[lbo-talk] Nawal El Saadawi: Women, Islam, and Democratization

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 3/19/07, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> Yoshie:
>
> In case you have a false impression, Nawal El Saadawi is neither
> anti-religion nor anti-Islam.  She in fact goes so far as to say that
> "A fair comparison [with other holy books] will help us to discover
> that the Quran or fundamental teachings of Islam are relatively
> progressive in relation to women and democracy." -- Yoshie
>
> [WS:] Yoshie, East Germany had the "Demokratische" in its name and the
> Soviet constitution read like the universal declaration of human rights, but
> the reality was that both were police states.

East Germany sure was a police state, where one in five was said to be
made to inform for Stasi, but that doesn't mean that socialism is or
must necessarily be a police state.  Egypt now is also a police state,
but that doesn't mean the country, let alone Islam, must necessarily
lead to a police state.
-- 
Yoshie