At the outset, it might be well for the author of this essay to explain the title. In round numbers, the Prophet Mohammed lived about 1500 years ago. The Prophet took several wives and they produced several children. But if my understanding is nearly correct, two of his grandsons founded competing brands of the Muslim faith, the Sunnis and the Shiites. In both the Sunnis and the Shiites, great restrictions are placed upon females. I suppose the contention must be that if God had wanted females to be equal to men, he would have equipped them with a penis and a pair of testicles. But God in his infinite wisdom did not so equip the female race.
During their lifetimes, the two grandsons of Mohammed fell into disagreement on religious principles. For at least 1400 or 1500 years, Sunnis and Shiites have been at loggerheads with each other. But they are united in one respect in that they agree that women are an inferior race.
Now we come to the Wahhabis. They fully agree that God created the predominant sex or men and the inferior sex who are women. But the Wahhabis upped the ante on restrictions on females.
The Wahhabis dominate much of the religious dogma in Saudi Arabia. In that country, no woman is permitted to drive an automobile. No female, as I understand it, is permitted to walk alone unless she is accompanied by a male relative. When some young woman loses her father, she has to cast about for yet another relative to guard her when she appears on the street, lest she fall into terrible sin. Apparently a young woman who has lost her father and who has no immediate male relatives is simply out of luck. I suppose that she is relegated to stay home at all times.
I hope you don’t think that I am making this stuff up. This is the situation that prevails in one of America’s closest allies, namely Saudi Arabia. Now, what does this have to do with us? I will tell you what it does have to do with us.
On this coming Monday, August 27th, the Republicans will meet in Tampa, Florida to approve the platform that they will conduct their coming campaign on. May I suggest that it is clear that the Wahhabis, or the American brand of the Wahhabis, have captured the Republican convention.
Let us consider only those provisions that affect women. Mind you, these provisions are not for Republican women but rather they are intended for every American female who will be affected. Specifically, provisions in the Republican platform provide that every woman who becomes pregnant through normal intercourse or rape must carry that pregnancy full-term. Perhaps I should have said “legitimate rape” which is currently in fashion these days in Republican circles. There is no provision in the platform for modernity. The platform chosen by the committee of the Republican Party will take us back to pre-historic times. To complete the cycle, the Republican Party has presided over the ban on abortion clinics. Try to get an abortion in the state of Mississippi or in the great state of Texas. It’s not going to happen. In some cases, those who offer abortion services are often killed. See the case of the abortion provider in Wichita, Kansas.
This is the official position of the Republican Party. Paul Ryan and his majesty Mitt Romney undoubtedly welcome this platform and praise it. It is only a small step from decreeing that a woman who becomes pregnant, even if the cause is rape, will have to carry that pregnancy to term. The next step, of course, is the limitation on birth control. There are some druggists who refuse to carry birth control pills or devices. And all of this is being done in this enlightened country in the year of 2012. Those restrictions might be better suited to the year of 1012 than to 2012.
So the Republican platform that the delegates will be asked to approve next week says that there will be no abortions and no exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest, and that the female is required to carry that pregnancy to term. For example, if a healthy child is born to a woman as the result of rape, that woman will always be reminded of her rape or the incestuous relationship that caused the pregnancy. But the religious authorities, principally the Catholic Church, have outlawed abortions. Therefore, for the lifetime of the child the mother will have to be reminded of that terrible day when she was raped.
I believe that it is quite certain that the Republican convention will approve of the platform that will be put before them. On second thought, there is no doubt that such a thing will happen. This will vindicate the Missouri representative Todd Akin, who has now been drummed out of participation in that convention. May I assure you that when Representative Akin used the term “legitimate rape,” he did not misspeak. For years, there have been those in the Republican Party who subscribe to the belief that sperm in a rape or incestuous relationship is turned into a harmless concoction. Todd Akin has apologized in a fashion but it is clear that he has not abandoned his belief in legitimate rape.
And so on Monday or Tuesday of next week when the Republicans approve of the platform, we will have taken another step toward becoming the Wahhabis. The Wahhabis are dedicated to backward thinking. The Republican Party is similarly so dedicated. If Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are elected, you may be assured that the battles over the female reproductive system have only started.
Very curiously, there are no restrictions on the male reproductive system. Men can impregnate as many women as they can find without penalty. Ah, but the female – that is a different story. And if the female finds herself impregnated by a rapist, she will find no comfort in the religious authorities or the Republican Party. In effect the church authorities believe that the female must have brought this pregnancy on herself. That is the reason why the Wahhabis do not permit the females to drive automobiles. They are saving them from themselves. The female in an automobile could commit dozens of sinful acts.
The net result of what is being done by the Republican platform committee is, in my estimation, nothing other than a return to the Wahhabi principle that females can’t be trusted with their own reproductive system. In effect, the Republican Party is saying to its female members, “Backward march.”
As you can see, I feel very strongly about impositions on the female half of this race. If a female needs an abortion, that is her business alone. It does not bother me in any fashion. It does not affect my marriage, for example, nor does it affect the freedom that we enjoy in this country. I view it simply as an attempt by the politicians and the religious authorities to curtail those freedoms.
So these are my reflections on the Wahhabi influence in our political discussions. I fervently wish that we might have forward-looking discussions, particularly from the Republican Party. But that is not the case. We are marching backwards, according to the Republicans, and the Wahhabis are saying, “Americans, how to go.”
E. E. CARR
August 25, 2012
Essay 687
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From now on, essays written after this website’s inception will be posted alone to distinguish them.
It’s my personal belief that Republicans are trying to one-up each other with their batshit insane claims. There was a Shepherd-family thread about this topic recently — Connor posted an article about this amazing judge who wants to raise taxes to prepare to fight against the U.N. troops that will be sent into Lubbock, Texas in the event that Obama gets elected. That one’s here.
Then dad posted about the legitimate rape thing, and I made sure they all knew about the GOP lawmaker who claimed that contracting AIDS from heterosexual sex was “virtually impossible.”
I don’t even know what to do with the Republicans anymore. They would be hilarious aside from that part where we sorta have to take them seriously.
As the Twitterverse might say, #bestparty
(#worstpossibleparty)