Days on from Monday night’s controversial episode of Q&A, US pop superstar Solange Knowles has weighed in on the heated debate around sharia law, offering a message of love for panellist Yassmin Abdel-Magied.
“Yassmin Abdel Magied…. You made my morning,” the singer tweeted to the 25-year-old mechanical engineer and youth ambassador on Thursday.
“OMG. THIS!” Abdel-Magied replied. “PS Thanks, and power to you sista. Keep fighting the good fight, inshallah.”
The tweets come following a debate Abdel-Magied and independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie had about sharia law on Monday and the consequent fallout that has followconversationesation.
Things first kicked off when Lambie claimed any Australian who supports sharia law should be deported.
Being a practicing Muslim herself, Abdel-Magied responded by asking the senator if she actually knows and fully understands what sharia law is.
"My frustration is that people talk about Islam without knowing anything about it and they're willing to completely negate any of my rights as a human being, as a woman, as a person with agency, simply because they have an idea about what my faith is about," Abdel-Magied said.
"What is culture is separate to what is faith," Abdel-Magied continued, "and the fact that people go around dissing my faith without knowing anything about it and want to chuck me out of a country."
Lambie then interjected, yelling, "The fact is that there is one law in this country and it's not sharia law."
Frustrated, Abdel-Magied replied, "In sharia, it says: you follow the law of the land on which you are on."
Not surprisingly, since engaging in the debate, Abdel-Magied has been subject to a number of damning articles, accusations of failing feminism, and horrific racial and religious vilification online. Basically, a huge section of Australian society has responded by telling Abdel-Magied that it's not okay to be a Muslim woman with opinions. And if you are, be prepared for a vitriolic and hateful firestorm.
But you know what Abdel-Magied's got that none of her haters do? The love and support of Solange bloody Knowles, that's what.
Top Comments
I think she is great for telling Lambie how it is- he only down fall was saying Islam is feminist when she could have just explained sharia and why it is not a threat.
Many people are all for freedom of religion and being able to get on with your beliefs without interference but not many are buying the feminist claims.
We can not like the religion and still embrace people's right to practice it.
No one is telling Yassmin that a Muslim woman can't have an opinion.
It's just a lot of people think that her version of how Islam treats women is at odds with the evidence.
Yassmin says that Islam is feminist. Many other people believe that Islam subjugates women.
I mean, talks are held in universities here in Australia, and the women are forced to sit apart from the men. Doesn't seem particularly feminist to me...
Maybe the women want to sit separately from the men?
That's the thing about agency, It affords people the opportunity to actively create their identities and experiences. Telling someone that their religion oppresses them because we feel they shouldn't have to do this or that potentially denies them their agency.
I think that is what Yassmin was trying to say. And as she knows more about the subject than me, and perhaps more than many other people, I am interested in what she has to say.
I enjoyed watching Yassmin speak. It is a shame more can't take it on board and just listen
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"No-one is telling Yasmin..."
But you're doing a pretty good job of trying
I would suggest that there is a section of the 'Christian' (everyone says we are a Christian country)Australian male population that doesn't treat woman respect as well. Doesn't that go against our Christian ethos? Domestic violence? Pay gap? How about that biblical saying about removing the log from your own eye before removing the splinter from someone else's- or something like that. We need to look at our own culture before denigrating an entire culture/religion. I don't think these religious rants are very Christ like.
She is disagreeing which is a different thing.