My usual responses these days to that cultural-artifact-of-another-era-now-dentist-office-clutter Newsweek are to giggle or snicker. Nearly everything written for them is so predictable it’s almost a parody out of Molière. I thought the topper was when they accused our servicemen of flushing Korans down the toilet at Guantanamo without bothering to find out they don’t have flush toilets there; but the magazine’s latest salvo – a blunt-nosed attack on author-activist-actress Ayaan Hirsi Ali by someone named Lorraine Ali may even beat that.
Of course some of this sneering could be ascribed to the (in this case vagina) envy common to book reviews when the author of the book is vastly more famous than the reviewer. But the nature of the attack is straight out of the cultural relativist playbook at its most fuddy-duddy and reactionary. Lorraine Ali acknowledges that Hirsi Ali had a tough time growing up in Somalia but the fault is not Islam, it is “patriarchal society.”
Now I’ve stopped laughing. Is this news or a disinformation campaign from Newsweek? Islam is patriarchal at its very essence. All three Abrahamic religions are and were to some extent. But Islam is by far the worst. With a prophet that married a nine-year old girl, it institutionalizes misogyny in its Sharia law, rendering women official second class status in almost every aspect of society and especially in marriage where wives can be beaten by their husbands and divorced virtually at will. It goes on and on, as we know, but the treatment of the young Hirsi Ali had everything to do with Islam. Patriarchal culture is Islam and Islam is patriarchal culture.
I don’t mean to pick on Lorraine Ali, whoever she is. Her sad case of vagina envy cum Stockholm Syndrome is her problem and, unfortunately, common to many oppressed people. Newsweek is the culprit here. As an illustration for the review, they set up a glamor shot of three groovy Muslim chicks in London, as if this were a proof that everything was fine in the “diverse” Islamic world. This is like saying slavery was fine because Sally Hemings had a cool time with Thomas Jefferson. (Hey, she got some great dresses from his trip to Paris!) There’s a kind of weird racism behind all this too – not holding Islamic people to standards remotely like you would hold your own. The excuse here is cultural relativism, but I don’t believe it. I think it’s just a variant on “You know those wogs, they’ll always be like that.” Well, they will, in that case.
Newsweek isn’t part of the solution. It’s part of the problem.
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26 Comments
1. ElMondo:“Lorraine Ali acknowledges that Hirsi Ali had a tough time growing up in Somalia but the fault is not Islam, it is “patriarchal society.”
What’s that cart doing in front of that horse? Somalia’s society is patriarchal because it’s Islamic!!! And a hell of a lot of the problems are more than just offshoots of the fact they’re “patriarchal”!!
Sheesh… the more I read MSM writers, the more I’m convinced that drivel is somehow though of as art. Don’t these people think??
Mar 2, 2007 - 10:29 am 2. Roger:Actually, I think it’s kind of a circle, ElMondo. Islam evolved in part to support patriarchy. So they reinforce each other. It is the job of modern Muslims to break that chain. But to do that, they have to face it. Newsweek performs a reactionary functionary by enabling illusory change (girls wear mascara while the Imams preach Islamic hegemony and sexism behind the mosque walls – London being a perfect example – speaking of the lies of Newsweek)
Mar 2, 2007 - 10:34 am 3. srlucado:Well-said, as usual. It’s reminiscent of those who consider green garland in December at City Hall a violation of church and state, but will make every excuse imaginable for Islam, which is the absolute unification of mosque and state.
Mar 2, 2007 - 11:10 am 4. negentropy:Newsweek – making people look forward to a root canal.
Mar 2, 2007 - 11:53 am 5. Carl Spackler:It is Newsweak.
Newsweek. Time. (snicker)
For what they do, People and even the Enquirer do better reporting and are a better product.
You are right about Dentists offices and Newsweeks. They do produce a mild soporific effect. Kind of like a sedative before an operation. You can just feel your mind, if you are not careful, shutting down. So, they have that going for them.
Mar 2, 2007 - 11:54 am 6. MikeT:What you are missing is that all civilizations of any note have been patriarchies. Pagan, monotheistic, doesn’t matter. The brutality of pagan patriarchy was as bad in many respects as what is done by Muslim men. Ever heard of Pater Familias? The patriarchy in the Bible is actually radically different from those in other groups. Compare the model of patriarchy in Islam with that shown in the Bible, which is modeled on the relationship between Christ (the man of the house) and the Church (the wife). Ephesians 5 is a good start there.
Many women in the West complain about how they are treated, but that is a very provincial understanding of the world and history speaking. The natural place of a woman, not to be confused with the moral place of a woman, is inferior to men. If left up to nature, women are brutally oppressed on average. It took the Torah and Gospel, not feminism, to assert the radical idea that women are human beings, equal to men in the eyes of God.
Mar 2, 2007 - 12:17 pm 7. Chris Fotos:Islam is patriarchal at its very essence. All three Abrahamic religions are and were to some extent. But Islam is by far the worst. With a prophet that married a nine-year old girl, it institutionalizes misogyny in its Sharia law, rendering women official second class status in almost every aspect of society and especially in marriage where wives can be beaten by their husbands and divorced virtually at will. It goes on and on, as we know, but the treatment of the young Hirsi Ali had everything to do with Islam. Patriarchal culture is Islam and Islam is patriarchal culture.
Oh geez, Roger, with talk like that you have just banned yourself from Dean Esmay’s blog.
Which I’m guessing you can live with.
Mar 2, 2007 - 12:18 pm 8. Laocoon:“someone named Lorraine Ali”
She’s a well-known Islamist who has won awards from them for her advocacy. Newsweek’s asking her to write is like asking a member of the CPUSA to investigate reports of a Gulag. The result is pre-determined.
Mar 2, 2007 - 12:26 pm 9. Joanne Jacobs:A lot of data support Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s view of the plight of Muslim women. If reviewer Lorraine Ali wants to argue that Hirsi Ali’s experiences are atypical, I’d like to see some proof on the other side. The fact that Muslim women in London can wear make-up is insufficient. Even in the West, Muslim women are less likely to be educated, more vulnerable to male violence, etc. In Africa and the Middle East, Islam enforces and excuses traditional patriarchy.
Mar 2, 2007 - 12:50 pm 10. Buddy Larsen:Absolutely right-on post, Roger. Every high-velocity word of it.
Mar 2, 2007 - 1:10 pm 11. postroad:Those babes looked cool to me. I like Newsweek for supply those great photos.It is true that the Abrahamic traditions are patriarchal, but in India we have the untouchables, and that is not a tv series.
Mar 2, 2007 - 2:16 pm 12. Mick Stockinger:Parsing the left’s political commentary is a lot like talking with 3 year olds. It takes practice to make out the mangled syntax to derive the real meaning.
In this case, I am willing to bet that the reviewer’s apparent contradiction is perfectly reasonable in her mind, and for her fellow ideologues.
Its not Patriarchy that’s the problem, its American patriarchy that’s the problem. We shouldn’t even take it for granted that we understand what she means by patriarchy. As near as I can tell it probably means “Republicans.”
Islam simply means “cultural victim”. Its a two-dimensional characterization that serves the purpose of indicting the American Patriarchy, or Republicans if you prefer. The actual nature of the victim culture is irrelevant, rather like the racial stereotypes of 1960s and early 1970s televisions shows–”hey you, yeah you black guy. Come here and play a pimp/drug-dealer…”
You Roger L. Simon, are simply not inculcated into the nuances of the new left’s subculture
Mar 2, 2007 - 2:32 pm 13. photoncourier.blogspot.com:As someone at KesherTalk observed: people like Hirsi Ali are a psychological threat to your garden-variety “progressive”…because the sight of *real* courage shows just how fake the courage mimed by the latter tends to be.
Mar 2, 2007 - 2:34 pm 14. Buddy Larsen:Photon, that’s “Robbins Courage” (after Tim Robbins, whose portentiously-intoned speeches on the ‘cold wind of fear’ and the ‘deep chill of fascism’ are always made right out in the open, right in front of the tv cameras. Some fear, some fascism.
Mar 2, 2007 - 2:50 pm 15. Terrye:Patriarchial society is about more than Islam of course, in fact honor killings predate Islam. I think that in many cases the culture impacts on the religion more than the other way around.
But there is no doubt that a culture or religion which could support something like female genital mutilation {as happens in Africa for instance} is all about enslaving women.
Now I do not doubt there are many exceptions to this rule, there will be many Muslim women living in countries or societies in which many of the activities would seem uncivilized. In fact in many Muslim countries this is a sign of being backward. Saddam would encourage women to dress like westerners because he said that westerners were suckers for that kind of thing…then he also legalized honor killing in the 90’s…but so long as the women looked modern people thought that the culture was secular, or so he said.
The problem is that the abuse of women is tolerated at all. And it seems that because it has been tolerated it is making a comeback in some places.
Mar 2, 2007 - 3:07 pm 16. Michael Joyce:Lorraine Ali just makes stuff up.
Here’s an email I sent to her and her bosses at Newsweek some time ago. No one ever responded. Surprise, surprise…..
From: Michael Joyce [mailto:mjoyce01@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 12:09 PM
To: ‘letters@newsweek.com’; ‘nancy.cooper@newsweek.com’; ‘Lorraine.Ali@newsweek.com’
Subject: Re: September 27, 2004 Newsweek Periscope story: “Media: He can’t pay a cab” by Lorraine Ali
To Whom It May Concern,
One part of this story that really jumped out at me was the assertion, by Ms. Ali (general editor and music critic [!] for Newsweek), that Mr. Ibish so “carefully deconstructed the argument until Pipes’s only defense was to yell, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’”
Ms. Ali apparently did not actually see the program in question; otherwise she would not have written such a glaring misrepresentation of the facts. I did, in fact, witness the exchange and there is no way a fair-minded reporter of the facts could describe it as she did.
I will dismiss the assertion that “Ibish carefully deconstructed the argument” as hyperbole since nothing of the sort occurred. The exchange in question came at the very end of the segment after Mr. Keyes, the host, asked for a final word from Dr. Pipes. As is his habit, Mr. Ibish could not restrain himself from interrupting Dr. Pipes and it was this rudeness that prompted Dr. Pipes to first ask Mr. Ibish to “please be quiet” and then, after a 2nd interruption, to “please shut up”. At no time did Dr. Pipes even raise his voice. In fact, I thought Dr. Pipes was entirely too polite to Mr. Ibish, whom I believe to be little more than a rude and abrasive advocate for Islamic terrorism.
Perhaps Ms. Ali would care to examine the transcript* of the relevant portion of the program and, afterwards, issue an apology to Mr. Pipes.
Regards,
Michael Joyce
Carrollton, TX
*KEYES: Last word from Daniel Pipes. Dan?
(CROSSTALK)
KEYES: Last word from Dan Pipes. Anything?
PIPES: Thank you, Alan. Yes, indeed.
I would just want to note that the border between Lebanon and Israel has been anything but quiet.
IBISH: Oh, what a lie.
PIPES: Mr. Ibish, could you please be quiet?
IBISH: If you tell the truth.
PIPES: Mr. Ibish, could you please shut up?
KEYES: Now, Hussein, he listens to your comment.
Dan, finish your remark. Quickly.
PIPES: Where it has not been quiet over the last year and a half and we’re about to see, as the Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group, has acquired what they say is 7,000 (UNINTELLIGIBLE) rockets, we’re about to see how much less quiet it’s going to be.
NOTE: Full transcript of the program available at: http://www.renewamerica.us/show/transcripts/02_03_05akims.htm
Mar 2, 2007 - 3:14 pm 17. Buddy Larsen:Good work, Joyce. Newsweek could use you.
Mar 2, 2007 - 3:50 pm 18. Bobby_B:One point (which I only make after hastening to add that I’m completely on your side of this issue and of the political spectrum):
It’s not been that many years since girls could marry in some of our states at ages of 13 or 12.
So, the comment about the nine-year-old bride, I think, is not a good choice in making the points you are making. No, I can’t think of any states here that allowed for a nine-year-old girl to marry, but the difference between nine and twelve isn’t so huge that we can point to an ancient Middle Eastern practice/tradition and display revulsion and outrage, especially as we’re using that line in a direct attack on the character of their Prophet.
And, of course, L. Ali is correct about so many things. Islam without the burden of the pre-existing patriarchal overlay would be a wonderful system.
Well, I mean, without the beheadings. And, you know, without the lack of any input by the common man into the law. Or its prohibition of representative government. Or the “we-really-just-mean-emotional-struggle -not-actual-war (but, if they all die it’s gravy) jihad. Or its complete intolerance for anyone who is not a fellow adherent . . . .
Mar 2, 2007 - 6:08 pm 19. kingjack:After growing up in a household that always subscribed to Newsweek, and after having last subscribed myself with a 5-year bargain-priced subscription, I’m not renewing my subscription that is expiring any week now. Newsweek has provided a steady drumbeat of Bush-bashing, PC-worshiping, elitist/lefty propaganda that I, particularly since 9/11, find too offensive to bear. The Lorraine Ali misrepresentation of Hirsi Ali, was simply the lastest of many “last straws.” I will never give them a cent of my money again.
Mar 2, 2007 - 7:28 pm 20. Roger:Regarding Terrye’s comment above, of course she is right that honor killings pre-date Islam, probably by longer than we could even imagine. But it is worth noting, that I attended a dinner a couple of months ago at which Salman Rushdie was the keynote speaker. I hadn’t realized it but he “read” the history of Islam at Oxford (or was it Cambridge?)… Anyway, he spoke at some length of Mohammed’s overthrowing the mother cults who were apparently in control of some parts of Arabia at that point. I found that interesting, considering the consequences – the battle of the sexes writ a bit larger than we are used to in a George Cukor movie. The history of religion endlessly fascinates.
Mar 2, 2007 - 10:17 pm 21. Mark_Belt:I can’t believe anyone still reads Newsweek or Time. When I was in high school in the 1960s, you could get extra credit for reading and reporting on their essays that ran several hundred or perhaps a thousand words. The last time I checked, both of those rags are nothing more than a glorified version of People Magazine.
Mar 2, 2007 - 10:19 pm 22. Roger:Also, to Bobby B, you have a point there, I suppose. But, still, much as I love Jerry Lee Lewis his behavior was considered a little off the charts even back in Fifties. And his l’il gal was four years older than Aisha (Mohammed’s young wife)… And nobody sees Jerry Lee as the messenger of anything except boogie-woogie.
Mar 2, 2007 - 10:28 pm 23. Gary Rosen:I don’t think Lorraine Ali is suffering from “vagina envy” or “Stockholm syndrome”. Rather, in both this case as well as the Pipes-Ibish incident carefully reported by Michael Joyce, she is deliberately and consciously engaged in generating Islamist propaganda. What a horrible disgrace for Newsweek.
Mar 2, 2007 - 11:08 pm 24. pastorius:“Whoever Lorraine Ali is?”
Well, as an OC guy myself, I’m pretty sure Lorraine Ali is an Orange County gal. I’ve been aware of her since the late 80’s/early 90’s when she used to write, if I recall correctly, music criticism, and sub-cultural witticisms for the Orange County Register and the “hip” Orange County Weekly.
In other words, while she may be an Islamist (probably is), she is also, more than likely, a spoiled brat raised in malls and suburban schools.
Listen, I stereotype myself just as harshly. Orange County is, indeed a hyperreal wonderland, and it is easy to have an idealized vision of the purity of the “under-classes” and the “third world peoples” out here, when you’re Mexican maids are taking care of you all day long and then taking the bus home to Santa Ana.
“Hey Maria, get me a Pepsi. I can’t get up off the sofa. I’m playing GameCube.”
Mar 3, 2007 - 2:13 am 25. Automatic Caution Door:You’ve proficiently parsed the Newsweek piece, so I have nothing to add in that regard. But as a couple of other commenters have touched on, Lorraine Ali is a fairly well-known culture/entertainment writer. I’m kind of surprised you’re not familiar with her byline, given your own background.
Mar 3, 2007 - 4:54 am 26. Mlnhciuj:DDIFU0
Jul 13, 2009 - 12:31 pm