Dear Liberals: Being Critical of Islam Is Not Racism

[Dems to Win]

136. I read the statement at your link

I have a lot of respect for the many thoughtful posts you've written, especially about John Kerry. I respect the people who wrote the statement and their good intentions, but truthfully, some of it struck me as asking everyone to join in a game of Let's Pretend.

"We must name religious and national triumphalism for what it is: a betrayal of the central message of all true religion, specifically, that each one of us is created in the image of God, that each one of us is unique, and we are all equal."

But the central message of Islam is not that 'we are all equal.' In Islam, women's testimony counts for half that of a man's in court. There are legion of other examples how Islam does not consider women equal to men.

How shall liberals be tolerant of intolerance? Do I, as a woman, respect Islam even though I know Islam does not respect me?

I have a very low opinion of all the Abrahamic faiths, though I have great respect for much of the charity work done by many good people of faith (I send money to Catholic Charities, since they are the people in my area who help homeless families). I don't respect the cruel, capricious, misogynistic god they worship. A just, moral god would have turned Lot into a pillar of salt for offering his two virgin daughters to a mob to be raped. I support Lot's wife.

Women in Judaism and Christianity have worked long and hard to be recognized as equal human beings in at least some houses of worship. For centuries, the Catholic church debated whether women have souls. Martin Luther said of women: "Let her die in childbirth. That is all she is here for."

In order to practice a version of Christianity or Judaism that recognizes women as equal human beings, a large swath of the religions' holy books must be ignored.

Sadly, Islamic women are far behind in being viewed as equal human beings. Given the insistence that every word of the Koran is the infallible word of Allah, I'm hard pressed to see how it will be accomplished, though I know that there are a very few women in Islam, almost all in the West, who are trying.

To issue a statement that all true religions offer the message that we are all equal seems to be ignoring the reality of the religion they are defending, in my feminist view. And some more orthodox versions of the religion they are practicing, as well.

I imagine that my DU posts would be called 'Islamophobic vitriol' by the authors of the statement. I've posted a lot recently about the mass sexual assaults in Cologne. Women throughout Europe are now afraid of 'taharrush gamea,' the rape game, brought to Germany by Arab Muslim men. Brought to Europe by men who've been taught by their religion, their culture, that infidel women are trash that can be abused at will.

I m outraged that European women are now being told it's not safe to go out alone at night, it's no longer safe to use the trains at night. European women are being told to stay home so that Arab Muslim men can roam the streets of European cities.

I believe that cultures that teach young children that boys and girls, men and women, are equal, are better than cultures and religions that teach children that women are either chattel or whores. Is that "religious and national triumphalism"? If it is, I'm guilty.