I discussed Mohamed Kamal Mustafa and his wife-beating book in Islam Unveiled, which I wrote in 2001. In it I reported that an association of Spanish women’s groups had brought suit against him; it has taken that long for this case to wend its way through the Spanish courts, while Mustafa has been able to continue to preach his views in Spain unhindered.
I also noted that Mustafa had merely restated and elaborated upon Qur’an 4:34: “good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them.” Now a judge has ordered him to study Spain’s constitution; what will he find in that constitution that will convince him to set aside the Qur’an?
This judge has given us yet another example of how ignorance of Islam and the jihad imperative cripple our response to it. If he knew that Mustafa was simply working from the Qur’an itself, it is unlikely that he would think that an Imam would allow himself to be turned from that path by studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the constitution of Spain. After all, another Muslim theorist, the Iranian Sufi Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh, wrote a book criticizing the Universal Declaration on Islamic grounds: A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — indicating that it is at least possible, if not probable, that a Muslim religious teacher, when confronted with the incompatibility of Qur’anic directives with Western notions of human rights, will discard not Islam, but Western notions of human rights.
After all, right here at Jihad Watch I once had an exchange with an English convert to Islam, who signed his name “Yusuf Smith Indigo Jo).” I said: “I would like nothing better than a flowering, a renaissance, in the Muslim world, including full equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies: freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, equal employment opportunities, etc.” To that he responded: “So, you would like to see us ditch much of our religion and, thereby, become non-Muslims.”
In other words, he saw a call for equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies, including freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, and equal employment opportunities, as a challenge to his religion. Will Mustafa think anything else after reading over the Universal Declaration?
Or maybe the judge is hoping that Mustafa, when seeing this incompatibility, will leave Spain voluntarily.
From The Telegraph:
The judge told Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, imam of a mosque in the southern resort of Fuengirola, to spend six months studying three articles of the constitution and the universal declaration of human rights.
Mr Kamal was sentenced to 15 months in jail and fined £1,500 last year after being found guilty of inciting violence against women. However, despite objections from Spain’s socialist government, a judge released him after 22 days in jail on condition that he undertake a re-education course.
A commission recommends that imams should speak Spanish and have a basic knowledge of human rights and Spanish law.
In his book Women in Islam, published four years ago, Kamal wrote that according to Islamic law, a disobedient wife could be beaten.
“The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body,” he wrote.