Muslim Women -- Not Blameless

Until recently I have felt very sorry for Muslim women in general -- considering them to be relatively innocent and helpless victims of their brutal and repressive societies. But the more I read, the more I see that many have bought into and actively advocate the ideology responsible for their situation, with quite a few even participating in the physical horrors and repression. For example, in the story below, an aunt was instrumental in trapping the murdered girl, just as women were the traps in the Halimi case. Consider also the wives of the recently arrested Islamic terror suspects in Canada who made thousands of internet postings supporting jihad and violence in the name of Islam. Similarly, Palestinian mothers who are so proud of their murdering suicide spawn -- and extol their example for others to follow -- are actively promulgating the most evil of ideologies and actions; they are not simply innocent victims of a monstrous society. Or take this recent case in Thailand where twenty Muslim women are charged with beating and clubbing a teacher to near death. You can find similar examples of Muslim women actively involved in the horrors of their society daily, not to mention the almost universal tacit support that they show for their religion and its consequences -- all of which leads me to feel much less sympathy or pity for the average Muslim woman than I once did.

Of course, those few women who do stand up to their societies are among the most admirable of heroes, but sadly women like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Wafa Sultan are not exceptional primarily because of their immense courage (though it is obviously exceptional), but more so for their intellectual independence -- a trait which gradually allowed them to see and challenge the evils of their faith-based societies. This type of independence is very rare in Muslim society precisely because the basis of a religious society is the very antithesis of independence and objectivity: blind faith and acceptance. Thus I see little reason to feel optimistic about the likelihood of change coming from within the Muslim world (particularly given that an essential part of the Muslim faith explicitly condones the use of violence to suppress and eradicate any intellectual dissent).

(HT LGF for the story on the wives of the Canadian Islamists.)