.... when we speak against the growing rise of Muslim fundamentalism, we are accused of being sold out to governments, labelled racist, or ‘Islamophobic’2, as if one could not struggle at the same time against both the traditional extreme right and the new fundamentalist extreme right.
What is problematic, in short, is not what we do for women’s rights, for secularism and against the rise of fundamentalism, but where we do it. Should we wage these same struggles in our countries of origin, we would get support or at least we would not be accused in the same way.
Progressive forces in Europe are afraid to get into the same situation and to be labelled ‘Islamophobic’ and racist. Bending to both the pressure from fundamentalists (a tactic we know well for they use the same one to silence us in our countries) and to the guilt feelings inherited from the colonial past, progressive forces fear above all to confront Muslim fundamentalists (and not other fundamentalisms), as they know that fundamentalists will accuse them to be ‘against Islam’, as they claim they are Islam and the only legitimate representatives of the true Islam. [Women Living Under Muslim Laws] Read more [via Butterflies and Wheels]
