Tu quoque, "whataboutery", "yesbuttery", whatever you like to call it, is a classic strategy of denial. Reluctance to criticise Islam has led "feminists" into all kinds of contorted attempts at moral equivalence. Don't you know, they squeal, that one in five American women has been assaulted by her partner? And that only one in twenty British rapists is convicted?

It is wearisome to explain that wife-beating in Islamic countries is not even a crime, that the reporting of rape is only possible where the victim herself will not be punished, that, in short, the country to worry about is one that does not admit to problems. It is exhausting to repeat ad nauseam that the glass ceiling is not the same as the stoning of rape victims. But repeat it we must, until the wall of stupidity and dozy binthood is toppled - preferably without crushing a homosexual.

David Thompson frequently tackles the subject of moral equivalence. Here he defends Christina Hoff Sommers, who makes an eloquent and one would think uncontroversial plea for accuracy in comparing women's lot:

Needless to say, Sommers’ line of enquiry isn’t universally welcomed. Her points about gross errors, overstatement and competitive victimhood are often met with prickling indignation, not least from those whose activities include some combination of the above. Some denounce Sommers as “conservative” – a synonym for evil – a “female impersonator” and an “anti-feminist,” a term that suggests both the crime of apostasy and a very narrow definition of what “real” feminists should be concerned with and how they’re permitted see the world. One taker of umbrage offers the following, entirely without irony:  

That Sommers does not get that the vast majority of American women are every bit as hobbled by constrictions around dress, mobility and behaviour as women in developing countries tells me Sommers needs to get out more.

Readers will, I’m sure, be nodding in agreement. After all, women across America are accustomed to being given a three-day deadline to shroud themselves from head to toe or face imprisonment. And doubtless when American women find themselves pregnant out of wedlock they too have a very real fear of execution at the hands of local government. You see, in degree of constriction, the “vast majority” of American women are indistinguishable from Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, a Somalian woman found guilty of extra-marital intercourse by her local Islamic court. No doubt all across America unfaithful wives risk sharing Dhuhulow’s fate. Which is to say, they too risk being bound from head to foot and buried up to the neck, screaming, while their skulls are pelted with rocks by 50 pious men until, finally, they scream no more. All in front of a crowd of equally pious onlookers.

Yes, “every bit as hobbled.” Not one iota less.