Fintan O’Toole’s Trump–9/11 Comparison

Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times grandee and occasional contributor to New York–based periodicals, has submitted his way of commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There are lots of angles a committed progressive could take. O’Toole decided that the American president’s commemorating the anniversary is informed by the same exact misogyny that motivates jihadist terrorism.

O’Toole starts with Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian fundamentalist who studied in Colorado in the late 1940s and reacted poorly to the position of women and the relative liberty of sexual relations in America. O’Toole gives us a long account of Qutb’s disgust at a church-sponsored dance at which Frank Loesser’s “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was played. Then, O’Toole talks about how jihadis want to control women’s bodies just as Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth do, or something.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times grandee and occasional contributor to New York–based periodicals, has submitted his way of commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There are lots of angles a committed progressive could take. O’Toole decided that the American president’s commemorating the anniversary is informed by the same exact misogyny that motivates jihadist terrorism.

O’Toole starts with Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian fundamentalist who studied in Colorado in the late 1940s and reacted poorly to the position of women and the relative liberty of sexual relations in America. O’Toole gives us a long account of Qutb’s disgust at a church-sponsored dance at which Frank Loesser’s “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was played. Then, O’Toole talks about how jihadis want to control women’s bodies just as Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth do, or something.