It’s a common and recurring tendency among conservative Catholics to be complacent regarding the jihad threat because of a desire to see Muslims as allies in a culture war against all-encroaching and authoritarian secularism. This idea is based on ignorance of or indifference to the fact that, with its polygamy, divorce at a word, sexual slavery of Infidel women, allowance for wife-beating, tolerance for early abortion, and more, Islamic sexual morality is hardly akin to Catholic sexual morality. There is also a tendency, which is also found all over the West outside the Catholic Church, to assume that various concepts, and acts designed to express them, mean the same thing in an Islamic context that they do in a non-Muslim context. That false assumption is what we see here from Archbishop Chaput with regard to modesty.
Archbishop Chaput says: “The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture: ‘I’m not sexually available;’ and ‘I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.'” In reality, that is what a Western woman might be intending to convey, but in an Islamic context the message is slightly different, and that slight difference is all-important. Yes, the hijab and burqa certainly say, ‘I’m not sexually available” and “I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.” But there is more. The Qur’an says: “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.” (33:59) This is the foundation of the prevailing assumption in Islamic culture that if a woman is raped or sexually abused, it is her fault for exciting men, who can’t be expected to control themselves. This is the assumption underlying honor killing, and the reason why it is so common in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and other Muslim countries for women to be imprisoned after they were raped: the rape is their fault.
So the hijab and burqa are really saying: “I am assuming the responsibility — willingly or not — for the possibility that I might be raped or sexually abused.” It is a visible sign of the subjugation of women.
And that “willingly or not” clause is all-important as well. Archbishop Chaput says: “I admire the integrity of those Muslim women” who wear the hijab and the burqa. He assumes that they are wearing it freely, as they would be in the West. And to be sure, many Muslim women, especially in the West, are indeed wearing it of their own volition. What does Archbishop Chaput think of the integrity of Aqsa Parvez, whose Muslim father choked her to death with her hijab after she refused to wear it? How does he feel about the integrity of Amina Muse Ali, a Christian woman in Somalia whom Muslims murdered because she wasn’t wearing a hijab? And of the 40 women who were murdered in Iraq in 2007 for not wearing the hijab; and of Alya Al-Safar, whose Muslim cousin threatened to kill her and harm her family because she stopped wearing the hijab in Britain; and of Amira Osman Hamid, who faces whipping in Sudan for refusing to wear the hijab; and of the Egyptian girl, also named Amira, who committed suicide after being brutalized for her family for refusing to wear the hijab; and of the Muslim and non-Muslim teachers at the Islamic College of South Australia who were told that they had to wear the hijab or be fired; and of the women in Chechnya whom police shot with paintballs because they weren’t wearing hijab; and of the women also in Chechnya who were threatened by men with automatic rifles for not wearing hijab; and of the elementary school teachers in Tunisia who were threatened with death for not wearing hijab; and of the Syrian schoolgirls who were forbidden to go to school unless they wore hijab; and of the women in Gaza whom Hamas has forced to wear hijab; and of the women in Iran who protested against the regime by daring to take off their legally-required hijab; and of the women in London whom Muslim thugs threatened to murder if they didn’t wear hijab; and of the anonymous young Muslim woman who doffed her hijab outside her home and started living a double life in fear of her parents, and all the other women and girls who have been killed or threatened, or who live in fear for daring not to wear the hijab?
What about their integrity? Those who taunt or brutalize hijab-wearing women are louts and creeps, and should be prosecuted if they commit any acts of violence. At the same time, the women who don’t wear hijab in Muslim countries are far more likely to be victims of violence than hijabis in the West. Who speaks for them? And while Archbishop Chaput is admiring the integrity of Muslim women who wear the hijab and the burqa, has he considered the possibility that some of them face lives of misery and brutalization if they dare not to wear it, especially in light of the Qur’an’s mandate to beat women “from whom you fear disobedience” (4:34)?
The conservative Catholic complacency regarding Islam, and particularly Islamic morality, is based on ignorance, as you can see here from my debate with the Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft. It is compounded by the outright falsehoods that Pope Francis continues to spread, most notoriously his outrageously false claim that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” The Pope has created tremendous confusion among Roman Catholics who imbibe the prevailing idolatry of the papacy, treating every word from the Pope as a divine oracle and even reading out of the Church those who dare to stand up and say that he has said something false when he obviously has. Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is increasingly authoritarian, ruthlessly suppressing any dissent from the Pope’s complacent and false claim that Islam is a religion of peace with a dispatch it has never shown in teaching or defending the actual tenets of the Catholic Faith. In pursuing this line, however, the papal idolators are digging themselves into a rather large hole, as they’re attaching the Church’s dogmatic and moral authority to a falsehood, which challenges any claim to such authority in the first place. In other words, if one cannot be a Catholic and believe that Islam is not a religion of peace, then Catholicism is false, and the Church not worth staying in anyway. Thus either the Church will reject this suicidal position, and do it soon, or else collapse upon its own self-contradiction.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“The message behind the burqa,” by Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, October 20, 2016 (thanks to Judith):
In his excellent speech at Notre Dame (about which more anon), Archbishop Charles Chaput makes an interesting point about Muslim women who wear the hijab or burqa:
Some of my friends are annoyed by that kind of “in your face” Islam. But I understand it. The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture: “I’m not sexually available;” and “I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.”
There are problems with Islam, especially in its more assertive forms, and the archbishop says as much in passing. But those two messages are messages that our culture needs to hear….
The Archbishop’s remarks on the hijab and burqa in full:
In Philadelphia I’m struck by how many women I now see on the street wearing the hijab or even the burqa. Some of my friends are annoyed by that kind of “in your face” Islam. But I understand it. The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture: “I’m not sexually available;” and “I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.”
I have a long list of concerns with the content of Islam. But I admire the integrity of those Muslim women. And we need to help Catholics recover their own sense of distinction from the surrounding secular meltdown. The Church and American democracy are very different kinds of societies with very different structures and goals. They can never be fully integrated without eviscerating the Christian faith. An appropriate “separateness” for Catholics is already there in the New Testament. We’ve too often ignored it because Western civilization has such deep Christian roots. But we need to reclaim it, starting now.

Northern Virginiastan says
Longing for the days before Vatican II
Bob says
Just agreeing with his boss, Francis.
Kathy Brown, Esq. says
Those days are very much still present Sir. And so is the traditional Latin Mass. Google, ‘FSSP’ and ‘SSPX’.
Here’s a great example: https://youtu.be/CLAX8UZ9zoc
Jaladhi says
OK, how much does he admire integrity of Muslim men who rape, murder and loot? Oh, maybe its too much ask the Archbishop!
Charli Main says
Don’t think he would have a problem with that. After all, they would just be ” good ” Muslims practicing their religion and this dear Catholic Archbishop appears to be all in favour of Muslims practicing their religion.
Ron says
It took me a very long time to realize that the history of the church is checkered with all the vices and corruption men are heir to. it is a human institution with all that implies.
The breaking point for me occurred with the revelation that hundreds of priests around the world had raped and sexually abused defenseless children only to have the church make every effort to hide it.
Church leaders who gave us Vatican II and such profound ideas as rearranging the church’s furniture make you wonder if some of them have run out of things to do, and if a few drops of honest sweat might replace the hours they spend issuing philosophical ideas and half baked statements such as the one authored by this cleric.
Bill says
Did John Podesta give the Archbishop these talking points?
mortimer says
Ha, ha. Exactly. They both make up the theology they like ‘out of their head’. So much for facts.
le mouron rouge says
Mortimer,
Right on!
“There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17. haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18. a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19. a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
– Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
– Isaiah 5:20 (ESV)
Stephanie says
OT
To parents of unbelieving child (secondary school ISCED level 3),
Mosque visit rejected: 300 euros fine
https://twitter.com/AlexiaStellar/status/790247891738693632
Michael Laudahn says
This includes now also mutant Janet Jackson, see
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3864354/Pregnant-Janet-Jackson-covers-blossoming-baby-bump-huge-hooded-poncho-enjoys-London-amble-husband-Wissam-Al-Mana.html
Mirren10 says
If she’s **50**, how can she be pregnant ? God help the poor baby.
gravenimage says
Yes–I was thinking of posting that, myself.
Mirren, given the creed of the poor baby’s parents, the mother’s age is probably the *least* of the concerns.
Gen Jones says
The Jackson family was raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Another religion that forbids reading outside their permitted scriptures and independent thinking. Sad gal is a perfect target for brainwashing.
Mirren10 says
Yes, I agree, but I was wondering how on earth she managed it ! Most women are in the middle of the menopause at that age ?
Stephanie says
OT
Yesterday,
Refugees actors are angry because they can not get FAST enough to Germoney.
http://translate.google.com.br/translate?hl=pt-BR&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/fluechtlinge-zuenden-auf-lesbos-gebaeude-von-eu-asylbehoerde-an-a-1118009.html
Charli Main says
All these refugee actors, should all get Oscars for their performances. They are all playing the part of, pretending to be refugees, brilliantly.
Vyx says
I suspect that Francis has a dream of uniting Islam with Catholicism, creating a one world religion.
As for the rest of it, liberalism is a mental disease.
Ernie says
I suspect your suspection is right Vyx .
Ernie says
Oops , suspician that must be .
Stephanie says
… only ‘beat them’ (can be heavy)
https://twitter.com/schnellmann_org/status/790876893079896064
Jack Diamond says
“The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture”:
yes, they say Islam is here, shari’a is here, infidels. And taking over. Two important things.
In your face.
PRCS says
Archbishop Chaput says:
“The hijab and the burqa say… I belong to a community different and separate from you
Only a damned fool would think that benefits society.
Scott Rose says
There is no “secular meltdown.”
I would remind the Cardinal, and other readers that the Catechism calls masturbation “a gravely and inherently disordered act.”
Where is the competent psychologist or psychiatrist who supports that ridiculous idea?
Prior to the French Revolution, the Catholic Church’s control over society was hideous. The French state, i.e. the king, only recognized Catholic marriages as marriages. If you were Protestant in France, you were at best a second-class citizen.
No thanks to that kind of thing.
Ernie says
I see your point Scott :The Cardinal ist acting gravely and inherently in a metaphorical way .
Ernie says
The Cardinals acting is inherently and gravely in disorder ( in a metaphorical way ) .
mortimer says
The Islamic veil does not mean what Archbishop Chaput thinks…he is speculating…he is guessing. The truth is that the Islamic veil is about visibility of the FACE AND BODY of the woman…i.e. so she may not be either identified or coveted by a male outside the immediate family.
COUSIN MARRIAGE is the TRUE MEANING of the veil and Archbishop Chaput wouldn’t know that because, in spite of making himself an instant expert on Islam, he in fact probably doesn’t know the existence of the hadiths and Sira (two essential and indispensable adjuncts to the Koran), let alone anything that is in them! He’s as ignorant about Islam as the Chinese are about NBA football.
Archbishop, DON’T GUESS ABOUT ISLAM. THE VEIL IS NOT CONCERNED WITH SPIRITUALITY. The Muslim woman is a SLAVE FOR LIFE AND ETERNITY.
Rob says
What it says Chaput is:
“Those without burqa and hijab ARE available”
Angemon says
Huh, that’s not what the hijab and burqa say. They say “please don’t rape me”.
Whatever “obsessions” the archbishop is referring to, they certainly aren’t, for example, the desire to marry of a child before she has her first menstruation, as stated by Khomeini.
This makes no sense whatsoever. Secularism is the separation of church and state. Is the archbishop saying that the land should be run in accordance to religious law? If that’s the case, why should it be Catholic religious law and not Buddhists, or Sikh, or Hindu religious law?
That’s the thing – they don’t *need* to be integrated. You can be a Catholic and participate in the democratic process, much like you can be a Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, pastafarian, or even muslim, and participate in the democatic decision-making process (although with muslims the end result would be disastrous).
Faith is *personal*, archbishop – someone should remind you of that.
JawsV says
What a moron.
Carlos Danger says
Authoritarian, patriarchal, whitewashed sepulchres
Westman says
Archbishop Chaput, have you forgotten the Mecca girls school fire where girls were essentially murdered by the religious police, burned to death, because they couldn’t get to their, “coverings”. They were forced back into the building to burn, because, “..the mutaween did not want physical contact to take place between the girls and the civil defense forces for fear of sexual enticement..”
It’s all about supremism for the men, Archbishop. Are you so dense that you haven’t studied Islamic Ideology and have been projecting your own feelings onto Islam like a first puppy love? Well have at it; you’ll soon discover old newspapers won’t be adequate and the relationship will be Chaput.
somehistory says
For some reason, this reminds me of a Barbara Mandrell song (I don’t care for her singing, but have heard a lot of it). It goes something like, “If lovin you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.”
Some people get so stuck on approving of *wrong*…they don’t want to be right.
Why doesn’t he *understand* the “in your face” being something besides an innocent label of untouchableness? Why doesn’t he understand the *annoyance* of it as his *friends* do?
This is a symbol of slavery to evil, barbaric, demonic *masters* that render all others as beneath respect, unworthy and undeserving of making free choices.
Just one more fool trying to persuade others to bow to the evil wild beast of the evil serpent, satan the devil.
As someone else said, he is likely working with podesta to turn everyone into servants of islam and its master.
John Kanty says
Maybe I’m dense or maybe because I personally know Archbishop and how he really feels about the muslim faith but I took that statement to mean that we Catholics and other Christian denominations need to be more open and upfront with OUR faith as the muslims wearing the distinct burquas.
ms. Catholic says
Does he encourage the females in his diocese to wear hats or mantillas to Mass ? Does he support and praise those who do ? I don’t, but we did when I was a kid (before Vat. II changes kicked in). I think it’s St. Paul who talks about women covering their heads.
TheBuffster says
John, the Archbishop may have a better grasp of the nature of Islam than is expressed in his statements in question here, but the problem is that his statement – at least as reported – fails to acknowledge the more significant truth about the meaning of the hijab and the burqa.
Since many women who wear those garments do not have a choice, unless they’re willing to be severely punished or killed for being true to (i.e., having integrity to) their ACTUAL values, it is an inaccurate, misleading, deeply unfortunate error to say that the wearing of the burqa or hijab is an act of integrity. It’s best to steer right away from using Islamic practices of any kind as an example to be emulated, even in the very abstract way the Archbishop *intended*.
Now, if he were prepared to say, publicly and frankly, something to the effect that Catholics should have as much integrity in following the ethical example of Christ’s life and teachings as the jihadists have in following the unethical example of Mohammad’s life and teaching, he would not be betraying part of the truth or lending an air of virtue and validity to Islam and those who follow that deadly doctrine with integrity.
But he’s not likely to feel free to be that frank in public. Thus, he should stay right away from any reference – especially any seemingly positive reference – to Islam if he cannot do so in the full context of its unethical import.
To have integrity to Islam is to have integrity to all the horrible views and commands of Allah and his messenger. The only morally decent Muslim is a Muslim who does *not* have integrity to Islam.
And this is a truth that should never be forgotten or blurred.
Kepha says
As a hard-core Evangelical Protestant, I do not see Muslims as allies in the culture wars. Quite the contrary, they seem more than happy to watch the Gay-stapo wage unlimited lawfare on Evangelical businesses and seem unbothered by Mark Tushnet’s declaration that the victorious Leftist culture warriors should show us conservative Christians no mercy. They know full well that Left is scared silly of a violent mob action, and won’t go after those likely to engage in it. The Muslims seem to know that trhe Kufr are destroying each other and they just have to wait.
Mac Driscol says
Hard to believe Arch. Chaput is so ignorance of Islam. What the heck has havened to him? Do some study, bishop. Please. What you bubble about could be very dangerous to your people.
Matthieu Baudin says
“… Archbishop Chaput says: “The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture: ‘I’m not sexually available;’ and ‘I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.’…”
These are the thoughts of an insular and ignorant servant of the church.
Does the Archbishop have any appreciation of the suffering of multitudes of women born into Muslim families and trapped by the cultural yoke of Traditional Islam? Individuals who are forced and coerced into wearing this formless garb and being effectively cut off from public life?
Why is it that the Archbishop, alongside so many other ‘opinion leaders’, so readily side with the authoritarianism of traditional Muslim leaders, Islamic institutions and backward cultural practices, such as closeted clothing for Muslim women contrasted against the relative freedom of dress and movement for Muslim men?
Cecilia Ellis says
Archbishop Charles Chaput said: “‘The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture: ‘I’m not sexually available;’ and ‘I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.'”
Two questions for this supercilious prelate:
1. Do not the habits worn by Christian nuns — as in the four who were killed by Muslims in Yemen or the three in Bangladesh whom Muslims attempted to rape, to name but a few — indicate that they “belonged to a community different and separate from” the Muslim thugs?
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/lauretta-brown/surviving-nun-gives-chilling-eyewitness-account-isis-murder-4-catholic
https://pamelageller.com/2014/08/muslims-raping-nuns.html/
2. Were you, Archbishop Chaput, so enamored by the integrity of these saintly women that you bestowed upon them the same distinctive praise that you showered upon those imprisoned behind the Islamic veil? Or were you then silent?
What a disgraceful charlatan! His words appear to project his own appeasing and politically correct babble, not a syllable of which will save the life or the integrity of one non-Muslim woman. I wonder if Archbishop Chaput’s mother had less integrity than those who wear the hijab or the burqa?
Meanwhile, Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, remains perilously on death row for “blasphemy”. Has Archbishop Chaput so honored her integrity with such platitudes?
Absolutely disgusting!
American! says
This man should get his head out of the sand and pull the veil off of his eyes. Islam is truly the antithesis of the message of Christianity. Islam promotes subjugation. Christianity promotes freedom and light.
Quit with the political correctness Archbishop!
melancholy observer says
Very sad. I remember as a kid in Australia in the fifties and early sixties the Church militant was very strong against the Protestants. The Church militant produced numerous pamphlets against Protestant errors. It warned the young people in Catholic schools against careless fraternizing with Protestants. It stood out strongly against declining birthrates. Yet now it has sold out to a philosophy of appeasement and acceptance, not so much of Protestants, but of a rampaging, resurgent and combative Islam. This is bizarre. Shouldn’t the Catholic Church be providing the spiritual and theological combat against the Muslims that it provided fifty years ago against the Protestants?
Carolyne says
Yes. a man who wears a dress and a funny hat would not look askance at a woman in a nijab.
Carolyne says
It wasn’t too long ago that women were required to cover their heads when entering a Catholic Church so I can see why this Archbishop might feel this way. In fact, when a woman is given an audience by the Pope even today, she must cover her head with a veil, wear long sleeves and a long dress all in black. Not much has changed in the couturier department.
Salomon says
First the Catholic Church has nothing to do with Christianity,even it’s not the first Christian religion,catholics are liars, their priests don’t marry and commit children molestation,pornography, defend homosexuality and same sex marriage…and you know that the Holocaust of Jews was conducted by the Catholics…. what’s more,i don’t surprise if they do cooperate with fanatic muslims and visited mosques , in fact Hitler was inspired by Islamic ideology… History tells us a lot….
Jack Diamond says
Boy, were you named after the wrong guy.
gravenimage says
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia: “I admire the integrity” of Muslim women who wear hijab and burqa
……………………….
What “integrity” is that?
The message these garments send to Muslim men is this: “Don’t rape me; rape that uncovered slut over there”. *Ugh*.
Gen Jones says
A major difference in the way women are treated in Catholicism compared to Islam is that the Catholic Church sees marriage as a sacrament, a holy bond for the lifetime of the couple. In Islam it’s a contract. A man arranges to own a woman from her male relatives. It can be broken by the man saying the Arabic equivalent if I divorce you three times. He can be remarried as many times as he likes. There’s nothing special, sacred or unique about Islamic womanhood. They are an easily replaced commodity. This guy is a shallow thinking fool.
gravenimage says
Yes–the Muslim marriage contract is not between the couple at all, but is permission from the current ‘owner’–usually the girl’s father–for the prospective husband to have legal access to the use of her vagina. *Ugh*.
Gen Jones says
Ugh indeed! Graven I love the way your comments are so savvy and direct.
It’s at the simplest times I ponder the differences between our imperfect but glorious culture and Islam – listening to I Want to Hold Your Hand, watching Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers dance, or Cary Grant and Roz Russell banter. Anything beautiful, poignant, or sweet that can happen between men and women getting to know each other and fall in love is haram in Islam. Such a sad, ugly culture to grow up in.