Comments on: Journalist Mona Eltahaway Labels Me A ‘Misogynist Prick’

By: Alienating good people | Musings from the center

Alienating good people | Musings from the center — Wed, 11 May 2016 17:35:17 +0000

[…] -Stephen Knight on his Godless Spellchecker blog […]

By: MrQuack

MrQuack — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 20:41:04 +0000

But if convert to Islam tomorrow my race instantly changes from Caucasian/white male/whatever to Muslim, didn’t you know?

I’m still trying to work out what my race will turn into once I convert to Scientology though…

By: George

George — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 10:10:13 +0000

It’s worth mentioning that Mona Eltahawy has been called a ‘native informant’ and all the other nasty things hurled at secular, liberal Muslims by other Muslims (and even Regressives.) I’m not sure how she’ll fair in this fight by alienating her “Western” allies – but we should have some sympathy with the enormous burden that people from Islamic cultures face when criticising their native customs and beliefs. The Regressive Left & Islamist Right have perfected the art of policing what can be said about Islam and who can say it. To maintain so called ‘legitimacy’ in this debate is to walk a tight rope, and that’s exactly how they like it. If Mona Eltahawy has to be rude about white male atheists in the west to have more authenticity when criticising the disgusting practices of forced veiling, forced marriage and FGM, well so be it. In the words of Christopher Hitchens “It takes a lot to make me cry.” It’s a shame, and possibly misguided, but I wish her all the best in defeating this Islamic savagery.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 02:05:46 +0000

Yes, women must lead the vanguard on women’s issues. Excluding any manner of ally on any exclusive, elitist excuse is puerile, irrational and self destructive. No matter, No matter how she dresses it up or whichever labels she chooses to shield herself from critique she cannot overcome by any standard, she believes in magic. Yet, she entitles herself to lecture ANYBODY on the nature of reality? How ridiculously absurd this defending the patently impossible, not to mention unprovable.

By: Charmian Neary (@CharmianNeary)

Charmian Neary (@CharmianNeary) — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 23:59:38 +0000

Mona & Mango & Maryam are all kind of the same person personality wise. I’d include Aki in that list as well but she’s not Muslim & she genuinely funny (although not often enough these days). None of them can get along with anyone. They can all get on a train to nowhere & probably wouldn’t be missed,
again except Aki.

By: newhaus1994

newhaus1994 — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 17:48:12 +0000

Hey Stephen,
I agree–almost entirely–with you in this issue, but I also think that Mona, no matter how poorly she argued it and no matter how wrong she was in being exclusionary from the issue, does make one singular point that’s important to remember: women do need to lead the charge in feminism, because men cannot fully understand the experience of being female in a world with systemic sexism. It is understandable (but not justifiable) that some feminists would take the line of “shut up, non-women, and let women lead” because, at least from a view of many feminists and women I’ve talked to, there’s a long history of men silencing women, just like Black Lives Matter disrupts speeches because systemic racism has often taken away the voice of Black people. In other words, feminism must be led by women because it is the manifestation of women taking back their collective voice and making themselves known as equals.

I partially disagree with you when you say that “shouldn’t we judge an argument on its strength and not its genitals” because the world we live in does not play by those rules. As a result, although considering an argument in a vacuum is by far the most important thing you can do, you nonetheless cannot detach it from the gender/race/religion/background of its speaker. Experience as a person of a marginalized community gives an inherent advantage in speaking about gender/race relations because a person from a dominant group cannot experience first-hand the forces leading to marginalization. Of course, if your argument is terrible, it doesn’t matter if you are from a marginalized community or not. But my point is that you cannot take arguments in a vacuum.

Of course, I wildly disagree with Mona on everything else. Men must be allies of this movement and must help it along, even if they shouldn’t take the leading role. Feminism won’t achieve anything without men “on the inside”, so to speak, of systemic sexism helping to right the imbalance.

Throwing ex-Muslims under the bus, on the other hand, was simply an absurd thing for her to do.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 16:26:42 +0000

So bored of identity politics. Why don’t people realise that you don’t just get authority over an entire issue? Your solutions have to actually work for society at large, or they’re not going to be used.

By: Tom Rayment

Tom Rayment — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 12:03:50 +0000

And I suppose Abraham Lincoln should never have stuck his nose into the whole slavery thing?

By: Peter Stanley

Peter Stanley — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 09:46:04 +0000

Perhaps we should just accept that she is right & everyone else is wrong. I think that is the gist of her message?

By: YOHAMI

YOHAMI — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 07:10:05 +0000

You found the (ex) muslim Randy Harper.