Terror-Chicks Not Welcome At Al-Qaeda

There's a curious debate going on among the most radical of the jihadists.

More and more, Islamist women are demanding equal rights to blow themselves up, but al-Qaeda's sticking to its fundamentalist Islamic guns and saying no way -- in the process sparking something of a feminist debate among the jihadists. From AP:

In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters.

His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al-Qaida.

A'eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.

Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for "Companion of Weapons."

"How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al-Qaida, he saddened and hurt me," wrote "Companion of Weapons," who said she listened to the speech 10 times. "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless."

A Muslim woman, Sara, has been chastising me lately for being ignorant of Islam. "Please educate yourself before you decide to write an article like this," she commented on a recent post. "You obviously know nothing about Islam. And the association you made between the prophet (peace be upon him) and the terrorist Muhammed Attah is just plain ignorance and stupidy [sic]." And this:

Those terrorist acts were initiated by extremist who are no better than heretics according to Islam. If you try to overcome your ignorant arrogance and read about the prophet you would know that he once made an explicit and clear statement that who ever kills an innocent person, including non muslims [sic] will literally go to hell.

Which Islam is it, Sara, which Prophet? Is Mohammed and his religion the Islam of peace you fantasize about, or is it this Islam:

"A lot of the girls I speak to ... want to carry weapons. They live with this great frustration and oppression," said Huda Naim, a prominent women's leader, Hamas member and Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza. "We don't have a special militant wing for women ... but that doesn't mean that we strip women of the right to go to jihad."

I wish Islam today were the Islam Sara says it is. More power to her; I wish there were more like her, and I hope that she and other Muslims who believe Islam should be a religion of peace will ultimately prevail.

They are our only hope because if "the girls who want to carry weapons" prevail over Islam's Saras, we will be threatened by Islam and killed by Islamists for the foreseeable future, and will have no choice but to fight back against the forced conversion to a religion that acts with such ugliness.

hat-tip: Jim