Freedom, the Veil, and Western Views of Islam

I often spend time reading such blogs ashttp://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/veiled4allah/010848.php to read Muslim interpretations of the West, as well as Muslim interpretation of the Islamic world FOR the West. What struck me today as I read about women in the Islamic world, the UAE port deal, and the Danish Cartoon Extravaganza was how much emphasis is placed in Islam on Society and the individual's place in the Umma (as I believe it is called), while in the West, the individual and individual conscience tends to have the upper hand. Wearing a veil is partly viewed by some as a FEMINIST response to Muslim men; see http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/veiled4allah.php and scroll down to read about this.

From an American perspective, it seems sheer folly to wear a veil and cover oneself BECAUSE SO MANY MUSLIM MEN CANNOT BEHAVE PROPERLY TOWARD WOMEN IN PUBLIC. We have assholes here, too, hanging out of cars and hooting and whistling, yet in the US, covering yourself from head to toe would not be considered a reasonable or practical response to this behavior.

Veiled4allah also points out how a woman in Hamas can reconcile her feminist goals with sending her sons off as "martyrs" against Israel. It just sounds to me, as a Westerner, like fascism. Women were liberated under Soviet communism, but were "free to be put in a cage" in Leningrad (apologies to Randy Newman). They were equal to men under a form of government which rendered individuals impotent except to serve the state.

I'm afraid that whatever Muslim moderates might say, the logic of the state under Islam is headed away from democracy and toward state power over individual conscience. In practice, this has been more often the case than not, or wouldn't democratic governments be more common in the Muslim world?

It seems that Muslims wish that Danish editors would worry about Muslim sensibilities, just as the Islamic world seems to expect women to adapt to the sensibilities of Muslim men.

In America, we a have a saying: "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."

I just can't hear that being said in Arabic.