How To Fight The Excesses of Trumpism

Two things about Trump's Muslim video tweets:

Regardless, of what you think about their value, or Britain First, it's obvious that the man is just not going to stop. Y'all wasting your time. Why? Because he knows his supporters like it, and also are sick of politically correct garbage, when you are not allowed to open your mouth without being called an Islamophobes and have your legitimate concerns dismissed.

And populists take easy advantage of such grievances, and of course, take their new found freedom from PC all the way the other end. Don't like it? Start giving platforms to serious thinkers who can discuss Islamism without hysterics, and stop empowering the likes of Linda Sarsour. The more you attack Trump and ask him to stop, the more he will continue in the same vein just to piss people off, and the more his hardcore supporters will applaud him.

Second, the non-profits who are choosing to engage in Twitter wars with the President are not saving the country from White Supremacists. They are begging for money from their donors.

Start supporting people who are willing to discuss reasonable solutions, and you won't have room for demagogues, who have nothing to offer but bloviations that cater to emotions and fears.

But you won't see that happening, because non-profits need money and they can only get money if they fighting some grievance.

It's not Islamophobia When....

It's not Islamophobia to say, particularly after today's disgusting attack on Sufi mosque at prayertime in Egypt,which killed 250,  that the prime target of Islamists, such as ISIS, are other Muslims. It's not Islamophobia to say that even non-violent Islamists seek to create an illiberal environment where anyone who differs from them even an iota cannot worship freely. And it's not Islamophobia to say that apologists and liars, like CAIR and Linda Sarsour, who seek to create the ultimate end of this revolutionary political ideology need to be exposed and shunned, not embraced, coddled, and given ever-growing platforms in the Western world.

Talking About Islamophobia

So I've had this conversation with various people about ten thousand times for the last few years, as to what extent American/Western Muslims should be expected to speak out after each Islamist terrorist attack. Needless to say, most reasonable people don't expect every person to go out in public with condemnations, for obvious reasons. However, this is something that hasn't been said: to the extent that Muslim ORGANIZATIONS or individuals who take it upon themselves to claim to speak for any particular segment of the American Muslim population (or even for all of them), which is... odd, but whatever, choose to make statements on this issue on their own, what really comes off as fake sorrow if they equivocate about condemning the terrorism, by referencing either Israel, US public policy, events in other countries, or in some other way minimize the nature of this occurrence. And a big red flag for me is whenever ANYONE talks about Islamophobia or backlash immediately following the condemnation of the attack. 

The immediate question here is: "What is your real agenda, and who are you actually worried about?". I've seen this all the time. Even if you have any sort of evidence that leads you to believe that there MAY be this sort of backlash, hold that thought until, you know, the day after. Most of the time, however, there is zero evidence pointing towards mass anti-Muslim rampages in this country following such events. It just doesn't happen. So such comments make it clear that the speaker simply tries to divert from the issues by making Americans seem as bad as the terrorist. By the way, non-Muslims who do that, come across exactly the same way. And I see such people as facilitators of extremely dangerous trends. And also, I have yet to see any of these human rights defenders express any strong sentiments concerns after terrorist attacks happen in Muslim countries, and target minority mosques or other central locations. There is no concern about "backlash". Does that mean that only Americans are so hateful and biased that they could be suspected of hating on people they associate with the terrorist? This is sthe sort of thing that deserves the most vocal condemnation, but instead our media, poltiicians, and non-profits encourage this type of utterly hypocritical and unhelpful discourse.

Western Feminists Should Learn from Moroccan Ministry of Education

Congratulations to Morocco for banning the degrading niqab from classrooms.

People can express themselves however they wish on the streets and in the privacy of their homes, so long as it doesn't cause security problems, but the only signal of having women have their faces closed off in an educational environment is disparagement on the basis of simply being a woman. This is not about modesty, good behavior, or propriety. It's treatment of a woman as nothing but a sex object, whose very face is provocative and unworthy of being seen. It's dehumanizing and simply bad for society.

I am glad that the Moroccan government is looking to promote a focus on education, not on external matters, that were brought into the country by religious extremists from abroad. Kudos! And I hope this thoughtful step will signal to the "feminists" and "human rights activists" in the West that it's ok to make education about education, and that men and women should be treated equally as human beings. Protecting inherent humanity of both men and women is not Islamphobic.