Don't get the title of this article wrong. It's about two Muslim women academics urging all levels of Canadian government to stop listening only to the most conservative Islamic voices. Well said, ladies, even it you did publish it in Z Magazine, a nasty leftwing rag!!
In response to Aqsa Parvez's murder, they are saying that violence in the family against girls often has the full participation of the mothers and that while
"...racist Muslim-phobes had a field day. Islamist leaders denied that this tragedy had anything to do with Islam and many Canadian feminists, human rights activists, and the left stayed silent in order not to be accused of Islamophobia or racism."and
"in Aqsa’s case, it (patriarchy) used religious justification, Islamic moral codes of conduct,..."
"Canadian multiculturalism, failing to combat racism and Muslim-phobia, is gradually moving towards adopting faith-based multiculturalism, allowing the formation of cultural ghettoes immune from social and legal scrutiny against violations of human rights. Such politics serve the interests of conservative Muslim leaders. Enjoying the formal recognition by different levels of government, they openly reject civic norms of conduct, and preach their obscurantist and rigid understanding of ‘piety’ and ‘modesty’ to an audience that struggles to adjust to life in the diaspora."There's more at the link.
I just want to say hallelujah to these two women and a pox on those "feminists, human rights activists, and the left that remain silent for fear of offending". YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!!!
However, as academics these women should also examine their own use of phrases like "racist Muslim-phobes" to describe the only voice that is being heard. Just what do you expect people to think when both the left and the Muslim community itself remain silent when tragedies like Aqsa Parvez's murder hit the news? And did it occur to you that such epithets most surely help to keep the left from speaking out for fear of such branding? Did it occur to you that in the social context that you describe, the so called "racist Muslim-phobes" can hardly be expected to come to any other conclusion? Remaining silent would make them just as guilty as the left. Without a chorus of strong voices such as yours condemning this barbaric act and untold legions of others, the "racist Muslim-phobes" could well be telling the truth. How are the rest of Canada's average Joes and Janes to know?
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