Did President Obama sacrifice the interests of Muslim women in his Cairo speech? Phyllis Chesler thinks so, and says as much in a characteristically well-articulated piece at PJM:
It is a Catholic woman’s right to become a nun and shave or cover her hair; it is an Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish woman’s right to shave or cover her hair; and it is a Muslim woman’s right to cover her hair and her face–as long as those women who refuse to do so are not browbeaten, beaten, ostracized, stalked, stoned to death or honor-murdered. I have written about just such cases in the West right here, at this blog, cases in which young American- and Canadian-Muslim girls were tormented, then killed because they refused to wear hijab.
In Europe, where there are many more Muslims, there is a veritable epidemic of such exceedingly dishonorable and incredibly gruesome “honor” murders.
But there’s something more. Let’s face it: The Islamic face-veil and headscarf have become symbols of “jihad” and Islamic religious apartheid or intolerance in the West. And, it is spooky, even frightening to see women, (or are they men?), face-veiled or wearing full-body shrouds. Masked people, hooded people, have cut themselves off from human contact; they can see you, but you can’t see them. You cannot see their expressions in response to what you are saying. I would not want to appear before a masked judge, study with a masked teacher, hire a masked lawyer, etc. Would you?
Whether I approve of their clothing choices or not, Hasidic (ultra-orthodox or anti-modern) Jews and Catholics are not threatening western civilization and are not out there be-heading those who leave Judaism or Catholicism. Nor are they force-converting Muslims and Hindus. Muslims are doing just that at this very moment in history when America’s President has reached out to the entire Islamic world.
What’s more, Jews and Catholics are not honor-murdering their daughters and wives because they refuse to veil their faces, their hair, or their bodies. Mainly Muslims do that.
See the full article for more good argument, and quotes from a worrisome exchange between President Obama and French President Sarkozy on the subject of women’s rights and headscarves.
At long last, musicians with the perspective and cojones to call out and confront the hostile homicidal intent and raw evil of Islamic Jihad, straight up. This music video by Stuck Mojo is a must-see. If only our leaders exhibited such boldly defiant convictions.
(Warning: contains some fittingly disturbing images and, er, “unsavory” language)
Lyrics below and on the band’s website. A deeply indebted tip of the hat to my good Twitter buddy @ConservativeLA for pointing these guys out. For me, finally seeing something like this makes conspicuous the huge gaping hole and dearth of similar material in the music (and, more broadly, arts/creative) world, where those who’ve taken it upon themselves to express opinions have most often demonized the United States and the Global War on Terror while ignoring the very real — and perhaps too frightening for them to contemplate — Jihadist enemy that we face.
I speak peace
when peace is spoken
But I speak war
when your hate is provoking
The season is open
twenty-four seven, three-sixty-five
Man up — yo, time to ride
No need to hide behind slogans of deceit
Claiming that you’re a religion of peace
We just don’t believe you
We can clearly see through
The madness that you’re feeding your people — Ji-had!
The cry of your unholy war
Using the willing, the weak and poor
From birth drowning in propaganda,
rhetoric and slander
All we can say is damn ya
My forefathers fought and died for this here
I’m stronger than your war of fear
Are we clear?
If you step in my ‘hood,
It’s understood — ha ha!
It’s open season
I don’t need a faith that’s blind
Where death and hate
bring me peace of mind
With views that are stuck deep in the seventh century
With so much sand in your eyes, too blind to see
The venom that you leaders preach
Is the path to your own destruction
Your own demise
You might say that I don’t understand
but your disgust for me is what I realize
Surprise!
Your homicidal ways
has got the whole world watching,
Whole world scoping,
So if you bring it to my home base,
Best believe it
The season’s open
My forefathers fought and died for this here
I’m stronger than your war of fear
Are we clear?
If you step in my ‘hood,
It’s understood — ha!
It’s open season
I see you
Hell yeah, I see you
Motherfucker, naw, I don’t wanna be you!
If you come to my place, I’ll drop more than just some bass
Yo you’ll get a taste of a
Sick motherfucker from the Dirty
I ain’t worrying not a fucking bit
I’m telescoping like Hubble
Yo, you in trouble
Yo, on the double
I’m wild with mine
Bring that style with mine
Fuck with my family I’ll end your line
Just the way it is, Just the way it be
Do you understand?
No matter if you’re woman or man, or child
My profile is crazy
That shit you do doesn’t amaze me
I’m ready to blaze thee
I don’t give a damn what god you claim
I’ve seen the innocent that you’ve slain
On my streets you’re just fair game
Like a pig walk to your slaughter
The heat here is so much hotter
And my views
won’t teeter totter or fluctuate
Step to me you just met your fate, and I’ll annihilate
With the skill of a Shogun assassin
Slicing and dicing precise with a passion
In any shape form or fashion
Bring it to my home,
Welcome to the danger zone
Cause your attitude’s the reason
The triggers keep squeezing
The hunt is on,
and it’s open season
It’s open season
My forefathers fought and died for this here
I’m stronger than your war of fear
Are we clear?
If you step in my ‘hood,
It’s understood — ha!
It’s open season
Another great Stuck Mojo video from the same album: “I’m American”
The album, Southern Born Killers, is available on the iTunes store.
Those whose musical tastes may run more along the lines of Pink Floyd’s The Wall should also check out Imagine Jihad by Weapon of Musical Defense — another very admirable musical effort to shine some daylight on an insufficiently widely understood ideology of hatred, domination, repression, and general 7th-century backwardness. Not as directly hard-hitting as “Open Season”, perhaps, but lyrically more in-depth.
Excellent article by Phyllis Chesler and Marcia Pappas at PJM:
It is time for feminists, both women and men, of all faiths, and of no faith, to stand together for a woman’s right not to be murdered in the name of family honor. Indeed, we welcome men and women of all faiths, including Islam, to stand with us against female genital mutilation/castration, forced veiling, child marriage, arranged marriage, polygamy, and “honorcide,” and in favor of a woman’s right to live as a westerner in the West without being threatened and beaten for refusing to wear hijab, wanting to have non-Muslim friends, wear makeup, attend college, drive her own car, or end an abusive marriage. Muslim and Sikh women have been honor murdered in North America for all these alleged crimes against their religion and their culture.
Read the whole thing.
When telling unpleasant truths is “inciting hatred”: Dutch politician Geert Wilders is set to be prosecuted for comments made in speeches and in his anti-Islam film “Fitna”
The charges stem partly from a 15-minute film Wilders released online last March, “Fitna,” which features disturbing images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran to paint Islam as a threat to Western society.
The movie drew complaints from the European Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as concern from the United States, which warned it could spark riots.
The film opens with a controversial caricature of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, followed by translated portions of Islam’s holy book, the Quran. The passages are interspersed with graphic images of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States juxtaposed with audio from 9-1-1 calls made by the victims trapped inside the World Trade Center in New York.
The video includes images of other terror attacks; bloodied victims; beheadings of hostages; executions of women in hijab, the traditional full-body covering; and footage, with subtitles, of Islamic leaders preaching inflammatory sermons against Jews and Christians.
The film concludes with scrolling messages reading in part: “The government insists that you respect Islam, but Islam has no respect for you” and “In 1945, Nazism was defeated in Europe. In 1989, communism was defeated in Europe. Now the Islamic ideology has to be defeated.”
Wilders has been outspoken in his criticism of Islam and called the religion a threat to the world.
“It’s not a provocation, but the harsh reality and a political conclusion,” Wilders said of the film when it was released last year.
Wilders’ 16-minute film “Fitna” can be viewed on Google Video, and is also posted on Hot Air. Have a look and see for yourself. And think about it in the context of the 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh over “Submission”, a film criticizing Islam’s treatment of women. Van Gogh’s associate Ayaan Hirsi Ali has had to take refuge in the United States following threats on her own life.
Should the kind of speech contained in “Fitna”, which largely presents the West’s Jihadist enemies in their own words and actions, really be repressed because it might upset some people? If so, why the apparent double standard when it comes to insistence on expressive freedom in the Western art world, which has been unrelenting in its criticism of Western and particularly U.S. actions, yet from which we’ve heard nary a peep regarding radical Islam’s deeply anti-liberal, anti-feminist, anti-semitic, anti-civilizational bent? (As Glenn Reynolds aptly put it: “They do this because they know we won’t behead them. Such is the bravery of artists.”)
Eugene Volokh posted a brief review of “Fitna” when the film first appeared last March (hat tip: Instapundit):
This is of course a rhetorical work, not an academic inquiry, and it’s trying to stir people emotionally. But I didn’t see much of hyperbole or gratuitious insults. Wilders is arguing against an important and dangerous ideological movement; my sense is that his approach is well within bounds of legitimate criticism.
So I think this is a significant contribution to the ideological debate, and it seems to me that we — and especially Wilders’ fellow Dutch, to whom he is speaking most specifically — should take it seriously, naturally together with whatever responses might come out.
Fore more background on Wilders, see this fine WSJ article.
More posts about “Fitna” from last March:
Update: Robert Spencer has a post about Wilders’ prosecution at JihadWatch.
Thanks to @scooplarue at Conservative Exile for this story, which as I re-tweeted earlier today illuminates something that is vitally important for us to understand and internalize:
The Jihadists who harbor virulent hatred of the United States will continue to hate us so long as we exist, regardless of who we elect to the presidency.
Images of President-Elect Barack Obama — who has not yet taken office, and who ran for election on a platform as lacking in hostility to the interests of the Islamic world as I can imagine — are already being burned in Tehran.
See the article for the Reuters photo, and this brilliantly apropos observation:
I remember a great quote from a conservative thinker to leftist groups in the United States about the issue of Muslim rage:
“The reasons they hate your country have nothing to do with the reasons you hate your country.”
We need to understand this loud and clear, folks, or we are sunk. Despite what many continue to contend (owing to no small amount of projection, I’m sure), radical Islamists are not merely at war with the persona and policies of George W. Bush. Their fight is against the very existence and cultural values of Western Civilization, and no matter who we elect or how we modify our behavior short of completely abandoning this project in Liberty, they will not relent until the West is either destroyed or brought into Dar al-Islam, the House of Submission.
If you harbor any doubt about this, I highly recommend a perusal of JihadWatch.org, where Robert Spencer has over the years done a tremendous job of illuminating the motives and objectives of Jihadist radicals, which are very often clearly stated in their own words. (For another excellent site, see TheReligionOfPeace.com.)
My dear country, I implore you: Please wake up!
UPDATE 1/13: More pictures at the E3 Gazette.
The protesters in their own words (hat tip: republicangal):
Notice that some of the protesters’ signs have been furnished by A.N.S.W.E.R. We’ve seen these folks before. They are not so much anti-war, as pro-war and on the side of anyone who opposes the U.S. and her allies.
In other news: Hamas legalizes crucifixion.
