Women Warriors

There are so many courageous women speaking out, literally at risk of their own lives, against the metastasizing threat of fundamentalist Islam: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish, Brigitte Gabriel, to name the most prominent. Today I met another, albeit less famous, one - the Baroness Caroline Cox, the founder and CEO of HART, the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. On behalf of the oppressed, forgotten and persecuted, she has traveled as far afield as Burma, Nigeria, the Sudan, India, Timor, and Uganda.

She has also spoken and written tirelesslyabout the threat of militant Islam. It was she and another British Lord who invited Dutch politician Geert Wilders to present his controversial, anti-Islam short film Fitna before the House of Lords. But Wilders was turned away from England at the command of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who deemed him a security risk - this, in a country that harbors openly radical Islamists who regularly call for the destruction of England and the West. For refusing Wilders entry, Cox accused the government of appeasing the Islamists.

Two weekends ago I also met Rachel Ehrenfeld, another clear-eyed critic of radical Islam and a brave champion of free speech, whom I interviewed for a new article that will post online soon. She is at the forefront of investigations into the money trail connecting terrorists and international drug cartels, and you don't mess around with people like that if you are easily unnerved.

The feminists of NOW can barely be bothered to halfheartedly scold Bill Maher for his foul-mouthed hate speech against the safe target of conservative women politicians. By contrast, such gracious, inspiring defenders of Western values as Ehrenfeld and Cox are confronting serious threats to our security and making a real difference in the world.