Good morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. More coffee, please.
We’re still processing “Beeper Tuesday” and the extraordinary strike Israel pulled off against the pager carrying Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon. Anytime terrorists are hit hard is a good time in my book and we sure can use the comic relief provided by agent Moti Rolah, though we are using dark humor in dark times.
I’ll take a targeted strike over carpet bombing, though, while the propal crowd raises their arms and cries “foul” just the same as if Beirute was nuked. Nothing shocking there. Of course at a time when opposition grows and the hostages are nowhere near getting home any initiative like this will be perceived as just another attempt at wagging the dog by Netanyahu and there’s truth to it but, as I said, any day terrorists suffer a blow is a good day.
The Lebanese government should actually hope for Israel to blow up all Hezbollah operatives in their country individually if that’s possible. It’s obviously not but that would help them a lot. This sophisticated action and the immediate flood of memes praising agent Moti Rolah’s daring work took over SM but something else happened yesterday that deserves our attention and it was not funny in the least.
I didn’t know who Maya Berry was until yesterday. She’s the Executive Director of the American Arab Institute which has in the past contributed to the recognition of MENA as a category in our census data and other positive contributions against discrimination but recently has expressed views that tarnish its reputation by endorsing positions widely perceived as antisemitic. Her connection to the Democratic Party is known and she has no personal record of extremist views herself.
Maya Berry’s fault is not that she proclaims the end of the Jewish State vocally but rather that she tacitly supported it by endorsing those who do. At least as far as my research can tell. In any case she was testifying before Congress yesterday in a hearing about the rise of hate crimes in the US. Like in other hearings where support for terrorist organizations and the call for violence against the Jewish people are involved it didn’t go well.
At these hearings there’s always a repulsive GOP member who “steals the show” and appeals to what should be common sense notions in the worst possible way, either because they represent the exact opposite of what they pretend to stand for or because they go off the deep end in their interventions. I remember Elise Stefanik during the hearings with University presidents about antisemitism on college campuses and now we got John Kennedy questioning Maya Berry on the rise of hate crimes.
Unlike Stefanik, whose fault was her maladroit questioning and representing the opposite of what she pretended to stand for, Kennedy went straight for the cucamonga approach. These days it makes perfect sense when questioning anyone about hate crimes to ask if they support terrorist organizations or organizations that provide cover for them. Regardless of who you are the answer should be easy: No. Next question. The fact Maya Berry didn’t answer that way says a lot.
She ended up saying she doesn’t support terrorist organizations but only after deflecting with a preamble of victimization intended to put the question against the favorite background used by terror apologists: Islamophobia. Again. Were John Kennedy a smart person he could have made it clear and scored points but being the complete ignorant douchebag he is he decided to brush Maya Berry off with the statement that became the image of that hearing.
No one is talking about what the purpose of the hearing was or what relevant information came from it. All that hearing did was to reinforce the notion Islamophobia is very much a thing and reinforce it’s use as an effective cover for those who wish to promote hate. Because instead of pointing out Berry’s unwillingness to firmly condemn terrorism Kennedy told her she should be wearing a trash bag over her head, in a hateful reference to ANY Muslim women head cover.
Maya Berry got a free pass and Islamophobia a big boost. That’s what happens when you have hate mongers assigned to determine the cause of hate crimes: more hate. This is why the advocates of radical Islam turn the perfectly acceptable religious practice of dressing with modesty into a problem where there’s none. We are all familiar with the comparisons between Catholic nuns and Muslim women, as if all Catholic women were bound for convents or supposed to walk around dressed as nuns.
The problem with women in Muslim society and the way they are treated has nothing to do with their religious apparel and everything to do with those societies inability to accept secularism and choice. There’s nothing wrong with choosing to dress in any particular way but everything wrong when you are expected to dress in a particular way and face penalties for not doing it. This is a symptom of how retrograde Islam is when compared to other religions.
Setting aside the type of dress most if not all other religions impose strict dress codes for those who choose a full immersion in that religion. For Catholics that’s a strict dress code for women who choose to become nuns, the other women of faith being expected some modesty when attending religious ceremonies, which in some cases involves covering their hair in church, and there are no penalties for women who choose not to dress accordingly, whether they are religious or secular.
Islam has a different concept. Not radical Islam, all Islam. In Muslim societies women are expected to dress with modesty to various degrees. In radical Islam they are forced to do so in more extreme ways: case in point Afghanistan. And this brings us to all the different types of Muslim head covers for women and the way they are used. We should be concerned about the mandatory nature of that custom in Muslim countries, since for the most part they are imposed and heavily penalized.
That’s obviously their problem, however, and all we can do is try to make them respect women and their choices. When it comes to the integration of Muslims in Western societies it does become a problem if these customs, regardless of their acceptance by women, involve going against our standards. We should have nothing against modesty in women’s clothing but we are repelled immediately by everyday face concealment as a norm. And this is where ignorance plays its part.
We have limits for tolerance when it comes to dress codes that cover both ends of the spectrum: your supposed to show your face in public and you’re not supposed to show your genitalia in public. Pretty reasonable assumptions. So the problem becomes the use of the extreme types of head covers: the niqab and the burqa. Other than that, any other type of modesty in dressing is just fine. Who cares how many layers of clothes anyone wears? I have no beef with magical underwear either.
But when you start telling Muslim women in our midst they should wear “trash bags” over their heads you lose all perspective and reason. If you want them to respect our ways in acceptable terms you must respect theirs in equally acceptable terms. I feel no discomfort seeing a masked woman because she’s a Muslim but because she’s not showing her face as a norm.
I have no problem with a kid knocking on my door covered with a blanket on Halloween either but I do if he walks around like that every other day and all the other kids are expected to do the same. We shouldn’t trivialize this matter to the point it’s okay to accept it due to the tolerance of religious beliefs but we can’t go on a rampage because Muslim women wish to cover their hair unless they are forced to. Anything else is just bigotry.
We have enough problems fighting radical Islamic views in our society, we don’t need to create false ones and certainly don’t benefit from reinforcing the idea we are as radical as them in dealing with Muslims who are not extreme and fit in just fine. Every time a “John Kennedy” pulls up a stunt like the infamous “trash bag” comment hate grows. Not reasonable opposition to other people’s beliefs infringing on our secular values, just ignorant xeno bashing.
These phobias spread like wildfire and make reasonable expectations turn to bigotry in a heartbeat. Don’t fall for it. All they do is to allow people like Maya Berry to hide their motives and keep pretending Islamophobia is THE thing to fear while allowing it to provide a warm blanket for the terror lurking within. The real problem is hiding in plain sight: xenophobia. The only solution is educating ourselves to cut through the BS and address it reasonably.
Have a good hump day.
