Musings on a Hot Summer Night in Manhattan

(Photo by Iran president's office)

Yesterday in Khartoum, a world away, the Sudanese police beat the women who peacefully came to support Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein; they beat her lawyer too. Like their fellow Islamist thugs in Teheran, they blocked the cameramen so you cannot see their dirty work.

Advertisement

Yes, as one of my readers pointed out: The judge delayed Hussein’s trial possibly in the hope that someone would kill her, (she’s been threatened) and that no trial, no public flogging would be necessary.

There are no Marines coming over the next hill on this one.

There certainly are no Western feminists anywhere on the horizon.

Otherwise, the feminists all live (and die) in the Muslim world right now and their heroism is dazzling, mind-boggling.

The Western multi-culturalists say that they are “helping” all they can by refusing to discriminate against Islam and Islamism, by accepting the veil in our midst, and by “de-constructing” it in the classroom. They say: The West has prostitution, Islam veils its women–get used to it.

As if Islam does not have a long and terrible history (which continues to this day) of sex slavery, concubines, polygamy, one-hour holy “marriages,” and western-style prostitutes. As if girls and women in burqas or wearing veils (Hussein wears a headscarf) are never beaten, humiliated, or sentenced to be publicly flogged. As if a veiled woman=dignity and an unveiled woman=naked prey. Stay tuned for more on this theme.

**************

On another note entirely: Last weekend I went to a private beach in my hometown of Brooklyn. It was an enchanted afternoon. The sand there still smells like my childhood, the ocean is still there too. White sailboats sailed by, an older, crowd read their books and newspapers quietly,  talked softly,  walked slowly in the sea, sat under the trees or on the grass which lined the beach. There was no loud music, no hawking of ice cream or food. It was another era. One that is missed.

Advertisement

*****************

I have just been told that they are closing the Library at the 92nd Y. Thirty thousand books and the services of a librarian will no longer be here. Money problems? A disdain for books, a preference for online reading? (See my
blog here on this very subject.) One of the librarians who heard me speak is the one who alerted me to this. She is frantic.

So many places in this city have disappeared. Long before the recession/depression hit, (which has led to more and more stores being boarded up), I would pass by a corner and look for something that is no longer there, a shop, a service, a cafe, all, all replaced by a newer, younger, taller, sleeker building or store. One by one, bit by bit, they are taking away the past, making way for the future.

I hope that future is not a veiled one.

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement