A slight misconception

Submitted by Sarah Hashmi (United Arab Emirates), Mar 9, 2008 at 12:57

I agree with you that there are many women in the Muslim world who are being heavily mistreated today. There are women all over the world being mistreated. However, is it right to blame the religion or the people? Islam, like any religion, offers a set of guidlines of how to live your life or conduct yourself. Islam is complete in it's guidlines.

However, these guidlines are not always followed.

Let me give you a little taste of arab history:

The religion originated in Saudi Arabia in the tribe of Banu Hashim. It was delivered fully to the FINAL prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. However, the message had been being delivered to other prophets before that. That includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and even Jesus.

In the arab CULTURE before Islam was given to them, women were mistreated. Baby girls were buried alive because they were thought to be worthless. A worthy child was a son. Girls didn't carry the name and were considered a burden. Why?Girls weren't able to do anything!

Men were the ones that could go out, fight battles, carry heavy loads, brought in money, built things, and were stronger. What were women good for besides more babies and food to them? To the arabs back then, women were nothing more than an extra mouth to feed and did nothing in return. The more boys the better status you had. That was the culture before Islam.

Islam was never forced upon anyone. It is either accepted or rejected. However, those who did accept it back then followed it in the purest of ways. They did not torture and opress women. That was not the intent of the religion. In the prophet's final speech he commanded the people to treat their women with kindness.

However, many people chose not to listen to the prophet. The prophet did not hold a gun to their heads and say "do not kill your women for honor." There is NO rule in Islam that prevents the "honour killing" of women. In fact, it is forbidden. You cannot kill a girl for flirting with a guy. There is strict ruling on what you can do.

You have to accept that relationships outside of marriage are considered forbidden in Islam. But the punishment is not killing. When a girl fornicates and is CAUGHT then she is lashed 80 times. Yes, the punishment is harsh. But the philosophy is the greater the risk, the more hesistant the criminal. On top of that, you have to have FOUR witnesses for fornication excluding the accuser. That means a girl has to commit this in FRONT of FOUR people. That is how much Islam protects women's honor. Because someone who destroys her honour that much deserves to be whipped like that. That is the ethics and culture of the religion. It is just. And it is accepted by them. You can't criticize it just because their ethics don't agree with yours.

Adultury is punishable by death, however. But a woman cannot be killed unless she commits adultery infront of four witnesses. And it is not limited to women. Men have the same consequences if caught.

Don't you agree that such a little pleasure isn't worth the huge risk? Punishments aren't limited to women. They are equal in both. And a person who does that infront of four people...

Wouldn't you consider THAT unethical?

And those who stand witness against her, if they falsly testify and get caught then it is them who get punished. And if they falsly testify they have hell on their hands because they must testify three times and the third time its under punishment of hell. Perhaps you dont believe in heaven or hell, but they do. And it is for that reason, they do not do such rash actions.

Those who do honor killings, however, are commiting a henious sin against Islam. It has nothing to do with the religion. The religion does not practice these things. It forbids them. And the prophet has forbidden them. Therefore, you cannot blame Islam and it's prophet. Blame the idiots who call themselves Muslim and follow their own ancient customs.

You mentioned that muslims praise the prophet for his faithful marriage and yet how were they supposed to know that it wasnt out of lust. It is because there is documented proof of his words. He has described every detail of his life to set an example for Muslims. Many muslims, sorry to say, choose not to follow him. That's their problem, not the prophet's. And why should we believe the Prophet's words? How do we know they are reliable?

Because we know his history. We know how he was before he was made a prophet. He is the most written about person. And his well-known name is As-Saddiq al-Amin. Even his enemies knew this name.

And this name means: The truthful, the trustworthy

If his own ENEMIES believed he was honest, then how can you ask his followers to doubt him? Why did his enemies doubt him--they didn't. They knew full well that he was telling the truth. They were just fighting because they didnt want to lose power and accept what they knew was true.

Do you honestly think that God would entrust a sacred religion to a liar?

Ask yourself. Do your claims make any sense? And research before you assume.

--Hashmi

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