Islam's refuseniks

Guardian.co.uk ^ | May 12, 2008 | Nesrine Malik

[forkinsocket]

A recent article in the New York Times refers to the "Muslim rebel sisters", Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji and aims to compare and contrast their respective campaigns against their "Muslim upbringing".

The tendency to lump together Muslim females in exile who have rather unsavoury views about Islam makes the voices of moderate females difficult to hear. From a position of relative ignorance when it comes to Islam in general, the west post-9/11 has had to familiarise itself with a religion, culture and ideology which so alarmingly appear to despise all that is western.

The post-9/11 crisis also created an audience which was eager to hear about the depravity and barbarity of the Muslim world but also not keen on subtlety. A quick, convenient, stereotypical picture was needed, and the "sisters" certainly paint that. There seems to be more of a platform for the angry disenchanted Muslim female. Male exiles from the faith do not seem to attract the same sympathetic open-armed treatment as the damsel in distress who has liberated herself from the shackles.

The most prominent of the "refuseniks", Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji and Wafa Sultan have caused a stir for allegedly being "brave enough" to criticise Islam and nail their colours to the west's mast of values. Each, in her own way, has either deliberately or inadvertently (but inevitably), placed herself in an antithetic position to the religion and the religion's followers; realistically, focusing on a lesbian, an atheist and a secularist "who does not believe in the supernatural" - all of them earnestly seeking to bring about reform in Islam - is a self-defeating exercise.

For me, as a Muslim female, the three women all represent false dawns.

[forkinsocket]

.

[SES1066]

This writer has some points but ends up with the advice to ignore these women and wait for "The vanguard of reform in Islam is a pious middle class, slightly suspicious of the west but capable of free and subtle thought."

No mention of when this might appear in the Muslim communities of Britain, let alone the Mideast. I hear that there is a lot of available grave space for such 'moderates' in the Mideast.

On a lighter note, I see that The Guardian" is advertising "Guardian America" in the apparent belief the there isn't a sufficiently leftist paper in the Colonies. The NYT/Globe/LAT must be crushed and scared.

[weegee]

So when someone has trash to talk about the US or military it demands immediate attention but when people escape from the Death Cult of Islamic Supremacy, it is propaganda and should be taken with a large grain of salt.

Wouldn’t want to tick off Islamic rage boy, professional protester.

[tbw2]

The Saudi pious middle class capable of free thought led to 15 of the 19 9/11/01 hijackers, despite their country just wanting to get rich off of us.
An Iranian pious lower and middle class led to the overthrow of the Shah (led by college students, not the poor).
The Islamization of Lebanon isn’t being led by poor Muslims, but by richer muhajadeen and those they support.
Poor people have uprisings. Rich backers without a voice in the current system or with influence they want to expand have revolutions. Only the latter are successful, but it helps to enlist the poor cannon fodder.

[JCG]

The vanguard of reform in Islam is a pious middle class, slightly suspicious of the west but capable of free and subtle thought.

Of which the numbers are fewer than those shown in the box below...




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