Is no one safe?

Ken Hechtman writes:

You’d think if there was one organization in the world—just one—that didn’t have to put up with feminist demands for gender-parity, they’d be it.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP)—Muslim extremist women are challenging al Qaeda’s refusal to include—or at least acknowledge—women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

In response to a female questioner, al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman’s role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al Qaeda fighters.

His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al Qaeda.

A’eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahiri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.

Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for “Companion of Weapons.”

“How many times have I wished I were a man … When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri said there are no women in al Qaeda, he saddened and hurt me,” wrote “Companion of Weapons,” who said she listened to the speech 10 times. “I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest…I am powerless.”

Such postings have appeared anonymously on discussion forums of Web sites that host videos from top al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While the most popular site requires names and passwords, many people use only nicknames, making their identities and locations impossible to verify.

However, groups that monitor such sites say the postings appear credible because of the knowledge and passion they betray. Many appear to represent computer-literate women arguing in the most modern of venues—the Internet—for rights within a feudal version of Islam.

“Women were very disappointed because what al-Zawahiri said is not what’s happening today in the Middle East, especially in Iraq or in Palestinian groups,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites. “Suicide operations are being carried out by women, who play an important role in jihad.” [cont.]

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Adela G. writes:

Hah. I think this issue of gender-parity now afflicting even so fearsome a group as Al Qaeda relates to the question you posed recently: “Could someone explain to us how it is that the Greeks and the Serbs, who lived under the Ottoman empire for centuries, avoided conversion to Islam?”

Both Greeks and Serbs are Orthodox. The Orthodox Church maintains that men and women are separate but equal and that all humans are equal before God. During services, the Orthodox congregation is separated by sex, with men, as heads of their families, on the right side of the aisle and women on the left.

Laypersons are not permitted in the altar area, with the exception of male babies, who are brought there for baptism, (the logic being male infants could one day grow up to priests, thus having permitted access to the altar); girl babies are baptized in front of the altar.

Or, as an Orthodox priest once told me with a smile, “Women are only permitted to be in the altar area on their knees, so they may scrub it.” [LA replies: I don’t find the priest’s remark amusing or pleasant. And I think having baptism take place in separate part of the church for male and female babies is off-putting. It’s one thing to have an all-male priesthood; it’s another to go out of your way to suggest that male babies are spiritually superior to female babies in the church.]

The Orthodox Church is modernizing to the extent that it is pondering the question of once again permitting women to be deaconesses, as was done in the Middle Ages. But there is none of this nonsense of allowing women or openly gay men to be ordained as priests and I leave it to you to imagine what the Orthodox Church thinks about people like Archbishop Rowan foreseeing the establishment of sharia law in England or the openly gay priest here in the States.

P.S. I’m not in touch with any Orthodox these days so I googled before posting and think I’ve got my facts straight. This isn’t really meant to be an explanation of anything, just an amusing sidelight on the question. But I will say I think if I had to face a foe, I’d rather it be a Muslim than a Greek or a Serb.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 02, 2008 11:06 AM | Send