"None of you show even a hint of concern about children being indoctrinated into superstition and conformity. As long as it isn't explicitly legal compulsion you seem happy to wash your hands of it."

How would you handle the problem that you perceive here? What is your resolution?

"Yet I suspect that if this were white conservative Christians in America doing the exact same thing in comparable circumstances, your supposed passion for nuance and individual interpretations would prove fleeting."

If you're referring to indoctrination, then attending church, liturgy, reading of the Bible, feeling patriotic about their nation all qualify. Just as Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu children are being indoctrinated by their parents in similar ways with combinations of culture and religion. What is your proposed alternative to this widely practiced occurence? Or, as you like to continually state, am I not comprehending the issue? If not, please lay it out for me.

I'm sure you win over many hearts and minds with your attacks on entire cultures and ethnic groups.

"Most people do not really question their actions unless given cause to do so"

Who are you talking about here? Again, your broad strokes are not making your point well. Muslim Americans, whom I have vast experience with (particularly those who have converted) have FULL knowledge of what they are doing and have indeed chosen that path for themselves. Muslim women in many of the South Asian and Middle Eastern countries are not forced to wear hijab either. You lived in Turkey, did you experience something other than that? You are not going to erase or eradicate hundreds of years of a civilization and an ingrained culture by pounding your fists and screaming about an idea that you find abhorrent that others simply do not.

Talk all you want about ethnic determinism, in the final analysis, even those who come from religious families and choose to opt out, do sometimes return to their roots through no outside coercion. If the problem you have is with religion or tradition in and of itself, then that is a much larger, deeper debate. As a feminist, you are doing NOTHING to further whatever valid ideas you have regarding the empowerment of women by focusing on something as narrow (and in many cases quite mundane) as the headscarf. In fact, you will alienate those who may share your larger vision of female emancipation. I'm sure you know all this, which makes your harping even more puzzling.

Your perception that Muslim women are being forced to wear hijab even when they are clearly not only serves to make you look like an extremist in the other vein and offends the women who otherwise may support your quest for social equality irrespective of religion. What you find oppressive about religion, others may find comforting - that may indeed be their form of self-actualization because it helps them achieve all of their needs. Getting hung up on philosophy and logical syntax doesn't change that.

"Why is Muslim conformity 'good', but my alleged attachment to conformity was "racist"?"

I never said Muslim conformity was good - I never labeled it good or bad. I was specifically addressing the *choice* (which you flatly deny they have, across the board, in every instance)of women to conform to a socially accepted norm in their own culture. Additionally, I made it a point to address situations in which they do not have a choice as clearly being the wrong direction for that society.

I have lived in Muslim countries, grown up in Muslim communities, and have had Muslim friends from every walk of life, and the women who do not wear headscarves in most of these countries are not maligned or abused or discriminated against purely on that basis. That's not to say it doesn't exist (because you are correct to state that it does) but it has not been the norm in my extensive experience with this group of people from many parts of the Muslim world (Saudi Arabia and Iran being the clear exceptions) Certainly there are other reasons they are discriminated against, but not because of lack of headscarf. Again, it is quite inaccurate to make that the centerpiece of the discussion on women's liberation. If you can't understand something as basic as that, you're not ready to tackle it outside the realm of your protected intellectual huddle.