Arthur D. Hlavaty

I think it's an old criticism that maybe is not resonating anymore. I think it was more based on comments Atwood made in the 90's (when I was in grad school) about modeling the dystopia on Islamic regimes and a cautionary extrapolation on where Christianity in the US could go, instead of being not much of an extrapolation of what Dominionists really were envisioning and had been working and voting for. Basically she did the kind of lumping of Islam and Sharia law that supergee is talking about above, perhaps unwittingly--and maybe that's not going on with how The Handmaid's Tale is being interpreted now, Atwood and the critics have moved on, and I'm being an old fogie who should do a reread of the book.