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Just picked this up!  The premise is that a right-wing cadre of media outlets, politicians, pundits and religious leaders are perpetuating a fear of Muslims that is as pervasive as it is lucrative.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Two of my favorite progressives discuss how intelligent people defend religion in fallacious ways.

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In Response to “Dear Fifty Grand”

READ IT FIRST: https://aberrantforms.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/dear-fifty-grand/

First off, I want to say thank you for taking the time to write out a thoughtful response to my post “Islam Is Not A Feminist Religion”.  I am seriously happy to have started a dialogue among my fans and peers.

Allow me to respond to some of your larger, relevant claims:

“Disagreeing with you is not silencing you.”

I’m well aware.  But telling me to “sit the fuck down” because i’m white and non muslim is an example of someone trying to, or really just hoping that I’ll silence myself.

“However, it’s that it is very clear that your views of Islam, and more importantly of Muslims, doesn’t come from experiences or dialogue with Muslims.”

And how is that clear, exactly?  I have Muslim friends, all of whom I’ve discussed these issues with.  Most of my time is spent watching long panels and dialogues between mainstream Muslims and reformist Muslims.  This reads as just another attempt to invalidate my point of view.  Just because you know a Muslim who is offended, doesn’t mean I have to stop talking.  I have the right to offend, as much as you may dislike hearing that.  To me, starting an uncomfortable conversation that might (hopefully) lead to more voices championing a cultural shift is much more important than whose feathers might get a bit ruffled along the way.

“A representative of a marginalized and targeted community was being told that they are not welcome and the only way they could be accepted is to shed their identities and culture, you presented the gruesome practice of female genital mutilation as an integral part of that community to reduce her intersectional feminism to internalized misogyny.”  Okay, this is where your perception of my ideas is shadowing the reality of my statements, the events going on in the world, and the willingness to label harsh criticism as “islamaphobia”.  I urge you to point to any passage where I tell Muslims they aren’t welcome.  Yes, I do believe we need to reform Islamism, and I’m basing that off of the egregious human rights violations in countries under Islamic rule.  You are conflating my call to address these realities with a blanket statement on Muslims, which is simply not the case.  There is nothing hateful about standing up for women’s rights worldwide.  Nothing was said in reference to anyone’s internalized misogyny.  Really have no clue where that came from. 

“You happened to make the oldest statistical fallacy: correlation indicates causation. The famous example goes that one could think ice cream causes homicides to increase. You claim it’s Muslim majority countries so therefore it’s a Muslim problem, even though the Qu’ran never mentions FGM and the Hadith only mentions it once and claims it’s not required.” You say “claim” as if this isn’t factual.  Those statistics are damning, and uncomfortable to look at, but it would be disingenuous to say it is not a Muslim problem.  Can you explain exactly, how cutting women’s genitalia in the name of Islam, is not an Islamic problem? You are trying to tiptoe here and for what, exactly?  In retrospect I do think I spent too much time on FGM.  There are so many other fucked up things to choose from, I shouldn’t have limited myself to discussing only one.

“You still have quite a bit of work ahead of you before you can lay this at the feet of Yassmin and claim she’s too “privileged” to incorporate Islam into her feminism.”  Twisting my words. It’s not that she’s too privileged to incorporate Islam into her feminism.  It’s that feminism and Islam, currently, are not entirely compatible.  She is a Muslim comfortable in her Western life, to the point where she can make a statement like “islam is the most feminist religion”, when Afghani Muslim women are dying because their men don’t allow them to see doctors.  That is very much a statement steeped in privilege. In my view, Islam has quite a lot of work to do before it can call itself feminist. The only thing I’m responding to is her statement “Islam is the most feminist religion” You callously state her hijab is invalid because that’s what dictators would think. Callously? It’s quite literally not a Muslim hijab. It’s a headscarf.  Send her over to the Middle East right now and see how fast she gets beaten for wearing it. This is just the reality that you seem all too unwilling to accept.  Reality is not always friendly.

 In reference to Ayaan: “Throughout her works, and many statements regarding Islam in the West, there’s this tragic reference to a “reformation” or “enlightenment” that can happen to save the souls of a billion Muslims and deliver them from barbarism. That’s an idea of undeserved cultural supremacy.

Would it be honest to say that in the context of women’s rights, western secular culture is superior to culture under Islamic Rule? Absolutely.  This is where you are putting multiculturalism over the fight for human rights. We do not need to preserve a culture by which women are subjugated in every way.  Islam needs reform.  Unless you are okay with women being denied education, healthcare, bodily autonomy, and the ability to leave the house alone, all in the name of theocracy.

Again, thank you for your detailed response. I respect you very much. If there’s anything more you’d like me to address directly, don’t hesitate to ask.

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A great conversation between one of my favorite activists, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Canadian documentary filmmaker, Avi Lewis.  Ayaan’s final statement is incredibly powerful.

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"Not All Muslims” and Other Fallacies

I got a real kick out of some of the responses to my post “Islam Is Not A Feminist Religion”.  Here I’m going to have some fun and debunk them all!

“You’re a white non-Muslim male, therefore you have no right to speak on Muslim issues.”  Using inherent characteristics like skin color and gender to silence me is racist and sexist. You have no right to censor my justifiable concerns and you have no right to dictate what issues I discuss on my platform.  You don’t need to be a Muslim to criticize the religion, much like you don’t need to be a Christian to critique Christianity.  No ideology is off limits.  It just doesn’t work like that.  In the words of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “Every effort to pressure Islamic governments to change unjust laws should be supported. Western feminists have a simple choice to make: either excuse the inexcusable or demand reform in cultures and religious doctrines that continue to oppress women.”

“Not all Muslims.” I never said all Muslims.  Most Muslims are peaceful. Most Germans were peaceful, but the Nazis drove the agenda.  The peaceful majority were irrelevant.  Most Russians were peaceful, but Stalinists drove the agenda.  The peaceful majority were irrelevant. I voiced my opinion about the harmful realities of Muslim women around the world, and you interjected with this?  You are more concerned with not offending minorities than letting us have important discussions on how to combat the evils in today’s world.  The self-righteous sentimentalism, multicultural nonjudgmentalism, and internationalist utopianism that pervades these conversations has an incredibly detrimental affect on feminism.  Soon it will have lost the language to make universalist moral claims of equal dignity and individual freedom completely.

“Christianity was bad too.  What about the Holy Wars?”   A transparent diversion from the topic at hand.  That’s great, you can recognize a historical atrocity and connect it with religion! So what’s stopping you from doing that with Islam in the 21st century?

“Those aren’t real Muslims.”  My favorite fallacy to debunk.  We call this the “No True Scottsman Fallacy”, and now that you know, you’re going to hear it used all the time, whether we’re talking about feminism, religion, liberals or sumo wrestlers.  In the No True Scottsman Fallacy, one side defends their claim based on a reactionary subjective notion of what a “real Muslim” is in order to avert direct criticism.   As a way of ducking my valid concerns, you say violent or misogynistic Muslims are not true Muslims.  The problem with your claim is it suggests there is one ideal form of the espoused religion when that is clearly not the case.   The more constructive conversation would be, “Why do you think there is such a break in interpretation of Islamic doctrine within the Muslim community?” Instead the conversation is stopped dead in its tracks because one party’s entire point hinges on a subjective sense of what is and isn't “Muslim”.  Essentially, feelings instead of facts and statistics.  And finally, who are you to tell non-westerners who they are?

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Islam Is Not A Feminist Religion

When an Australian Muslim women spoke out on national television this week to say “Islam is the most feminist religion”, I found myself deeply saddened and confused by the supportive reaction and rhetoric being pushed in Western progressive circles.  Abdel-Magied’s statement (see video clip below) is a true affront to the lived reality of Muslim women across the world who can’t get an education, a job, the right to their own bodies, or exposure to sunlight. I’m very thankful we have strong minds like Ayaan Hirsi Ali who come from FGM-practicing backgrounds and advocate not for the abolishment of Islam, but its reform from the bottom up.

I can't even fathom being in Ayaan’s position today, having been subject to female genital mutilation as a child at the hands of Islam, a religion that people around the country are currently praising as they elevate its most privileged voices instead of those who are silently suffering in the third world.  If it wasn’t clear, Yassmin Abdel-Magied believes that because “her Islam” is “feminist” (it’s not), that everyone else’s is too.  Imagine being so privileged.  She doesn’t want Muslims to be painted with a broad brush, so she repaints them with an even broader one that effectively shuts down the lived reality of thousands of oppressed women across the world.  I wonder if she even knows that her headscarf is not a Hijab?  That her attire would be unacceptable in Muslim-majority countries?  That she could be stoned to death by the Islamic State for her transgression?  

FGM is not an isolated practice, and its highest rates are in the following Muslim majority countries where the Islamic population exceeds 90%.  According to a study by The United Nations Children’s Fund:

Over 200 million girls worldwide are subject to FGM in over 30 countries. According to the data, girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56%, Mauritania 54%, and Indonesia where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice. Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98%, Guinea 97% and Djibouti 93%.  

Like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, most girls are cut by their fifth birthdays.

Do you understand my confusion now?  Progressive people are not talking about this.  Instead, they’re making first world Australian Muslim women the mouthpiece for Islam while simultaneously ignoring some of the darkest human rights violations occurring in the name of the religion.  What’s worse, they’re silencing people who feel compelled to speak out, as if they’re coming from a place of bigotry.  

UNICEF says momentum to address female genital mutilation is growing. FGM prevalence rates among girls aged 15 to 19 have declined in countries like Liberia, Burkina Faso, and Egypt over the last 30 years.  Five countries have passed national legislation criminalizing the practice.   However, the overall rate of progress is not enough to keep up with population growth. The UN says if current trends continue the number of girls and women subjected to FMG will increase significantly over the next 15 years.

It’s time to have this conversation.  You cannot repackage the subjugation of women as feminism. If you believe in women’s rights, education, and bodily autonomy, it’s time for you to start talking about the dark side of Islam, not ignoring it under the guise of cultural tolerance.  It is no longer enough to say this is a radical practice, that it is not “real Islam”.  Because the truth is, for over 200 million girls worldwide, it is very, very real.  

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Fifty Grand & Distance Decay Discuss Antifa and Freedom of Speech

DISTANCE DECAY ok let's un pack this -

FIFTY GRAND It’s easy. I don’t support what antifa is doing Especially last night Gross and embarrassing Bunch of privileged college students breaking shit Then going back to the privacy of their homes And chillin maybe play some video games Nothing revolutionary Sorry Not fixing anything Not helping anyone Protesting milo yiannapoulous of all people It's a sad time for the left If this was coming from the right you damn well know you’d condemn it DISTANCE DECAY other people have opinions too - u can be anti violence urself but to not understand why people would oppose fascism with violence is what i'm not understanding - i believe u said on ur own facebook something about those complicit in the holocaust FIFTY GRAND But dude Milo isn't a fascist Come on This is bad If you can prove to me That milo is a fascist I’ll fall back Forever

DISTANCE DECAY ummm are you speaking for me now? u don't kno my politics - so let's not assume and ask eachother questions the tweet u quoted wasn't about milo it was about anti fascism FIFTY GRAND Right But who destroyed property and hurt people last night Innocent people Antifa So I'm trying to understand Why you think that's ok We aren't talking about literal Nazis

DISTANCE DECAY 1. i believe there's reports of yianopolos supporters and antifa 2. i'm personally not for violence where in do i say i'm okay with what happened last night again the tweet was about anti fascism FIFTY GRAND I'm talking about Milo tho Not his supporters DISTANCE DECAY and i thought we agreed not to assume? i'm all for talking here, ur feelings are valid i don't want u to feel as if they're not FIFTY GRAND I'm just responding to you DISTANCE DECAY i could just as easily say i'm speaking of anti fascism as an ideology not those who carry it out FIFTY GRAND You and I both know what the original tweet refers to Antifa The org And to go back to your original question I'm not neutral or pro DISTANCE DECAY are you pulling tribalism on me? FIFTY GRAND The fuck lmao ?? DISTANCE DECAY i just woke up - i mean this sincerely the "you and i both" confused me to the tweet earlier - i saw the police language tweet - i don't want u to feel that censoring u, just showing how i feel, but i don't want u to feel unvalidated in ur feelings either FIFTY GRAND No I get that. But like. If I wanna say the word cuck I can I'm not politically correct I don't feel the need to be Besides you keep bringing that up, did you not even see who I was responding to that day? Someone who was attacking my character and music as a comeback Yea I shut them down And I don't care It wasn't discourse DISTANCE DECAY yeah u can,  and i've seen u use it other times also on facebook but still i'm not gonna tell u what u can or can not say just so i can understand this we agree people can say what they want - correct? but i don't think that means freedom of consequences from that speech i.e. someone responding to u - which is very different from censorship FIFTY GRAND Let me ask you something What do you think was accomplished last night DISTANCE DECAY honestly - i just woke up so i don't kno the full extent of what happened, outside of the quick search i made when milo kept being brought up so i think that brings us to our earlier point - antifa destruction of property caused harm to innocent people, milos followers emboldened by his speeches brought harm intentionally to those whose identities they feel have no place FIFTY GRAND Ok I see where we disagree I don't believe that speech is oppressive I used to But I don't anymore He has the right to his speech Which is just about feminism and men's rights , sometimes Islam If you listened to his speeches you'd see it's pretty clear he's just a gay Jew supporting free speech on college campuses DISTANCE DECAY i don't think i said the speech was oppressive however i think that to say it's unequivocally not would be against a very common definition of the word - mental stress or despair - as well as not taking into account the way it can spread and be internalized thru socially learned behaviors - and that humans are creatures of socialization - i think u like psychology so think genie, victor FIFTY GRAND Ok true, I think words can be used as violence, psychologically But I think oppression is more systematic DISTANCE DECAY i think defining our terms is always helpful - i do believe systemic oppression is real and bad - so i think ignoring the psychological aspect would be a disservice to how social organization is formed - given that humans run these systems, learn and reproduce these oppressive values from other humans falls chimed in a lil here -milo and his supporters can arguably represent a cultural shift that has happened in the us in the right-wing (i.e. altright). it's fair to say that this shift is also part of the reason trump was elected, as he was championed by the altright. basically: at what point does this ideology and rhetoric stop being systemic when the elected president is  espousing the same type of rhetoric? isn't that the definition of systemic?

i also believe language plays a huge role in shaping culture tho i am a descriptivist at heart 😋 FIFTY GRAND Not everyone who supports trump is alt-right tho. In fact it's majority rust belt people, poor people who hate the establishment. The alt right is a fringe movement and you're only seeing that because the media is blasting it everywhere And I see you co-signing tweets about me being a victim but you've totally ignored the fact that hella people ARE coming at me And bet you wouldn't even publically denounce me being called a Nazi Ur totally silent there And I find that incredibly problematic If you believe language can shape culture why are you okay with throwing the labels fascist and Nazis round so freely? Because now it just means anyone who disagrees with you Trump was not elected by the alt right Half of America is not the alt right Trust me You're a very smart person, how can you not see the irony in what Antifa is doing? How is it you can bend over backwards to justify it all You know it's only going to get worse People will be harmed Innocent people Every time I tweet on my own platform you see how people react. It is not unfair to assume that I might be subject to violence in the near future But this is the climate you support DISTANCE DECAY 1. i think falls said part of 2. wouldn't that be antithetical to ur argument in free speech ? 3. how far does free speech absolutism go for you? in so far as it hurts your feelings? 4. i think it is a problem when people going throwing these things leading to witch hunts etc, as it is to make generalizations about islam, referring to this as an isolated incident etc. 5. no where do i define it as anyone who disagrees with me - i believe the examples i gave lend itself more to those who are white nationalists 6. half of america may not be alt right but that doesn't change that they champion him nor that bannon is in the white house

i don't believe you are actually a nazi or a fascist, however as much as this might make u go "language police!" i think the language u use is irresponsible - as u have people in ur mentions coming at u i had people in mine from our last convo about islam telling me how muslims do not have a right to exist coming at me - i care about u and i'm sorry i hurt ur feelings - i think maybe there's a lack of linear thinking going on here and i'm having an issue proving my point without indulging in ur methods - which ultimately is antithetical to my own but i'm at a loss for getting it across with my words so i'm trying ur method FIFTY GRAND What language of mine is irresponsible? And what are my methods Lol All I have done is talked Used my words And I'm not understanding the free speech absolutism thing. It's actually your belief that if feelings are hurt we should silence Not mine. It seems very shallow to think that changing language will do anything to rectify deep seated beliefs DISTANCE DECAY ur method of saying and doing whatever u want because "i'm not PC" - whatever that means as i find this is another statement that requires careful unpacking FIFTY GRAND Like, do you think telling people to stop saying faggot on the playground is going to stop homophobia? It will not These are deep rooted issues Speech doesn't even begin to cover And I don't say and do whatever I want to defy all that is PC I simply don't think PC culture is conducive to learning and our democratic way of life DISTANCE DECAY not cover - i don't have all the answers here but again i think language has a huge role in shaping culture - so it is a factor FIFTY GRAND Would you police me for calling myself a tranny? Cuz I do I like that word and I reclaim it DISTANCE DECAY no - again you can say what you want i thought we agreed on this earlier? FIFTY GRAND Did we? Ok DISTANCE DECAY but that doesn't mean that others won't say and do stuff as well maybe not that's why i said thought - are you arguing just to argue at this point? we can stop here maybe have a phone call sometime or go to a library FIFTY GRAND No of course I'm not haha I know it's hard to interpret And yea I'm passionate and a little worked up But I don't feel like I'm tryna argue Just lay down my fundamental beliefs DISTANCE DECAY that's ok - i feel broken honestly FIFTY GRAND Me too, and we both feel very strongly that our way is the right one So there is only so much we can say to one another We will have to agree to disagree and I'm always ok with that I think I should say-- I've been very critical of the left recently which you've noticed, and it's because it's my party and I'm seeing so much division I feel like I'm watching it all fall apart And I want to critique it in hopes that people will hear me out Because I've spent most of my time critiquing the right in the past I feel I need to turn to my own party and say what's going on guys??? Sadly I'm not sure how much I can keep doing it, people want to silence me. And I'm not trying to play victim I'm being as honest as I can be, I really do feel ostracized And sure maybe I am getting in my feels, we all are tho DISTANCE DECAY i think where i myself maybe am confused/take issue is when u publicly tweet these beliefs- there is an objective tone taken, doubled by the calling out others for bias - then you  go back editing/rewording them to something at the end after

example : take the "islam is bad argument" which is how ur words read to me and many others at first- i had a lot of people in ny mentions saying muslims should not exist - after hours u reposted ur thoughts saying using religion to justify horrific acts on people is wrong - which i think better portrays what u we're trying to say and i agree with but was not clearly articulated by the first string of tweets - and after so many with hateful thoughts found their confirmation bias already- and felt empowered and yes i think a lot of this stems from us getting emotional - which is fine we are human which i why i don't understand the triggered thing *in general * not with you and i think it's great to critique the left ! but i think your thoughts don't come clearly out at first - like so personally when u tweeted how is no one critiquing obama on immigration? - my twitter is full of leftist who criticized obama and personally i know of and know those who were deeply affected by ICE etc - again i think it's just the words we use maybe confuse us

FIFTY GRAND Yeah that's totally a fair critique of my tweets, I concede I need to do better DISTANCE DECAY we all do sorry that was so scatter brained the immigration policy under him really hit close to home - and it hit a weird thing bc getting rid of these binary thoughts/looking at life as grey - sad/anxious DT is coming to office but still not wanting to silence those who really suffered as a result under him - i couldn't find the words FIFTY GRAND I tweet my beliefs and I try to engage w those who disagree to a degree but  also I don't wanna reinforce stuff I don't agree with, so I shouldn't act like I'm so diplomatic lol cuz I'm not DISTANCE DECAY yes i feel u - and finding the perfect words in 140 characters or less is very difficult - but given the current climate is so important FIFTY GRAND Right. But at the same time Usually something will upset me so I tweet about it, ppl inevitably disagree and then it helps me, by the end of the "rant" usually my stance changes a little or at least opens itself to others But I start out hella strong And that's probably not the best way Something that upsets me tho is that the narrative seems to be that bc I don't support the violence, that I'm automatically the opposition And thats a rough one to me DISTANCE DECAY i don't have the answers :/ personally vulnerability has been the strongest key for me learning FIFTY GRAND It does make me angry but I think before that it makes me a bit sad and fearful. Anger is just my cover up DISTANCE DECAY i think it reads that way bc you haven't spoken on other issues in a long time - which can lead to confusion or assumption - and granted left is your party this is twitter and people don't kno that

simple explicit statements grounded in reflectivity and reflexivity - subjectivity of language taken in account - is very hard for me :/ FIFTY GRAND Very true This might sound weird but is there any way I can like, transcribe this convo and maybe share it? Cool if not , it definitely sounds odd to ask DISTANCE DECAY and yeah that's fine thank you for asking FIFTY GRAND I won't alter it in any way unless there's something you'd want me to omit. DISTANCE DECAY umm i think it's good to go idk throw me 2 the lions *joke* ^^ FIFTY GRAND 😂