Daily Inspiration Quote by Sally Quinn

Quinn’s line works by flattening a messy sociological reality into a clean media-ready equivalence: fundamentalism equals misogyny, across faiths, full stop. As a journalist, she’s not offering a theological argument so much as a cultural diagnosis designed to land quickly with readers who already suspect that “traditionalism” and “women’s equality” are incompatible. The rhetorical trick is the pivot from a seemingly careful qualifier - “only in the fundamentalist religions” - to a sweeping conflation: “Radical Evangelicals, Muslims, and Jews all have the same view of women.” The qualifier suggests nuance; the conclusion cashes in on certainty.

The subtext is as much about American politics and status as about religion. Naming “Radical Evangelicals” alongside “Muslims, and Jews” scrambles the usual post-9/11 hierarchy in which Islam is singled out as uniquely oppressive, while Christian fundamentalism is treated as a domestic quirk. Quinn is signaling a liberal, secular cosmopolitanism: the real divide isn’t East vs. West, it’s modernity vs. fundamentalism. It’s an attempt to universalize the critique and, implicitly, to deny any community the moral high ground on gender.

But the line also reveals journalism’s recurring temptation: to turn “fundamentalism” into a single ideology rather than a spectrum of practices, institutions, and internal dissent. By asserting “the same view of women,” Quinn erases difference between denominations, movements, and lived experiences - and collapses women inside these communities into symbols of patriarchal theology rather than political agents. The provocation is effective because it’s blunt; it’s also vulnerable because it’s blunt.