Feminism and atheism are understandable responses for these women. That’s not where I want them to end up though, and neither does the Lord. When somebody has truly been abused or has been stuck in a cult (both of which are true for women in Islam) it is a sign of hope when they begin to fight back. It’s that point of desperation where the worst thing that could happen is nothing. Something HAS to change.
It takes steps to bring somebody to healing after something like that. They have to crawl before they can walk, walk before they can run, and run before they can fly. Yes, there is danger of them getting caught up in the bitterness of feminism - but finding that the Christian “god” (and I say it that way because this is not the REAL Christian God) is just like the Muslim demon-god who hates them and wouldn’t lift a finger to save them... will only push them farther and farther from the Lord who died to save them.
Right now, decades later, Christians are still trying to explain to the Jews how we could stand by and allow millions of them to be carted away to the concentration camps. How could we do it? We didn’t want to make waves but wanted to keep our own lives comfortable and not have to see what was really going on all around us. We are no different than the German people. We don’t know what to do to stop the evil we sense is all around us, any more than this woman knew what to do. She knew she had to do SOMETHING, and I can really relate to that even if I would not do the particular thing she did.
What this woman did was a jab at ISIS and I’m sure they will find her and kill her for it, which may be her strategy after all. But I think even more than being a message to ISIS, it is a message to everybody who cowers in the corner hoping this cup will pass if we just appease the beast and mind our own business. After centuries of doing just that, the bitter cup has NOT passed by the Muslim women. This beast will not be appeased. Cults never are, and we are dealing with a massive, worldwide demonic cult that turns people into animals.
And she is saying, in the best way she knows how, “Make my day.”
Unless the rest of us learn to stand up just as boldly, the whole world will be in the same boat as the lowliest woman in ISIS territory. We have to decide what is worth dying for because our time is coming. Everybody over there is saying that. African Christians who have come to America as refugees have been saying for a long time that if we don’t stand up to fight this enemy the last refuge will be gone.
If what she did is beyond the pale, then what is stoning a woman because her husband wants her dead and no court will listen to evidence? Or because she went into public without a man because she is a widow? Or because she drove a car? Or because she was 14 and her uncles gang-raped her? We hear these stories over and over again and we say it’s terrible and then we forget all about it. It’s “none of our business”. What can we do from half a world away? And yet we who are half a world away are the only ones outside the cult who can actually change anything, if we only would.
It’s one thing for a spoiled brat to throw a tantrum. It’s another thing for a child who’s been abused to within an inch or her life to scream - especially when she’s been conditioned her while life long to simply take “what she’s got coming”. As uncomfortable as the scream is to those who think she’s throwing a tantrum, it may be the only sign of life she can muster, and it’s a miracle that she has mustered it. The response MUSTN’T be to blame her for being loud - but to find out what’s really going on.
This is something that’s weighed heavily on me for a long time. As I’ve said, every time I receive a kindness from a man my heart aches for the women who have only known abuse from men. I’m tired of just being thankful that it’s somebody else and not me. I’m tired of crying for these women and then forgetting about them without lifting a finger to help them. I have behaved far more shamefully than this woman has, because I’ve been given so much and have done so little. I’m disgusted and want to know what I can do to help.
Somebody, please help me know what I can do to help.
You need some perspective. There is no such thing as "women who have ONLY known abuse from men."
To imagine such a thing is nothing but a feminine conceit.
I don’t know what we can do to help, other than relentlessly pray for them. For now. And not forget them. (I doubt that anyone who ever interacts with them, can) I still search their blogs from time to time to see if there’s any news, but I never, ever forget them.
Some Muslims (women *and* men) want out from under that tyranny & some don’t. Make no mistake. Men suffer the same brutality that the women do. They are raped, tortured, imprisoned, & just executed the same way. It is unfathomable. Demonic.
It’s like the “saying”, a person has to want help. So far, the Persians & the Egyptians are the only ones who have made any effort toward their freedom. This Egyptian woman has done this at a time when she could. A Lebanese woman *might* be able to get away with it. I don’t want to think about the fate of any Persian or Palestinian woman who attempted 1/10th as much. Or Yemen, or any of the other Muslim countries, either. Some of the Asian countries seem like they could get pretty hairy.
One thing I gathered from my associations was that they (the Persians, at least) want to overthrow their “governments” themselves & that outside interference would cause them to coalesce around those governments. I don’t get this, but whatever. Regardless, I believe that they have earned their freedom & that they would do much more (short of becoming monsters, themselves- which they seem acutely aware of) if they could.
The Egyptians are well on the road to theirs. Godspeed.
I’m not going to change your mind about the nature of this woman’s actions & you’re not going to change mine. I find it outrageous & crazy “even” if it were a man doing it. (e.g. the “occupier” & the patrol car) My contempt for feminism aside.
On a side note, wrt to people- especially Christians, we *are* standing by- AGAIN, watching another holocaust take shape. Maybe it’s denial, I don’t know. Or self-centeredness. Or even “sheeping”. But we (again, not all of us) seem to have not learned a flippin’ thing. I don’t know what more could happen besides someone putting up a flashing neon sign that says “Get ready. We’re going to slaughter Jews. And Whites. And anyone who doesn’t go along with us”. Oh wait. They already have, multiple times & growing. Hello? Are we just waiting for the pogroms to start or what?
I don’t know what to do about it, either, but it’s worrying the crap out of me. One thing we could do is learn the history, get educated & HAVE the argument. Counter it. Not Morris Dees/ Mark Potok type bs, but for real. Shine a light on it.(Come to think of it, that method would be effective for Muslims as well. At least, it might stop the spread. That’s what’s dangerous.)
Catherine, thanks. Sometimes, emotion/ passion can get people a little wound up (myself).