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Robert Fulford: Feminists fall silent [LINK-ZUM]

Surely honour killing is the ultimate male oppression, being uniquely permanent and committed by close relatives in the name of an abstraction. It's among many anti-woman atrocities in the Arab world that should enrage feminists of the West and rouse them to urgent action -- mass rallies, pickets, boycotts, furious public debates and anything else they would do for, say, California grape pickers who have no right to health care. But no action of this kind ever materializes, which amounts to a grave abdication of responsibility. Feminism, after all, embodies the principle that women deserve the same rights and dignity as men. In the original discussions nobody said "except for Muslims." A major reason for this failure is that feminism has generally made common cause with the left, and the left has in most cases decided it favours the Arabic cause. The Arabs have virtue on their side because they are not Americans.

Phyllis Chesler, an American therapist and psychologist who often writes on women's issues, argues that attitudes grounded in thoughtless cultural "sensitivity" inhibit what should be the natural response of women. The result is that "instead of telling the truth about Islam and demanding that the Muslim world observe certain standards, you have Westerners beating their breasts and saying, 'We can't judge you, we can't expose you, we can't challenge you.'" This reaches the level of absurdity when gay and lesbian activists support Palestinians "who, meanwhile, are very busy persecuting homosexuals, who in turn are fleeing to Israel for political asylum."

[Article continues at link. This is an example of the errors that can emerge when political claims are grouped as if they were inherently connected. Feminism linked itself with the left, and the left linked itself with being against the United States, and being against the United States linked itself with being for Arabs and/or Jews. The more political claims are linked together, the more contradictions will arise. All things are connected, but all things are not equally connected. After decades of spectacular success with addressing one or two issues, Amnesty International has shifted to being a one-stop-revolutionary-shop for 'economic, social and cultural rights' (and fraternizing with rock stars). It has lost some of my support, for what that is worth, in doing so. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, judaism, sex, theocracy

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