Letter: Militant wing of Islam does indeed mistreat women

First of all, I would like to begin by thanking Hamza Aziz for his impassioned and eye-opening defense of Islam and its tenets regarding the treatment of women. Clearly, elements of Western society implicitly attribute some stigmas to Islam, and unfortunately the degree to which this is done has increased since Sept. 11. That being said, the dangers and pernicious effects of militant Islam do exist and do present barriers to social equity and justice, among other issues. The militant wing of Islam does mistreat women, its actions are indefensible and, indeed, fly directly in the face of Islamic doctrine. Then again, this can be said about a large portion of the ideas and extremist views that such militants espouse. Thus, though Western society does stigmatize certain elements of Islam, most of the time it deals with militant Islam or countries that are more or less officially Muslim but do not strictly adhere to Islamic doctrine. Unfortunately, all major religions have had periods where they have been slandered and defamed. The Christian church suffered from slanderous remarks because of Hitler's purported and distorted Christianity, and the Catholic church is currently reeling amidst the sex scandals that have beset it. Needless to say, Aziz's erroneous and defamatory comments stating that Christianity labels woman as the source of all evil do not help matters. This sensationalism and these kinds of blanket statements clearly have a more pervasive and harmful influence than one might have thought, and society should be more mindful of this.