first of many...

Like I stated in my little welcome part of the reason I started this was to spout off about things that annoy, interest and perplex me. The issue most recently that has caught my attention is the big to-do about Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali. The Mufti that compared women without head dress to uncovered meat. I didn't see a whole lot about this, only what I could read online. I don't know if anyone has mentioned what I'm about to but I sure hope so.

Now I fully understand how people have been so upset. This comparison offends me also. It is degrading to women and dangerous to promote these rather backward chauvinistic views. I though am also offend as a male. This statement says a lot about Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali's opinion of Islamic men and men as a whole.

If we break down what he says it's just plain ridiculous. Women are referred to as meat. From this I can only deduce that women are there to be devoured and nothing more. And what of the cats in the example. This can only be men. I think it's interesting that an animal that survives by instinct and has a limited ability to learn is used to represent men.

Now I'll be the first to admit that men are animals. We are responsible for much of what is wrong with the world, but I hold out hope that we can be better. It is obviously the view of Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali is that men can't get any better, and he is using religion to legitimise their ignorance and arrogance. Blowing a whole lot of wind up their arses at the same time.

I don't think this comparison is meant to really comment on men, but I think it says a lot more about men than we would like to admit. Islamic men who buy into this kind of rhetoric are obvious non-thinkers, because if you look at it its offensive. It implies men are incapable of change. That we can't be expected to control ourselves. Some men may want this justification of their desires. They may want the responsibility to lay elsewhere. They may want to be animals.

I like to think that we all have the ability to better ourselves. That we can be more than just mere animals. The decision is ours to make.