Reflecting on the Cologne attacks one month on

The practice known as Taharrush gamea is a form of group sexual harassment practiced in Middle-Eastern countries by men against women who protest in or simply use public space.

This group harassment fits exactly the description of what happened in Cologne as has been noted by a number of social commentators in the last week (though Hélie Lucas was the first). As she says,

It seems Europe cannot learn anything from us and that nothing that happens or happened in our countries can be of any relevance to what goes on in Europe. By definition. An underlying racism, never exposed in the radical Left, implicitly admits to an unbridgeable difference between civilized and under developed people, their behaviors, their cultures, their political situations. Under this essentialized otherness lies a hierarchy too shameful to mention: the radical Left's blind defense of 'Muslim' reactionaries …The recent brutal challenging of women's presence in public space on December 31st is only one more illustration of it …

The distorting Eurocentric vision prevents from seeing similarities with what took place, for instance, in North Africa and the Middle East. In Europe, 'Muslims' are seen as victims, oppressed minorities – this apparently justifying any aggressive and reactionary behavior from them …The fact that the Left and far too many feminists stick to the theory of priorities (the exclusive defense of people of migrant origin – refurbished as 'Muslims' – against the capitalist western right) is a deadly error that history will judge, and an abandonment of the progressive forces in and from our countries which absurd inhumanity will forever stain the banner of internationalism.

Hélie Lucas writes of the 'conceptual millstone that the Left carries about' including'an implicit hierarchy of fundamental rights in which women's rights rank far behind minority rights, religious rights, [and] cultural rights...' She continues,

'When the interests of patriarchy (that the Left does not dare defend officially anymore) merge with the noble defense of the 'oppressed' (their prestige, even on the Left, was somewhat damaged after the November attacks in Paris), it suits many people. That questions could still be asked regarding the concerted nature of simultaneous attacks in at least 5 different countries and nearly a dozen cities in Europe, this leaves one speechless in [the] wake of so much dishonesty, so much blindness or so much political perversity.'

How is this different, she asks, from blaming the victim if our primary concern is to 'protect perpetrators'?

Radical atheist and ex-Muslim feminist Maryam Namazie has also spoken powerfully about the conflation between criticism of Islamism as a far Right political movement and Muslims as people. Not only is this a false conflation, which undermines free speech and, in turn, robust critique of the growth of fundamentalism and its myriad human rights abuses, it also falsely conflates political critique with bigotry.

What happens to free speech, she asks, when those who are critical of Islam as a religion or Islamism as a far Right political movement cannot speak? There is, she notes, a kind of reverse racism when political correctness makes it impossible to see the heterogeneity of Muslim people and, in particular, to deny or worse silence (aka 'no-platform') the voices of dissenting Muslims.

Namazie's primary focus is on the misogyny of Islam and yet she was recently prevented from speaking on the subject of 'Apostasy, blasphemy and free expression in the age of ISIS' at London's Goldsmith's college by the Student union, a move which, it beggars belief, was supported by Goldsmiths Feminist Society on the grounds that Namzie is an 'Islamaphobe'.

That's right, an Iranian human rights activist and feminist was last month prevented from speaking at a university about the profound abuses of women under Sharia law (among other things) because feminists and Left students deemed she might offend the sensibilities of Muslims on campus (a decision that was, thankfully, overturned).

As she said, 'If people like me who fled an Islamist regime can't speak out about my opposition to the far-right Islamic movement, if I can't criticise Islam… that leaves very [few] options for me as a dissenter because the only thing I have is my freedom of expression.'