View: https://medium.com/@hannahlitt_63704/the-muslim-incel-issue-109ccb4db318
The Muslim Incel Issue
Hannah Litt (she/her/hers)
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12 min read
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Aug 14, 2023
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One for my Muslim siblings.
This has been playing on my mind a lot recently.
Ever since the. Andrew Tate (just saying his name makes me shudder) conversion, I have been questioning what it was that made him think that Islam was somewhere with that mindset that he would be welcomed with open arms and nothing would have to change. What attracted him to my faith?
I thought back to one of his earlier videos, where he was commenting on the Red table talk on the infidelity of Jada Pinkett-Smith on Will Smith. He said watching that clip made him want to move to a Muslim country and convert to Islam. Now when we hear people’s stories of why they decided to convert they are stories of peace and belonging and joy. Andrew Tate’s reasons here were because if the Jada and Will’s entanglement had have happened in a Muslim country, he believes she would have been stoned to death and THAT is what he thought was appealing.
Is it the white supremacy Islamophobia and Orientalist misperceptions of Islam as being a religion that permits violence towards women that were the basis for Tate’s conversion? “I am going to find myself a nice Islamic-a** wife, and build up a big pile of rocks in case she gets fresh,” Tate says at the end of the video.
The irony of the red pill culture is white, ultra-far-right worldview that is often openly Islamophobic and built on the the foundations of a white supremacy radicalisation culture. A culture that we as a community have been fighting against and have been labelled as and spent over 20 years condemning after 9/11.
We have seen many Muslim scholars tweeting to challenge the assumption that by converting to Islam, Tate’s reputation is fully rehabilitated like the conversion itself is a magic pill. What we haven’t seen enough of is the clear denouncement of his violent misogyny. “Too many Muslim men are seeking to give him a pass, claiming ḥusn al-ẓann [having a good opinion] and that Islam wipes away all sins,” Joseph Lumbard, an associate professor of Quran studies at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha tweeted on October 29. “These are indeed important Islamic principles that apply in the vast majority of cases, but not when they are employed to excuse violent misogyny, grifting, and all manner of fisq [wickedness] and fasād [corruption] that AT’s [Andrew Tate’s] social media platforms continue to promote.”
What we are now seeing is people like Andrew Tate becoming a role model to young Muslim boys and men and the creation of mincel’s (Muslim Incel)
In 2018 Alek Minassian drove a truck into a crowd of pedestrians in downtown Toronto, just before carrying out his attack, he wrote a post on Facebook in which he proclaimed the arrival of an “incel rebellion.”
Now what’s important to note here is that had it not been for that post, the speculation about the attack would have focused on the connection to an Islamic State terrorist attack. Alek Minassian cannot have been oblivious to ensuring that it was carried out in the same way and the impact it would have, and which community would suffer.
As a community we appear to be willingly “donning the monstrous mask of Islamophobia caricatures”, now placated by social media influencers and we have hardly anyone out there to be a voice that can combat these people in a way the young people will identify with. Do we need to change tact?
We have got to a point where the harming of Muslim women is celebrated online. Abusive relationships are seen as ok and these narratives are coming from our own community who see the likes of an Andrew Tate as a role model. This is not the religion I am a part of and this attitude is antithetical to the way my Prophet (pbuh) taught us how to be, nor is it the foundation that Islam is built upon which respects women. This is a perfect example how cultures get misunderstood for religion.
I myself have seen the impacts of this incel behaviour in our community several time and been on the receiving of it more times than I can count. This community see Muslim women empowerment, liberation or feminism as the ultimate evil. The number of comments and hate I received for being named as a Top 100 influential Muslim was astounding because I wasn’t wearing a hijab and because I was liberal. Muslim men went on the attack but what’s even sadder is no Muslim men came to my defence. Can we address why incel culture is repeatedly spoken about as an inevitable response to Muslim feminism and it then becomes a problem for women to address, and not it being an issue for men?
You only have to do a quick google search for find masses of stories of women whose partners, brothers and family members have been influenced by this strand of Muslim male influencers known as “akh right bros. Taken from the Arabic word for “brother,” akh right bros situate themselves in opposition to so-called Western values in favours of a version of Islam that is rife with misogyny, according to Javad Hashmi, an Islamic studies scholar at Harvard University.
They have a really clear strategy and that is to seek out an audience, and it’s those who are struggling to find their identity. We know that’s a huge issue in our community especially for those trying to navigate their Muslim identity living in a western world which comes with a lot of pressure and conflicting ideologies, but we do not speak about how tough that is and having a balance. The idea of getting it wrong or it being so one way or the other means that there is not many role models out there engaging in the discourse of how to navigate that space, and find an identity that feels authentic but allows someone to still operate with within their faith rather than just essentially being someone else they see. This then creates pent up frustration and mental health issues, and the perfect group for these “influencers” to target, they know they are the group who struggle with their identity because they are socially and financially disenfranchised as a result of systemic Islamophobia and racism, and may be sexually frustrated due to a lack of success in the dating and marriage market (because let’s be honest women are getting more and more empowered whilst within their faith). Which is making this group of men’s inferiority complex grow, they will seek out any kind of ideology that can give them power and make them feel empowered. I remember a few months ago being on a Instagram live and one man was saying that he forbids his wife from working and because he brings home the money (she clearly had no choice if she could or not) that he expected dinner ready. Also if she had a bad day he didn’t want to hear about it because when he got home it was about him and she had to ensure all she did was make him happy. That meant her dealing with her own bad day while he was out. My heart broke for that woman, when I have a bad day the first person I tell is my husband. In fact I text him from one room to the other to tell him I’m sad when a tv character dies or I have a headache (don’t judge my laziness we all text from different rooms- you know you do it too)
In this space, akh right bros appeal to some Muslim men and boys because they are “defending their religion in a strong way,” while projecting the notion that women are the root of their social problems and this is where it gets messy but it’s strategically done and this is where we have to get smarter. Not everyone defending Islam isn’t problematic. Tate’s fans cannot reconcile that a man can be friendly, nice and good to men, but be a vile human being to women.
We now have Myron Gaines whose actual name prior to joining the red pill maniverse was Amrou Fudl. He is the host of the Fresh and Fit podcast which markets itself as the No. 1 men’s podcast in the world and he has recently come into the sphere. He offers men advice on everything from fitness to finance, sex to sobriety. He is a vocal red pill philosophy supporter and has said things like “If you are in a serious relationship with a girl, she should not have an Instagram account – that’s cheating,” he has said, comparing it to a woman having a “‘for sale’ sign around her neck.” And that men should never fall in love because “you start to lose ground and you start to lose that rational thought.”
Earlier this year, in an interview with Chian Reynolds, “men love women idealistically.” Women, on the other hand, love men from an “opportunistic standpoint.” According to his LinkedIn bio, Gaines helps men “transform from simps into PIMPS” by providing “uncomfortable truths.”
In his book “Why Women Deserve Less,” (yes my eyes rolled too when I heard the title) published earlier this year, he writes: “The relationship between most men and women throughout all of history has been transactional. It has been prostitution. All men are Johns. All women are whores.” He also refers to women as 304s (304 on an upside-down calculator looks like the word “hoe”). Like Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines is a “proud Muslim” and believes that women should cover their bodies to shield them from dark male sexuality, yet again putting the responsibility on women to not be assaulted rather than not making this an issue for men to stop it happening.
Like Andrew Tate, Myron is also a Trump supporter. His mother, from Sudan, was a stay-at-home parent, and his father came to the United States poor and worked his way up. This was something that was quite normal for many people of the Global Majority in our parents era however things have now changed.
When Andrew Tate was released from prison and placed on house arrest there was floods of comments on Twitter saying ‘Mashallah Brother Tate”. When he announced his conversion/reversion it was so interesting to see how so many men felt all his sins were washed now, and totally minimised. and gaslit women who raised valid points, that Tate has managed to get support from men who are otherwise “sensible, educated, God-fearing” purely because he is now Muslim. Writer Aisha Ali-Khan discussed the possible benefits of Tate denouncing his rhetoric in an October 2022 article for the New Statesman. “Tate’s views are still being used to justify, spread and reinforce toxic masculinity and misogyny,” Khan wrote. “For this, as a good Muslim brother, he needs to step up and speak out.” Which he still hasn’t done and Tate is still manipulating impressionable young men with the way he continues to market himself. He’s even profiting financially, he began selling a $131 T-shirt during his court case, on the t-shirt that was sold online the description reads: “The battle against Shaytan begins.”
I guess my reason for this whole blog post is, being fully aware that as a community we are always being asked to condemn the actions of a few and that gets tiresome, I get that, but when this is harming the women and they are actively asking for the men in our own community to stand up and show up and we hear crickets. I think we are well within our rights to ask, If you’re a Muslim we have to ask is this the example you want to be following? Is this who we want our young boys and men to be aspiring to be? Are we really a community that can be so quick to condemn other communities who have never caused me harm, and live their own lives and tell them that they can not be Muslim, but its ok for those who outwardly go out to cause violence against women, it’s ok to be welcomed into the community?
We have to ask ourselves these questions and what allows us to absolve these men of these behaviours?
I truly believe that more Imam’s, community leaders, teachers, Muslim men anywhere in general need to practise better allyship and speak out against these behaviours and really start to help and support young and older Muslim men re-evaluate how masculinity is defined within Islam. That might mean changing the way we communicate, the channels we use and re-education at all levels. We need to be a community that becomes really clear that vulnerability is strength, being in touch with your emotions, showing kindness, care and grace and being moderate, respecting others and their life choices and equality, equity this is what makes a man. It isn’t about imposing unwanted views everywhere you think you should be, having sensationalist views online just for likes, having negative role models. Being misogynistic, racist and all the other isms.
We need to see Muslim men coming to the forefront to stand up and oppose this awful movement that is relentless in punishing and causing harm to Muslim women and all women and other deliberately disadvantaged groups that exist within and beyond our faith. We have to recognise how big this has got, there are no limits to the age demographic, the geographical demographic and although we need to see all men out there we have to remember our faith is a big part of the facade in which they are using to spout the nonsense.
Muslim woman are already being harmed everywhere we look by world leaders to not being able to play football in peace. The internet plays such a huge part of the conversations we have inside and outside of our home. What hope do we have as Muslim women and as a community to move forward if things don’t change? Who will we turn to and more importantly who will our daughters. turn to if they grow up thinking they are the victim but also the cause of their abuse and it is all justified? Also intersectionality matters too when looking at this from an intersectional lens, and the number of Global Majority women that even access the services to support them with abuse, the numbers are already low and even lower for Muslim women as suicide rates go up within younger woman and girls we will only see this increase with this harmful narrative.
Now is a time that we must make an intentional and concerted effort to detach misogyny from Islam in the way that in currently exists in the mind of Muslim men. We have to. really ask ourselves why the likes of an Andrew Tate and someone like Tommy Robinson, who there are rumours about potentially converting/reverting think that is appealing to them to join the religion, as somewhere they can exist that is a platform for them to continue to cause harm. I am all for someone converting/reverting and doing better but when someone is seeing our faith as a place where they can justify harm then we have a problem we need to talk about.
We need for people to understand Islam is a timeless religion which stands independently and which wholly recognises men and women as equal twin halves in faith. Muslim men need to be educated on our history, to fully recognise that misogyny is not a Muslim trait, and never has been and if they do not recognise that they have no place preaching anything to anyone. In the conventional social hierarchy, changes to which birthed this screaming and distressed Red Pill movement, Muslim men sit far below the white men who proclaim this view which many forget as they push this narrative. A defining feature of white supremacy racist ideology is the pandering of the Global Majority who they deem as inferior, when it suits their misogynistic agenda. Muslim men, like women, are no more than a tool in the broader incel manifesto to uphold a white supremacy culture and its worked so well up until now.
But the question we have to ask is to my Muslim brothers…. what are you going to do about it?
