Graham, I think you have misunderstood me on several points. First of all, I have not said, nor am I saying that all men have the kind of mentality that allows brutalization of women. In fact, I know that this is most definitely not the case.

Secondly, I have not said that honor killings are a global problem. I have said that brutalization of women is a global problem. And it is not a problem that is confined to any particular racial, ethnic, or religious groups or societies.

Thirdly, my point is that you don't help brutalized women by promoting hatred of the racial, ethnic, or religious group to which they belong, as we see happening quite a lot here in the US, as well as in Israel.

One thing that you probably will not recognize as a man that a woman could recognise, is when the rights of women are being used in a cynical way to help people promote agendas that do not help the cause of women's rights. This is a misuse of women, just like any other misuse of women. And this is what I am objecting to. We see a lot of this sort of thing here in the US, as well as the use of the issue of human rights to promote agendas that are antithetical to the cause of human rights.

I see a lot of criticism of Muslims for their attitudes toward women and their practices with regard to women in the US media, and among certain individuals here in the Mudcat who seem to have a great big hard-on for promoting hatred of Muslims. But I have yet to see a thread from them on the subject of the sex-slave trade, which is a problem in pretty much all western countries.

Lastly, I'm having difficulty figuring out why you would use the women of India as role models for Muslim women to follow. The culture in India, including the Hindu culture, is every bit as repressive toward women as the Muslim culture. Not necessarily in the exact same ways, but as a matter of degree, there really isn't much difference.

My point has been and still is, that we don't do a service to the women who live in the Muslim cultures that practice this particular form of brutalization of women by singling their cultures out for our hatred, which is what I see happening in the US, as well as here in the Mudcat. People are using the issue of women's rights as an excuse to do things that violate womens rights and that violate human rights. I object very strenuously to this practice.

And here's my criticism of the Mudcat and the people who moderate it... you (Joe Offer and others) say that you delete obviously racist or hate mongering posts, but you never delete out the posts that are racist towards Arabs and Muslims, or that promote hatred towards Arabs and Muslims. Now just why is that I wonder?