Lizzie Schofield is at it again – she’s produced another piece drenched in subtle bigotry.
She’s decided to base her attack around a tweet by an American Muslim sportswoman (a fencer), Ibtihaj Muhammad, who has just had a Barbie doll made of her. What’s the problem?
There is no problem but Lizzie Schofield, as is her wont, manages to manufacture a mountain of silliness held together at the seams by a special type of glue called Islamophobia.
Because Lizzie has had the vast majority of this already explained to her , she’s clearly a style-over-substance type of woman who confuses being combative with being compelling, I’m going to respond with a degree of flippancy and curtness. Let’s call it responding in kind! Lizzie’s quotes are in red and italics
Mattel has just released its latest Barbie modelled on Ibtihaj Muhammad, the bronze-medal winning Olympic fencer. And why not? A woman who can handle a sword is really cool. Making dolls in the image of super-fit, agile, sword-wielding Olympians is the kind of thing I approve of.
Lizzie Schofield clearly admires sword-wielders.
The last time Lizzie was talking about swords she was threatening Muslims with her Trinitarian Church Version Of Jesus (TCVO Jesus) coming back with a sword for Muslims as “enemies of Christ” if they refuse to accept him ( a man!) as God. Perhaps Lizzie has taken her admiration of people who can use swords to a new height: the worship of the TCVO Jesus.
‘Now little girls everywhere can now play with a Barbie who chooses to wear hijab!’? The hijab makes her cool? Not the Olympic, blade expert female Zorro part?
Yes, the hijab makes her “cool” because she is an athlete who has not given up to the spirit of the age (the zeitgeist) and stuck with a hijab despite the sacrifices that come with it. Women of all religious and non-religious persuasions will find that admirable. Couple this with the fact she gives Muslim women in America and beyond a few crums of comfort and hope as she helps demystify and normalise hijab-wearers in America – a “Christian” country which has rejected Paul’s teachings on the head-covering and is currently experiencing a surge in Islamophobic hate crimes.
Considering women constitute the brunt of Islamophobic attacks in the West, for me and the rest of the normal folks out there, this lady should be doubly admired for wearing the hijab. She’s helping to alleviate attacks against Muslim women. Hurray. Lizzie, come on, stop watching Zorro and put your toy light sabre away; smile and celebrate the coolness of Ibithaj Muhammed with the rest of the world. Don’t be such a misery guts. It’s a good thing!
She’s helping to protect Muslim women. You do care about Muslim women, Liz?
Ooops, I forgot you believe TCVO Jesus will kill Muslim women with your favourite weapon in the world, a sword, for not worshipping him (a man!) so you probably have a low view of Muslim women and maybe don’t give two hoots about whether they are safer for Ibtihaj Muhammad’s popularity and Barbie doll. OK, have it your way, go back to watching your yawn-inducing black and white Zorro movies, you spoil sport. We’ll send your party invite to Katie Hopkins or Jayda Fransen instead. Between you and I, I reckon Katie or Jayda are much more fun. If neither one of them fancies celebrating Ibithaj’s achievements we’ll scrape the bottom of the barrel and send the invite to Beth “this is Spaarrrt…I mean, erm, England” Grove or your boss, the lovely Hatun. They get paid to talk to (or rather talk down to) Muslims.
If they aren’t showing any Zorro movies on festive telly this year you have plenty of verses in the book, which you believe to be from TCVO Jesus, mentioning swords to keep your unhealthy fascination with swords satisfied.
You’ll be pleased to know there are many references to the sword in the Bible. Here’s a search for the word sword in the OT.
Lizzie, you will be further impressed by the Trinitarian Church Version Of Jesus as the sword is one of the modes of capital punishment given by TCVO Jesus in the OT:
The modes of capital punishment according to the Mosaic law were, by the sword ( Exodus 21 ), strangling, fire ( Leviticus 20 ), and stoning ( Deuteronomy 21 ). [Source]
Well as long as Barbie’s happy, that’s the main thing. Are you happy, Barbie? Was it not enough for little girls to fashion a hijab for you out of an old hankie if they didn’t think you were dressed appropriately?
Lizzie, we aren’t living in the immediate post-war years anymore. Rations are over. Material is plentiful. So much so that young girls don’t have to find old snot-covered tissues or handkerchiefs to make head-coverings for dolls. Happy days! Companies can make dolls with all the accessories including hijabs and I’m sure if you campaigned hard enough they may acquiesce to your whims and plonk a sword in Barbie’s hand. Female empowerment, right?
The war is over, the Christians have stopped bombing each other indiscriminately. The cold war is over, the Christians from the East aren’t threatening to do to us what TCVO Jesus ordered in 1 Samuel 15:3 or what he threatened to do in Revelation.
Happy days! Colour TVs are out now Lizzie, get down to Argos or John Lewis…treat yourself. Pinch the cash from Hatun if you can’t afford it. She’s got plenty – she gets paid Jay Smith bucks (we think)!
Oh, wait: Barbie’s a toy and can’t talk, let alone exercise choice. Bit like the 40 million women in Iran who can’t choose whether or not to wear the hijab either, except they’re not made of plastic.
Yawn, not the “oh they don’t have a choice to wear it because their government has it enshrined in law” card. I’ve already addressed this previously. Lizzie must have been too busy being dazzled by the sword play in some Zorro flick to notice.
Just because there is a law in a country dictating such attire it does not mean the vast majority of the ladies there don’t want to wear said attire.
We all pretty much choose to go out clothed and most people are fine with that although it would be a crime to go out unclothed. Militant nudists and naturists may not like it but the vast majority of folks, including our eponymous hero Zorro, are fine with this law and don’t feel it’s oppressing them. Why can’t that be the case vis-a-vis the hijab for women in Iran or wherever Lizzie is harping on about this time?
Lizzie Schofield is hardly making a big hoo-ha about choice in her church – females are not allowed to preach at her church. I’ve had to listen to a few mono-paced sermons there by blokes. I guess in the mind of Liz, St Nicholas Church in Tooting is the Iran of UK Churches – oppressing women by not given them choices. For reasonable people this is not a big deal, no Muslim cares if the rector there does not allow women to preach at the church, the assumption would be the majority of womenfolk there agree with the rules. Lizzie was outed as a FCF (fake Christian feminist) ages back – she agrees with not having choice as a woman in her church.
Would Lizzie have an issue with TCVO Jesus forbidding women to divorce (except for reasons of adultery)? If she would, and I see no reason why she wouldn’t considering her constant prattling on about Iran, then she has a problem with the TCVO Jesus. In case anybody forgot: TCVO Jesus = Trinitarian Church Version Of Jesus
Lizzie will also have an issue with TCVO Jesus’ order to kill thousands of Middle Eastern wives and male children in 1 Samuel 15. Did those Middle Eastern women have a choice? What about the virgin girls in Numbers 31 where Middle Eastern girls were taken by Moses’ men? How about the female slaves TCVO Jesus allowed to be beaten till neard-death in Exodus 21, was there choice in this?
Likewise TCVO Jesus gave no choice for men and women in religion. Lizzie knows TCVO Jesus does not always give choices.
Lizzie, you believe if TCVO Jesus returned today, he would kill Ibtihaj Muhammad with a sword. Or maybe you think Ibtihaj with her agility and skill will be able to defeat him and save the majority of the world’s women from the sword of TCVO Jesus. Who would you be pulling for in that duel? As a feminist who loves Muslims and a Christian who believes whoever lives by the sword dies by the sword (except Zorro) you’ll be wanting Ibtihaj to score a victory and save billions of women from TCVO Jesus?
But this is not about Barbie’s Right To Choose, rather Mattel’s need to tell the world how much they love success and female empowerment and Muslims too, Mr Trump!
No Lizzie. You’re being naive now. This is where the greys in your hair are meant to show folks. Wisen up, Elizabeth! It’s about economics. Niche economics. Mattel want Muslim girls to buy barbie dolls too. It’s the same reason why they make black Barbie dolls. Christie (Black Barbie doll) premiered in the late 60s. This was not an exercise in black empowerment. It was an effort to reach into the wallets of Black American parents.
That’s all it’s about. Cash. The pound.
The Black pound (e.g. Black hair products, Urban music magazines and Black Barbies ). The Jewish pound (e.g. the Kosher food aisle at my local Sainsburys). The Asian pound (Asian Star Wars characters in Rogue One and now a new Asian actress in the forthcoming Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi). The Muslim pound (e.g. hijabs in Debenhams and Barbies wearing hijabs). The gay pound ( take a trip down to Soho and search for the Queen James Bible). The Christian pound (Christmas cards, Advent calendars, turkey, Santa Claus, trees, Christmas movies, Hollywood Jesus movies, Christian apologetics, etc., etc.). Sabre lovers pound (cheap Zorro movies)
“When will corporations cotton on to the fact the hijab represents the opposite of female empowerment? “
Yawn. Lizzie clearly has not progressed from downright bigotry. We’ve covered this before with Lizzie but seriously for the life of me, I don’t get why people think the hijab is a symbol of oppression. Really. To be honest, the people who do make such claims don’t seem to be the movers and shakers in society. The majority seem to be people who are unhappy with their lives or just have an axe to grind against a segment of the population…or they have some other agenda
Lizzie just embarrasses herself with this rhetoric. It’s unbecoming of anybody who has pretensions of being seen as smart and fair. In addition, it’s a bit odd coming from somebody whose mentor attends a church which promotes a headcovering. I wonder if Lizzie thinks Eastern European Christian ladies are donning symbols of oppression when they wear headcoverings. Likewise with nuns.
Broaden your mind Lizzie. Get your nose out of the KJV Bible verses mentioning swords and turn the re-runs of Zorro off. Get into the real world. An evangelical echo chamber is stunting your spiritual and worldly growth. There’s so much more to life than being an evangelical rip-off version of Katie Hopkins or Tommy Robinson….or whatever you’re trying to be.
Where there’s no choice, there’s no empowerment.
Are you going to tell CJ Davis (rector at Tooting’s St Nicholas Church) this so women in your church can get into the pulpit, if they choose to? I mean right now, the ladies at that church do not have the choice. “Where there’s no choice, there’s no empowerment”, right? CJ Davis does not seem to be giving women a choice hence why you’re coming off as a frustrated wannabe preacher at Speakers Corner. The funny thing is, I will probably get an opportunity to preach in my local church (an Anglican one which I observe) before they ever dream of giving women the choice to be preachers – I’m not visiting them today – maybe next week.
Are CJ Davis and his cohorts at St Nicholas Church not empowering women, Liz? I doubt you will be yelling at him, you seem to only yell at Muslims – soft targets. That’s why Mattel won’t be making dolls of you any time soon; they prefer more stand-up-types and not bullies.
But what about TCVO Jesus and “empowerment” by choice?
TCVO Jesus does not allow women to divorce (except for adultery). TCVO Jesus does not allow blokes to marry other blokes, or women to marry other women.
Is TCVO Jesus not empowering men and women? What about his teaching that rape victims have to marry their rapists? Was choice involved in that? What about TCVO Jesus’ threat to give David’s wives to somebody else who would sleep with them? Was there choice in that? What about TCVO Jesus teaching apostates in one’s home should be killed, where was the choice? Did the non virgin women (wives) get any choice in 1 Samuel 15:3 from TCVO Jesus?
It seems to me like you’re projecting your internal subconscious issues with TCVO Jesus onto Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Muslims in London, Muslims in America, Muslims everywhere and anywhere.
Focus on the problems closer to your home – your cognitive dissonance between your Westernised liberalism and TCVO Jesus. The two don’t mesh. TCVO Jesus would be seen as a horrible role-model for modern times in Western liberal paradigms. Which one are you going to give up? If you give up on Trinitarian Jesus it means you say goodbye to your church and the evangelical Islamophobes who you hang about with in your spare time (that would be a good thing actually because those people seem to have influenced you to become a colder human being). If you decide to drop the Western liberal bents then are you willing to be seen as a female version of Steven Anderson or the UK equivalent of Shirley Phelps (I suspect a load of people will see you as such if you drop liberalism) or join the LRA or one of those Christian terrorist groups in America blowing up abortion clinics?
But if Ms Muhammad, a Muslim who obviously chooses to wear the hijab, used this opportunity for a little da’wah, so what? After all if Mattel wanted to make a Lizzie Schofield Barbie, I’d make sure she wore a cross necklace and tweet that it’s because Barbie knows in her little plastic heart that Jesus died for her.
Lizzie, I doubt shouting at Muslims in the park would impress Mattel enough to clamber to make Elizabeth Schofield dolls. Try evolving your sword love-in to training yourself in fencing with the aim of winning a medal for Britain at the next Olympics if you really want a Lizzie doll made. If you can’t be bothered to put the Kettle Chips down and switch off Zorro you could try and cheat, grab a Katie Hopkins doll and scribble your name on it. Nobody will be any the wiser! Don’t forget to find and old hanky to make a hijab for your/Katie’s doll.
As for the cross necklace, you’re beginning to frighten me much more than you already have done. I thought your crew shrieking at Muslims in a park was scary – aren’t I a delicate flower? I began to hide behind the sofa when you descended into using TCVO Jesus’s return with a sword to scare Muslims into worshipping Jesus (a man!), I then bolted the doors and drew the curtains when I heard one of your colleagues threaten to chop a Muslim’s head off at Speakers Corner (inspired by the verse of the Sword, Matt 10:34?) and saw a bunch of death threats and racial abuse towards Muslims from internet trolls who support/view videos of your former organisation, I began shaking like a leaf (perhaps even like an Amalekite wife before TCVO Jesus’ followers decided to execute TCVO Jesus’ orders in killing her) and now with this Morticia Adams style creepiness in wanting to have a model of a execution device hung around your doll’s neck I’m moving to Germany far away from you. Auf wiedersehen pet.
The cross is a symbol of terror and there is no empowerment in that. The number of people who must have lost their lives over the course of time on the cross must be staggering. It is not something to be celebrated.
What next, are creepy folks going to demand dolls with electric chair necklaces? Or gas chamber necklaces (perhaps Jayda Fransen and the rest of the neo-nazis at Britain First have already placed their orders!)? Or guillotine necklaces? Or a gallows necklace?
This is morbid madness!
I doubt Mattel will fancy any of those suggestions! Lizzie, if you want to go all grim and morbid with a Barbie doll, you’ll have to grab an old hanky and a few twigs or used paper clips and make your crucifix and/or sword necklace Blue Peter style.
I personally think it’s weird but you’ve been empowered to do so by Theresa May – as far as I know there is nothing illegal about transforming Barbie or a Katie Hopkins doll into a Morticia Adams type of character.
However I wonder if Ms Muhammad realises that it’s a matter of debate among Islamic scholars whether girls playing with dolls is even allowed?
Maybe she knows and takes opinions from scholars who say it’s fine or perhaps she does not know. She seems like a smart cookie, I think she knows so Lizzie she does not need you to tell her.
According to Sahih Muslim, ‘she was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her.” Yet many scholars agree that playing with dolls in only appropriate for pre-pubescent children: by the time they reach puberty, they can understand that dolls are images of humans, and human images are haram. (The fact that she had dolls with her demolishes the argument that Aisha had reached puberty by the time of her marriage.)
Oh dear, Lizzzie you’ve been told Islam does not allow prepubescent sex previously but I guess circumnavigating facts is something sword-obsessed Islamophobes do. It’s subtle bigotry maligning Arabs as people who accept having sex with prepubecent girls. You’ve been told previously that the marriage and consummation was biblical and inline with the custom of the Jews at the time of Jesus. Does none of that matter because you have a twisted agenda?
Playing with dolls was something people did – both mature and immature. Likewise with today’s society. The trick is not to impose our modern interpretation of dolls onto a culture in a different time and place. Smart and honest people would factor that into their thinking before making such a claim based on flimsy reasoning which flies in the face of the documented evidence running counter to one’s twisted agenda-based “conclusion”.
Are we done here? Not quite.
Does Barbie have a head, eyes, nose and mouth? Hmmm. So for Barbie to be truly Islamic according to Muhammad Ibn Adam, she needs serious maiming, if not beheading.
“Beheading”. Oh dear. Perhaps Lizzie is fantasising about TCVO Jesus returning with his sword and beheading his enemies (the Muslims according to her!) for not worshipping Jesus (a man!).
As for this Muslim ruling banning dolls with facial features, so what? Yeah, it’s odd for folks like us who have grown up in a different culture but is it really a big deal? Nope. Children have great imaginations and they don’t need modern Barbie dolls or action figures to have a good time. There are rulings that seem strange to Westernised liberals in all three Abrahamic faiths. Do you not believe TCVO Jesus ordered the burning of priests’ daughters if they fell into “harlotry” (Lev 21:9)? In our society we try to help women on the streets and view them as victims of abuse – we do not burn them. Regardless of whether their fathers are vicars, priests, preachers or whatever. Most people will find TCVO Jesus’ ruling here to be odd…odder than certain Muslim views on prohibiting Barbie dolls.
I’d make sure she wore a cross necklace and tweet that it’s because Barbie knows in her little plastic heart that Jesus died for her.
Nope Lizzie, Jesus did not die for anybody, let alone Barbie. God does not need to come down to earth and provoke a bunch of murderous Romans and Jews to kill him in order to “pay” for your sins – or anybody else’s sins for that matter. This church theory of atonement effectively makes out God’s forgiveness is dependent on a bunch of murderers (the Jews and Romans involved in the crucifixion narrative in the church gospels). God’s forgiveness is not dependent on murderers or murder. .
God is holy. God’s forgiveness is greater than that church idea. That’s the good news: you don’t have to rely on sinful, murderous Jews and Romans for forgiveness. You don’t have to rely on blood. Good news. Think about the good news!
When you’ve matured past slinging grim Islamophobic propaganda online and in person at Muslims let me know if you seriously want to discuss the Christian view of atonement.
A serious note Lizzie, putting all the flippancy and jokes aside, you’re coming off as awfully callous and as a low-level bigot who is embarrassing the UK in front of thousands of foreign viewers who probably had a pretty reasonable view of Brits before they ran across videos of you and your buddies yelling Islamophobia and abuse at Muslims or read one of your troublesome blogs about Muslims in the West. Muslims are as much part of the West as you and your church. If you don’t like that, tough!
And another note, I’m not going to tickle your ears, I will say this as frank as possible. I recall seeing a video where somebody in the foreground was saying you’re a YouTube star. That person was not in camera shot. He sounded quite young. Perhaps you are double him in age. There he is telling a middle aged woman that she’s a YouTube star with a tone which suggested you’re seen as a joke. And you are seen as a joke – read the comments in the comment sections to videos featuring you at Speakers Corner. Christians even find you and your colleagues to be tarnishing the image of Christians and the church. Contrast those comments them with comments on videos featuring Christians like Christopher, Nathan, Richard or other mild-mannered Christians. In fact Christopher recently hurt himself and ended up in hospital and he was contacting Muslims at Speakers Corner asking them to visit him.
It’s easy to point the finger, but it’s more difficult to accept the fingers pointing back at you. You can call your tactics “robust” or whatever you wish but the vast majority of people will, and do, find your approach off-putting. It comes off as embarrassing. That’s sad. Very sad. Folks like Jay Smith should be ashamed.
Likewise with your material Lizzie, it’s inconsistent and/or just wild-eyed. You’ll know what I mean if you search my blog responses to your stuff and look at videos featuring you.
It’s not too late to swallow your pride, try to introspect, apologise to those you’ve offended and make an effort to reform. Quite often we are what our friends are. Look at the type of people who have huddled around you both on and offline. Be honest, do they exhibit love, respect and sincerity?
Alternatively, you could ignore all this and dismiss it as something from sword-fodder for TCVO Jesus and skip off to those serious young men (Daniel and Godwin) who act like kids in a playground whilst youre “debating” Muslims in a park. Life is so much bigger than baby-sitting grown children and having heated discussions with folks in a park whilst surrounded by young (and some not so young) immature Christian men egging you on.
When was the last time you had a holiday? Book one. Use it to clear your mind and re-evaluate yourself and your beliefs. [Serious: if you are struggling for cash perhaps we can help you out…just reach out if you need help]
Categories: Islamophobia, Liberalism, Speakers Corner
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