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Thе Wаr on Women

Part 1

Recently, many of you have sent me the following email petition and have asked me to sign it:

Subject: important petition to make a difference

Recently, the editor of Chatelaine (Sаlly Armstrоng, ex Hоmеmаkеr's Edіtоr) was interviewed on CBC radio. She had just returned from a trip to Afghanistan to see the present state of affairs for herself, having been told the situation had "improved". She stated that the situation has deteriorated even further, as is detailed in the following message....

The petition then goes on to describe the various injustices and brutalities women are being subjected to in Afghanistan and other fundamentalist Islamic countries. Here is my response:

"Women around the world who have been pushing for their governments to 'do something' about the horrific treatment of women in fundamentalist Islamic countries have now got their answer - the governments of the West have no intention of ever helping the women in these lands, or women anywhere for that matter. Instead governments everywhere are falling all over themselves sucking up to each and every Muslim group, making sure they know we have no problem with the atrocities they commit in the name of Allah or with them importing their beliefs and practices into our countries, saying in effect that any atrocity and injustice short of jet-bombing buildings is okay with us."

I wrote this recently in a page I did on the evils of multiculturalism and how it has lead to the spectacle of Bush and other world leaders sucking up to countries with entrenched cruelty and injustice towards women, countries like Iran, Sаυdі Arаbіа, Pakistan and Jordan. (read page here) Instead of initiating economic sanctions against them, the U.S. is forgiving billion dollar loans; instead of declaring them an enemy of freedom and individual rights, we are calling them our friends and best allies; instead of condemning them for treating women like animals, everyone is falling all over themselves to assure them we admire their cultures. In fact, the one country in the Mіddlе Eаst that honors the rights of women, Israel, has been barred from Bush's coalition against terrorism.

But perhaps the most telling disappointment for me lately was when, in his recent international press conference, Bush called Islamic women, forced to wear burqua from head to toe, 'women of cover', speaking with the same awe and respect as one might say 'man of the cloth'. This is outrageous. Imagine if in WW2, when the Nazis forced all free Jews to wear the star of David in order to make identifying them easier for round-up and subsequent slaughter, that instead of condemning the act, U.S. Prеsіdеnt Rооsеvеlt had fawningly waxed poetic, praising Jews as "people of the star".

(To anyone depraved enough to ask, "What about the women who choose to wear coverings?", I'll just remind them that no Jews in WW2 were depraved enough to chose to wear stars.)

But not everyone was fooled by Bush's depraved euphemism, judging from the number of people who signed the petitions I received. However, the situation is much worse than anyone seems willing to admit. It's much worse than could ever be solved by something as simple as a petition, even if it was signed by every person on earth. Remember, as the email says, the situation has actually worsened since the last round of these petitions. And, as my wife so adeptly points out, if Tomahawk missiles won't change the Taliban's mind, how can a petition?

The horror of it is, Muslim women throughout the Mіddlе Eаst are now in a position that is identical to that of Eυrоpеаn Jеws in WW2. Back then, in order to preserve political niceties with the various fascist and fascist-leaning countries in Europe, no country made any effort to help the Jews being massacred in Germany. Today no country wants to stick its neck out for Muslim women being massacred in fundamentalist Islamic states. (I have no doubt that when the U.S. finally occupies Afghanistan, they will find the same kind of open and stinking burial trenches full of hundreds of bodies they found when they finally occupied Germany, only this time the bodies will not be Jews' bodies, they will be the dust-eaten bodies of Afghan women and girls.)

Actually, the current plight of Muslim women is worse than that of Jews in WW2. This time around the U.S. and its allies have refused to declare war on the country most responsible for spreading the philosophy of murder, Iran. Iran is to militant Islam today what Germany was to Naziism in WW2. Iran is the mother of militant fundamentalist Islam; it is the ideological spiritual and supporter - as well as weapons supplier - of myriad other militant Islamic states around the world, from the Mіddlе Eаst to Indonesia, and is either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds (now thousands) of Americans at the hands of terrorists. As recently as 6 months ago a summit of Islamic terrorist groups met in Iran to openly declare holy war on the U.S. Yеt Amеrіcа declares that it is only terrorists it wants. Imagine if the U.S. had not declared war on Nаzі Gеrmаny in WW2, but on Naziism only, and even then had not attacked the Nazis in Germany, but only a few of the loudest, most media savvy Nazis in other fascist countries. This is all Bіn Lаdеn is.

If you're hesitant to believe this parallel between Afghanistan and Nаzі Gеrmаny, you are more timid than Islamic fundamentalists like Shеіk Sаmі ul Haq, head of a Pаkіstаnі Islаmіc seminary, who has declared it explicitly. "Adоlf Hіtlеr knew a lot about controlling the Jews", he says. "We need a rebirth of Nаzі Gеrmаny", which, according to him, Afghanistan is. Thе Shеіk's school is where many of the Taliban's leaders were educated.

The war on women begun by Islamic fundamentalism makes it clear that the most crucial political battle today is not between the U.S. and terrorists, but between multiculturalism and individual rights. It is only in the name of 'tolerance' for other cultures that the suffering and slaughter of women goes on there, and is worsening still. And the only thing that permits world leaders to gloss over the brutal state sponsored murder of thousands of women for the 'crime' of being pleasing to the eye is the belief that multiculturalism is more important than individual rights, more important even than women's lives.

If I was a woman in the Mіddlе Eаst, I would hope never to learn of the political cowardices working in the world today; I would hope never to discover that decent people in well-off countries respect my culture's right to kill women more than those women's rights, else I would die of sheer despair, as many thousands of women already have. I would die wondering how anyone who calls themself a human being could respect the feelings — FEELINGS! — of those who want to kill me over something as important as my life and freedom.

So, I thank my readers and friends for the petitions you have sent me, but I have to say that they are useless and futile. If any of you really want to help women in fundamentalist Islamic countries I urge you to read my page on multiculturalism versus individual rights and I urge you to send it to everyone you know. You can find it here.

Our petitions can have no effect until we ourselves are unafraid to openly and publicly declare that we do NOT tolerate ANY cultures that reduce women to animals. It will take guts for women to go against popular ideals like multiculturalism. But, if you ask me, it takes more guts NOT to go against them.