Consider the context

Submitted by Doug Mayfield (United States), May 20, 2014 at 17:12

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We see this in Islamic states around the world on a daily basis. If the belief system, Islam, is pervasive in a country, then that country is some form of vicious slave state in which the rights of those governed are routinely violated egregiously by those in charge on behalf of obedience to Islam

Particularly, with respect, I consider that to suggest that when the wife of an Islamist leader expresses doubts about a detail of Islamic fashion, this is somehow indicative of a fundamental change in the nature of Islam, is, at best, naive.

Consider the context in which she did so. She was visiting the West in which there is still some respect for freedom and individual rights.

Had she been interviewed at home in Turkey, the question about fashion probably never would have been asked, since journalists are routinely arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for even the slightest hint of anything contrary to the government or to Islam.

Had the journalist had the courage to ask the question, and had she answered in Istanbul as she did in London, and had the editor the courage to publish the answer, all three might well have gone to jail.

The belief system that is Islam, and its ugly corollary, Sharia, breeds terror and death. That some followers of Isam do not fully embrace the belief system, and therefore do not murder or enslave anyone who disagrees with them, is a tribute to the individual human spirit.

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