A couple of weeks ago I received news from my contacts in Pakistan, that two Pakistani Christian girls - aged 13 and 10 - had been abducted by Islamist extremists, forcibly converted to Islam, probably raped, and forcibly married. The girls' parents sought help from the local police, who refused to act. The local MP was protecting the kidnappers. The parents took it to court, and a lower court ruling awarded custody of the girls to the kidnappers, on the basis that the girls were now Muslims and could not live with their Christian parents. Thankfully, earlier this week we saw some small progress - a high court ruled that their conversion was not voluntary, and that they should be placed in a government safe-house. But the court also prohibited them from having contact with either their abductors (good) or their parents (why?). Full story here.
All this came just after I finished reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book Infidel. I believe it is another "absolutely must read" book. I think you should read the book in full, so I will just provide two extracts to give you a taste - in the hope that you will delve deeper. Writing about honour killings, Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali - who was given asylum in the Netherlands and became a Dutch MP - was constantly challenged by politically-correct Europeans to back up her arguments with evidence - but could never get anyone in Government to gather the facts. She continues:
Even Amnesty International didn't keep statistics on how many women around the world were victims of honor killings. They could tell you how many men were imprisoned and tortured, but they couldn't keep tabs on the number of women flogged in public for fornication, or executed for adultery. That wasn't their subject.
She concludes on the subject of Islamism (though she personally applies this more broadly to Islam):
I am also convinced that this is the largest, most important issue that our society and our planet will face in this century. Every society that is still in the rigid grip of Islam oppresses women and also lags behind. Most of these societies are poor; many are full of conflict and war. Societies that respect the rights of women and their freedom are wealthy and peaceful.
There is much, much, much more in the book that is deeply moving, challenging, inspiring, difficult, provocative and courageous. One does not need to agree with her entire analysis, but one cannot fail to be inspired by her courage, principle and life story - and the basic values and principles she sets out to champion are surely ones we should all endorse.
