This is fascinating because so many of my followers from Muslim-majority countries want nothing to do with this and so many of my Muslim followers from countries where they are minorities do.

And we should be talking about this.

I often talk about the rock and hard place that women of Muslim descent especially find ourselves caught between. Rock: racist Islamophobes. Hard place: misogynists of the “community.” Fuck them both. Neither of them care about us.

And I know that especially for my younger followers from Muslim-majority countries, they’re *not* looking for “Islamic liberation” or “Islamic feminism.”

And it’s often difficult to explain to them why for my followers in countries where Muslims are a minority, Islamic feminism and Islamic liberation are important as forms of resistance to white supremacy.

And I say this as someone who prayed behind Amina Wadud when she was a female imam for Friday prayer for 100 of us in NYC in 2005 and someone who was at the launch of Musawah in Kuala Lumpur in 2009. I know what “Islamic feminism” is.

Those in countries where Muslims are a majority, often think of Islam as stifling and oppressive.

Those in countries where Muslims are a minority, often think of Islam as liberatory:

Remember both.

And there’s no worth in collapsing all into “Muslims.”

They don’t exist.

They are not a monolith.

I spoke to an Egyptian-based feminist reading group on Saturday that included a woman of Muslim descent in India who said that Islamic feminism had taken us as far as it could.

You must hear these diverse voices. There is no unified feminist “Muslim” voice.

And this is especially the case for queer people from Muslim majority countries who do not want to identify as Muslim.

We must not abandon them or leave them with no option except allying with the Islamophobic right wing of the “west.”

I recognize I am balancing two seemingly irreconcilable opposite:

See them both and all the complications in between.

Those in Muslim-majority countries and those living where Muslims are minorities.

For those of you living in the latter: you only see Muslims subjected to Islamophobic and racist violence.

In the former: Islam is used to punish atheists, queer people and feminists. Islam is used by the regime in power and groups that promote political Islam.

To be clear:

Those living where Muslims area minority: you only see Muslims subjected to Islamophobic and racist violence.

In Muslim-majority counties: Islam is used to punish atheists, queer people, feminists. Islam is used by regime in power & political Islam.