Update on Rania al Baz from today's Arab News:

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=43550&d=21&m=4&y=2004

Quite simply, her husband told police that he acted in a jealous rage. Article said this means that the charges could be reduced from attempted murder to wife battery, a less serious charge.

jay

Why would he be allowed to "defend his statements in court?" Either his statements are legal or they aren't, regardless whether or not they are permitted by Islam. Is French law being adapted to accomodate Islamic law? It appears to be the case.

I was so angry at the Associated Press for falsely stating that "... Islam prohibits violence against women ..." that I sent them the following letter. We cannot allow these news media services to get away with publishing these most egregious falsehoods. I am amazed that a reporter at the Associated Press could never get away with stating as true something like "the earth is flat" but he or she can get away with reporting something equally untrue about Islam and get away with it. I AM FURIOUS!

21 April 2004

The Editor
Associated Press
info@ap.org

Re: Incorrect information regarding Islam in your article used by CNN.com entitled, "TV host goes public with abuse"

Dear Sir:

In your article, "TV host goes public with abuse", your journalist states, "... Islam prohibits violence against women ...." This statement is incorrect. In fact, Islam does not prohibit violence against women.

Sharia law allows Muslim men to beat their wives. One of the standard texts of Islamic Sacred Law (Sharia) which has been translated into English is the Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, (Amana Publications: Beltsville, Maryland, USA, 1994 - ISBN 0-915957-72-8. Also it is available at Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0915957728/qid=1082554857/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-2114739-4148851?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

The book is self-described as follows:

This work is the first translation of a standard Islamic legal reference in a European language to be certified by al-Azhar, the Muslim world’s oldest institution of higher learning. It presents an explanative interpretation of ‘Umdat as-salik, a classic Sunni manual of Sacred Law by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 769/1368) that comprises the legal work of Imam Nawawi, the great thirteenth-century Shaf’I hadith scholar and jurisprudent. Ibn Naquib’s famous handbook carefully summarizes the conclusions of Nawawi’s legal encyclopedia al-Majmu’ on all aspects of practicing Islam, from prayer, marriage, jihad, and inheritance to the other facets of Islamic life. [from the rear cover of the book – letter writer’s note]

With regard to dealing with a rebellious wife, the Sharia law as recounted in the above-mentioned book is as follows:

p. 540, m10.12

DEALING WITH A REBELLIOUS WIFE

m10.12 When a husband notices signs of rebelliousness in his wife (nushuz, dis: p42) (O: whether in words, as when she answers him coldly when she used to do so politely, or he asks her to come to bed and she refuses, contrary to her usual habit; or whether in acts, as when he finds her averse to him when she was previously kind and cheerful), he warns her in words (O: without keeping from her or hitting her, for it may be that she has an excuse. The warning could be to tell her, “Fear Allah concerning the rights you owe to me,” or it could be to explain that rebelliousness nullifies his obligation to support her and give her a turn amongst other wives, or it could be to inform her, “Your obeying me [def: (3) below] is religiously obligatory”). If she commits rebelliousness, he keeps from sleeping (O: and having sex) with her without words, and may hit her, but not in a way that injures her, meaning he may not (A: bruise her,), break bones, wound her, or cause blood to flow. (O: It is unlawful to strike another’s face.) He may hit her whether she is rebellious only once or whether more than once, though a weaker opinion holds that he may not hit her unless there is repeated rebelliousness.

I request that you immediately publish a retraction of your incorrect statement regarding Islam and violence against women and publish the facts as I have demonstrated them to you. Not publishing the facts about the religion of Islam does your readers a great disservice. Also, it does an even greater disservice to all the women who suffer under Islam’s misogynistic rule. If you wish to truly help women, then publish articles which forthrightly state the facts about Islam’s treatment of women: i.e. a man can have 4 wives (a woman cannot have 4 husbands); a woman must be circumcised and that circumcision includes the removal of the clitoris which removes any chance of sexual pleasure for the woman; the testimony of a women in court is only worth half that of a man; a woman cannot prove she has been raped unless she produces 4 male witnesses; male children inherit twice as much as female children. And the above are only some of the most egregious aspects of Islam’s treatment of women. I could go on but I do not want this letter to be 10 pages long.

If you truly want to help the condition of women in Muslim countries, you must encourage a frank discussion of the misogynistic elements inherent in the Islamic legal and theological framework. Only then will women be able to work to free themselves from the mutilation, humiliation and legal restrictions that are placed on them by Islam.

Yours sincerely,

Anonymous

way to go, mentat.

The Koran states in Surah 4:31 that "all women are inferior to men.

Surah 4:38 states that if a woman does not obey
a man....she should be beaten with a "green stick."

An Egyptian writer in the late ninties stated that a woman would never be the "equal to a man even if she boiled one breast...and roasted the other breast."

How long do the French take Moslems seriously? The Koran is "hate speech" toward women, it is
a document that teaches warfare toward
all nonMoslems...and it should be banned. It is not a religious document.

The Koran merely uses God/Allah as an "enforcer" in that those who not submit to Islam are punished. This is not a religion of peace.

Judy Weismonger
believe as

The koran does not have a single phrase, or a sentence that is complimentary toward women.

I will give anyone a reward of $1 million dollars if they can quote me a single phrase from the Koran that is complimentary toward women.

In fact, the Koran states that "women, are impure, leaking vessels." Whereas, little boys are....as the freshest of pearls."

When a man dies as a martyr...he is not given "women" as a reward, but "little girls..."virgins" and "little boys."

Judy Weismonger

Explosions, gunfire rock Indonesia's Ambon for
> fourth