Bizarre alliance sees Regressive Left tolerating Islamist bigotry

IT’S amazing what you can get away with in the name of cultural diversity. This misogyny has no place in a civilised society, writes Rita Panahi.

Waseem Razvi founded the Islamic Research and Education Academy (IREA).

• Islamic conference poster sparks outrage

IT’S amazing what you can get away with in the name of cultural diversity.

The bizarre alliance between the Regressive Left and Islamists sees the former excuse behaviour that they would never tolerate from non-Muslims.

Rita Panahi. Picture: Peter Brew-Bevan

The Australian Islamic Peace Conference’s flyer featuring 12 bearded men and three veiled women with their faces blacked has caused a tiny social media storm.

Sadly, it is only a minor backlash and we’re unlikely to see feminists protesting the event at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition centre this March.

The organisers claim that they blacked out the women’s faces not for reasons of modesty but to protect them from abusive right-wingers and Islamophobia.

“Muslim women are particularly (being) humiliated and targeted in our streets, threatened and abused on social media,” said Waseem Razvi from the Islamic Research and Education Academy (IREA).

“Due to the growing Islamophobia our campaign team wanted to be extra cautious with female guests so they wouldn’t be targeted in the streets.”

Only a braindead simpleton would swallow such nonsense.

It’s worth noting that Mr Razvi and the IREA, which he founded, are responsible for other questionable posters for another Islamic conference including one entitled: “Hijab: A ­solution for rape”.

The Australian Islamic Peace Conference pamphlet blackens the faces of women.

If they were really concerned about the safety of the three female speakers, psychologist Monique Toohey, social worker Nina Trad Azam and Islamic teacher Umm Jamaal ud-Din, then why did they list their names in the promotional material?

Surely if you genuinely fear verbal or physical abuse from “Islamophobes” then you’d remove their names rather than their faces.

The organisers were not answering the Herald Sun’s calls today.

I’d like to know if the event will see enforced segregation of men and women during speeches.

It would also be worth hearing their explanation for why they are giving a platform to radical homophobes, polygamy advocates and sharia supporters?

It doesn’t take much research to reveal some of the worrying attitudes of the speakers pictured in the promotional material.

Feminists and Islamist apologists have either ignored this latest episode of misogyny or criticised it in the gentlest terms possible.

The venom they normally reserve for a democratically-elected president, a prime ministerial wink, gendered toys or sexist air conditioning was nowhere to be seen.

The bigotry of low expectations sees much forgiven and overlooked by those who pretend to care about equality and women’s rights.