Why the West is Worth Defending

It's been my experience that many young people assume the multicultural stance that all cultures are equally valid and that no one in one culture should pass judgment on the practices of other cultures. I think that it's proper to adopt this stance a priori, that is until one has had a chance to examine the practices of other cultures, just as we should not pass judgment on individuals until we have had some experience with the person.

But to hold to the belief that we should never pass judgment either on individuals or cultural practices, even after we have had such experience, is to adopt a kind of moral paralysis.

An example of a practice widespread among Muslim communities, a practice most people would find horrific, is honor killing.

A recent article by a Turkish journalist and political analyst named Uzay Bulut at The Daily Caller presses home the point that this is not just a problem in Muslim countries but a problem in Muslim communities in the West as well.

Ms. Bulut writes about a Facebook post from a Kurdish woman named Karissa who was born and raised in Finland and who tells a very sad story:

I am a 23-year-old Kurdish girl born and raised in Finland. My parents are conservative Kurds from Bashur [Iraqi Kurdistan]. My mother’s from Hewler [Arbil] and my father’s from Kirkuk.

About 4 years ago I decided I couldn’t stand my parents anymore. My parents are Muslim conservatives and they have a tribal mind. I finished high school and after that they wanted to marry me off. I refused a few times until they got violent, so I decided to flee home. I have not had any contacts with my parents for the last 4 years. My entire family threatens me with death messages and if they see me, they will surely kill me or get violent.

“Today I am 23. I finished my dream university and have a great job and I live alone. My parents can contact me when they feel I am more important than their cultural tribal values and religion.

Bulut writes that she was deeply moved by the woman's testimony and decided to learn more about her. She discovered that her family’s physical and psychological abuse against her was so intense and unbearable that she had to leave home. The reason for their pressure was that they feared her “integration into Finnish society.”

Karissa goes on to say that,

Both my parents are very religious Muslims. They were afraid that after I completed high school, I would move out and live a free life like a Finnish woman. They were afraid that I would fall in love with some Finnish guy and be with him. So they got violent. But I never thought about these things. I was thinking about how to get a good education and find a good job.

I was exposed to a lot of violence and ugly epithets. They said they would kill me because I didn’t want to marry. It was so hard for me to go through all of that, but I didn’t know what to do. I was so depressed and felt worthless. Many times, I thought of suicide.

The continuing threats from her family have forced her into hiding:

My family does not know where I live now. If they did, they could send my cousins to kill me or my father himself could kill me. Even the thought that they want to kill me makes me so sad and cry. My workplace is very near to my house, so I do not have to travel a lot.

Karissa's story is not uncommon. In fact she wrote this because she wanted to give hope to the many women around the world who languish in the same situation:

I know many women from the Middle East feel the same way and have the same fate as me. But many don’t have the courage to speak out. I had two female relatives who got shot in Kurdistan because their family members thought their daughters ‘tainted their families’ honor.’ I would want girls who are afraid of fleeing their homes to take the risk and flee.

But they are so afraid of their parents and what their relatives would think of or do to them. And if you are a woman, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to flee your home and survive in any majority-Muslim country.

Bulut is indignant that Western feminists seem indifferent to the plight of women in the Muslim world:

All of these horrific abuses against girls and women are taking place in Muslim communities while many self-described feminist activists in the West are busy discussing whether or not women should shave their legs or dye their arm pit hair, or what they should do in the face of “slut-shaming,” or why they should stop using “guys” to address “mix-gender groups” or what “non-binary pronouns” should be used for those who identify as neither gender, or both.

In the meanwhile, Muslim or ex-Muslim women across the world are violated or murdered by beatings, beheading, burning, shooting, and torture for daring to make their own decisions about their own lives, such as filing for divorce or rejecting their husband’s offers of reconciliation. In many cases, the perpetrators are released and not punished.

Violence against women is a serious problem in many parts of the world. But in majority-Muslim countries, it is systematic and broadly tolerated. Oppression of women is allowed or even encouraged in Islamic scriptures – the Koran and at the hadith sunnah literature. (For those who are interested, all of these scriptures are easily found on the internet.) And it is no secret that Muslim-majority countries are the worst violators of gender equality.

There's more from Bulut at the link and I encourage you to read the essay. She closes with a powerful indictment of some Western feminists:

For example, a women’s rights activist organization in Turkey called We Will Stop Femicides Platform, issues monthly reports about the girls and women who are murdered or abused, mostly by those closest to them, such as husbands, fathers, brothers, boyfriends, sons, or grandsons. It is mind-boggling that their efforts are largely ignored by feminist academics and activists in the West.

Karissa’s life story is also the reason why − despite all of its flaws − Western civilization is worth defending and fighting for. On the one side, Karissa’s own parents who threaten her with death for wanting to make her own choices. On the other side, there’s Finland, a free and civilized country that provides Karissa with human rights and freedoms, helping her preserve her dignity, regardless of her ethnic origin or religion.

Europe is far from perfect, but it’s still much more culturally, morally and intellectually superior to the Islamic world. And this is what so many Westerners seem to fail to grasp.

Furthermore, the move by some Western feminists to paint Islam as a pioneering force in women’s rights is actually enabling the repression and murder of more Muslim women.

Western feminists have a choice: They can either side with Islamists who oppress and even murder women, or they can honestly recognize the religious motivations behind those crimes and show solidarity with women violated by Muslim men. Sadly, many so-called activists seem to have chosen the former, showing how misguided they are in their thinking. Despite all of their claims, they have chosen to be ultimately uncaring and insensitive regarding women’s rights in order to protect a primitive religion.

If you'd like an example of the people she's talking about you can read about one of them here.