On page 27 of his book, Ernst writes, “The image of the oppressed Muslim women can all too often serve as another self-righteous reason for Europeans to congraulate themselves on their superiority.” Then, on page 28 he writes, “Muslims are considered to have dysfunctional roles for women, yet that emblam of Western technological superority, the Internet, is saturated with pornographic images, and the sexualization of women in omnipresent in television, newspapers, and advertising.” By bringing up the use of women’s bodies as a tool of confirming the right the Europeans believed they had to enter Muslim countries and take over, as well as showing how modern day treatments of women in the West are not what we believe them to be, what is Ernst trying to do?
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5 thoughts on “Islam and Women”
Sarah Cehelyk
I think that Ernst is suggesting that although Muslim women are often viewed as “oppressed”, women in Western society are being oppressed in a more extreme fashion. Ernst suggests that this does not make much sense; why should the religion of Islam be seen as inferior when Western society is guilty of the same? A vast majority of society is flawed, not a specific religion or “group” of people.
kennedyhinnant
I believe Ernst is trying to say that how people’s perspective of muslims view women in the religion is a reflection of what Western colonizer portrayal of women. However, in the actuality of Islam women are treated different than what the western perspective is.
Alek DeMaio
It seems as though Ernst is attempting to point out how there is bias to an argument one would use as validation for taking over Muslim countries. Many Western people percieve Muslim country’s as negatively impacting women becasue they percieve things like Burqas to be controlling and misogynistic. While Muslim people living in Muslim countries could make similar claims about things like pornography and images of runway models in the West as similarly negative to how some Western people view parts of Muslim countries. Ernst is pointing out our lack of validity because really there is not much substance to a claim if both sides can easily make it.
gsbaum
Ernst is emphasizing the flaw and bias of peoples perspective on how Muslim’s oppress women in Islam but, this is extremely hypocritical due to the reason that the Western religions and society are guilty of having the same flaws. Western societies view Muslims as an inferior religion due to their beliefs on how Muslims treat women. However, Ernst is trying to emphasize how although viewed badly, Western societies aren’t perfect as well and can be observed with the same flaws.
mmrajan
I remember how much this section of the reading had struck me. Ernst is right: the West’s view of Islam is littered with contradictions. I think he’s trying to highlight this flaw and urge readers to re-assess their perspectives. In a more cliche way, it reads as though he’s saying that the West should make sure their hands are clean before pointing fingers.