Oh the stupid…It just gets worse. Samia Errazzouki also hated Eltahawy’s article. And she gave us this gem of wisdom as part of her argument: Eltahawy  points to “hate” as the source and cause of the injustices committed against Arab women. She scapegoats the rise of the Islamists, but Maya Mikdashi debunked that argument a [...]...

Helle Klein labels humanist critical theory as islamophobic.

The burqa is symbolic of the total eradication of woman as a citizen, an individual and independent subject.

The Guardian pulls our chain again.

In recent weeks an unnecessary schism has been created between government and British Islamists…Taken together these incidents reinforce concerns that British Islamists are uniquely held out for political attack, and illustrate the power of key anti-Islamist lobbying groups.

Why is it assumed to be wrong for a particular political group to be ‘uniquely held out for political attack’? It is perfectly possible for a particular political group to be uniquely wrong and bad and harmful, so why would it be inherently wrong to single out such a group for special attention and opprobrium? In other words, why shouldn’t British Islamists be ‘uniquely held out for political attack’?

Well because they are such nice … Read the rest

The joys of sharia again.

Islamic authorities in the northern Nigerian city of Kano have told organisers of a planned protest by divorced women to cancel the event. The head of the Sharia police, or Hisbah, said the planned protest was an “embarrassment”, and is “un-Islamic”…Women’s rights activists say divorced women are often thrown out of their homes, lose custody of their children, and many end up destitute. The Director General of the Hisbah…said the idea of street protests was “un-Islamic” and “morally wrong”. “Never in the history of Islam have women taken to the street to press for their demands,” he said.

Well of course they haven’t, because they haven’t been allowed to, but that is not a reason … Read the rest

Many academics on the supposedly progressive side do not admit that everything they value is intolerable to radical Islam.

'Look at how many Voltaires the West has. Don’t deny us the right to have a Voltaire, too.'

Check out the Secular Islam summit blog. Check out the St Petersburg Declaration.

We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.

…We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.

…We call on the governments of the world to

reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostacy, in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights;

eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced

… Read the rest

Women in Iran are not resigned.

On the establishment of an Islamic court in Canada

Homa Arjomand's speech at the Toronto Sharia Conference

Azam Kamguian on why Sharia should be opposed by everyone who believes in human rights.

A remark by Harry’s Place snagged my attention.

"Maccy Maccy shame shame"

"McDonalds gives the IOF Happy meals every time they kill children"

If only there was mobilisation like this for the million held in Chinese concentration camps… pic.twitter.com/c8pqVPH8HC

— Harry's Place (@hurryupharry) March 15, 2024

The million held?? I hadn’t realized it was that many. So let’s hear from Human Rights Watch [despite their credulity about trans ideology].

Break their lineage, break their roots

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, located in China’s northwest, is the only region in China with a majority Muslim population. The Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other communities in the region are ethnically Turkic. Unlike the majority Han Chinese, who are primarily Chinese speakers, the Turkic

… Read the rest

https://twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1743319821284954559

Showing the more:

A young woman named Roya Heshmati shared her horrific ordeal of receiving 74 lashes for refusing to cover her hair. Despite her punishment, she remained defiant, refusing to wear the hijab during and after her lashing. Singing courageously, “In the name of women, in the name of life, the chains of slavery have been torn apart.” At the same time, Taliban arrested women of Afghanistan for “bad hijab”.

I call on all women across the globe to condemn this barbaric laws, and show their solidarity with the women of Iran and Afghanistan, who are suffering under the Taliban and Islamic Republic.

This is 21st century, and we need global unity to END gender apartheid regimes.

Read

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at Miscellany 9.

We have all seen countless lists outlining the various features of pseudoscience such as Bob Park’s “The Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science”. Some of us have even written such lists ourselves. I thought it might be interesting to attempt something similar for Bogus Social Justice Movements (henceforth referred to as BSJMs). Examples of BSJMs include MRAs, incels, the dominant strand of trans rights activism, NAMBLA, the pro porn/pro “sex work” lobby etc*. Attempts to portray legitimate criticisms of Islamism as “Islamophobia” or portray legitimate criticisms of the Israeli occupation of Palestine as “antisemitism” can be understood in the same terms**. As with pseudoscience, there is no non-arbitrary place to … Read the rest

Meanwhile, if we get tired of banal formulaic denunciations of “white feminism” by white women who write columns for the Independent, we can turn to Ex-Muslims of North America for some real oppression.

The leader of a fundamentalist Islamic organization gets cornered into admitting that they support the death penalty for #ExMuslim apostates. The questioner found a copy of their deleted constitution online. pic.twitter.com/zAnpWH9r6e

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) September 12, 2021

The Islamist organization is Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the theocrat who answers the question says: “The ruling of apostasy of Islam is clear, again that’s one of the things the west doesn’t like and seeks to change the ruling of apostasy. As such in Islam it is clear … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on When two oppressed groups are in conflict.

The admonition to shut up and listen to the members of the oppressed group is a valid one, but it only works when dealing with a non-oppressed group (to-wit, straight white men, preferably but not exclusively middle-class and up).

You know, I don’t think it actually is valid, or more like the validity of “shut up and listen” isn’t on the axis of oppressed versus non-oppressed, but rather on the axis of expertise vs non-expertise.

Because the thing is – being oppressed doesn’t actually make people immune to being wrong, and all too often putting the validity of “shut and and listen” on that axis, … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on “honor” crimes against women such as Rahaf al-Qunun:

It is just the latest example of the fear and abuse many women experience in communities in which ‘honour-based violence’ is the norm. This is nothing short of a disgrace – and the fact that so many police and prosecutors take a ‘softly, softly approach’ shows us the level or cowardice and incompetence in dealing with this issue.

…

Honour-based violence is the most extreme end of an ideology that says female sexuality should be totally controlled by men. In England and Wales, there were 137,000 women and girls affected by female genital mutilation (FGM) in 2015, and last year the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit provided support in

… Read the rest

Maryam posted a Manifesto on Women and Secularism:

International Conference on Sharia, Segregation and Secularism
25 November 2018, London

Today, far-Right movements, including religious fundamentalisms, are seizing power and on the rise in both democratic and authoritarian states. Even in more secularised societies, religious organisations have gained power because they have been considered valuable allies – to provide services as the state shrinks, to oppose radical social justice movements, as part of counter-terror strategies and post conflict ‘stabilisation,’ and as part of the privatisation of law. From development banks to Western aid and human rights organisations, fundamentalists, particularly Islamists, have been promoted in the name of minority and religious rights. The growth of community based ‘Sharia’ and other parallel

… Read the rest

Prepare to become more Woke.

Today’s lesson: how to fight all the varieties of misia.

Offstage voices: The what?

Oh dear, you don’t know what misia is? How sad. Fortunately there is a page for laggards like you. It is the “what does ‘misia’ mean?” page. You’re welcome.

You may be wondering why our guide uses the suffix “misia” instead of the suffix “phobia.” If you’ve not encountered “misia” language before, you may also be wondering what it means. Well never fear! We are more than happy to explain this relatively new shift in language.

The suffix “phobia” comes from the Greek word for “fear of,” and so it denotes an intense aversion to the part of the

… Read the rest