-Islamophobia" and Toddy's Ideological Jihad
coming of Islam? As we have seen, even Aisha , Muham mad's belov ed
child bride, said, "I havenotseen any woman suffering as much as the
believingwomen."'
So many fighters forwomen's rights or wider reform in Islam are like
Mulia , The y can not adm it to the mse lve s or oth ers tha t Isl am its elf ,
through its religious texts,isresponsible for the problems they seek to
refo rm. They spea k blan dly of how the jiha dists , or terr orist s,or Wah-
habis, or the villain du jour. have hijacked Islam, without offering any
cohe rent prog ram for conve rtin g thes e viol ent "mis unde rsta nder s" of
Isla mthroughout the world into peaceful, tolerant pluralists.
Mul ia does not expl ain how the "cu ltu ral tra diti ons and int erp ret a-
tions" to which she objects arose in Islamic countries, How did Muslims
in Saudi Arabia and Iran model their laws and fashion their mores other
than through Islam? Beyond the basics of faith, Mulia says, most laws
affecting women areman-made; "none of it came as a fax from heaven."
But tho se who le gis lat e in Sau di Ara bia , Ira n, Sud an, and Pak ist an
believe that they are following a "fax from heaven," namely the Qur'an.
After all, what is a series of dictations by Allah to Muhammad other than a
fax from heaven"?
Like so many otherself-pro cla ime dIslami c refor mers, Mulia seemsto
beon the side of the angel s, but she is actual ly helpin g to promot e con-
fusio n about Islam. Ibn Warr aq put it well: "Ther e are modera te
Musli ms but Islam itselfisnot moderate." Too many Muslim reformers
think theymustdefendIslamat all costs, whatever mental contortions they
have toperformin order to do so—even if it means glossing over and
refusing toface the elements of Islam that jihad terrorists use to justify
their actions. Itis only "bad Musli ms," we're told—Wahha bis, other
extre mists , you nameit—who are responsible, Yet these very same "bad
Muslims" seem tobe those who most fervently accept, in every area of life,
the actual teachings of Islam, while the more relaxed, unobservant, and
above all