This is a cross-post from The Spittoon
Pickled Politics’ blogger earwigca has posted an article which contains this passage:
The problem with feminism is feminists. […]
Feminists like Dr. Aisha Gill, friend of Gita Sahgal, who worked tirelessly on the pr in support of the islamophobic attack on Amnesty International.
The wording is inexact but the unscrupulous motivation is obvious. Is the writer suggesting that Gita Sahgal and Aisha Gill are “islamophobic” [sic] or is she making that accusation of the “attack” on Amnesty International? Either way, how does she come to this conclusion and what is her evidence?
Of all the accusations and smears made of Gita Sahgal by her many detractors after she took the matter of Amnesty International’s partnership with the jihadist pressure group Cageprisoners to the public, the charge of “Islamophobia” has been the most baseless. Unfortunately, it also is the most pernicious since it requires little or no evidence for the smear to stick.
By accusing Sahgal or Gill of being “Islamophobes”, earwigca is suggesting that there is no political or cultural distinction between mainstream Muslims and Islamist jihadists such as Moazzam Begg. This could easily lead to the incorrect conclusion that all Muslims are jihadists in one form or another. In fact this conclusion is happily drawn, for totally divergent reasons, by both the far-right and the Islamists. Finally, there is also a third camp who fail to make this distinction, and that is the regressive left. Nevertheless, whatever the political motivation, this kind of reductionism is anti-Muslim bigotry, pure and simple.
With these accusations earwigca places herself squarely in one of these camps or is at least symptomatic of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Now I am quite sure earwigca’s personal grievances against feminism could have been made without including this irresponsible and incorrect slur. But now that she has made it, her accusations would be much more credible if she would elaborate how and in what way Sahgal’s or Gill’s motivations were “Islamophobic”.
I personally know many Muslims who supported Gita Sahgal in her dispute with Amnesty. Some of them include Sara Hossain, Ansar Ahmed Ullah, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Tehmina Kazi, Sandra M Kabir, Tahmima Anam, Amina Ali, Aisha Shaheed, Dr Ahmed Zaman, Rayhan Rashid, Waliur Rahman, Syeda Nazneen Sultana, Dr Irfan Al Alawi, Dr Rafikul Hasan Khan amongst many others, including myself, many of whom worked with Gita and supported her cause.
The question to now direct at Pickled Politics is this – are all these Muslims Islamophobic? If so, this would be akin to calling them “Uncle Toms”, the racist provenance of which needs no explanation.
Personal decency dictates that earwigca publish a clarification. Failing that, a retraction and an apology would be in order from Pickled Politics to Aisha Gill and to Gita Sahgal’s many Muslim supporters.
