The new conflict in Gaza, a direct result of the horrific and murderous Hamas attack on Israelis, has inspired a strange support of Islamist Hamas and a surge of naked anti-semitism among the queers (sic)1 marching through the streets of London and Cambridge, MA. Most baffling is the support that is being shown by progressives who also claim to be intersectional feminists. So intersectionalist are they that they ignore the extreme patriarchy of the Islamists who use terror to attempt to destroy Israel.
(Since X doesn’t have a copyright protection and not all the substack readers are on X, I have no compunction against copying it entire.) This is from Belgian MP Darya Safai.
When I was detained in Tehran in 1999 in the ayatollahs' prison, I could never have imagined that one could also be imprisoned in the West for the same reason.
The day before yesterday, it was announced in the United States that they have a comprehensive plan to fight Islamophobia. What might this national plan entail? Criminalising "Islamophobia" and making it punishable?
Here in Belgium too, UNIA wants to do the same and as a member of parliament, I have been trying to stop this for years with debates in parliament. More and more people are trying to silence people who criticise Islam. However, it is a fundamental right to be able to criticise religions and political views.
When I was detained in a prison of Ayatollah Khamenei in 1999 at 23 for criticising the way I was marginalised as a woman by Islam as a second-rate gender, I never imagined that I could ever face a prison sentence in the West because of the same criticism.
Why should I not be allowed to say that many aspects in Islamic law violate human dignity and fundamental rights? Will I be prosecuted for Islamophobia because of that? Where would that leave my civil rights and freedoms? I did not flee an Islamic country only to lose my freedom of speech in this country, because of such a thoughtless proposal.
Islam is a religion that has not yet experienced enlightenment and many discriminatory rules from thousands of years ago, institutionalised in this religion, are still in force. Moreover, Islamism is a pernicious ideology that wants to conquer the world.
In the Muslim world, there are many critics who openly criticise it, even if they have to pay with their lives, because Sharia law is not tolerant. In the West, under the guise of religious freedom, the radical Muslims try to further perpetuate their discriminatory views, especially against women.
And anyone who criticises them is called polarising, stigmatising and Islamophobic. And sometimes they can get right with some "progressives", who themselves, in the not so distant past, stood up against certain rules of another religion. But now, suddenly, they are no longer critics of gender inequality or so many other discriminatory rules of Islam.
Because of their cultural relativism, they are abandoning millions of women and young girls, including here with us. While Western civilisation waits for "enlightened" Islam and it is believed that the change must come from the Muslims themselves, some of them abandon the reforming critical eyes and silence them because it is allegedly "stigmatising".
Maybe they believe in miracles, but all I see in this way is an evolution towards a dark future. The West urgently needs a wake-up call to ensure the future of our posterity. That should be our mission.
The left picture is a picture of me in Iran. The right photo is who I am today, free from the yoke of Islamic oppression.
Quick question - which photo of her is the one that emanates happiness? Yes, the one on the right. I am aware of the effect that using monochrome and full color in order to enhance perception of mood, but even if both portraits were either monochrome or polychrome, the happiness of the woman on the right would still be apparent.
The move to censor “Islamophobia” and to make it a hate crime is from the same sort of demand as the one to consider “Transphobia” a hate crime. Rather than a shield against hurt feelings, it is wielded as a sword against free expression. 2
Feminists who embrace the Hamas vision of using terror to “liberate” Palestine need to take a closer look. 3
I see a similar conflict between Christianity and feminism, so don’t get smug on me, Christians.
I respect the gay and lesbian distaste for the word “queer,” acknowledging that for many its embrace by the modern version habit of everyone wanting to be under the umbrella as trans or allies reminds them of how the word was spat at them while they were being stomped and beaten. It’s a word I use with care, and in this case to mock those who use it as support for the Palestinians who would celebrate gays being dragged in the street or hung from the square in a Palestine that is ruled by Hamas from the river to the sea.
My original understanding of hate crimes was to protect people from actual violence that was accompanied by expressions of hate, but now it is apparent that it is a crime to merely critique those groups who don’t take kindly to it.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and I hesitate as a male to express what feminists should do. I’m making an observation on a conflict between feminism and Islam, and sharing the story of a woman who has been under the boot of the Islamic Republic and sees hate crime legislation as a danger to freedom.
my only queasy ness is that the ideology of Likud and the more radical parties in Israel is pretty bad as well. I appreciate calling out Islamist, but…
> I respect the gay and lesbian distaste for the word “queer,” acknowledging that for many its embrace by the modern version habit of everyone wanting to be under the umbrella as trans or allies reminds them of how the word was spat at them while they were being stomped and beaten.
Stop it with the PC grovelling. It's just embarrassing.
mike you always state the facts so we’ll.
my only queasy ness is that the ideology of Likud and the more radical parties in Israel is pretty bad as well. I appreciate calling out Islamist, but…
> I respect the gay and lesbian distaste for the word “queer,” acknowledging that for many its embrace by the modern version habit of everyone wanting to be under the umbrella as trans or allies reminds them of how the word was spat at them while they were being stomped and beaten.
Stop it with the PC grovelling. It's just embarrassing.