LibertasPost

Twitter is a funny creature. Because of the nature of the beast, you wind up following and, in turn, being followed by a wide range of different people with different interests and beliefs. So long as you don’t discuss politics or religion, things can be fairly amicable.

Although political tweeters tend to become segregated along left versus right lines, I strive for balance from both sides. As a result, I usually wind up in an argument during the inevitable moment somebody rushes to the defence of Omar Khadr. Or when I discuss the relative merits of the death penalty. Or, as in the case of a few nights ago, when I discuss Islamic extremism.

The topic of Islamic extremist can be fairly toxic. Very few people are able to rationally discuss it without offending someone. Criticizing the fascistic and aggressively expansionist elements of political Islam can be almost impossible if that discussion is taking place with a leftist afflicted with relativist myopia.

For a political group that claims to reject intolerance and hatred, the left—and I use that term loosely, since I mean a specific subset of the progressive left—have become apologists for racism, hatred, intolerance, sexism, misogyny, inequality, segregation, and hegemony.

The online discussion I had with several people revolved around the political symbol of the burqa/niqab and what it means when a woman wears one within western society. I posited that while wearing a burqa does not necessarily make one a supporter of political Islam, it certainly ignores the symbolism of the garment and the gender apartheid it represents in Middle Eastern society.

My opponent made the prevarication that the burqa is nothing more than a style of dress worn by women by choice and that I, a male, had no right to repudiate that supposed choice. Moreover, toward the end of the conversation, this person suggested that our egalitarian society in which women’s right are enshrined in law was not morally superior in this regard and that we should not judge those who wish to live under Islamic law.

Such nonsensical thinking is the reason why western civilization is rotting from the core outward. That a self-celebrated progressive-leftist can’t summon the ethical fortitude to apply universal concepts of equality beyond her own bubble of self-serving rights, is the reason why the Taliban smirk at our attempts to promote the health and welfare of women in Afghanistan.

So-called feminists in Canada enjoy a birthright to equality under Canadian law. But they lack the courage to fight for their international sisters still enslaved in a codified patriarchal society. They stand on the shoulders of giants, Suffragettes who fought for the international principle of human equality, only to stand at a bus shelter next a woman whose identity has been obliderated by a black veil and think about how tolerant they are of different cultures.

Educated pseudo-leftist feminists will not hesitate to criticize the underrepresentation of women in Parliament and the workplace gender gap in income. Yet they look to nations like Afghanistan with a shrug that suggests Islamic fascism should be given a chance to guide self-determination.

Ask an eight-year-old child whether women in the Third World should have the same rights as women in the First World, and you’ll get an unequivocal answer. But ask a neo-feminist in Canada the same question and be prepared to hear non sequitur rants on George Bush, Stephen Harper, neoconservatism and neocolonialism. The kind of university-bred philosophizing that stands in contrast to the commonsense position of applying universal human rights universally.

Adding insult to injury, the leftists who unwittingly support the paradoxical concept of gender equality and women in burqas have the unmitigated gall to use the term “racist” whenever someone disagrees with their relativist views. The very idea of calling somebody a racist because they don’t believe women should be dressed in black gowns and robbed of their innate individualism is about as intellectually bankrupt as it gets.

I have a little girl, whom I love more than anything in this world or beyond. I cannot fathom covering her face behind a veil that shuts her off from the outside world because doing such a thing would annihilate her outward individuality and relegate her to nothing more than an object, conditioned by extremist religious dogma. I hope that any parent would feel the same way.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elifayse/47506810/