Muslim Women: you are only chance to reform Islam

Margaret Meade did her international sociological studies decades ago. One goal was to identify the status of women within the various cultures around the world. This research led her to identify cultures in which women were the most oppressed. According to her study, the most oppresssed women in the world - generally based upon the ideology to which they were subjected were in this order: Number 1 - Muslim women - essentially slaves; sadly, Number 2 - Mormon women right here in the United States. This post is directed to Muslim women. One of my blogger friends - Steve at Steve's Hodge Podge (blog deleted) suggested several years ago that the only way for Islam to be reformed was through the women - almost like a grass-roots civil rights movement only on a much more subtle scale but more intense in terms of being consistent and relentless on the part of the women. Steve responded to this post which I wrote nearly two years ago. I am looking at your role differently now and seeing more possibilities and strength in you to bring about change than you may see. I can only see two ways for the world to go with Islam swamping Europe and pressuring such drramatice change: reform within Islam into a less "egocentric, power-dominated" ideology OR the next world-wide wave of war between Western Civilization for its survival (we are not colonizing Iraq) and the forces of Islamic Imperialism working daily to colonize Europe, North America, Central America, Mexico, essentially the world. Remember, we are dealing with 7th to 8th Century mindsets here and that involves long-term and deep-seated change. So here's one thought. I am not trying to convert any Muslim woman to Christianity; if she is in America and can get to a Barnes and Nobles bookstore without being under armed guard, I'm suggesting that she take a look at a book by John Macarthur, Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible and What He Wants to Do with You. A Workbook exists but I don't suggest you risk buying that. I am not suggesting that you purchase the book and take it into your home. I am only asking you to read the Preface and the Introduction. These women are found in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. From the Preface: "...all these women ultimately became extraordinary not because of any natural qualities of their own, but because the one true God whom they worshiped is great, mighty, glorious, and awesome, and He refined them like silver." Now, if it is true that Islam, like Judiasm and Christianity, comes down from Abraham, then we all believe in the one true God - but this post is for Muslim women to step out and refine Islam... I do not believe Islam came from "the one true God" as the ideology is so hate-filled and makes 1/2 of the population of believers into property or perhaps man in his search for power - as has occurred throughout recorded time and across all ideologies - simply has to become civilized and sometimes women have that civilizing influence and simply have not been able to slip the chains of bondage in Islam so that they can civilize the jihadists who put all of our children at risk... Back to the book... From the Introduction, "One of the unique features of the Bible is the way it exalts women. Far from ever demeaning or belittling women, Scripture often seems to go out of the way to pay homage to them, to ennoble their roles in society and family, to acknowledge the importance of their influence..." "From the very first chapter of the Bible, we are taught that women, like men, bear the stamp of God's own image (Gen. 1:27; 5:1-2)." "....Wives are seen as venerated partners and cherished companions to their husbands, not merely slaves or pieces of household furniture...At Sinai, God commanded children to honor both father and mother (Ex. 20:12)." If you can, just go into the bookstore and read a few pages at a time; take the messages to heart; and work within your own ways to reform Islam so that the collision course we are once again set upon may perhaps be diffused... Islam will not "beat" non-Muslims in the long run and when the fighting gets bad, it has the potential to be very bad for all of us. I beseech Muslim women to step up to the plate and do your best for the future of all of our children... As it stands now, Islam as an ideology is not compatible with Western Cultures and, although Western Cultures seem asleep at the moment, that lethargy is only on the surface of the pond. Please, you have the power to reform Islam - a misogynist society that is true - but you can change that one step at a time... The alternative to a reformed Islam is unthinkable because the fundamentalist Islamic men will not rest until they call the world's forces down upon them and then blame the nations of the world for defending themselves...that's the jihadists MO. It didn't work with the so-called "flying imams" and it won't work globally...sanity is up to you.