A new puritanism explains why some feminists are making common cause with Islam

The bicoastal elite might be more effective in opposing Mr Trump if it weren’t obsessed with the persecution of anybody who says the wrong thing. ‘While you self-involved fools were policing the language at the Kids’ Choice Awards,’ raged the broadcaster Bill Maher last week, ‘a madman talked his way into the White House.’ This new puritanism must explain why some feminists make common cause with Islam. One of the Women’s March organisers was Linda Sarsour, a defender of sharia law, which is misogynism incarnate. She said on Twitter of Brigitte Gabriel, a feminist critic of Islam, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation and of death threats for apostasy, ‘I wish I could take their vaginas away — they don’t deserve to be women.’ So she’s a pussy-grabber too. She has since deleted the tweet.

This is an extract from Matt Ridley’s Diary, which appears in this week’s issue of the Spectator