Response to “They Died for Lack of a Head Scarf”

Ryan Thomas

One attributes of the article grabbed my attention on my first read-through of it:

the great injustice of the morality police’s actions, and even of their existence. I cannot
imagine how oppressed Saudi Arabians must feel under their regulation; having never
been so deprived of liberty, any attempt for me to empathize with their situation would be
pretentious and ineffective at best. However, I still feel upset that such a regime has
control of any body of people, though this emotion is subdued, partly because, again, I
lack true empathy for the lifestyle the regime creates, and partly because Eltahawy’s
statements that the Saudi prince and the journalists have begun to take action against the
mutawwi’in keep me fairly hopeful.
Upon reading closer, however, I realized that the actions of and reactions to the
mutawwi’in were not the only important aspects of the article. A subtle and sinister
undercurrent in the article centered around the abuse of Islamic faith. This doctrine, the
one that the morality police claimed to act upon, is the same that Al-Qaeda followers and
radical Iraqi insurgents manipulate to serve their own goals. To see a faith Eltahawy
describes as “cherish[ed] for its teachings of compassion and justice” distorted into an
arbitrary tool of discrimination, hatred, and even war is absolutely disgusting. However,
the question I believe is raised by this seemingly frequent abuse of a single religion is:
could it be that Islam itself provokes misinterpretation?
This is the conclusion I am beginning to come to: of the hundreds of religions in
the world, the most controversial due to its violent followers (currently – Hinduism and
its caste system once held this dishonor) is Islam. No other religion seems to have the
warped following that Islam has – there have been Christian Cults, Hindu Hellraisers,
Buddhist Belligerents even – but Islam alone seems to incite violence in every culture it
enters. Of course, this could be due to other factors in said cultures, but several factors
make this an unlikely possibility: if premises of a religion include the subjugation of
women, the acceptance of war if it is “holy”, and the following of a frequently violent,
temperamental figure claiming divine inspiration, then it may not be the most peaceful set
of beliefs.
I do not mean to insult or degrade Muslims – most seem to grasp the best and
most enriching principles of the religion, and use them to sow peace and kindness in their
lives and the lives of others. However, I take issue with the assertion that Islam is by
nature a peaceful religion, as my knowledge of some of its teachings and the actions of
great multitudes of its followers, albeit obvious zealots, specifically those mentioned in
the article.
Yes, I took it there.