Western Resistance

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April 7, 2006

Western World: Feminist Speaks of the Death of Feminism

I've recently read 'controversial' book The Death of Feminism by feminist author Phyllis Chesler, and to be honest it was a waste of time. When she makes a judgement about Islam, first she must offer every conceivable excuse to soften the blow. Her ideas, if implemented, would not stop the tide of Islamic expansionism. Her--thankfully few--gratuitous slurs against America naturally got my blood boiling, so I figured why bother mentioning the book at all. But even with all that, there has to be something good about a book that prompts a sneering article from the al-Guardian newspaper:

In 1961, Phyllis Chesler agreed to marry her college sweetheart, a young, westernised Muslim man who had come to study in the US. At his request, they married and lived in his home country, Afghanistan. "When we arrived in the country they took my American passport away - very typical with foreign wives," she says. "Then I found myself clapped up in very posh purdah. Here I was in this gorgeous country, but I wasn't supposed to go out without the chauffeur and without servants in tow and other women of the family.

A Westernized Muslim was not that Westernized after all? I was shocked-shocked! when I read that in the book. I was similarly shocked at finding out pre-Taliban, pre-Civil War Afghanistan was not the oasis of peace and tolerance some people portray it to be.

My own sneering aside, Ms. Chesler is later quoted making an excellent point:

Western feminism's failure to confront the problems raised by Islam, Chesler believes, is a result of the creation of a hierarchy of sins, "an intellectual culture in which racism trumps gender concerns". The example she cites as the embodiment of wrongheaded priorities is "gay and lesbian movement activists rooting for the Palestinians who, meanwhile, are very busy persecuting homosexuals, who in turn are fleeing to Israel for political asylum".

All true, but as Ms. Chesler partially sees, Feminism does not exist in a vacuum, but is rather part of the wider Utopian Leftist Movement; a movement which sees as its foremost objective the destruction of the West in its present form, consequences be dammed. It is only natural that the wider movement would overlook Islam's sins, however grave, if it serves its primary objective. Western Feminists are only being faithful to their values; it is those values that need changing.

That's enough of the article and Ms. Chesler's views, but if you still doubt al-Guardian's bias, perhaps this will convince you. Here is another paragraph from the same article:

Chesler's critics say the vehemence of her language points to Islamophobia. A piece she wrote last month for the controversial webzine Frontpage.com suggested that "a small but organised number of Muslim-Americans and Mulim immigrants ... are currently seeking to begin the Islamisation of America". It went on to compare the Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan to Hitler. The blog Islamophobia Watch suggested that this signalled "the point of total dementia".

Do you see it? Considering Western Resistance's audience, some, perhaps many of you saw it when you read it, but most of the Guardian's readers did not. Here is the deal: the 'controversial webzine' is not Frontpage.com, but FrontpageMagazine.com. (Ms. Chesler's Frontpage Magazine article is here). It seems the Guardian's journalist did not see fit give Mr. Horowitz's venture hits.

But I want to give the journalist and The Guardian the benefit of the doubt, so: what was this Mr. John Sutherland; what was this Mr. John Sutherland's anonymous editor: was this the political act of two petty ideologues, or was this merely an instance of sloppy journalism?

Posted by Ruy Diaz at April 7, 2006 9:32 AM

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