ISLAM AND WOMEN: THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR'S DISTORTION AND THE REALITY

"US Latinas seek answers in Islam," heralds a recent feature article in The Christian Science Monitor (December 27). "Some young US Latinas say Islam offers women more respect," reports the paper's contributor Christine Armario. She quotes a head-scarved immigrant convert as saying that Muslim men "don't look at you like a sex object." According to Ms. Armario's account, "Many of the Latina converts say that their belief that women are treated better in Islam was a significant factor in converting."

The report mentions in passing the skepticism that these conversions sometimes elicit in the Latino community, but then goes on to quote in extenso one Leila Ahmed, "a professor of women's studies and religion at Harvard University," who discounts any doubts as misplaced. "It astounds me, the extent to which people think Afghanistan and the Taliban represent women and Islam," Professor Ahmed is quoted as saying;

"What's really going on, she says, is a reshaping of the relationship between women and Islam. 'We're in the early stages of a major rethinking of Islam that will open Islam for women. [Muslim scholars] are rereading the core texts of Islam—from the Koran to legal texts—in every possible way.' New views of women and Islam may be more prevalent in countries like the US, where women read the Koran themselves and rely less on patriarchal interpretations.

"What is really going on" is nothing of the kind. To start with, no mainstream "Muslim scholar" is allowed to "re-read" the Kuran "in every possible" or any other way. As Allah's direct and unadulterated word, the Kuran cannot be subjected to textual analysis and critical evaluation. (Professor Ahmed is well aware of this, of course, but as a Muslim she is not only justified but also expected to lie to the infidel;

There is a book (now available in paperback ):

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Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left
(Hardcover)
by David Horowitz

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And reviews:

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Editorial Reviews

Rich Lowry, Editor National Review

David Horowitz is synonymous with pyrotechnics. A historian and polemicist of the first order, he is paid the ultimate compliment --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Davis Hanson, Author, Ripples of Battle

An original look at those who want us to fail in the Middle East, both at home and abroad. The --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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See all Editorial Reviews

Fascinating Analysis of Leftist Goals, August 13, 2006

Reviewer: N. Sincerity - See all my reviews

A former 1960s radical, Horowitz is well-acquainted with the Leftist mindset. In this book, he strives to explain the modern alliance between left wing progressivists and radical Islamofascists. He argues that this alliance is based on a common desire to destroy Western capitalism. Leftist sympathy with Islamofascist ideas makes no sense from an intellectual point of view, given that countries ruled by radical Islamists are among the most racist, sexist, theocratic states in the world today. However, Leftists have recognized that they can benefit politically from destructive terrorist attacks on the Western world. A West under attack can be made to turn on its leaders in fear and desperation (as they did in Spain after the Madrid train bombings). Only once people reject current government structures can the Left execute its anti-capitalist revolution and build a new reality that mirrors the Leftist view of utopia. The complete and utter idealogical hypocrisy of the Islamofascist-Leftist alliance is distressing, but as Horowitz reminds us, Leftists radicals truly believe the ends justify the means.

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This is something that was first put out by some Muslim group in LA - I think the LA Times had a story on it. Then it was published in the NY Times. Many people pointed out that all the "statistics" came from CAIR or its local group, and particularly its spokeswoman, an American muslim convert who appears on the university lecture circuit announcing the glories of Islam and how happy the slaves - er, I mean, women - are under it.

One of the favorite tactics of Muslims is to announce that the whole world is "converting" and to inflate their numbers. It is not surprising that the liberal press loves this and features it prominently, no matter how dubious the source.

I agree with you to an extent, but let's not forget that it was the Right that energized the Taliban in a sort-sighted and opportunistic crusade to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan. It was the right that gave Turkey the green light to rape Cyprus for equally short-sighted narrow-minded reasons, that it was both the Right and the Left that gave their support to the Islamic elements in Bosnia and Kosovo, and that neither the Left nor the Right have done anything to stop the massacre of Christians in the Sudan.

Let's not forget that at one time Rummy and Saddam were allies on the same playing field when it was in our interest to stop Iran (at that time it didn't disturb us that Saddam was a cruel dictator, just as it didn't distrub us that our bastard child, the Taliban, were cruel and abusive to women until 9/11). And let's not forget the biggest contributor to the Paletistian cause: our friend and ally Saudi Arabia, a medieval kingdom both the Right and the Left love so much (after all, without it, the American people could not enjoy their gas-guzzling SUVs, and, regardless if you are Left or Right, when it comes to cheap gas we tend to forget everything that offends us about Islam).

So we all know what we are, on the left or on the right; we are just arguing over the price [of gas].

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