Morning Star

Virtue lies in the middle

In the West over the last century, feminists have reacted strongly to misogyny and injustice. It is a given that when a culture oppresses one segment of its population, it runs the risk of a backlash that is equally unjust.  Therefore, in recent decades, in response to the feminist lies that have permeated the popular culture of the West, it has been the strenuous work of many Christians to show that the feminine genius avoids both the stereotypes that harm men and women AND the excesses the undermine the stability of the family.

Sadly, the unhealthy elements of Islamic cultures are fostering the same sort of feminist backlash, as this article shows:

This is the sad truth: There are many women out there who are a fetid product of the patriarchal system. I am talking here about women who choose alpha males over decent, respectful men; women who wish for baby boys instead of baby girls once they are pregnant; mother-in-laws who torture young brides and boss them around; girlfriends who feel that the more a guy ignores them or mistreats them, the more attractive he becomes; women in power who undermine and abuse women who work for them; women who educate their sons to be macho and their daughters to be tame and tameable; women who keep silent when these daughters are abused, whether physically or psychologically; women who drag these daughters to hymen reconstruction surgeries or genital mutilation procedures; women who preach to other women about how they were made to stay home and not participate in the political or social or business lives of their countries; women who teach other women obedience and submission because that is what “Allah” designed for them; women who disdain or hate or fight successful women; women who do not believe in successful women; women who encourage their girls to get married at 14 or to be “patient” when their husbands beat them; but first and foremost: women who are truly and deeply convinced that men are the stronger, superior, brighter sex

And just as Western feminists have rejected the traditional family, chastity, motherhood, and the call to build a healthy and virtuous society, women who are angry at the abusiveness of Muslim culture are reacting by embracing the standard toxic hyperbole:

In a culture that sanctifies “the mother,” it is about time we recognize—and cure—a shameful reality: The hand that rocks the cradle is the same hand that sometimes, willingly or inadvertently, breaks it.

I believe we call that "throwing out the baby with the bathwater." Wrong and bad.

"What we observe and seek most in temperance is the safeguarding of what is honorable, and the regard for what is beautiful" (Saint Ambrose, De Offic. i, 43). It's painful to see these women spouting the worst of radical feminist rhetoric, for just as many will suffer from that in turn.

A particular call to Christian women

A beautiful (though quiet) discussion has taken place at the Synod for the New Evangelisation concerning the phenomenon of conversions from Islam to Christianity. Catholic bishops in predominantly Muslim lands indicate that such conversions are taking place, but there are two major obstacles.

The first obstacle is the long-standing local tradition that one should not change religions, and the further complication that Islam threatens death to those who leave the faith. But the second obstacle is in our own realm, and has to be studied carefully. Archbishop Joseph Absi, auxiliary and protosyncellus in Damascus of the Greek-Melkites in Syria, states:

"The Muslims do not see the difference between Christians and Westerners, because they do not distinguish, themselves, between what is religious and what is political and social. What precedes the Westerners is perceived by the Muslims as preceding the Christians. Now, Western behavior, especially on the cultural and political level and in a general way, harms the religious and national sensitivity of the Muslims, their values, their ethics and their culture. Consequentially, this forms an obstacle to their openness to Christianity and to their possible evangelization."

In fact, he explained, "The majority of Muslims are convinced that the relaxing of mores, the exploitation of weak and poor peoples, the disdain of the Muslim religion that they feel from Westerners, comes from Christians. What can be done to stop the Muslims from confusing Christianity and the West, Christians and Westerners, and to not feel ridiculed and frustrated? The Synod, in its configuration of new evangelization, should lean towards this question, to learn how to avoid, as much as possible, tensions and misunderstandings and what to do so that the Muslims may be more receptive with regards to the Church and to the Gospel."

Think about it. We bewail the decline of morals, the shredding of our culture, and the abandonment of Christian principles in the West, but Muslims still see it all of a piece:

Western Culture = Depravity and Licentiousness.

This must inspire Christian women to consider the virtues of purity, chastity, and modesty in the West as being essential to helping Muslims seeing the beauty of Christian culture. We must embrace those virtues -- not only for our own souls -- because others depend on us here and far beyond the scope of our normal vision.

An uphill battle, no doubt. But all things are possible with God's grace. Begin with yourself, and pray for others to see this important truth. Souls depend on our fidelity to the feminine genius. Virgin, Most Pure, pray for us!

Perhaps she is not an ideal Muslima?

This is the disturbing profile of a released prisoner:

An unsuccessful suicide bomber released from prison as part of the deal to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli conscript, on Wednesday vowed to fulfil a childhood ambition by "sacrificing" her life for the Palistinian cause. As she returned to her family home in northern Gaza, Wafa al-Bis said she would seize any opportunity to mount another suicide mission – and encouraged dozens of cheering schoolchildren to follow her example.

Bis was one of hundreds of Palestinian militants freed by Israel on Tuesday in the first phase of a prisoner swap agreed with Hamas, Gaza's Islamist overlords, to win the freedom of Sgt Maj Shalit after five years in solitary confinement. But as Israel celebrated the return of its captive soldier, her words will chill critics of the deal who argue that many of the 1,027 Palestinians who are to be released from prison will rededicate themselves to violence once they have been freed.

Bis was just 21 when, in 2005, she volunteered to undertake a suicide mission in Israel commissioned by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group that waged a campaign of violence during the Second Intifada. Her target, Israel says, was a hospital where she had been given permission to seek treatment for burns she sustained in a gas tank explosion. She never got there. Stopped by suspicious Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint on Gaza's border, she was discovered with 22-lbs of explosives sewn into a belt inside her underwear. Bis tried to blow herself up but the detonator malfunctioned.

I remember when she was taken, because of my disappointment with so many aspects of her planned attack -- not the least of which was her choice of bombing an Israeli hospital that was full of innocent people and had offered her medical care in her distress.

While not all Christian women live up to the demands of the vocation to which they are called, John Paul  II reminds us that giving life is at the core of our femininity:

Motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the woman's womb. The mother is filled with wonder at this mystery of life, and "understands" with unique intuition what is happening inside her. In the light of the "beginning", the mother accepts and loves as a person the child she is carrying in her womb. This unique contact with the new human being developing within her gives rise to an attitude towards human beings - not only towards her own child, but every human being - which profoundly marks the woman's personality (Mulieris Dignitatem, 18).

Perhaps Ms Bis is not accurately portraying the Muslim ideal of womanhood. In this case, rather than being left with the image of "cheering schoolchildren," I would hope that someone who cares about the image of Islam would correct this misconception -- for the sake of the students and the wider world.