Billboard at 52nd Street and Broadway in New York City
I usually like Megyn Kelly, who has a program called The Kelly File over at Fox News. I think she is very smart, and often amuses, and surprises, her hosts with her original twists on their commentaries.
In her show a couple of days ago, her lame duck panel all say that the billboard I've posted "doesn't offend" them. One tries to fine-tune it saying that he doesn't have a problem with an American soldier marrying a Muslim woman, but that this full-gear Islamic garb is what bothers him. I.e. the "moderate vs. extremist" debate which should have long been resolved by now.
Kelly tries to bring in the "radicalized," i.e. "extremist" argument in, but she doesn't go far enough. She could have interrupted one of the speakers to make her point, but she didn't, and I can only conclude that she mostly agrees with them.
Muslims themselves have told us in as many words that the Koran is what they follow. A "modern" Muslim woman, wearing the latest from Chanel, will at some point have to confront the Koran. And this usually happens with her children. Whether they grow up in Iran or Canada, these offspring at some point have to accept or reject (there is no middle ground) Islam, even as their mothers disguise their true feelings with Western fashion.
In my mall in Mississauga (Ontario), I see more and more young women, in their early twenties, walking around in groups wearing the head-covering (for now). They try to "modernize" it - accessorize would be a better word - with make up and tight jeans, but they are only one garment away from the full-body garb that Kelly's panel seems to abhor.
Of course, the panelists point is that they don't want to be "racist." But their "tolerance" is only inviting intolerance. Muslims have no choice but to be Muslims. Their Koran mandates it.
Some notes:
- The billboard was rejected initially by the advertising company.
- The couple on the billboard is a "real life" American soldier and his Muslim wife. The wife apparently wore the full Muslim clothing for the advertisement. But this proves my point that under every "modern, Western" Muslim woman is a Koran-following Muslim woman.
Below is the panel on the billboard, at The Kelly File:
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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