On the Compatibility of Islam and Feminism: A Response to the Goatmilk Debate

I received two emails yesterday inquiring as to what I thought about the Goatmilk debate on the compatibility of Islam and feminism. Seeing as the argument of the opposition was a collection of the usual pedestrian perspectives that conclude the two are irreconcilable, I hadn’t planned on writing about what I’ve already addressed over a …

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When we NEED Shari’a Law in the United States

Dun, dun, DUUUUUN! When there was paranoid talk of the 'creeping Shari’a' in the U.S. I responded with the usual scoffing and eye-rolling and exasperated exclamations of you totally do not even know what Shari’a is and also that is so not even happening. Of course, that last bit would be irrelevant—it doesn’t matter what …

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Separation of church & state

It never ceases to amaze me that “religious extremists”—whatever that means—aggressively force the integration of their religious beliefs with government when this is clearly destructive to their own interests. For a religious state to prosper, the religion in question would inevitably become secularized to prevent collapse, the eruption of threatening riots, or simply dysfunction. Such …

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Inequality Resulting from the Separation of Moral and Social Spheres

For an overwhelming number of verses, the Qur’an holds men and women equally accountable in communal spheres of responsibilities such as upholding equity and securing justice (4:135), contrary to the misconception that women are not expected to maintain financial security or become protectors of society. In fact women who are privileged enough to be wealthy …

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