RESPONSE TO MANSOOR

Submitted by DANIEL REDMOND (United States), Mar 4, 2008 at 05:22

I think that by now it has become evident to those of us in the West that the Islamic mind has a far different concept of what 'honor' and 'fairness' are to women. To the Islamic mind the obsessive control of a woman's life, the insistence that she wear a veil at all times, that she not venture forth from her house without a male escort, that she face the possibility of being murdered by a male member of her own family in order to save the family's "honor" if she has the misfortune of being sexually molested, these are the Muslim's way of expressing Islam's respect for women. We here in the West consider this to be oppression based upon gender and it is not only immoral but illegal as well under our system of laws.

Is it not true that in an Islamic court of law a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man's? Is it not true that 'honor killings' are an accepted tradition in the Muslim world and seldom prosecuted by Islamic courts? Is it not true that women living in Islam must cover themselves from head to toe whether they wish to or not? Is it not true that young girls are often forced into arranged marriages with much older men? Is it not true that the Prophet Mohammad himself married a six year old girl named Ayisha when he was fifty-one years old and began having sexual relations with her three years later when she was nine? It is, after all, a matter of the historical record of Islam. We in the West who actually do respect and protect women in a sane and rational way would have such a person prosecuted as a sex offender.

You seem to think that women in the West are treated like whores. Well, they are not. In fact, they are treated as being a man's equal under the law with the same rights and privileges that their male counterparts have, a concept totally alien to the Muslim mentality. If you think that motherhood is not respected here just ask any man who ever went through a divorce in the United States who the courts favored during his divorce proceedings. The woman will invariably be given custody of the children and a substantial amount of spousal support that the former husband must, under court order, pay her. In Islam is it not true that a man must simply say three times the words "I divorce thee" for such a dissolution of the marriage to take place but that a woman has no such right to a divorce no matter what her circumstances? Is it not true that the Quran actually explains the correct way for a man to beat his wife?

I read recently that in Sweden where large numbers of Muslims have migrated 85 percent of the sexual assaults against Swedish women are perpetrated by Muslim men. This demonstrates how little respect Muslims have for women in general. On the one hand you, with your twisted logic, insist that the West devalues our own women while at the same time Muslim males act upon this false concept by physically assaulting Western women in their host countries within Europe. It is the hight of hypocracy and ranks up there with the absurd insistence that Islam is a peaceful religion despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".