24AR29-26

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AR 29:26 - Women suffering "horrifically" at the hands of Islam

In this issue:

ISLAM - how feminists are "failing women" in Europe and America

 + Hamas's treatment of "captive female Israeli soldiers" and media efforts to define "sabaya"

WORLDVIEW - minority religions are "followed by higher proportions of both LGB+ and trans people"

Apologia Report 29:26 (1,667)
July 11, 2024

ISLAM

"Western Women and Islam: A Sad Story of Rape, Assault, Pedophilia, and Incest" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Restoration Bulletin, Apr 29 '24) -- "European feminists, influenced by the racial absolutism of the American Left, are also failing women - both Muslim and non-Muslim - who suffer horrifically at the hands of Islam. ...

   "The glaring, but typical, inconsistency here is that sexual harassment is indeed on the rise in the UK and Europe, but the culprits are not Members of Parliament. Inconveniently for feminists on the Left, who think race trumps sex in the hierarchy of victimhood, there is a huge problem of unassimilated young men from Muslim countries who regard Western women as mere objects. How dissonant must the mind be to read this and still consider Islam compatible with feminism?

   "While the Western Left defends the absolute validity of all asylum seekers, over 70% of asylum applicants to Europe are men and most children are boys. Aren't women considered particularly vulnerable in warzones, from which these migrants ostensibly flee? It's strange how all the vulnerable people who come to the West are young, healthy men, isn't it? 

   "In my book Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights (2021), <www.tinyurl.com/4rvjd94b> I show the causal connection between increased sexual coercion and rape in countries like Germany (which experienced a 41% increase in 2017 alone) and this influx of young male migrants from North Africa and the Middle East. The 2015-16 New Year's Eve assaults, when a large group of North African men assaulted approximately 1,200 women in a single night, starkly revealed the ways in which unassimilated migrants treat Western women, whom they view as ripe for the picking.

   "But asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who have entered Europe in the last decade do not represent all unassimilated Muslim men. South Asian populations in Europe are not known for their feminism! South Asian grooming gangs in the UK have historically targeted young British girls from vulnerable backgrounds: girls who are considered sexual objects for the use and abuse of men who will never marry them." As Ali continues, we learn that the reality is actually even worse with the example of "a voracious grooming gang in Rochdale comprising of British-Pakistani men...."

   "Western women and girls who are victimized by unassimilated migrants are not the only women in need of advocacy. Muslim women in European diasporas suffer the risk of female genital mutilation, honor killings [a recent Italian case is linked], and isolation from mainstream society. Only a decade ago, 190,000 Muslim women (22% of their population at that time), despite having lived in the UK for decades in some cases, spoke little to no English. ...

   "In Muslim enclaves (densely populated urban areas occupied by a single ethnic or national group) there is little hope of assimilation: women are isolated, while men see no reason to change." Ali asks: "Why Don't Progressives Care?"

   "Christopher Hitchens' comments on leftist hypocrisy regarding unassimilated Muslims remain relevant. There's little wonder why these young men don't consider it their moral duty to assimilate to the normative condemnation of sexual assault in the West: as Hitchens pointed out in a 2007 article, 'Londonistan Calling:' 'Traditional Islamic law says that Muslims who live in non-Muslim societies must obey the law of the majority. But this does not restrain those who now believe that they can proselytize Islam by force, and need not obey kuffar [infidel] law in the meantime.' <www.tinyurl.com/5db9dy3a> ...

   "A constructive feminism would not be angered by the contents of my book Prey; it would confront the problem, lobbying for pragmatic solutions and tough borders in response to the unmanageable numbers of asylum applicants who enter Europe for economic purposes. Above all, it would demand that all men in Europe, no matter their creed or colour, assimilate to the cultural norms which allow women to walk the streets in safety." <www.tinyurl.com/5n8zbmsk>

In "What Hamas Called Its Female Captives, and Why It Matters," Atlantic staff writer Graeme Wood considers a grimly related context. (May 25 '24) -- "This week, Israel released an appalling video featuring five female Israeli soldiers taken captive at Nahal Oz military base on October 7. Fearful and bloody, the women beg for their lives while Hamas fighters mill around and alternately threaten to kill them and compliment their appearance. The captors call the women 'sabaya,' which Israel translated as 'women who can get pregnant.' Almost immediately, others disputed the translation and said sabaya referred merely to 'female captives' and included no reference to their fertility."

   Wood adds that "to assert that sabaya is devoid of sexual connotation reflects ignorance, at best. The word is well attested in classical sources and refers to female captives; the choice of a classical term over a modern one implies a fondness for classical modes of war, which codified sexual violence at scale. Just as concubine and comfort woman carry the befoulments of their historic use, sabaya is straightforwardly associated with what we moderns call rape. Anyone who uses sabaya in modern Gaza or Raqqah can be assumed to have specific and disgusting reasons to want to revive it."

   Wood continues to develop his case by appealing to classical Islamic jurisprudence and premodern historical context, yet: "One could read too much into the choice of words. No one, to my knowledge, has suggested that Hamas is following the Islamic State by reviving sex slavery as a legal category. I know of no evidence that it has done so, and if it did, I would expect many of the group's supporters, even those comfortable with its killing of concertgoers and old people, to denounce the group. More likely, a single group of Hamas members used the word in an especially heady moment, during which they wanted to degrade and humiliate their captives as much as possible. Thankfully, the captives appear unaware of the language being used around them. The language suggests that the fighters were open to raping the women, but it could also just be reprehensible talk, after an already coarsening day of mass killing.

   "Reading too much into the language seems, at this point, to be less of a danger than reading too little into it. As soon as the Israeli translation came out, it was assailed for its inaccuracy, when it was actually just gesturing clumsily at a real, though not easily summarized, historical background. ... Is there a word in English that conveys that one views the battered women in one's control as potentially sexually available? I think probably not. I would be very careful before speaking up to defend the user of such a word." <www.archive.is/tzhZN>

 ---

WORLDVIEW

"LGBT+ People Drawn to Minority Religions - Census" by Tim Dodd (BBC News, Apr 21 '24) -- Few are likely surprised, and fewer still have had supporting data, until now: "The latest census revealed that of all the faiths in England and Wales, the followers of smaller religions were most likely to be LGBT+. ...

   "The 2021 census was the first time residents aged 16 and over had been asked voluntary questions on sexual orientation and gender identity, which the Office for National Statistics grouped separately.

   "The responses showed 'other religions' were followed by the highest proportions of lesbian, gay, bisexual or another minority sexuality (LGB+) people at 14.8% and trans people at 2.9%. ..

   "There were so many LGB+ followers of those 'other religions' that they exceeded the combined LGB+ followers of Islam and Sikhism (42,520).

   "Similarly, there were more trans people within 'other religions' (9,089) than in Buddhism, Sikhism, and Judaism combined.

  "The two additional religions identified as being followed by higher proportions of both LGB+ and trans people were Buddhism and Judaism."

  Also of interest, Dodd mentions Munisha (aka Catherine Hopper), the European Buddhist Union's vice president. "She says some religions may have ethical teachings which are 'quite black and white' or 'state that an authority, creator, judge god, has certain views about same-sex relationships, whereas Buddhism doesn't involve the worship of a god'.

   "'It has ethical principles... but it's up to you to interpret them,' she says. ...

   "In the early days of our organisation, in the 1970s, people definitely came along feeling hampered by a sense of Christian guilt." <www.tinyurl.com/d3vu2syu>

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