51politics, and the ghetto chieftains are often the
leading errand boys for them. Identity politics and
the pseudo- liberal search for cultural authenticity
result in nothing but a downward spiral of com-
peting medieval religious or cultural assertions,
fi ghts over who are the “real” Muslims, ever in-
creasing misogyny, homophobia, sectarianism, and
extremism.
This is not liberal. Among the left, this is a rem-
nant of the socialist approach that prioritizes group
identity over individual autonomy. Among the
right, it is ironically a throwback from the British
colonial “divide and rule” approach. Classical lib-
eralism focuses on individual autonomy. I refer
here to liberalism as it is understood in the philo-
sophical sense, not as it’s understood in the United
States to refer to the Demo cratic Party— that’s a
party- political usage. The great liberal betrayal of
this generation is that in the name of liberalism,
communal rights have been prioritized over in-
dividual autonomy within minority groups. And
minorities within minorities really do suffer because
of this betrayal. The people I really worry about
when we have this conversation are feminist Mus-
lims, gay Muslims, ex- Muslims— all the vulnerable
and bullied individuals who are not just stigmatized
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