Is it Bigotry?

I've been perusing my saved Word files, specifically the ones that center on misogyny, particularly that of Islam...and not just ancient or modern cultural misogyny, but pointed belief in the practice of it in Islam's holy book.

Having read the Quran from cover to cover, I can't bring myself to see Islam as just another innocent spiritual religion or faith. I've been accused of religious prejudice because of my complaints concerning Islam's attitude toward and treatment of women, but I see my criticisms as dissent from the Quran's teachings against women clearly stated in all versions of this book.

Dissent is not necessarily prejudice. It is not individual Muslims whom I abhor; it is the rules and proclamations of their prophet. I would welcome with open arms a reform of Islam. But it needs to come from the top down. While there are still Imams who describe unveiled women as "meat" in the eyes of men, while the Wahabis insist on following and applying to the letter the literal words of a 7th century renegade, there will be no change in the attitudes of this patriachical religion, and women will continue to be marginalized, brutalized, demeaned, neglected, shunted aside, disdained and given countless injustices by those who follow the Quran, word for word.

What is so disheartening is the refusal of most Muslims to analyze internally their own religious practices and the role of the Quran in those.

The unexamined life is worthless.

N.