In this diary you will find:
1. The Trouble When Republicans Are Right for the Wrong Reasons
2. Sexual Equality: Some Liberals Are For It Just to Zing Conservatives
3. Right for the Wrong Reason: Islamist Extremism
4. The Veil
5. Right for the Right Reasons
6. A Personal Note on Religion, Me, and You
7. Exemptions on the Ban, and a Pep Talk
8. The Most Important Epilogue
...and an opinion poll.
The Trouble When Republicans Are Right for the Wrong Reasons
Conservatives are wrong about almost everything. Sometimes, however, they're right about an issue, but for the wrong reasons. Either way, conservatives suck up all the political oxygen out of any issue they open their mouths to talk about.
That's not a problem when they are flat-out wrong, as we can stake out our own position without difficulty. However, when the conservatives are right on an issue but wrong on the underlying reasons, the only way we can also be right is to stake out the same position as they have and then have a debate about why.
A lot of people don't have the stomach for this kind of conflict. I understand why. It “feels” wrong, like oily compromise. It deprives us of the opportunity to make our more colorful, “night versus day” arguments. It leaves the impression that we're enabling and legitimizing the same gross Republicans who broadly deserve to be locked up rather than holding public office, dominating the media, or running our biggest companies. Any of the reactionaries among us, who are automatically against anything right-wingers are for, would go into conniptions if we chided them to stake out an ideological position that begins by agreeing with conservatives.
This is one of our biggest blind spots as a political movement. When the Republicans happen to be right about an issue, but for the wrong reasons, we have to seize the ideological ground from beneath them and make it our own—not run away and stake out a different position that is inevitably unjust.
Sexual Equality: Some Liberals Are For It Just to Zing Conservatives
Most liberals claim to be for sexual equality. Sexism is one of the core strategic ideologies of the GOP, and how irresistible for us to wage holy war against our favorite enemies by proclaiming ourselves feminist champions!
If only that passion were sincere. I've learned over the years that a lot of folks care more about carrying on their precious, endless war with the GOP than they do about earning meaningful social gains for a better, more just world. Usually this insincerity is impossible to spot, because the Republicans are totally wrong on the issues, leaving us to be effortlessly right. They're against abortion, birth control, and family planning? Well, we're for 'em! They're against sexual integration in our government institutions and the private sector? Well, we're for it! They're against equal pay, equal treatment, equal representation, and equal power? Well, we're for it all!
Modern conservatism in the United States is conspicuous for just how much pride it takes in its utopian ideal of a world where females are once again the property of males. Rarely is a Western political movement so gleeful about being so evil.
Right for the Wrong Reason: Islamist Extremism
But here's a curiosity: Conservative extremists are likely to be Christian fundamentalists, and conservative leaders have harnessed right-wing energy by building up America's next great war. It used to be that our official mortal enemy was Soviet Russia. Now, it's Islamic terrorism. These right-wing loonies want to have another Great Crusade. That's the kind of special crazy that can never be outsourced overseas. There'll always be work for bigots.
This is a big problem, because Islamic terrorism actually is a threat. No, we're not looking at Shariah law in Oklahoma anytime soon, but we can relate all too well to the plight of millions of people living under Islam's own brand of right-wing religious fundamentalism. And, ultimately, Islamic radicalism does pose a threat to Western liberal values, and our way of life. Terrorism itself is not a threat to us, but the economic and cultural rise of fundamentalist nations and of fundamentalist populations within Western nations places a lot of stress on our liberal ideals.
Nobody disputes this when the religion in question is Christianity. But when the religion is Islam, suddenly it becomes next to impossible to have a reasonable discussion. That's because of our own incompetence and unwillingness to agree with conservatives when they're right for the wrong reasons.
Conservatives hate Islam because they're Christian bigots. They are enthralled by a primitive tribal xenophobia that would look more at home in the twelfth century. They don't actually care about radical Islam per se; Islam just so happens to have a strong radical constituency at this point in time. That makes it the ideal Evil Empire. The framing is somewhat self-fulfilling. We created a lot of new Islamic radicals in the past decade by going on adventures in foreign lands without any strategic commitment to the wellbeing of the people we were invading. (We also share a lot of responsibility for creating modern Islamic fundamentalism in the first place, back in the 20th century when Islamic fundamentalism was strategically preferable to Arab nationalism.)
Liberals should be against religious fundamentalism, in every religion. But conservatives are sucking up all the oxygen with their bigotry against Islam. As a result, our progressive movement is sluggish, inconsistent, and weak in its opposition to the same religious abuses in Islam that we would oppose so fervently in Christianity. We've also seen some truly disgusting apologists on our side who would rather sacrifice the female half the population to religious fanatics than agree with a Republican that those fanatics are a despicable enemy.
The Veil
Conservatives in America are outrageously sexist. Consequently, our opposition to their sexism is nearly constant. Only occasionally can we see the insincerity of many liberals who call themselves feminist. We see it in “liberals” who oppose elective abortions in the second and third trimesters. We see it in “liberals” who insult Sarah Palin because she's a female. We see it in “liberals” who resent female firefighters and submariners.
And we see it in “liberals” who try to justify the veil, Islam's prescription for the immodesty of a female who would dare show her head in public.
Here's a question that will be very difficult for some of you. Do you support or oppose France's new law banning the veil in public? It just went into effect. From the BBC article:
Anyone caught breaking the law will be liable to a fine of 150 euros (£133; $217) and a citizenship course.
People forcing women to wear the veil face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.
[...]
The French government says the face-covering veil undermines the basic standards required for living in a shared society and also relegates its wearers to an inferior status incompatible with French notions of equality.
Pretty bold, huh? That's exactly the position we are obliged to take if we're serious about promoting sexual equality.
The act itself is outlawed with a modest fine and a course in citizenship. Forcing people to commit the act is a serious criminal offense punishable by imprisonment. And the reason for outlawing the veil is that forcing females to conceal their faces erases their human identity and renders them as sex objects, an abuse of ethics which has no place in modern society.
Anything else is spin and apologetics. Anything else is making excuses for why we should enslave females. It is that simple. Those of you who want to flap your gums about why that's wrong can do so in the comments. There are some really pert arguments to be made about religious freedom and freedom of speech and all that good stuff! It's easy to veil bigotry in the garb of justice—if not quite as easy as it is to veil human beings in the garb of religious tyranny.
This essay is not addressed to those people. It is addressed to the rest of you who might actually be tempted to buy their bunk, or who have never given the matter much thought.
The freedom of religion is a sham. Any time a religion has to invoke its autonomy from the law in order to defend its practices, you know we're in trouble.
Even the freedom of speech, possibly our most cherished liberty, is less important than the universal human right to have an identity. No face, no identity. The veil is specifically intended to obscure female humans from public view. Officially, this is to protect weak males from the allure of female sexual power, but truthfully it is meant to subjugate the entire female half of the population and prevent it from gaining power over the male half, thereby protecting society—the institutions and cultures those males have developed and now control—from radical change away from radical injustice.
The veil is a crime against humanity. It should be banned. It doesn't matter that some people don't agree. It doesn't matter that many conservatives do agree. It doesn't matter that religious freedom of expression will be marginally constrained. It doesn't even matter that some people choose to wear the veil freely, and would be deeply offended by being forced to remove it. The veil, even among willing participants, promotes a “veil culture,” and with it comes the whole nine yards of why and how we should set apart females from males. That's sexism, and actively promotes the dehumanization of half our species. No individual freedom is superior to that megalithic sellout of human rights.
The veil should be banned here in the United States, too, and everywhere else. If you don't agree, and aren't sure why, you have some soul-searching to do. I encourage you to do it.
Right for the Right Reasons
When conservatives are right for the wrong reasons, we have to be right for the right reasons. We can't go off to some other realm of ideological space and start making asses out of ourselves. We have to take the ground out from under the conservatives and promote justice.
So...
The veil has got to go. Now the challenge becomes securing a ban here in the United States, enforcing the ban as an act of humanism, and opposing any tendency on the part of conservative Christian radicals to usurp it as a weapon against Muslims or Islam itself.
Realistically, I don't expect that to happen. There are many issues higher up on people's lists of progressive priorities, and there aren't many people in America who live under the yoke of a veil. The suffering is not yet obvious enough to make people uncomfortable. Ever the pragmatists that political activists are, there are bigger fires to fight, bigger fish to fry. However, you should add the ban somewhere on your list of ideological goals. And you should support and encourage your fellow liberals who are working toward this.
A Personal Note on Religion, Me, and You
The West is primarily from a Christian heritage. That's unmistakably obvious to people like me who were raised with something different. I've always looked on as something of an outsider to the obliviousness with which Christian zeal has delegitimized the right wing and undermined the left wing. Christian fundamentalism is a bigger threat to us than Islamic fundamentalism. Religious thinking dominates our laws and our social psyche. Clearly, we're not going to be free of its harmful grip anytime soon.
I'm a secularist who was never Christian. It's easy for me to write an essay like this. There are no sacred cows. I don't like any religion.
Those of you who do come from a religious background, or are presently religious, have a much harder row to hoe. You have to undertake a voyage of self-discovery, grappling with your protective fondness for religious freedom in the face of a religious freedom that is being used to hurt millions of people. And, worse, you have to do so in an atmosphere of superficially agreeing with Republicans who arrive at their positions out of bigotry.
The veil is a special case of low-hanging fruit, clearly wrong and clearly indefensible the moment you put to bed any notion that “religion” is right in a way that secular law can never be. This means the veil is an easy place to begin grappling with the issues of religious evil. Banning the veil in public is no challenge to the continued existence of Islam. Religions have a way of enduring no matter what.
Nor is it unheard of to put restraints on religious freedom. We also ban religious murder, even though it is justified in holy scripture and many people believe in it. We ban female genital mutilation, too. Thankfully, at least religious murder and genital mutilation are not active areas of debate. But the veil is. You can help to change that by understanding for yourself and explaining to others that to deprive a person of their identity, on the basis of their sex, may not be as bad as murder, but it's not much better either.
Once liberals become comfortable criticizing and opposing the abuses of Islam—and of all the other religions, from Hinduism to Buddhism—then we can edge that much closer to a peaceful assimilation of Islamic culture into Western society.
Exemptions on the Ban, and a Pep Talk
It's important to remember that the evil of the veil is not the veil itself, but the intention of it. We veil ourselves all the time, in various ways, for many reasons, with no harm done to our human identity. The French ban reflects that with specific exemptions. From the BBC article:
The ban on face coverings - which does not explicitly mention Islamic veils, but exempts various other forms - has angered some Muslims and libertarians.
These exemptions include:
Motorcycle helmets
Face-masks for health reasons
Face-covering for sporting or professional activities
Sunglasses, hats etc which do not completely hide the face
Masks used in "traditional activities", such as carnivals or religious processions
It all seems very appropriate. Let's hope the French people make sure it stays that way and doesn't morph into another cudgel of religious tribal conflict. And let's take an opportunity to remember our own power to subvert bigotry. Like any law restricting freedom in some way, the potential for abuse is high. However, that doesn't mean failure is inevitable. When we can finally pass a law like this, or if Christian conservatives in this country beat us to creating a ban, we have considerable power to interpret that law humanistically, and to encourage our peers and officeholders to do the same. Even the most bigoted laws, in their inception, can find a humanistic redemption in the long run. Once such law is the United States Constitution, which lives on today as the great engine of freedom in our country despite its origins as a facility for rich white male Christians.
The Most Important Epilogue
The most important part deserves the final word.
Please remember that religious indoctrination is often a lifelong process, beginning in childhood when the individual has no way to defend themselves. It rises to the level of brainwashing, and can break the human will in those who resist it without the power to escape it. It frequently shuts down outside education and the teaching of critical thinking skills. It renders people's minds as putty.
Many of those people who do choose to wear the veil, and are proud of it, are victims who do not even realize their own victimization. Never assume that a choice made freely is one made independently. Always please lend your greatest concern to those people so deeply beaten that they have learned to love their chains.