04-28-2017, 12:00 AM
(04-27-2017, 11:46 PM)Dill Wrote: "Outrage over outrages" is best left to the celebrity culture which apparently grounds your understanding of Islam.
In virtually every Muslim country there is a battle going on within/among Muslims over women’s rights. They are supported by leftist (no scare quotes) and liberal organizations in the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, and France. Change, not expressing outrage, is the goal.
Back in 1999, liberal philosopher Susan Moller Orkin wrote an essay arguing that multiculturalism could be bad for women. Laws originally intended to protect native American customs, when applied to some Muslim groups in the US, would allow child marriage, polygamy, and female genital mutilation on religious grounds. The essay fronts a collection of responses from other liberals and leftists (no scare quotes, real leftists) some of whom agree and some who disagree with her framing of the problem. One can find the book on Amazon.https://www.amazon.com/Multiculturalism-Women-Susan-Moller-Okin/dp/0691004323/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493251601&sr=1-3&keywords=susan+moller+okin
I mention that particular book, with many respondents, to indicate how even before 9/11 this was an issue for legal scholars and philosophers and feminists in the US.
One of the respondents is Aziza Y. al-Hibri, a Muslim and a legal scholar of Muslim jurisprudence, president of an organization called KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, which advocates for women’s rights in Muslim countries. Here is a link to their website, http://karamah.org/.
From there you can find a link to Al-Jazeerah, currently running a story on how a women’s rights group in Jordan is on the verge of abolishing a law protecting rapists who marry their victims. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/04/jordan-abolish-law-protects-rapists-170426114305294.html. There is also this great article on Jordanian women learning martial arts.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/02/women-jordan-fight-rights-160205105852464.html.
I just put a link to the Turkish Muslim group Violence Is not Our Culture in the post to Belsnickel above.
A host of international organizations are also focused womens and human rights issues in Muslim countries--Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women takes up these issues as well, getting flack from both Christian and Muslim countries.
I can go on with lists of books and conferences and forums in which these matters are debated, largely under the radar of the celebrity/youtube crowd. This link is to Looking for that Other Face, by Frank van Lierde, a book in PDF form which tells the story of 6 Indonesian Muslim women who have organized to challenge Islamism in their region. It was financed by Dutch leftists and liberals in an organization called Human Security Collective.
https://www.cordaid.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/04/Cordaid_Other_Face_-LRtotaal_gecorrigeerd.pdf
Egypt has a number of Arab language sites challenging patriarchal orthodoxy there, but here is one in English http://nazra.org/en. And feminist challenges are news reported frequently on sites like Middle East Eye, http://www.middleeasteye.net/essays/egypts-embattled-feminism-2085551274. This British based news organization helps to publicize progressive Muslim activism and helps link efforts in Middle Easter countries to supporters in the US.
There may be "silence" about Muslim "outrages" in some Western internet forums and talk shows, where we are told "the left" supposedly "turns a blind eye to daily outrages." But the din is very loud in leftist (no scare quotes) organizations and websites.
https://www.thenation.com/article/rise-islamic-feminists/.
Muslims for Progressive Values has articles and arguments and disucssions of Sharia for gay Muslims.http://www.mpvusa.org/lgbtqi-resources/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwrYbIBRCgnY-OluOk89EBEiQAZER58mDbLPVUK2UilawK49257zomeNCzaoJdkRIhL9Xhwz4aAvmy8P8HAQ
I close with an interesting mainstream source about Muslim women who must combat BOTH Muslim misogyny AND Islamophobia--http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/18/news/unstereotyped-muslim-feminists/
First off, I'm going to give you a lot of credit for all the work you put into this post.
Allow me to address a few of your links though;
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/18/news/unstereotyped-muslim-feminists
I read this one. It's about 95% on "islamaphobia". The majority of the remaining five seems focused on the assertion that muslim women don't need "western" feminists to come to their aid. Not a single effing word about the misogynist teaching if islam. The fact that this is on CNN and the following are not is telling.
http://www.mpvusa.org/lgbtqi-resources/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwrYbIBRCgnY-OluOk89EBEiQAZER58mDbLPVUK2UilawK49257zomeNCzaoJdkRIhL9Xhwz4aAvmy8P8HAQ
I'll give this one credit. It's not exactly critical of islam, but it does try and make an argument for the inclusion of homosexuals within it.
http://www.mpvusa.org/lgbtqi-resources/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwrYbIBRCgnY-OluOk89EBEiQAZER58mDbLPVUK2UilawK49257zomeNCzaoJdkRIhL9Xhwz4aAvmy8P8HAQ
This one is great, these are the kind of muslims that deserve support and hope to moderate the excesses of their religion.
I could go on, but I think the point is made. Of course there are muslims fighting against the daily evils committed in the name of their religion. Here's a telling question, has anyone ever heard of any of these prior to your post? Why do you think this is? I'm sure your answer is that positive stories on muslims don't get published. I'd counter that perhaps these stories detail such a minority viewpoint that it takes some real effort to find them. If that is the case, why?
