Islam for Women

News from the small Scandinavian country Finland (yet well known for NOKIA and Mika Hakkinen).  It used to be a hidden tolerant island and cultural conflicts sounded like echoes from overseas.

The Lebanese born Imam Chehab Khadr of  Helsinki Muslim community

defended in an  Aamulehti newspaper interview the notion that girls as young as nine years old could be wed into marriage with parental consent and that what is against the law some countries is permissible in others.

It followed on outcry in the country with unbelievable amount of feedback, blogger comments and phone calls what made him change his position the next day.

Nobody could be fooled; words are cheap and even cheaper by the dozen.

The damage is done and once again the image of Islam was badly tarnished in a place which is known to be very welcoming and tolerant.  They have for centuries a small Muslim community originating from the east with no problems whatsoever with human rights or marrying little girls. Today many Muslim immigrants are causing trouble and controversy, mostly through the growing rape rate in bigger cities (mostly by Somalis) and  small time criminality like snatching ladies handbags in broad daylight. People do not walk in the streets at night time anymore!

My first reaction was that this man is mega stupid!  But he is a regular guest at state banquets, and TV talk shows. This middle aged man probably close to his fifties has been living large part of his life in a Western country with an excellent human and especially women rights record. Finland was the 1^st country in Europe to grant women voting rights and women make up almost half of the parliamentarians and they have a woman president in her second term already. I would have wished at least a little more openness of mind and some critical thinking.

From a man in his position one would expect more common sense. How can he advocate Stone Age practices marrying little girls when there are lots and lots of unmarried young women waiting to get married?

A grown up man wishing to marry a six or even a nine year old girl is a man with sick fantasy, a pervert and a pedophile, there is no way around it. This Imam went so far as saying that in Western societies youngsters at that age are involved in sexual acts but in Islam he is accepting it in a marriage. Not to mention that elsewhere hardly any 6 yr. or 9 yr. old girl is sexually active, so he was simply lying.

There is a HUGE  difference here: the first one is not acceptable although it happens occasionally  (mostly rape by someone close) – the latter one is sanctioned by higher authorities, and what is worse: sanctioned by God itself?!

I went to find facts from Wikipedia.

What I found very shocking that Lebanon which is trying to appear the most modern and advanced Middle Eastern Muslim country has the worst record of women rights! Nine year old girls are children and sexual acts with them is pedophilia, married or not.  It makes me sick, this is not Islam.

From the list of some countries with marriageable ages for male/female I pick up Lebanon, the former home country of this Imam:

Lebanon: 18 for males and 17 for females; scope for judicial discretion on basis of physical maturity and wali’s permission from 17 for males and 9 for females; real puberty or 15/9 with judicial permission for Shi’a; 18/17 or 16/15 with judicial permission for Druze.

Nine years minimum age for little-girl-wives and this country is bragging to be a model to the Muslim Middle Easterners.    HOW can a 10-year old be a mother to an infant, or perhaps this possibility is not taken into consideration in those male chauvinistic minds?

In a few days I will write, Inshallah,    about the Prophept’s young wife Aisha. The Hadith’s suggest, that she was married to him at the age 6 yrs.  By Hadith’s  of which I am very critical about. They were collected as late 250-300 years after the death of the Prophet (p.b.u.H.). From 600 000 stories f.e. Bukhari selected 7,397 based on their truthfulness.

Truthfulness? How can a lengthy recitation transmitted by word of mouth over half a dozen generations be truthful in every single word? Human mind is not a computer, it can err with the best of intentions.

Prophet Mohammad discouraged in his lifetime writing down these stories in fear they would be confused with the Quran itself. Well, yes, it looks like it happened after all.

There are several surviving written document from the lifetime of the Prophet from which we can reconstruct the events and we find that Aisha was in her late teens, probably early twenties when marrying as it happened in Medina after he Hijjra (emigration).

Especially the shia-Muslims (most Iranians, half of the Iraqis, Persian Golf Emirates, part of Saudi Arabia, and Southern Lebanon) still hold on to this practice and what disturbs me most is that the media and especially the internet is full of hate speech regarding this matter and Islam is regularly called a “Pedophile Religion”. Opponents are using a very powerful image,  and it is working.

One of my favorite quotes is from the late  Dr. Lila Fahlman,  founder of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW):   “Man-written Hadith’s have ruined have ruined Islam. “

I am trying my very best to shake up and wake up the Muslims themselves into critical thinking ( it is our duty trying to change things we think are wrong) and at the same time trying to build bridges.

There is no other way.

Mona

Since the latest feedback from the Wahabi corner I started thinking, that maybe I am doing more harm than good. Although I still think we cannot ignore criticism and should examine our behavior and interpretation of Islam in a changed world. Today I received a heartwarming Email, that I wish to share with you:

Assalaam Alaikum!

I’ve found your blog browsing blogcatalog and it is one of the best muslim blogs I’ve found so far! I’m from Moscow, Russia and it is not easy to find information about islam because of the fact that muslim community here is divided into several ‘tribes’ by which I mean that nationality is more important for them then religion. Me and my husband are jewish but we feel that Islam is the religion that suits our views the best. Back to your blog: I wanted to comment your latest post about provocative writers and such, but unfortunatelly didn’t find a comment form so I’m writing it here.

About 2 month ago on the second day after my marriage I was arrested by police (forunatelly for 1 night only). I was placed in a waiting caged room with some illegal immigrants from muslim countries (both men and women, but mostly men). After a while a policeman came to us and started abusing islam and prophet Mohammad. One of the men replied to the policeman telling he shouldn’t say such words. After a short conversation the muslim guy shrugged his shoulders and went silent. Later on he explained that it is useless to explain smth to an ignorant person…

With best regards,

Alexandra.

May God, the All-mighty  and Creator of all mankind show us all the right path and bring us Peace!

Amnesty: Rape girl, 13, killed for adultery 

Stoning a gang rape victim, Amnesty International Report

November 1, 2008  -  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.Initial local media reports said Duhulow was 23, but her father told Amnesty International she was 13. Some of the Somali journalists who first reported the killing later told Amnesty International that they had reported she was 23 based upon her physical appearance.

It hard to come to senses after news like this knowing that it was Islam that introduced righteousness to a then pagan community. For thousands of years stoning to death and nailing on a cross (in Palestine)  were the most common ways of death penalty,  I suppose since Stone Age.

Jesus, who is also a Prophet for Muslims like all the other Prophets of Christianity said:  “If any of you have not committed a sin you can throw the first stone at her.” (Bible,  John 8:1-3)  

(Painting: Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery, by Vasiliy Polenov )( 

The Story in the Bible- The Adulterous Woman. (John 8:1-3)It was about a woman who had been caught committing adultery, and had to stand in front of the teachers of the law and Pharisees and also Jesus, and they said that “In our law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death,” and then they put all the pressure on Jesus by saying what do you think, and then said to Jesus, so that they could accuse him, but they didn’t trap Jesus.   Jesus then said “If  any of you have not committed a sin you can throw the first stone at  her.” The older people left first and eventually everybody had gone,  and there was just Jesus and the woman left. Jesus said to her “Where  are they all, there is no one left to condemn you,” and then said ” I  don’t condemn you either, go, but do not sin again.”  

As true Muslims believe in ALL the Prophets before Phophet Mohammed in my opinion this is a significant statement from Jesus.  And most importantly it  does not contradict the Quran.

In the Quran the stoning of an adulterous woman is not advised.    “And as for those who are guilty of an indecency from among your women, call to witnesses against them four (witnesses) from among you; then if they bear witness confine them to the houses until death comes close to them or God opens some way for them.” (Quran 4:15)

Some extreme branches of Islam still practice the stoning to death. In their understanding  its justification must be based on Hadiths, because in the Quran there is no mentioning of it. 

“Surely those who accuse chaste believing women, unaware (of the evil), are cursed in this world and hereafter, and they shall have a grievous chastisement.” (Qur’an 24:23)

“And those who speak evil things of the believing men and the believing women without their having earned (it), they are guilty indeed of a false accusation and a manifest sin.” (Q. 33:58)

I pray to God, the Allmighty, that all Muslims would finally start realizing the real Teaching of Islam,righteousness and human rights.

Salaam, Mona

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Edit: The complete story on BBC News from Somalia. Her 62-year-old aunt told the BBC that the teenager had in fact been raped by three armed men – and she took Asha to the police station to report it.

“I don’t know what crime she committed other than being raped – and I was not even allowed to see her body.”   - Asha Ibrahim Dhuhulow’s aunt

“They are wrong if they committed a kidnap. They will have to be punished under Sharia law.”- Hiiran’s al-Shabab Chairman Sheikh Ali Dheere

“One of the 100 most influential people in the world”

Ayaan Hirsi-Ali                      

was named in 2005 by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

For some time now it has been in my mind that I should write about her, because she is spreading information as Islamic which actually is NOT and the readers of her bestsellers and articles hardly can make the difference what is true and what is her view. Everything she says should be seen on the background of her Somalian childhood. It is one of poorest and most backward countries in the world and its traditions should be seen in that perspective. There is also an interview with her on Youtube “On Losing Faith In Islam”

She is a Dutch feminist born in Somalia. When she was eight her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then for Ethiopia and eventually settled in Kenya. From Germany se came to the Netherlands where she sought and obtained political asylum in 1992, under circumstances that later became the center of a political controversy.

A political crises surrounding the potential stripping of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parlament, and led indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet.

She is known in the West by her assumed name, Hirsi Ali, instead of her original name, Hirsi Magan.

She opposes vehemently immigration to the Netherlands while she herself lied about almost everything when getting her asylum status and later her Dutch citizenship.

In its critic of Ali’s autobiography, The Economist called her a “chameleon of a woman”, referring to her talent for reinvention and opportunism.

Speaking of opportunism: her books are translated into numerous languages and turned best sellers. She is living now in the United States and  recently I came across an ad: “URGEND APPEAL: Please Help Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali” on the website ofRichard Dawkinds, wheere she is collcting money for her personal safety. Strange, don’t you think? All these best seller -books and fame cannot pay for her bodyguards?

Hirsi Ali is today an atheist renouncing Islam. She is free to believe or not to believe, it is her decision. As it is stated in the Quran “There is no compulsion in faith” (Qur’an 2:256)

There might be Hadith’s in which a death penalty is suggested for abandoning Islam. But in light of the numerous relating passages of the holy Quran they do not weigh much.

Please read also the Topic No. 7 “What the Qur’an says about…” on the right panel. I would be delighted to have Ayaan on my blog reading these statements. All her arguing would be nullified.

I am not denying that Islam is often distorted out of ignorance or due to uneducated preachers, too much have been changed in the original Message of Peace and Humanity and it urgently needs revival.

What Hirsi Ali experienced in her early childhood in one of the 3 poorest countries of the world and during her schooling with the most strict interpretation of Islam, the Wahabism  in Saudi Arabia, has influenced her thinking.

And as I surf the net trying to find specific statements from her about Islam I could not find any! Strange. There is her Homepage but there is no writing or thoughts from her, just a link to collect money for her safety. Very strange, one of the 100 most influential people in the world has nothing to say on her website.

I have to pick up lines from articles and try to answer them one by one.

Quote: “Hirsi Ali criticizes Prophet Mohammed on the grounds of both his morality and personality. In January 2003 she told the Dutch paper Trouw, “Mohammed is, seen by our Western standards, a pervert”, as he married, at the age of 52, Aisha, who was six years old, and the time of consummation, nine. “

As I have written very detailed in this blog about Aisha I just direct you, my reader, to articles on the right panel, No.4 “Biography of Mohammad” (the names and ages of the wives of Prophet Muhammed are listed at the end of the article)

Just a short reminder: from surviving documents we can estimate the age of Aisha at the time of her marriage. She must have been in her late teens or early twenties.

His first marriage with the wealthy widow Khadijah (who was his employer) lasted for 25 years, it was monogamous and very happy. She bore him all his surviving children.

His other wives where aged widows, a young slave girl Maria (a “present” from an African ruler and whom he set free and married and who gave him his only son,w ho died in infancy). Lady Aisha remained childless and after the death of the Prophet she continued teaching Islam and even participated in politics of the early Muslim community.

To be continued soon, her view vs. my view.

http://www.rekombinant.org/old/article.html.sid=2467