Sources
So I had to go looking for what Burchill said.
It seems to have started here.
Maybe it was “ya SOW” that did it. It is a lot ruder than “ya donkey,” which to me just suggests ya fool, twit, twerp, clown. “SOW” is both sexist (ironically) and a pork-related taunt, which has been a popular category in religio-cultural battles since forever – it works for taunting Jews as well as Muslims.
I think it’s worth Twitter putting her on the naughty stool for a bit. Worth a publisher dropping her book? Hardly. It’s not as if she’s not already famous for being abrasive.
Next round:
Why did Burchill want to talk about something that happened 15 centuries ago?
It does matter that Mohammed married a child, because the fact (or legend if it’s a legend) is seen as justification for men who see him as The Prophet to do the same. That is worth talking about. It’s not a reason to call a woman a sow, but it is worth talking about.
It’s complicated, because of issues around immigration and racism and persecution and all the rest of it, and complicated subjects aren’t helped with shouts of “ya SOW,” but it still has to be discussable.
- (leyla sanai [↩]
I could solemnly ponder the rights and wrongs of not publishing one of Burchill’s conceited books, but as everyone involved in this spat – Jones, Sarkar, Burchill, Liddle – are self-important horrors, and I would be happy never to read a word by any of them – I can’t be arsed.
Ha! Truth. That’s probably why I was drawn to the story.
Kadisha was Mohammed’s FIRST wife. A decade or more before his last one was even born. Well before he started getting visits from Gabriel. It is not a simple mistake to change the subject from Aisha, its Big Lying.’