I note she dismisses comments that disagree with her as being pro-Islamic (as opposed to anti-islamophobic). She also will probably try her usual trick of typing "zzzzzzzzzz" after i post because she can’t seem to handle the notion of argumement, debate & discussion.

Here’s a set of points (that Old P has repeatedly refused to enagage with when i mentioned this on HP). let’s she if she does so this time:

1. OP claims to oppose Islam because of its sexism
2. She accuses all who disagree with her of sexism
3. Yet, she has very little to say about sexism _outside of islamic societies_
4. India & China have _less women than men_ (implying some degree of female infanticide).
5. This is a major issue of concern for feminists there.
6. OP has nothing to say about it.
7. Islamophobia is not just directed at Muslim men but at Muslim women
8. Muslim women have suffered as a result of Islamophobia [see the links i posted to the other thead mentioning the Gujarat anti-muslim pogroms].
9. This suggests that she is just using sexism as an excuse to justify her pre-existing hatred of islam.

(Self-flagellates. Mmm, nice.)

Well perhaps you can help raise standards round here too!

OK, I don’t take this site as seriously as HP, because generally the level of comment is not so good. But perhaps I’ve not helped matters.

I am sorry to hear about your friend. Muslims are, arguably the main victims of Islam.

For my part, I recognise that there are serious issues about the place of Islam within our secular society; issues which I am only beginning to work through myself. At HP you pointed out that your interest in Islam began on 12 September 2001. For many people, serious interest in Islam would have begun some time between then and 8 July 2005, so you’ve got a head start on many others, including me.

I am interested in all of that, and interested in what someone like you might have to say, even though our politics are clearly very different. But the "extremism" thread wasn’t about that, it was about the risks to the British way of life of a drift towards rightwing extremism. You may well regard that as smacking of "appeasement" or worse, but that was not the point of the original thread. What has got me and I suspect others here angry is that you in effect hijacked the thread without engaging with the topic under discussion.

I am also offended by the way you have persistently insulted contributors here, about whom you actually know nothing. For example, it might or might not surprise you to learn that I am a parent of three teenage children; that I care passionately about the right of my daughters to live in a society free of sexual prejudice and gender inequality, a state of affairs which regrettably seems as far off as ever; that my last long-term partner was a secular Muslim, and that I have many Muslim friends of both genders who are as appalled by Islamist extremism as you are; and that I lost a very old friend in the World Trade Center attack. She too was a Muslim.

People here are probably far more receptive to an informed critique of Islam than you would give them credit for. But barging in as you have over recent days gets noone anywhere.

Also it can’t have escaped your notice that I’m completely outnumbered here, whereas HP has some non moonbats posting.

This whole post was basically an attack on me so it isn’t surprising that I got a bit defensive, yes maybe childish. So what?

(And before you kick off again OP, I deliberately didn’t address this question directly to you because I don’t – really don’t – want to get embroiled in yet another boo-hiss nasty sexist pig shouting match.)

[1] Hatred of Muslims is justified as being a Muslim is a free choice [contrast with] I am doing all this to free Muslim women.

[2] Islam is incapable of being anything other than bin Laden’s Islamism as its theology says it cannot change, therefore it must be opposed at all points [contrast with] I am doing all my ranting to encourage a reformation of Islam to help Muslim women.

Basically, OP hates Muslim women, but she hates them for their own good.