face veil women, flog or stone them to death if they’ve been raped, or to honor murder girls and women if they are even slightly “disobedient.”
Saying so does not make me a racist. Does it?
But here’s the point: Your refusal to tell the truth does, potentially, make you a racist. As a feminist, I have one universal standard of human rights for all people, everywhere. While I might favor multi-cultural diversity, I am not a multi-cultural relativist. By your politically correct statements of “anti-racism” (made on poor Lara Logan’s back) you are actually holding Arab and Muslim countries to much lower ethical standards. You are condemning their inhabitants, both male and female, to continued Islamist and Islamic barbarism, which includes slavery, racism, and both religious and gender apartheid.
Lara Logan is a naked-faced infidel. Her brutalization was in part caused by the hate propaganda that has inundated Egyptian, Arab, and Muslim life for many decades. We continue that brutalization by minimizing it or by blaming the victim. We are all Lara Logan. You too, Marcotte.
What my generation of Second Wave feminists discovered about violence against women remains important, pioneering work. Today, I do my feminist work with Muslim and ex-Muslim feminists and dissidents. We work on Islamic gender apartheid. My vision of universal human rights has not changed. I now submit courtroom affidavits on behalf of girls and women who are seeking asylum from being honor murdered. It is quintessentially feminist human rights work.
Islamic gender apartheid is a human rights violation and cannot be justified in the name of cultural relativism, tolerance, anti-racism, diversity, or political correctness. Universal literacy, the separation of mosque and state, the separation of powers, a constitution—and women’s rights are all central to the battle for Western values. It is a necessary part of true democracy, along with freedom of religion, tolerance for homosexuals, and freedom of dissent. Here, then, is exactly where the greatest battle of the twenty-first century is joined.
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