What and Where is the Real “War on Women”

During this political season, we hear a lot about the “war on women” in America.  But the fact is women blessed to be born in a Judeo-Christian Western culture have opportunities few women in history have ever experienced.  America has women campaigning to become President of the United States from both parties.  There are women who are corporate and community leaders who are leaving their mark on the future of their organizations and our communities.

The true “war on women” is going on in other parts of our world.  As a result of outrageous attacks in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve, the extent of that “war” has finally received media attention.  Police have received nearly 700 complaints of robbery or sexual assault and several rapes on that evening alone.  The majority of the suspects identified have been asylum seekers – mostly North African or Arabic – and Cologne police officers are still sifting through 350 hours of civilian cellphone and surveillance video to identify more perpetrators.

Johanna, an 18-year-old victim interviewed for the New York Times, said, “We were just pressed on all sides by people.  I was grabbed continually…. That was really the worst night of my life.”  Local police were overwhelmed.  Another victim complained, “I had never experienced that a policeman said, ‘I would love to help you but I can’t.’  That was really the worst.  Who should you turn to as a woman?  What should I do?”

What happened in Cologne was not an isolated incident.  That evening, there were similar attacks in Hamburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg.  A rash of sexual assaults took place in Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and Finland.

Ingrid Carlqvist, with the Grapestone Institute, reports that rapes in Norway and Sweden have sky-rocketed in recent years as their Muslim refugee and migrant populations have soared.  Attackers assert that under Shariah, it’s okay to rape Norwegian and Swedish women … because they are considered “infidels.”  Sweden is fighting their new reputation as “the rape capital of the West.”

As President Obama works to accept more Islamic refugees, will America be next?

Rukmini Callimachi, writing in the New York Times, documents how ISIS hallows a “Theology of Rape.”  An ISIS fighter who raped a 12-year-old Iraqi girl “took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin.  Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her - it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted.”

Just last year, several UK cities, including Rotherham and Birmingham, finally reported that predominantly Pakistani “grooming gangs” targeted English school girls … some as young as 11-years-old.  These girls were fed with drugs and alcohol, and then were sexually abused and raped.  In the city of Rotherham, it is estimated about 1,400 girls were “groomed” and sexually abused over the last 16-years.  Local ‘politically correct’ officials knew it, but failed to stop it or issue warnings … for fear of being labeled racists. America cannot afford to let political correctness silence our concern about new refugees.

Some governmental officials have warned women to keep at “arm’s length” from young Muslim men.  Are American women to cover themselves up to avoid enticement or to stay inside unless accompanied by a man?  Townhall columnist Helen Raleigh assertively rejected such inane suggestions saying, “Cultures which believe a woman shouldn’t drive, or treat woman as nothing but a sexual object, or practice ‘honor killing,’ should not be tolerated or accepted in a society which promotes individual rights and human freedom…. There is a big difference between appreciating a culture versus unconditional tolerance.  I wish more people, especially politicians, would have the backbone to reject multiculturalism, and insist that any culture whose values and practices violate human freedom has no place in America.”

Instead of the United States trying to outdo other countries in seeing who can accept the most refugees, we must ensure that those who seek asylum here truly embrace our freedoms and women’s rights.  There’s room for diversity of religion and race, but no “war on women.”  Without an Islamic reformation, this is not the time for an influx of more refugees.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel