WEBVTT

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Sarah Haider: Islam and
the Necessity of Liberal Critique]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Moderator) Hi everybody and welcome
to this next presentation entitled

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Islam and the Necessity of Liberal Critique".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I'd like to welcome Sarah Haider,
who is one of the co-founders

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the Ex Muslims of North America group.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So, please join me in welcoming Sarah.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Applause)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Sarah Haider)Hi Everyone,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I'm Sarah, and for the last two years 
I have worked to build an organization

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for non-theist ex-Muslims, those who once 
identified themselves with Islam.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and now call themselves atheists, 
agnostics or deists;

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and the organization is called 
Ex-Muslims of North America.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We are a relatively new organization, 
but we are growing quickly

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and we now have communities of ex-Muslims 
in over fifteen cities.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As you can imagine, it is notoriously 
difficult for ex-Muslims

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to find others like ourselves. 
Trying to build friendships among people

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who are often under siege and deep 
in the closet is incredibly difficult.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In the first place, how do you even find 
people who are often deliberately

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
doing their best to stay undercover?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As an organization we work to provide 
ex-Muslims with much needed support,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
support to free themselves 
from the shackles of religion

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and to be themselves, to learn about 
each other's suffering,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and above all else, endure.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We are in a peculiar situation, 
my colleagues and I,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we are intimately connected with more 
godless ex-Muslims

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
than likely anyone else in the world.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I have heard thousands of stories 
from hundreds of people,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
about their experiences with Islam.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Some lucky few were able to leave the faith 
with little consequence,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the relationships with their families 
and friends and communities

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
remained intact.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But for most, this was not the case.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Our journeys have seen 
tremendous struggles.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For some the cost was only social, 
loss of friends and families.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For others, they risked their health and 
mental well-being

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from being locked into psychiatric wards 
to enduring physical violence

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from all family members.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Ex-Muslims, arguably 
more than any other group,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
are deeply familiar with the problems 
entrenched within Muslim communities

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and inherent within Islamic scriptures.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As most of us happen to be both 
people of color

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and first- or second- generation immigrants, 
we are doubly affected,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
both by hatred and violence from Muslims, 
but also bigotry and xenophobia

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from the broader American public.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Despite all this, my experience 
over the last two years

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
has made me wary of speaking up, 
even to an audience such as this.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I always expected feeling unwelcome 
from Muslim audiences,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I did not anticipate 
an equal amount of hostility

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from my allies on the Left.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For example, when I first published a piece, 
fact-checking Reza Aslan,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who is a prominent Muslim scholar,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on his dismissal of 
female genital mutilation

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as only an African problem, 
not a Muslim one,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I got many responses from people 
unhappy with what I wrote,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
almost all of whom questioned my motives 
rather than addressing my claims.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To my surprise, most of my critics 
were not Muslims.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Rather they identified as liberals 
and sometimes even atheists.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Some darkly alluded to my "agenda" and 
others claimed that as a former Muslim,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there was no way I could be trusted 
with fair criticism.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now remember, I published a fact-check.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It seems to me that it would be easy 
to verify my claims,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
fact-check the fact-check, so to speak.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But instead, Muslims and some people 
on the Left preferred instead

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to throw around suspicions 
about my character and my intentions.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Those who oppose 
Christian authoritarianism

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
will find that the broad majority 
of liberals, religious or non-religious,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
side with them 
and will ofter their support

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the fight to push religious morals 
out of our politics and public life.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Even religious liberals 
sometimes look upon

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the politically-charged religious right 
with distaste

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and some work with secularists 
to keep them out of our politics.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The executive director for

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the Americans United for {Separation of} 
Church and State, for example,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is an ordained minister.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Atheists and secularists 
can feel secure in the knowledge

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that their allies on the liberal Left 
will stand with them

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when their target is 
the far-right Christians.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It makes sense: liberals don't share 
much, many common values

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with the religious right.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But when the same scrutiny 
is applied to Islam,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you find that inexplicably some people 
on the Left begin to align instead

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with the Islamic religious right.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The consistent exception has been 
the secular and atheist communities.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When luminaries of disbelief movement 
like Harris and Dawkins speak about

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the horrors of Christianity and write 
books condemning it, they are cheered,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
their works lionized, their presence 
sought at events and conferences.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But when they turn the same critical gaze 
towards the religion of my family,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they are told to cease 
such offensive talk,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to refrain from criticizing 
the same oppressive forces

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that they criticized in the past.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There is an instinct to pigeon-hole 
anyone who says something negative

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
about Islam, to broadly label them 
in such a way that nearly guarantees

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that most on the Left will ignore 
what they have to say.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The first method, I found, of people dismissing my claims, has been that

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
since as a brown person I can't easily 
be painted as a bigot,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is that I must be pro-war or broadly support the far-right agenda in some way.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is not true.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Sometimes I am called an Uncle Tom 
or a house Arab.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Another term thrown around at ex-Muslims 
and other brown critics of Islam

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is "native informants".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This was my first time hearing this.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I won't go into the many reasons why 
this is an impressively disgusting thing

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to call someone, 
with the vague implication

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that we are brainwashed in some way, 
or are betraying our own kind.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
While it is somewhat understandable, 
why someone like Myriam Francois,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who is a white convert to Islam, why she 
would refer to us as native informants,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it is beyond my comprehension how 
such a transparently racist term

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was used by the journalist Max Blumenthal 
in his article condemning Ayaan Hirsi Ali

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to cast a shadow over her role in this debate.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I wonder if Blumenthal would feel comfortable 
using similarly racist terms

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
against anti-clerical dissidents

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from African-American 
or other minority communities.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Bill Maher is someone who has been painted
by the Left and the Right as a bigot.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Once on his show though, Maher mentioned 
the high rates of support

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for the death penalty for the crime of 
atheism in Muslim communities.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In response, Dean Obeidallah, who is 
a comedian and author and liberal Muslim,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
attempted to defend the Muslim countries 
by pointing out errors

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the statistics Maher used.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Let me quote his piece on CNN.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He says - "a 2013 Pew poll actually found 
that only 64% of Egyptians supported this"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
- by this he means the death penalty - 
"still alarmingly high, but not 90%"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and only thirteen Muslim nations have 
penalties for apostasy, while 34 do not".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Can we realistically imagine something 
like that being published

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
if it was about any other minority, in 
an honest effort to downplay the horror?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What if it was

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"only 64% of Americans support the death 
penalty for converts to Islam"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
- Muslims don't have it that bad -

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"only 64% of French citizens support the 
death penalty for Algerian immigrants"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or "only 64% of Americans support 
the death penalty for homosexuality"?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How bad is the situation, 
how terrible the human rights abuses

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and how little the worth 
of the life of a human being,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when 64% is viewed 
as a defensive statistic?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is a situation as if fully 
one-third of western nations

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
had legalized the murder of Muslims, 
how appalled would we be?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What would the Left's reaction be?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As an ex-Muslim I am horrified that 
something like this would be published

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on the web-site 
of a major news organization

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and not a single voice 
was raised in outrage.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Why is my life worth less?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Does my simply being raised 
in an Islamic tradition

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
grant the Islamic religious right 
overt ownership over me and my body,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
grant them license to murder me 
and my fellow atheists?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The claim actually being made 
by citing this statistic was that Maher

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was supposedly making too much of 
a fuss of atheist persecution by Muslims.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now I do not wish to denigrate the author,
Dean Obeidallah,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but to illustrate 
the depth of the problem,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that in trying to defend what he perceived
to be an injustice to Muslims,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he did not even notice 
the depravity of what he wrote.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As a consequence an audience on the Left 
now frightens me nearly as much

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as an audience of Islamists does.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I have had to think long and hard about 
whether I want to give this talk today,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to what extent I should mince my words,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and what consequence 
it would have on my work.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's not my intention to cause offense 
but I firmly believe

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that there are things that need to be 
said, elephants in the room

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that no one but some bigots on the 
far right are willing to acknowledge.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999

We are all, I hope, familiar with what happened

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on January 7th at the offices 
of Charlie Hebdo.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Masked gunmen killed twelve people, 
shouting Allahu Akbar!,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
later revealed to be two brothers, 
French nationals of Algerian origin.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was global outrage and a large 
show of solidarity for the cartoonists,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
which appeared to be the obviously 
righteous things to do.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Until of course the religious 
began to speak up

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with claims of "provocation" 
and hurt feelings.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But that was to be expected, Islamists 
have been saying that for years,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and indeed, no religion really accepts 
any form of ridicule

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
- if they have a choice in the matter, that is say.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
However, what was more distressing to me,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was the response from many 
of my allies on the Left.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Over and over I heard the claim that 
Charlie Hebdo was somehow

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a racist publication, and while, 
of course, of course,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
murder is always wrong 
and should be condemned,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it is nonetheless "understandable"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the gunmen would feel 
provoked by the cartoons.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't 
want to meet the man

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who "understands" why someone would 
feel compelled to murder another man

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because he didn't like a cartoon 
that he drew. (applause).

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's important to realize that mocking 
and critique are not that different

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the eyes of the most religious people.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There is no fair amount 
of fair and friendly criticism

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the very religious will accept if 
they have the power to shut it down,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as evidenced by the prohibition 
on heretical speech

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in theocratic states throughout history.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There is a curious 
double-standard at play.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When Muslim clerics and activists 
that are known to be

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
anti-Semites and homophobes 
are welcomed on campuses,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
touring nationally, invited to give 
lectures by Muslim student associations,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
while feminists like Asra Nomani, 
who has been fighting

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for the equality of the sexes, 
for the right of female entry

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to the priestly class, 
is branded as a bigot

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by the same Muslim student organizations

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and the authorities 
at universities like Duke

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
succumb to this brazen attempt 
to silence her.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Similar patterns are repeated 
across the Western world.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Maryam Namazie, 
who is an ex-Muslim activist,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was dis-invited to speak at Trinity, 
Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The British Students Union 
now allies itself broadly

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with Islamist organizations such as CAGE.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To quote Nick Cohen from his article 
from the Guardian,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"University managers are no better than 
their teenage heresy hunters.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They say they want to oppose 
radical Islam in argument.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The Lawyersâ Secular Society 
took them at their word.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It tried to present an investigation 
at the University of West London

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
into Islamist groups that were 
all over campuses,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
despite their record of advocating 
Jew hatred, homophobia and misogyny.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The university authorities 
banned the secularists."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Let me be clear. I don't think anyone,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
even bigots emerging from Muslim 
communities or anywhere else,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
should be silenced.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What I ask is that we stand up 
for the right to speak of all,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
including those both 
those who stand with us

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and those who call for the death 
of our fellow dis-believers.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Our society functions because 
we believe that hurt feelings

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
mean nothing in the eyes 
of our justice system.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But of course it is claimed that 
this is a special case,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because these aren't just 
personal hurt feelings,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
these are religious hurt feelings, 
and not just any religion,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but the religion of the underdog, 
of the brown man.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And the Left decided long ago 
that the hurt feelings

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the Christian religion mattered little, 
and it was imperative

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that we disabuse the notion 
that Christianity

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
would ever feel safe from criticism 
or even outright mockery.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Indeed many of our greatest thinkers 
have delighted in exercising this right.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I want to quote Thomas Paine, from his 
book, The Age of Reason:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, 
the voluptuous debaucheries,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the cruel and torturous executions, 
the unrelenting vindictiveness,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with which more than half 
the Bible is filled,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it would be more consistent that 
we called it the word of a demon,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
than the word of God.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is a history of wickedness, that has 
served to corrupt and brutalize mankind;

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, 
as I detest everything that is cruel"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I wonder if Paine had been murdered 
for his outright contempt of Christianity,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
how different would the West look today?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what message such a gruesome deed 
would have sent?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
how many people would it have silenced 
with its promise of more bloodshed to come

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
if they had the audacity 
to repeat his crime?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Would that fear have silenced those who 
insisted on the freedom of speech?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How would that have affected 
the face of our nation?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now I hope that you will reflect with me, 
on the fact that

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not only was he not murdered,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
neither were his contemporaries 
who mocked religion,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
also even then three centuries ago,
I don't believe he contemplated the idea

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that writing would actually 
lead to his death.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And yet, in the twenty-first century,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
this is the reality of those who speak out
against Islam in Muslim countries

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and increasingly in Western ones.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is not uncommon to hear from 
commentators in various media outlets

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the victims of Charlie Hebdo had 
somehow provoked others

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with their offensive cartoons 
into taking their lives.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The sentiment seems to be that 
the cartoonists must to some degree

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
be held accountable for their own murders,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
even as dozens of cartoonists 
from the East drew panels

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in support of their counterparts 
in the West,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
risking their own lives 
for freedom of speech.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Two months ago, PEN, an organization 
that has stood for free speech

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for nearly a century, announced their 
decision to honor

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the magazine Charlie Hebdo with the 
PEN Freedom of Expression Courage Award.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yet amongst those that were 
members of PEN,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there were some that refused to stand 
with Charlie Hebdo,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
initially six table heads 
and as of now, 204 writers.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I would like to remind everyone 
that we've been here before.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When Salman Rushdie had a fatwa 
calling for his death,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
PEN America under Susan Sontag's 
stewardship stood for him,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
even while a significant percentage 
of the intelligentsia cast him aside.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Figures as diverse as 
the Archbishop of Canterbury

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to multiple members 
of the British Parliament,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
one of whom condemned Rushdie as, 
quote, an outstanding villain,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
whose, quote, public life has been 
a record of despicable acts of betrayal

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of his upbringing, religion, 
adopted home and nationality.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As there were eastern cartoonists 
standing with Charlie Hebdo,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there were Irani writers from the Muslim 
world that stood in defiance

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and defended Rushdie, some of whom 
were subsequently attacked.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In light of the recent attack 
in Garland, Texas,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I'd like to share the prophetic words of 
Norman Mailer, from over two decades ago:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"In this week of turmoil we can now 
envision a fearful time in the future

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when fundamentalist groups in America,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
stealing their page 
from this international episode

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
will know how to apply the same methods 
to American writers and bookstores.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If they succeed it will be due to the fact 
that we never found

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
an honest resistance to the terrorization 
of Salman Rushdie."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Where in 1989 and 2005 authors 
and cartoonists considered

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a vague possibility of retaliation,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it has now metastatized 
to an ever present threat;

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
like clockwork the violence 
intensifies and repeats.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The cowardly response 
in the intervening decade

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
has also been repeated time and time 
again, everytime emboldening the voices

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that call for the curtailment of free speech.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The Rushdie fatwa was the first battle, 
a battle in which we surrendered,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and continue to pay the price 
for that appeasement today.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So why is it so difficult for many 
on the Left to criticize Islam?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Why do they shy away from it?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I believe that the primary reason is that 
many are simply incapable of separating

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the criticism of an idea with hate 
directed towards a people,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and immediately call the first "racism".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
That idea should not 
be entertained for very long,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as if there can be no valid reasons 
to critique an ideology

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
rooted in seventh-century 
patriarchal norms

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
except for hatred toward the very people 
imprisoned by those ideologies.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There are people who use the phrase "Islamophobia"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
both to mean criticism of the people 
and of the religion.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I know that many Muslims do this,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it is an easy way of stopping others 
from criticizing their religion,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I believe that many in the West 
use this word

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because they haven't quite thought 
of why it might be harmful.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Islamophobia is a meaningless term

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It serves to confuse and to muddle two 
very different forms of intolerance,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
based on two very different reasons,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to which there should be 
two very different reactions.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Sometimes it is claimed 
that the critique of religion

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is critique of the identity 
of the believer,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and is therefore bigotry.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This person's identity happens 
to be based on ideology,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
so if you criticize their ideology,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you are necessarily generating 
hate towards that person.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But I wonder what would happen

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
if we applied this type of thinking 
to everything?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What if New Agers decided that criticism 
of New Age spiritual healing

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was a form of hate against people 
who chose to identify that way?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What if Hindus decided 
criticism of the caste system

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was a deeply offensive form of racism 
against Hindu people?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How much of that would that retard reform?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There is another version of this argument
with the claim that

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
criticism or ridicule of Islam feeds into 
the bigotry by the far-right

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and therefore causes harm,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I want everyone to know that 
the argument is almost never

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that Islam doesn't deserve the critique 
or ridicule as a religion,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but that it is harmful to voice this 
for the damage it would do.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now one of the writers that opposed the 
award for Charlie Hebdo claimed that,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
quote, the narrative 
of the Charlie Hebdo murders

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
-- the narrative of the 
Charlie Hebdo murders --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
white Europeans killed in their offices 
by extremist Muslims

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is one that feeds neatly 
into the cultural prejudices

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that have allowed our governments

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to make so many disastrous 
mistakes in the Middle East

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
-- the narrative of the Charlie Hebdo murders!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I read that statement and I realized that 
for some writers

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the problem wasn't just 
that the cartoons were offensive,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it was that the reaction of Muslims 
to the cartoons fed into

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a stereotypical Muslim trope,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a reaction that was very 
inconvenient for a group

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
trying to paint a picture 
of a peaceful Islam,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is quite clear that allegiances here 
aren't to the truth,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
instead the aim is to selectively hide 
inconvenient truths,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
truths that are deemed to be harmful, 
should they ever be acknowledged.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I assume the fear is that we do not want
to give support to actual bigoted people.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Anyone who watches Fox knows 
how they use fear-mongering tactics

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to promote xenophobia.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But the liberation of a billion and a half
Muslims in the world,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Muslims who are suffering under the yoke
of an ever-present theological authority,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
should be at the forefront of our minds.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As has been repeated hundreds of times 
by critics like myself,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the primary victims of Islamism 
are Muslims,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
be it in terms of terrorism, violence, 
misogyny, freedom of expression,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
religion, and economic decline.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yet bizarrely, these concerns are 
secondary still to not presenting offense.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Still there are others that believe 
that people in the West

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
have no right to speak about 
problems of "brown cultures"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
due to the legacy of colonialism 
and other forms of violence

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the West has cast upon the East.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is a strange argument because 
it ignores the history of the world,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a history in which various nations, Muslims and non-Muslims,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
have succumbed to the ebb-and-flow 
of conquest, repeatedly,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for all of recorded history.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Many Islamic countries in fact had 
horrific laws before colonialism.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Two of the epicenters of Islamic thought, 
Iran for Shia Islam,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and Saudi Arabia for Sunni Islam, 
resisted colonialism.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In fact, Saudi Arabia was founded in 1744 
as an extremist state,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the first iteration of which was 
destroyed by the Ottomans,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
due to their religious fanaticism.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The first Saudis in fact attacked 
and desecrated

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
some of the most holy Muslim sites 
and were stopped

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not by intervention of the West 
but by other Muslims

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that viewed them as dangerous fanatics.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was then no American imperialism, 
no frame of wars against other Muslims,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and yet, fundamentalist Wahabbis existed,
and were attacking other Muslims

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
very much the same way 
that ISIS attacks them today.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Reform is impossible when you constantly 
shift the conversation away

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from Islamic fundamentalism, and back 
to western violence and imperialism.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But don't get me wrong. 
It is important to discuss this,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it is important to discuss imperialism 
and the harm that it caused.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But violence in the name of Islam 
has terrorized the Middle East

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
ever since its inception, 
and it is important

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that we don't derail this conversation.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The moral paralysis out of fear of the 
right, out of fear of furthering bigotry,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by shame of prior crimes committed 
by other white people

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
should not trump all considerations.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When I read articles of why Muslims 
should not be ridiculed

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I get a sense of condescension, a sense 
that there are those who believe

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the most essential trait of 
brown people is their religion,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a defining feature in fact, 
and due to this

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they presume that we won't reform 
or we can't,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that religion is something 
inherent to who we are

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and that it won't respond 
to pressure, to change

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the way Christianity responded 
to pressure by secularists.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
While they believe themselves 
to be supporting tolerance,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what they are really supporting is 
the religious right of the East,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and not just any religious right, not the 
religious right that we have here,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it's a religious right the West 
hasn't seen for centuries.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To me, someone who opposes the most 
foundational liberal principle,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the freedom of expression,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in order to protect the sensibilities 
of this Islamist religious right

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is a liberal only in name.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In fact, what kind of person holds two 
different groups of people accountable

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to two different standards of 
acceptable behavior but a bigot?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Islam, like all patriarchal religions,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is a tool used to justify abuse 
of women and minorities.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Does our concept of tolerance extend 
towards tolerance

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of systematic subjugation 
of women and minorities?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What else can excusing abuse made 
in the name of tolerance be called

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
other than a benevolent, 
self-serving form of bigotry?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
No matter how seemingly 
compassionate the motivations,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we must not hesitate in being honest

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in calling out our allies for their 
hypocrisy and their illiberal mores.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Sometimes I feel as though people 
view secularism and free-thinking

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to be concepts owned by the West, 
something inherently Western.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To push secularism and free thought 
to Muslims then

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is to push a Western identity onto them.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is no more than ignorance of history

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to feel that Enlightenment ideals can 
only be shared by this civilization,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
rather than a progression 
of all of humanity.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Indeed throughout history

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there have been champions 
of these very same ideals,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there have been free-thinkers 
in every culture in the world

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that have bled for these ideals.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There have been countless free-thinkers 
that challenged faith,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that tried but sadly failed to interpret 
scripture in a less misogynist way,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
even in patriarchal Islamic societies.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For example, the seventeenth century had

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the crown prince of the Mughal dynasty, 
Dara Shikoh,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who was committed to rights of all 
religions, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim alike,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
working to bridge the gaps between 
the leading lights of all faiths.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As you may anticipate, 
this was not to last,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Dara was murdered by his own brother,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
claiming that Dara's tolerance 
was a sign of his apostasy,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a brother that is now revered in Muslim 
circles as being a guardian of the faith.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Similarly, there have been women

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that have led the charge 
for their own rights.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Exactly two hundred years ago, 
Fatima Baraghani was born in Iran,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
an extremely intelligent woman, who as 
per custom was married young,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and wasn't allowed to further 
pursue her education.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
She was attracted to a radical movement 
brewing in the country,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
which espoused equality of the genders.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
She joined and rose to be one 
of the leading lights of that movement.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To symbolize a break from Shariah, 
in one gathering,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
she took off her traditional veil 
in front of an assemblage of men

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and brandished instead a sword.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now this sight caused such a shock 
among the crowd,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that many grown men screamed aloud.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
One man cut his own throat in horror,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
fleeing the scene as blood poured 
from his neck. {Laughter}

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But she did not enjoy freedom or live 
long after this incident.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The tragedy of the Eastern past isn't 
that we haven't given birth to reformers

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but that the violence of our oppressors 
has eliminated us, time and again.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Even in modern times, one Somali author, 
Abdisaid Abdi Ismail, wrote a book

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
where he audaciously argued

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that Islam doesn't actually call 
for a death penalty for apostasy.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He was rewarded for his efforts by 
having his life threatened,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and calls for his book to be burned.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
A British reformist, Maajid Nawaz, has had
fatwas issued calling for his death

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for simply saying on a tweet

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that a cartoon of Muhammad 
doesn't personally offend him.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The religious right has been murdering 
reformers for centuries,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but we are still here, 
fighting for our future,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the same fight that the West has had 
much greater success in.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is strange that the very same people, 
who should (?) tamp down on the power

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the Christian right and use the advances 
that the West has had,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to insist that we must be defined 
by our religious right.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Let us assume, for the sake of argument,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that we can all concede the idea that 
Islam, as a religion, needs reform,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or at the very least, Muslim communities 
do, both in the West and abroad,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and in the way they choose 
to practice their faith.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I happen to believe this. 
All the data we have corroborates this.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There's a large amount of evidence

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
which clearly demonstrates 
rampant misogyny,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
bad attitudes towards homosexuals 
and apostasy within the Muslim world,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
supported by the law and widely 
accepted by the people.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In an effort to draw attention away 
from the role of religion in all this,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
some have chosen to instead use 
excuses by a variety of reasons,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
none of which make sense,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because Muslim countries share 
almost nothing between them all,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
except the predominant religion -

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not socio-economic status, 
not education or literacy levels, not GDP,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not cultural background or history, 
not race or ethnicity, not language,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not political system, 
not the history of Western colonization.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What they do share is theology.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Obviously Islam isn't the root of 
all evil, but it is an important factor.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What we have here is a right wing 
in the West who believes

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that Islam personifies evil

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and a Left which refuses to even 
look into it as a source of harm.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The question then becomes, 
how do we achieve reform

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
without actually mentioning 
any problems in Islam?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How do we achieve progress 
while shying away

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from one of the foundational aspects 
of how harmful practices are justified?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Most cultures are responsive to selective pressure,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and by insisting that no pressure 
be applied,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we are acting as a brake on any progress.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have plenty of evidence 
that a push for secularism

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or a presence within secular cultures 
can change behavior,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and even the beliefs of Muslims.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For example, if you compare 
Muslims in the US

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with Muslims in the Middle East, 
you will find across all metrics,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that their opinions are less extreme
and more in line with liberal values,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
than those of the population 
of their origin countries.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Many Muslims believe that 
their religion is immutable,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that every word of which is true, 
and reformers insult them

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when they demand change.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yet profound changes in the way 
Muslims practice their religion

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
have occurred in the past.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Many Muslim countries practiced 
slavery up until the twentieth century,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with some countries abolishing slavery 
as recently as 1981,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
citing religious sanction of the practice 
as a justification.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Saudi Arabia's slave population 
was estimated at 300,000

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a scant 50 years ago,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and it was international pressure 
that forced abolition.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Under pressure from the 
British Empire to abolish slavery

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a little over a century ago,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the Sultan of Morocco cited 
the inerrancy of the Quran

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to make the case for the divine 
sanction of slavery.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Later the chief minister of Morocco, 
Muhammad Idris,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
wrote in response to anti-slavery 
efforts, that

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"we do not interfere in religious 
principles which you profess,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
likewise you should not interfere 
in our religion".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In the face of Ottoman unwillingness 
to condemn the status of slaves

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as enshrined in Shariah, 
a British statesman sarcastically stated,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
one might well ask the Sultan 
to become a Christian.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yet today, most if not all Muslims 
are repulsed by the idea of slaves.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Did they abandon the Quran which 
seemed to clearly condone slavery

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a mere century ago?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Or were we able to shift 
mainstream consensus

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by standing up for our moral principles?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I wonder what would have happened

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
if the benevolent bigots of the West, 
of the Left today,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who feel that it is more important 
to respect a culture

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for the sake of respecting a culture 
had existed back then.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How many millions would be 
living in chains today?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There is another common narrative, 
of the West as oppressors,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
how racism here feeds 
into the oppression of a minority.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Champions of Islam have gone 
on record using it as a cudgel

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to beat against the back of progress.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We need to be aware that 
the victim versus the oppressor dynamic

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
isn't set in stone the way some people 
would have you believe.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
One can be a victim in one context 
and an oppressor in another.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
A Muslim man may deal with racism 
at work, real racism,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
may see career setbacks, 
and goes home and beats his hijabi wife

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because he was raised 
in a misogynistic tradition,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
using Quran's verse as justification.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Should we not criticize his behavior

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because of his victimization 
in one aspect?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
An imam may be an anti-Semite, 
a homophobe, he may be indoctrinating

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a generation of impressionable minds 
into his harmful ideas.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yet the same imam might also 
be a victim of bigotry

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when he aims to launch a new mosque.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He may be the target of 
local xenophobic attitudes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In lieu of his sufferings, 
should we pretend

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
his other despicable behaviors 
do not exist? or do not matter?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Are we to sacrifice one for the other?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Instead, can we not stand 
against all oppressions,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
stand for the equal rights of others, 
while simultaneously working

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
against bigoted narratives in religion?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
One of my ex-Muslim colleagues

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
beautifully summed up 
the same sentiments,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when she was talking about 
the misogynistic nature of the hijab,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
quote, feminism is defending 
women, Muslim women,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who wear the hijab for whatever reason,
against shaming or attack.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Feminism is not categorically 
denying that the hijab can be coercive,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
body-shaming, slut-shaming, restrictive 
or psychologically crippling.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We cannot avoid reality 
because we are afraid

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the consequences 
of acknowledging facts.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Is it ethical to avoid educating our 
children about Darwinian evolution

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
simply because it has fed 
into Social Darwinism in the past?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Our silence about uncomfortable truths 
simply underscores

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the cost of our inaction and 
the consequences loom ever larger.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We are paralyzed by our own insecurities, 
by our fear

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the truth will empower 
the worst of us, rather than set us free.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have those on the Islamic far right

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who say that there is no room 
for reform in Islam,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because Islam is, 
and always has been perfect.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have their counterparts 
from the far right in the West,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who coincidentally also view Islam 
as beyond reform,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but for different reasons,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as something that is irredeemably 
and permanently evil.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Between those two extremes, 
we have the average Muslim,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who is forced to choose 
between the devil he knows,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Islamic dominance and supremacy, over 
the devil he doesn't, Western bigotry.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The liberal Left needs to present 
a different path,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not acquiesce to either form 
of religious dominance.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We must remember that there is 
no inevitable march of progress,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
no guarantee that tomorrow's world 
will be more just, more equal,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
more rational, more tolerant 
or reasonable.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Liberal rights without liberals 
to champion them

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
are values without influence, 
with no defense.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Let's not let our empathy 
for oppression of one group

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
excuse their oppression of another.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Thank you!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
{Standing applause}