Author: Ophelia Benson

What the Saudi king said.

This message declares that Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance, a message that calls for constructive dialogue among followers of religions, a message that promises to open a new page for humanity in which, God willing, concord will replace conflict.

And God not willing? What then?

More to the point, of course, the idea that Islam and especially Wahhabi Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance is a bad joke. Saudi Arabia tolerates almost nothing, especially if women want to do or drive or walk into or sit down in or refuse or accept or look at or listen to or read it.

Mankind is suffering today from a loss of values and conceptual confusion, and is passing through a critical phase which, in spite of all the scientific progress, is witnessing a proliferation of crime, an increase in terrorism, the disintegration of the family, subversion of the minds of the young by drug-abuse, exploitation of the poor by the strong, and odious racist tendencies. This is all a consequence of the spiritual void from which people suffer when they forget God…There is no solution for us other than to agree on a united approach, through dialogue among religions and civilizations.

Okay – one at a time. Don’t push. Notice anything missing? No mention of oppression of women. No mention of women, for that matter; it’s mankind that is suffering. (Don’t tell me he means women too; he doesn’t.) No mention of women, instead mention of ‘the disintegration of the family,’ which of course is code for women not being submissive enough. And then there’s the bit about exploitation of the poor by the strong, and odious racist tendencies. The Saudi king has a fucking nerve lecturing anyone about that, given the way Saudis treat domestic servants from other countries. Just ask Nour Miyati.

[The third time in Riyadh], the wife of the employer beat me, she did not work. Everyday she beat me. She beat my head, so I would cover it with my hands. She hit my foot with her sharp high heels. Everyday she did this until my foot was injured. When I told the husband about his wife’s behavior, he also beat me. After she beat my hands and they became swollen, [they made me] wash my hands with … one whole cup of bleach. I felt very hurt and had a lot of pain. I never got enough food. After one year, they still had not paid my salary.

If there is no solution for this loss of values because of forgetting God, other than dialogue among religions, then why is Saudi Arabia such a shitty cruel oppressive nightmare place? Saudi Arabia hasn’t forgotten God, S.A. never shuts up about the bastard, so why are we supposed to think that remembering God makes people nicer to the poor and to other races? Because the Wahhabi king says so, that’s all.

This is a very stupid observation, presumably by a dull-witted sub-editor who didn’t read the article with attention:

The fruits of the feminist revolution? Sisterhood, empowerment, and eight hours a day in a cubicle.

That’s right. Why? Because lots of jobs involve eight hours a day in a cubicle. Such is life. But the point of the feminist revolution is that women ought not to be debarred from life in the larger world merely because they are women. Women ought to be seen as and treated as people just as men are people, and both sexes ought to have the ability to take their chances in the world as it is. That’s all. ‘The feminist revolution’ did not think or suggest that all women would or should have the ideal perfect paradisal job. Who thought it did? The idea was just that women should be equal, and treated as equal, so neither sheltered nor banished. That’s all. That doesn’t bring with it some kind of gilded promise of Thrilling Jobs Only, does it – all it brings is the ability to try on reasonably equal terms. Life is life, work is work, jobs are jobs; most jobs suck; big news flash. How could ‘the feminist revolution’ have meant anything else? How would it have gone about guaranteeing Wonderful Jobs for all women who wanted jobs? What is the complaint here? That ‘the feminist revolution’ promised all women would be monarchs or globally-famous poets or archaeologist/adventurers? Please. The feminist revolution was never that stupid.

Not believing there is a god should be enough (enough for atheism, enough for being an atheist). We shouldn’t have to sign up to more. We don’t have time to figure out all the things that we think don’t exist. We can just not think they exist, and let it go at that – or we can not think they exist and then go on to think they don’t exist, if we want to and have time, but that’s extra. Just not thinking so is the minimum needed for entry, or at least it should be.

There’s no sense in believing things exist for no reason – so we don’t (if we have sense) – and for atheists ‘god’ is one of those things. That’s important. The negative matters more than the affirmative.

The minimal definition matters because it has to do with reasons. We don’t believe because we see no good reason to believe – we know of no evidence that god exists. Believing that god doesn’t exist requires some as it were expertise – and like theism, atheism is a public, non-expert view. You can have more detailed or engaged or ‘expert’ atheism, but that shouldn’t be the main definition, because everyone should be able to Just Say No as easily as everyone is able to say yes.