'Rape Culture' vs. 'Islamophobia'

[Valin]

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A clash of conversation-stoppers.

JAMES TARANTO

7/8/13

 

 

The weathermen at Twitchy.com report that novelist Joyce Carol Oates set off a twit-storm Friday with a pair of tweets about sexual violence in Egypt: The first coyly referred to recently deposed president Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood: "Something dispiriting about 'Brotherhood' political parties--wonder what it is." The second was explicit: "Where 99.3% of women report having been sexually harassed & rape is epidemic--Egypt--natural to inquire: what's the predominant religion?"

 

"Don't miss @JoyceCarolOates coming out publicly as a serious bigot," tweeted Umair Haque, an economist who writes for the Harvard Business Review. "Check out her tweets today, they're awesomely gross!" Salon.com's Prachi Gupta described Oates's tweets as "Islamophobic." Lauren Rankin--whose Twitter bio describes her as "feminist. writer. activist. graduate student. reproductive justice. sour jelly bean enthusiast"--insisted: "this is islamophobia embodied. islam doesn't encourage rape or sexual assault. you know what does? *PATRIARCHY."

 

(Snip)

 

Oates defended her line of inquiry: " 'Rape culture'; has no relationship to any 'religious culture'--how can this be? Religion has no effect on behavior at all? How possible?" To which Anita Felicelli responded with a tu quoque: "Do you also think that mass gun violence in schools bears a relationship to Christianity?" That turned out to be an illi quoque, for Oates answered: "Yes. There is a ** Christian Crusade culture. All religions are 'militant.' Secular law needed to restrain them."

 

(Snip)

 

 

* One wonders if the lovely Ms. Rankin understand that the Arab culture/Islam is patriarchal? Somehow I doubt it.

 

** The Crusades ended around 1300.

 

 

"All religions are 'militant.'"

On a related note people might be interested in Hidden Unities: Ralph PetersPDF