My latest at PJ Media:
In American colleges and universities today, marginalization is privilege and victimhood is power, so it should come as no surprise that a study conducted by – of course! – two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley has discovered that women are being oppressed not by the systemic and institutionalized misogyny of Islamic law (Sharia)—which devalues women’s testimonies and inheritance rights and sanctions the beating of women—but by “Islamophobia.”
According to the San Francisco Examiner, which reported this ludicrous nonsense with a straight face, Elsadig Elsheikh and Basima Sisemore of UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute (which must be a barrel of laughs to work in) conducted a national survey of “people living with Islamophobia, documenting their collective experiences and registering their voices.”
This makes it sound as if “Islamophobia” is some sort of disease; it’s actually a propaganda neologism that conflates two separate and distinct phenomena: vigilante attacks of innocent Muslims, which are never justified, and honest analysis of the motivating ideology behind jihad terrorism, which is always necessary. Those who use the term refer to both of those things under the rubric of “Islamophobia,” which has the effect of intimidating people into thinking that it is somehow wrong to speak about the root causes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women.
The study is an exercise in exactly that kind of intimidation. Elsheikh and Sisemore discovered that “most Muslims in America believe women are more at risk of experiencing Islamophobia than any other group. That stands to reason as Muslim women, particularly those who wear the hijab (a headscarf covering hair and neck) or niqab (covering head and face but not the eyes), are seen more obviously as practitioners of the Islamic faith.”
They claim that Trump singled out Omar for the most abuse because he is an “Islamophobe” and she wears a hijab. The hijab, we’re told, triggers “Islamophobia”: “One of the drivers of Islamophobia, according to both El Sheikh and Sisemore, is the media’s portrayal of Muslim women as downtrodden and needing to be saved by Western culture and ideals.” This is, says Sisemore, “liberal and imperialist feminism,” which is “an extension of Western imperialist ideology” and “helped politicians garner public support to justify the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
So you see, to criticize such coverings is “Islamophobia,” and you must not do it, despite the fact that women have been threatened, imprisoned, and even killed for refusing to wear them. Aqsa Parvez’s Muslim father choked her to death with her hijab after she refused to wear it. Amina Muse Ali was a Christian woman in Somalia whom Muslims murdered because she wasn’t wearing a hijab. Forty women were murdered in Iraq in 2007 for not wearing the hijab. Alya Al-Safar’s Muslim cousin threatened to kill her and harm her family because she stopped wearing the hijab in Britain. Amira Osman Hamid faced whipping in Sudan for refusing to wear the hijab.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Myron J. Poltroonian says
I’ve been saying since 09/01/2001: “If you want to know what life would be like living in a Caliphate and/or under Sharia Law, ask an Armenian”. To which it looks like I should append: “, or go to Berkeley”.
mortimer says
Agree with Poltroonian. Same for Assyrian Christians. Because so many Christian martyrs have been named in the Assyrian church, one pope with good reason called the Chaldean Christians ‘The Martyr Church’. The holocaust against the Armenians resulted in the deaths of up to 2 million Armenians, but ehre were also included 750,000 Assyrian victims. The Assyrian church has the longest history of persecutions by Islam, the Armenians are number two in their tragic history of contact with Islam. The Assyrians have always lived ‘behind enemy lines’. All Near Eastern Christians should be the ones explaining to Western Christians why Islam is a cult of death. However, in my experience, Near Eastern Christians are inarticulate about Islam and are able only to discuss anecdotes, rather than clearly describe the Death Cult ideology and wrong theology of Islam. Robert Spencer is a notable exception to this rule. More Oriental Christians should be emulating Robert Spencer.
bill says
That is how they get their PhD and become professors. Now we know why the professors are so corrupt and incompetent to teach
Mike says
let’s face it It’s all woman that this applies to
gravenimage says
Islam has treated women like crap from the beginning.
Westman says
There have been proposals within California to break it into as many as 6 states. It sounds like an excellent idea now that conservatives are moving out of the state and wokeness is king.
Social parasite institutions like UC Berkeley, once known exclusively for science and engineering, would not have the resources for social engineering and the UC system would end.
It seems everything inventive comes from CA and also the support of every movement that degrades humans.
The shift of innovation is moving toward Texas, realist states, and other nations. We have been, for decades, witnessing the offshoring of CA’s products, which move revenue, jobs, and profits offshore and away from the taxation necessary to fund the State’s excessive social needs. Silicon Valley, the source of the boom is now the source of the bust and about to lose its ride on Chinese backs.
The real economic backbone of California is agriculture. One wonders what the broke woke will do to it when wokeness runs out of other people’s money.
Leave it to UC Berkeley to rave on, equating “Islamophobia” to Islam’s inferior treatment of women, when Berkeley’s ship is slowly headed to the reef.
gravenimage says
There is still a lot of important research done at UC Berkeley–but this ludicrous piece of propaganda is not part of it.
mortimer says
Elsadig Elsheikh and Basima Sisemore of UC Berkeley’s ‘Othering and Belonging Institute’ are leading a COUNTERREVOLUTION against the universal principles of The Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment granted all humanity a right to question authority and question authoritarian, dogmatic ideas whether religious or secular.
Elsadig Elsheikh and Basima Sisemore want to turn back the clock so that ARBITRARY AUTHORITY and RELIGIOUS DOGMAS go unchallenged by reason, and so that unfortunate people remain ENSLAVED by them in closed, authoritarian societies. They are arguing on behalf of enslaving women and against liberating them from male dominance.
Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion, and thereby prevent future ages of intolerant religious war, and promoted the concept of separating church and state.
A university’s role is to seek for ‘universal’ principles based on science and reason.
Promoting obscurantist Sharia-authoritarianism is the reverse of what a university should be promoting, namely freedom of thought to challenge Sharia law openly and without fear.
Wellington says
Seconded.
gravenimage says
Good analysis, Mortimer.
somehistory says
These two idiots….and all in that stupid department “othering and belonging”….should be told, “Here’s your sign.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjelRDKHUk
So good for a laugh.
gravenimage says
🙂
mortimer says
CRITICAL THOUGHT is the basic tool and philosophical basis of the university, so any ideology that seeks to suppress CRITICAL THOUGHT has no place at a university.
Islam actively seeks to suppress any idea that challenges Islam and provides evidence that any part of Islam is in error.
Wellington says
Leftism, mortimer, as I know you know, is as much an enemy of critical thought as is Islam—and the stupidity which is Leftism now dominates at colleges and universities all across America.
The descent of the West continues. You bet it does.
mortimer says
Reply to Wellington: ‘Leftism now dominates’.
Yes, Marxism dominates by not engaging in debates that critical thought will cause them to lose every time. Marxism philosophically takes a position that is ABOVE the battlefield. In other words, Marxism judges, but refuses to be challenged or judged by the ‘other’.
Western Leftists believe they do not need to engage in debate with challengers. No, they consider themselves to be INFALLIBLE. It is sufficient for the ‘infallible’ Leftists to cancel, calumniate, slander and silence opponents, rather than address the philosophical arguments of opponents.
Marxism is ‘the god that failed’ and it cannot survive the critique of critical thought.
James Lincoln says
mortimer says,
“Yes, Marxism dominates by not engaging in debates that critical thought will cause them to lose every time. Marxism philosophically takes a position that is ABOVE the battlefield.”
Certainly true.
At least in that respect, Marxism resembles islam. After all, muslim “scholars” now refuse to debate Robert Spencer.
Dhimmi says
But defending the rights of western women is also oppressive according to the same logic?
gravenimage says
Dear Dhimmi, I think you may be missing the point.
Elsadig Elsheikh and Basima Sisemore are saying this:
“UC Berkeley study claims that ‘Islamophobia undermines and weakens women’s rights’”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/10/uc-berkeley-study-claims-that-islamophobia-undermines-and-weakens-womens-rights
The above is not Robert Spencer saying that any defense of Muslim women is “Islamophobia”–it is these two fools at UC Berkeley.
So no–he is neither saying that one cannot defend Muslim women against Islamic oppression–nor that you cannot defend Western women against Islamic oppression.
In fact, Spencer is a staunch defender of the rights of women.
livingengine says
” . . . Othering and Belonging Institute (which must be a barrel of laughs to work in)”
More on this intensely left-wing group is here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuZ0SVeYrV0
abu taleb says
Why is there no study on how non muslim women are treated in Islam countries by those Islam apologists? Even how the muslim women are treated in Islam countries will reveal the evil of Islam.
But of course they are hiding the fact.
somehistory says
Thinking about the stupidity of this…blaming, as psychopaths do
If a guy was hitting himself in the head with a hammer and another guy was watching him, and the guy hitting his head was akin to these fools, he would say to the watcher,
“You’re bringing me down man. You watching me is giving me a massive headache. Look away.”
Rowana Seymour says
I worked with muslim women from Somalia and IT WAS THE WOMEN who were the enforcers..telling we Americans we should dress more like them and cover ourselves up, that by our clothing (conservative office attire) we “tempt” the men (laying blame for sexual assaults ON THE NON MUSLIM WOMEN). They also help with genital mutilation ceremonies. These women are their own worst enemies and I do not feel sorry for them. If we are not vigilant, they will try to transform our entire culture to mimic theirs to make women servile.
gravenimage says
All too often true. It was ex-Muslim and Anti-Jihadist Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s grandmother who had her granddaughters genitally mutilated when her father was away.
Jim says
The argument depends on assuming that women voluntarily wear these costumes, whereas they are enforced on women without consent. And of course, Islamophobia is just a deceptive idea. People fear the bad things that Islamists do. Just as they fear being bitten by poisonous snakes or beaten up by criminal gangs. The danger would not go away if there were no fear and no warning against these dangers.
James Lincoln says
UC Berkeley is now essentially functioning like a giant mosque…
somehistory says
https://www.gopusa.com/biden-released-a-national-gender-strategy-and-it-is-as-ridiculous-as-it-sounds/
“If the Babylon Bee had been asked to write a “National Gender Strategy” to be posted on the White House’s website, it wouldn’t look any different than the document the Biden administration actually released last Friday.
The “fact sheet” contains every buzzword and policy that you would expect to hear from a progressive activist with a degree in gender studies.
– Read reaction at The Washington Examiner”
‘biden and harris’ ” believe that advancing gender equity and equality is fundamental to every individual’s economic security, safety, health, and ability to exercise their most basic rights. It is also essential to economic growth and development, democracy and political stability, and the security of nations across the globe. Ensuring that all people, regardless of gender, have the opportunity to realize their full potential is, therefore, both a moral and strategic imperative.”
They are so full of baloney.
Kepha says
The women of Iran, Afghanistan, and other such latrines do not excite my chivalrous instincts. I recall the hijabbed angry nuns screaming “Marg-bar-Amrika!” back in 1979, and the fat ugly Umm Jihad dancing on the streets of Gaza on 9/11. If they get beaten by their men, or denied educations, well, that’s too d-n bad. I also understand that the other side of the coin is that Egypt is the country with the greatest number of battered husbands. My guess is that growing up in a thoroughly male-dominated culture, they’ve probably protected the art of shrewishness out of harsh necessity. It seems that the women of Islam are perfectly capable of protecting themselves.
As for the American academy, it is rapidly descending into an abyss of its own making. As for Trump beating up on Ilhan Omar, it may be because he is an Islamophobe; it may be because Ilhan Omar is an immigration grifter and a first-class hater herself.