Anwar

Submitted by Abdul Rahman Reijerink (Australia), Jul 13, 2006 at 20:25

Anwar,

the arguments that you make about Qur'an/Islam are too simplistic. Yes the Qur'an is the directly revealed words of God, they do not change and they give guidance for all times. What can change is the circumstances in which they are applied and how we are to do this. This does not alter the words of God. I lack the ability to do this arguement justice, but it is a central idea in essentially all Orthodox Islam, and is not just an element of modern scholarship. A simple example of this is the progressive revelation of the prohibition of alcohol/drugs, first only in prayer and then full stop.

It would be foolish to assert that hijab can stop a woman from being raped. However, I believe that it is naive to say that unwanted sexualised attention ex: a man staring at a woman's breasts etc is not minimised by wearing hijab. The fact is many women in my society feel large amounts of unwanted attention from men, and my point is that if wearing hijab makes them feel safer from that, then it is nobody elses business if they do that. There are even laws in my state now prohibiting men on building sites from whistling at women; just before they were enacted, about five years ago, there was a virtual epidemic of sexual harrasment for women walking past building sites especially in the Sydney CBD. These laws were controversial, but they have led to a sharp decline in this type of behaviour, not through enforcement so much as defining what is acceptable. I think hijab can contribute to this type of mental space by defining what is acceptable. ie looking at young attractive women in a lewd and intimidating way is not acceptable.

We go bush walking too, as well as horse riding and more. It does not strike me as dangerous to do that with a sensible scarf (which I hold is not compulsory anyway)

No, it is not compulsory. The belief that it is compulsory is a valid interpretation, but it is not binding on all muslims, only upon those that follow the (majority) opinion that it is. There are sufficient scholarly voices giving legal decisions that it is not compulsory that a binding consensus does not exist. Only issues upon which all muslim scholars agree can be considered binding, ex: that muslims must believe that it is compulsory to pray five times a day.

I believe that I condemned the opinion that wearing hijab is related to fitnah as an oppresive opinion because it makes women responsible for the sins of men which is intolerable and unjust.

Yes my wife is liberated according to the interpretations I refer to, not however the misconstructions that you conflate my beliefs with.

Define beauty and I will tell you if I agree.

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