Tapfer im Nirgendwo

What must women put up with when they dare criticize a patriarchal system?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an American political scientist and feminist of Somali origin. She is one of the most prominent critics of Islam. At the age of five her vagina was mutilated at the instigation of her grandmother. Almost forty years after that barbaric act, someone tweeted on March 8, 2011, that Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s entire vagina should be removed:

„Brigitta Gabriel= Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’s asking 4 an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.“

Those words didn’t emanate from the foul mouth of a repulsive woman-hating guy, but rather from a woman named Linda Sarsour. Linda Sarsour is an Eva Herman with a headscarf. She’s an American activist of Arab origin and chairman of the Arab-American Association of New York. On International Women’s Day in 2011 she sexually offended Ayaan Hirsi Ali, because Ali had dared to criticize Islam. A couple of years later, it was Linda Sarsour, who co-organized the Women’s March in Washington on January 21, 2017.

Dear participants of this year’s Women’s March,

I know what I’m doing now is marginal mansplaining, but I can’t help it. Tell me, where are your senses? You uncritically took part in a demonstration against Donald Trump, organized by a woman who humiliated and deeply insulted a woman just because she dared to criticize a system that is clearly more hostile to women than the present US-government.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a courageous feminist who deals with an ideology that without exaggeration is one of the most dangerous misogynous ideologies today. She has already received innumerable threats to her life. She lives under constant mortal danger. After producing a feminist film directed by Theo van Gogh, the director was murdered in Amsterdam on 2 November 2004 by a Muslim extremist, who rammed a knife with a threatening letter addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali into the corpse. On January 25, 2003 in an editorial to the daily newspaper Trouw, she described Mohammed:

„Measured by our Western standards, he is a perverse man. A tyrant.“

Such a sentence fits without any problem into the series of statements which were said about Donald Trump during the recent Women’s March. However, the criticism of Trump is more than hypocritical when “Trumpeters” like Linda Sarsour can so much as blurt out „grab Ayaan Hirsi Ali by the pussy!“ and get away with it.

Whoever thinks Linda Sarsour is a feminist, can also believe that a pimp is worried about the welfare of women, because when it comes to the headscarf many people sound like pimps: „Women want that!“

***

Translation: William Wires
http://www.williamwires.com
http://www.facebook.com/William.Wires.Fine.Art

President Donald Trump has ordered that citizens from Syria, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan and Iran may not enter the United States during the next 90 days. I know such discrimination all too well.

Sixteen countries have issued a permanent entry ban against Jews, and also against me! Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen hate Israel so much that they hate everything that is even associated with Israel, including not only Jews from Israel but also anyone who has ever visited Israel like me.

#JewBan has been around for quite some time.

But there are no worldwide protests against the entry ban for Jews. The majority are silent, as they’ve often been. The Muslims, who are affected by the American President’s decree, compare themselves with the Jews of the past, although all the countries included in Trump’s decree themselves ban Jews from entering their countries. Whoever compares these Muslims with the earlier situation of Jews has not learned anything from history.

Today the masses shout out when a ban involves Muslims – and that’s good. The majority, however, today as then, remain silent on the exact same injustice directed against Jews.

I admit that the entry ban regarding the 16 countries does not affect me much. My home is safe. I don’t have to flee, and even if I did have to flee no Muslim country would my choice to seek protection. I don’t have the urge to experience the nightlife in Libya; the gay and lesbian scene in Sudan is not on my travel wish list. Besides, I wouldn’t be allowed to cruise around in an open convertible with feminists in Saudi Arabia. Why should I flee to such places, where I’d be persecuted!

I’m equally sad and angry that the president of my cherished United States of America is now taking steps equal to the policies of those regimes which he’s supposedly fighting. But I’m glad to see such uproar. Alas, it should be the same with the #JewBan.

I am also personally affected by Donald Trump’s decree, because I’m a Muslim. Yes, whether you believe it or not, a few years ago I converted to Islam at a liquor store on the Zülpicher Strasse in Cologne. It was incredibly simple. I just had to say this sentence in the presence of a few Muslims:

لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله.

I did just that. Since then, I’m a Muslim! Now Islam has to deal with the likes of me as with Mike Tyson. Muslims have themselves to blame! If they don’t want jerks like me, they should get better bouncers!

So far, I haven’t experienced any problems entering the USA as a Muslim. I hope that doesn’t change. The former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has also declared that she „is ready to register herself as a Muslim“ in order to protest Donald Trump’s policies.

Yes, I am a Muslim, but I will still drink alcohol, party with homosexuals, defend Israel, make fun of Allah and criticize Islam. Anyone who feels insulted can kiss my Islamic ass! People who feel insulted by me are like those who feel offended if a mosque is built somewhere. Mosques are as much a part of a city as are synagogues, churches, theaters, breweries, museums, sex shops, French fries and kebab shops. Islam as well as heresy belongs to my country. As a Muslim I have a request:

Raise your voices, but consistently!

When the Trump era in the US is over, I ask all the millions who are now loudly demonstrating against Donald Trump to continue raising their voices, against all the countries that have been forbidden entry to Jews, Israelis and their friends! Protest consistently and loudly against all the countries which execute homosexuals- all of which are Islamic! Organize women’s marches against those governments that discriminate against women! Perhaps even Madonna may find the time to decide for love despite thoughts about blowing up the Kaaba in Mecca. I also ask Germans to continue demonstrating for marriage rights such as those in the USA.

Donald Trump has ordered that the US will not take in a single refugee the next 120 days. During that time, the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence services are supposed to ensure that the review process for refugees is made more effective. Only afterwards will refugees be further allowed to enter the country. With this decree, Donald Trump has personally grabbed the Statue of Liberty under her skirt:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

“Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.“ – Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus was a Jewish writer and lived in New York from 1849 to 1887. The words on the Statue of Liberty come from the 1883 poem „The New Colossus“. Fifty four years afterwards, President Franklin D. Roosevelt denied nearly 1,000 Jews entry into the United States. The Hamburg registered passenger ship St. Louis left the Hanseatic city on 13 May 1939 with 937 passengers, 930 of which wanted to leave Nazi Germany. All were forced back to Europe.

At least the United States of America ensured that the reasons for the exodus were fought against. I hope that in the 21st century the causes of involuntary emigration will be combated. The major causes are of course the repressive nationalist Islamist regimes against which no comparative protest has formed such as against Donald Trump and his clique. The demonstrators in Europe must be made clear that millions of people are demonstrating against Donald Trump in the US, while the opposition in all the Islamic-controlled dictatorships of the world is either interned in prisons and being murdered. If anyone needs European support, then certainly those where millions can’t protest.

Germans protesting against the American president shouldn’t remain silent in regard to Islamist „presidents“!

As long as the reasons for refugee flight are not combated, there will be presidents sending refugees back. To protest a president who refuses to accept refugees is humanly understandable and necessary, but inconsistent if nothing is done against the causes.

Just as the Nazis were the enemies of any enlightened German, the Naziis (national Islamists) today are the enemies of any enlightened Arab. I am a German and I hope that the people in the Arab world will once be as free as Germany is today thanks to the Allies. Just as Germany is now allied with its former enemies the United States, England and France, the Arab world can become an ally of Israel. It’s possible. Whoever doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist! Many Germans once hated Jews then as do many Arabs hate Jews now. Earlier there were few people who stood up against the hatred of the Nazis. The Scholl siblings wrote in their third flyer:

”But our present State is a dictatorship of Evil. “We’ve known that for a long time,” I can hear you say, “and it is not necessary for you to remind us of it once again.” So I ask you: If you are aware of this, why aren’t you uneased? Why do you permit this autocrat to rob you of your rights, little by little, both overtly and in secret? One day there will be nothing left, nothing at all, except for a mechanized national engine that has been commandeered by criminals and drunks. Has your spirit been so devastated by rape that you forget that it is not only your right, but your moral duty to put an end to this system?

If a person cannot even summon the strength to defend his rights, then there is nothing left for him but destruction. Then we will deserve to be scattered to all corners of the globe, as dust before the wind, if we do not pull ourselves together in this eleventh hour and finally summon the courage that we have been lacking till now. Do not hide your cowardice under a veil of cleverness! Because each day you delay, each day you do not resist this spawn of hell, your guilt increases exponentially.”

The Scholl siblings were clear in their message: A German nation, which can’t liberate itself independently from the Nazis, deserves to be destroyed and scattered like dust. It is thus entirely in the hands of the people of those countries that are now being oppressed by the Naziis. In their first pamphlet, the Scholls warned:

“Remember, every nation deserves the government that it endures!”

It’s not the Americans who should be studying those flyers, but rather those countries which cause people to flee to the USA. Donald Trump is a pain in the ass, as the American would say, and I also protest against him grabbing Lady Liberty by the pussy. There are, however, those problems for which it is no less necessary to go to the streets in massive numbers. In the fourth leaflet of the siblings Scholl is:

“Though we know that National Socialist power must be broken by military means, we are trying to achieve a renewal from within of the severely wounded German spirit. This rebirth must be preceded, however, by the clear recognition of all the guilt with which the German people have burdened themselves, and by an uncompromising battle against Hitler and his all too many minions, party members, Quislings, and the like. With total brutality the chasm that separates the better portion of the nation from everything that is opened wide. For Hitler and his followers there is no punishment on this Earth commensurate with their crimes.

But out of love for coming generations we must make an example after the conclusion of the war, so that no one will ever again have the slightest urge to try a similar action. And do not forget the petty scoundrels in this regime; note their names, so that none will go free! They should not find it possible, having had their part in these abominable crimes, at the last minute to rally to another flag and then act as if nothing had happened! (…).

”We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!”

“Please duplicate and distribute!!“

***

Translation:
William Wires
http://www.williamwires.com
http://www.facebook.com/William.Wires.Fine.Art

„If we allow people to be removed from public discourse by force, and although I may loathe their statements, believe me, Gerd, we Jews will be the next ones to go.“

Those were the words of my host father, Jim Davidson, a successful lawyer in the United States of America. I owe him. My conversations with him impressed me. His warning impressed me.

Yesterday (Jan. 12, 2017), a riot began at an event with the political party, AfD (Alternative for Germany) at the Otto von Guericke-University in Magdeburg, Germany. According to MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, a state financed TV station), violence erupted and a fire cracker was thrown at the lecturer. The organizers had to flee the stage and then leave the university under police protection.

Violence thus prevented public discourse at a German university. This is shocking and frightening. The AfD, as a political party, is not forbidden! No court of law has presented anything that justifies banning the party. It’s all the worse that a university, a place of open-mindedness, where the intellectual elite resides, where freedom of thought is exercised, where clever minds debate, where gifted academics research and analyze, a place where there is no reason to banish thought because enlightened people have the courage to stand their own mind. If not at a university where else can people engage with the AfD and criticize their politics and ideology?

Should the writings of Martin Luther and the Koran be banned? What those offer is much worse than anything the AfD proposes.

I took gender study courses at the University of Cologne; I am active in the LGBT community, I am a journalist for the newspaper Jüdische Rundschau (Jewish Chronicle) and, together with two female colleagues, I am involved in feminist theater. If there is anyone who questions the AfD, with its sometimes sexist, racist and anti-Jewish rhetoric then it would certainly be me. But that does not justify violence and the disregard of the law. The rules of law are the security of minorities such as the Jews. Michelle Obama once said:

„If they go low, we go high!“

I will not make my morality and my concept of justice dependent on the AfD! How should I know that those who denounce the AfD’s right to participate in public discourse may not ban me in the future because they think I represent a danger? I don’t know! But, I know my host father was right. Jews are always the next ones, if not the first ones. On October 27, 2016, Jews were removed from a London university because the police could no longer guarantee for their safety. When the police arrived at the scene, they witnessed a terrible scenario of Jew hatred.

The approximately 25 students attending the lecture had to lock themselves together with their lecturer Hen Mazzig in a small room while a violent mob was forming outside. A student described the situation as follows:

„There was a lot of shouting and banging on the door. We were all afraid, but we were trying to concentrate on the lecture. It was insane. Despite the door banging, Hen continued to speak of peace. That was really very nice, because we were united and sang a song of hope despite the noise from outside.“

The lecturer, Hen Mazzig, who was invited as a humanitarian affairs commissioner, later said, „I was surprised that they targeted my message of peace and coexistence. It was really hard to talk above all the noise.“

When some of the mob managed to pry open a window, the police knew that violence impended. However, the 20 police officers weren’t enough to control the Jew-hating mob. Instead, the ones being attacked were removed from the university grounds. Hen Mazzig was forced to leave the university with his students through a narrow corridor of hate-filled people who shouted at them: „Shame on you!“

I can well imagine why Hen Mazzig was targeted. He is Jewish, Israeli and gay. These are three characteristics that both Hamas and Fatah hate! The leaders of the Palestinian movement make no secret of the fact that „Free, Free Palestine“ is a slogan to murder Jews, destroy Israel and execute homosexuals. This kind of hate erupts frequently. A few years ago, musicians were shouted down at the Royal Albert Hall in London because they were Israelis:

Israelis are shouted down and driven from lecture halls:

Concerts are disrupted because the musicians are Israeli:

Artists such as Lars Vilks are attacked with shouts of „Allahu Akbar“ in lecture halls:

For Jews and Israelis, universities, concert halls and lecture rooms in Europe and America have now become war zones. They are even removed by the police because they can’t guarantee their safety.

I know the motivation of the troublemakers. I was myself a student who was once involved in the disturbance of a lecture, because I thought the philosopher, who was the subject of the seminar – his name is Peter Singer – was a fascist, to whom no platform should be offered. Today, I feel ashamed of my participation. It was people like my wife, Daniel Raboldt and Alice Schwarzer, who took me aside and, in their criticism of my behavior, reminded me of the words of my host father. I thank them.

It was self-pride and arrogance that drove me to dictate to others what they were allowed to hear. I shouted: “Beware the beginnings!“ Today, I realize the beginnings I meant were nothing but the beginnings of a future that I construed. I took other people hostage on account of my own fears. This, however, is the root of totalitarian thinking which allows for force over thought.

All that causes more fear than a AfD seminar at the University of Magdeburg, because it were students who burned books in Berlin in 1933 and in Wartburg in 1817. They considered themselves morally superior!

It’s characteristic of those aggressors to shout down Jews and Israelis, and denounce them as Nazis! For them, the term Nazi is merely an insult which they always scream when they want to silence an opponent. They don’t care about the fact that they trivialize true Nazism, offend Jews and ultimately question the Holocaust. They feel morally superior. Every one is a Nazi except themselves!

However, courts of law decide whether a person is a Nazi, and thus a constitutional enemy or a criminal who is to be prosecuted. That’s why we have courts of law which protect minorities. Mob rule doesn’t serve justice. Whoever screams the loudest isn’t necessarily right. Shouting is violence, at least in academia!

Even if one is disgusted by another person’s ideas, then where, if not at a university, can one have the opportunity to meet and confront his opponents? Know your enemy. Study him!

***

Translation:
William Wires
http://www.williamwires.com
http://www.facebook.com/William.Wires.Fine.Art