The Modernist Menace To Islam by Daniel Haqiqatjou

Yes. Without a doubt. The evidence is overwhelming.

It’s really not hard to understand why. Feminism is a liberal secular philosophy. In the same way that liberal secularism attacks traditional religion, feminism attacks traditional religion. Arguably, feminism is the main weapon in liberal secularism’s attack on traditional religion. So it is no surprise that those Muslims who adopt feminist ideas will have deep problems with traditional religions like Islam.

To say that feminism has nothing to do with women leaving Islam is like saying the KKK has nothing to do with its members hating black people. If someone were to deny that the KKK and hating black people go hand in hand, that would mean that that person does not understand what the KKK is.

And this is exactly the case with Muslims who defend feminism. Those Muslims who want to deny feminism’s corrosive effects on Muslim faith are simply ignorant of what feminism is and its real history. If you ask them what feminism is, they will give you a whitewashed history that is peddled in establishment institutions of learning, e.g., grade school. And when you question them on this history, they will appeal to mainstream, pro-feminist academic works, e.g., schlock like No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women.

This is like trying to get an understanding of American history by reading some right-wing patriot’s history of the US that extols the “brave Founding Fathers” who fought for independence and inalienable rights while ignoring things like the Native American genocide, the Transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, etc.

The reality is, feminism has been instrumental in attacking religion in general and Islam in particular. But I also want to take the opportunity to respond to some of the tired talking points we hear by feminists and “white knights” on this question.

The main claim that we hear nowadays is that “Muslim women are leaving Islam, not because of feminism but because they are mistreated by Muslim men.” Those who make this claim usually cite three things:

1. Anecdotes/personal experience with abusive Muslim men.

2. The lack of space/visibility of women at mosques.

3. The lack of women in leadership roles.

What people fail to notice is that none of these things explain why we see more Muslim women today frustrated with traditional Islam. Not even close.

If more Muslim women are frustrated with Islam or have doubts about Islam or are taking off the hijab, etc., that means that there must be more of 1, 2, and/or 3. If more women are frustrated, then that must be because more Muslim men are abusive or women have decreasing space/ visibility at mosques, or women have fewer and fewer leadership roles.

But none of this is true.

There is no evidence to suggest that Muslim men are more abusive now than they were, say, 5 years ago or 10, 20, 50, or 100 years ago. In fact, according to the feminist logic, Muslim men should overall be less abusive now than they were in the previous generation or two, since Muslim men now at least have the light of intersectional feminism to inform them of things like “toxic masculinity” and “mansplaining,” etc., i.e., things of which our fathers and grandfathers were blissfully ignorant. Do feminists think that our fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers were on average less abusive than the current generation of Muslim males? If the previous generation of men were more abusive, then shouldn’t there have been more frustration in our mother’s, grandmother’s, and great grandmother’s generations than there is now? But there wasn’t more frustration then. So this explanation makes no sense.

Similarly with the supposed lack of space/visibility and leaderships points. Women are more visible than ever at mosques (whether or not this is a good thing is a separate issue). They are in more positions of leadership as well. No one denies this. Yet the rate of Muslim women losing faith is not slowing or reversing. By all appearances, it is accelerating. So what gives?

Ironically, if space/visibility/leadership are in fact tied to the rate of Muslim women leaving Islam, as the feminists argue, then if we want to reverse the trend, basic logic would dictate that we had better reduce women’s space/ visibility/leadership in mosques and roll things back to that Golden, pre-feminist era of Muslim history, i.e., the vast majority of Muslim history.

Be honest. How many Muslim women do you know — friends, family, classmates, co-workers, etc. — who have, in recent years, taken off their hijabs completely or have gone the way of the turban (garish and off-putting as feminized turbans are)?

Be honest. How many Muslim women do you know who were by all considerations “pretty religious” not more than two or three years ago but now are constantly kvetching about the patriarchy and the “gendered” nature of traditional Islam, Islamic law, Islamic scholarship, etc.?

Be honest. How many Muslim women do you know who were serious students of knowledge, merrily learning about Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya or perhaps Imam Al-Shafi`i, perhaps wearing niqab and avoiding things like make-up and mixing, but now are cheap Linda Sarsour clones with genitalia hats ranting about intersectionality and trans rights at the spoken word night at the local night club?

Let’s be honest.

Alhamdulillah, there are plenty of sisters who are holding things down and rejecting the feminist tide. But outside of them, things are getting worse and worse as far as some Western Muslim women are concerned. To insist that this has nothing to do with the adoption of feminist ideology is sheer delusion. Irresponsible delusion.

So if abuse, space/visibility, and leadership don’t explain the loss of modesty and faith, how exactly does adoption of feminism explain apostasy among Muslim women?

Well, call me crazy, but it seems obvious to me that if a Muslima adopts the feminist premise that genders must be treated exactly equally, she is going to be disinclined towards a religion, like Islam, that specifies very different roles for each gender. If a Muslima adopts the feminist premise that modesty and dress codes are a way for men to manipulate women, she is going to be disinclined towards a religion that emphasizes modesty and strict female dress codes. If a Muslima adopts the feminist premise that historically men have subjugated women through an evil patriarchal cabal, she is going to be disinclined towards a religion that teaches that “Men are authorities over women,” (Quran 4:34) and where the vast majority of its scholars and religious authorities were and continue to be men. And so on. This is not a mystery, folks.

Let me also say that the majority of the blame for this crisis goes to white knights. White knights are those religious men who give currency to feminist ideas. These are the self-hating men who are constantly shouting about how much, “Muslim men are trash!” and how “We do really have a problem with patriarchy.” These men are dangerous because they lend religious legitimacy to the feminist project. These are the men who allow the feminist virus to spread and to thrive. And whenever anyone points out the problems with the feminist project, these white knights are the loudest in shouting down objectors with red herrings and other fallacies.

So, white knights are the real problem here, especially the imams among them. The Muslim feminists would fizzle out very quickly were it not for religious leaders constantly pandering to them and legitimizing their garbage by pretending to be “good Muslim men.” The only thing more vapid and more dangerous than the Muslim feminist is the Muslim white knight.