Kendra

“Just as religion can lead its devotees to suspend reason for faith, it can also lead them to suspend morality for piety. Indeed,”
― Ali A. Rizvi, The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason

“The world which men have made isn’t working. Something needs to change. To change the world, we women need first to change ourselves – and then we need to change the stories we tell about who we are. The stories we’ve been living by for the past few centuries – the stories of male superiority, of progress and growth and domination – don’t serve women and they certainly don’t serve the planet. Stories matter, you see.”
― Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted: A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging

“When liberals equate criticizing Islamic doctrine with anti-Muslim bigotry, it leaves a vacuum that is too frequently filled by genuine right-wing anti-Muslim bigots who are even more disagreeable. Who gets stuck in the middle? Ex-Muslims.”
― Ali A. Rizvi, The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason

“But the most catastrophic display of misogyny in all religion lies at the very heart of Christianity—in the story of the Virgin Mary. That Jesus was born of a virgin is a fundamental narrative upon which all Christianity is based. It is one that is carried through to Islam, where the Quran holds Mary in great esteem.

The implications of this have historically been devastating to women.

...Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ as a virgin, with no man ever having touched her. She is therefore described as pure, chaste, undefiled, innocent—being the product of an “immaculate conception” herself (as per Catholic doctrine), and now hosting God’s immaculate son in her unblemished womb.

What does this mean for women who are touched by men? Are their conceptions corrupted? Are their characters and bodies now impure or unchaste? Have they been “defiled”?

...Was all of Mary’s beauty, sanctity, chastity, and innocence confined to her vagina?

Fetishizing Mary’s virginity—as Christians and Muslims both do—is a sickness that directly leads to a dangerous, unnatural glamorization of celibacy and sexual repression.”

Excerpt From: Ali A. Rizvi. “The Atheist Muslim.” iBooks.”
― Ali A. Rizvi, The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason