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Islamic Studies in Malaysia: Three Ways to Beat Your Wife

Sep 25, 2019 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

With Malaysia’s antisemitic Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad set to speak at Columbia University today, it is a good time to examine some of Malaysia’s vaunted “moderation.” Last year in Malaysia, a sample exam question in an Islamic Studies course aroused the ire of a female activist. The story is here:

Lawyer and activist Siti Kasim has called on Education Minister Maszlee Malik to explain an Islamic Studies examination question for Form Five students on permissible ways to “hit a disobedient wife.”

“Is this what our Malay children (are) learning in school?? What is this Maszlee? Is this acceptable?

“What kind of trash are we teaching the kids in school?” she asked in a Facebook post alongside an image of the examination question.

No doubt Siti Kasim is deeply offended by Qur’an 4:34, which gives a husband the right to “beat” a disobedient wife, but she can’t bear to discuss it, she simply wants to dismiss it, not hear about it, not admit that it exists — “what kind of trash,” she rails, “are we teaching the kids in school?” What kind of trash? The Qur’anic kind, that neither she nor anyone else can ignore, unless that verse happens to have been abrogated, and 4:34 is not.

The question, which Malaysiakini has sighted [sic], presents a flowchart with the title “Ways to hit a nusyuz (disobedient) wife”.

The chart states two such ways – “Not too overboard that it would cause injury” and “Not on sensitive areas,” and requires students to fill in the third permissible way.

Although Qur’an 4:34 clearly tells a husband he may “beat” a wife, many modern commentators have tried to soften that permission by claiming it should be done “lightly” in order that there be no permanent injury. These commentators have, in their glosses to 4:34, also claimed that Muslim men are never to hit their spouse’s face, nor to hit them in such a way as would leave marks on their body. Muhammad himself once punched his wife Aisha in the chest, which caused neither a permanent nor a visible injury. As always, the Perfect Man showed the right way to do it.

The question originates from a Sept/Oct 2018 model examination paper for the Form Five Islamic Studies subject, issued by the Selangor Education Department.

Contacted later, Siti said students should be taught the Quran from multiple perspectives.

We should not be teaching our children such rubbish in schools.

Again, why is Qur’an 4:34 any more “rubbish” than any other part of the Qur’an — say, than 98:6, which describes non-Muslims as “the most vile of creatures,” or any of the more than 100 verses commanding Jihad? Siti doesn’t like 4:34, but she can’t deny that it is an unabrogated verse in the Qur’an. She can insist that the Qur’an “is all about mercy and compassion,” but the Qur’an itself begs to differ. Where is the mercy and compassion in  2:190-194, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, and 47:4?

“There are many other opinions on the interpretation of (how to discipline wives). Why do we teach our children only one interpretation?”

Actually, the interpretation offered is considered a “mild” one, for it modifies the permission to “beat” a wife by insisting that it be done so as not to cause permanent injury, nor should it affect “sensitive” areas. In other words, “beat” a wife — but only “lightly.” Perhaps Siti Kasim would have wanted the question to focus on the ways to treat a disobedient wife before “beating” her — that is, by admonishing her, and then by banishing her from the marriage bed?

“If they really want to teach (this), teach all other interpretations too. Let them decide which is best in Islam in accordance to [sic] the Quran, which is all about mercy and compassion,” she told Malaysiakini.

The thinking here fascinates. A verse in the Qur’an prescribes “beating” a disobedient wife. But the Qur’an, Siti claims, is “all about mercy and compassion.” So that verse, which appears to be lacking in “mercy and compassion,” cannot possibly mean what it says. What other “interpretations” of being told to “beat your wife” does Siti think are necessary to qualify it as being all about “mercy and compassion”? Why isn’t she satisfied with the “mercy and compassion” that a Muslim husband shows when he beats his wife, but only “lightly,” taking care not to cause permanent injury and avoiding hitting her on “sensitive” areas? And doesn’t he “beat” her, the minimum necessary, for her own good? Like a wise father with an errant child? Doesn’t that show mercy and compassion? For Siti, apparently not. But she doesn’t dare claim forthrightly that 4:34 can be done away with entirely. She knows it’s not one of the abrogated verses. Instead, she rages on, insisting that it not be the subject of an exam question, not subject to “only one interpretation.” The permission to “beat” your wife, no matter how its harshness may be softened by the commentators, still means, despite Siti Kasim’s rhetorical tantrum, that a Muslim husband may “beat his wife.”

As for that exam question, the third acceptable way to “beat” your wife is with a bunch of grass or twigs, following the example of Job in Qur’an 38:44.. That sounds pretty mild to me. But it wouldn’t satisfy Siti Kasim. And she refuses to recognize that whatever “mercy and compassion” is to be found in, or teased out of, Qur’an 4:34 is there despite, not because of, its wording.

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Filed Under: Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, Malaysia, Qur'an, Sharia, women's rights in Islam Tagged With: Siti Kasim


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Comments

  1. elee says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 10:26 am

    Any libbers paying attention? Nope, I forgot, you love Muslims and only hate white men.

    • mortimer says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 11:29 am

      – [Muhammad said] “Hang up your scourge where your wife can see it” – Kash-shaf (the revealer) of al-Zamkhshari (Vol. 1, p. 525)

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 7:49 pm

      I believe in equal rights for women, and I hate wife beating.

  2. mortimer says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 10:54 am

    Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad MD is a fabulously rich man who made his money in politics (bribery is such an ugly word) and now he is lecturing the world as a moral authority.

  3. Watto35 says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 10:54 am

    Speaking at Columbia, eh? Are they taking him on-stage with a dog-leash and putting a bowl of water near where he will stand?

    • mortimer says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 11:26 am

      He’s a rabid Jew hater and enemy of civil liberties. Why did Columbia U invite this dictator? What’s wrong with them? How much of a bribe did they get?

      • Carolyne says

        Sep 25, 2019 at 7:48 pm

        Many universities in this country take huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia. Georgetown has even permitted a Saudi Prince to build an Islamic Studies building to teach impressionable and left wing snowflakes the “Beauty” of Islam. This has happened all over this country with Ivy Leagues being their prime targets at which they have been successful beyond their wildest dreams. In most Western countries, one can be arrested and jailed for the mere criticism of Islam. So far that hasn’t happened here, but the technique is to shame and in some cases deprive a person of their livelihood should they dare to speak a word or look askance at Islam.

      • gravenimage says

        Sep 25, 2019 at 7:50 pm

        And he spoke at Cambridge University before this, where students laughed at this antisemitic jokes.

  4. mortimer says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 11:00 am

    Islam consistently and INTENTIONALLY degrades and humiliates women … it is a pattern of misogyny throughout Islam’s foundational texts and Sharia, rather than an inexplicable aberration in a single verse, K. 4.34. Read the following and weep …

    The hadiths of Mohammed, Islam’s false prophet, that insult and degrade all women:

    – I think that women were created for nothing but evil
    – Women have ten ‘awrat (vulvas). When she gets married, the husband covers one, and when she dies the grave covers the ten (of her shameful parts)
    – A straw mat in the corner of the house is preferable to a barren woman
    – Women are toys, so choose (your ‘toys’)
    – The woman is a toy, whoever takes her, let him care for her [or do not lose her]
    – Had it not been for women, God would have truly, truly been worshipped
    – Men perished the day they obeyed the women
    – Obedience to a woman’s advice causes regret
    – Consult women and act contrary (to it)
    – Sneezing, drowsing, yawning in prayer, also menstruation, vomiting and nose-bleeding are from Satan
    – When…your affairs are in the hands of your women, the interior of the earth (hell) will be the better for you than its surface
    – If a woman offered one of her breasts to be cooked and the other to be roasted, she still will fall short of fulfilling her obligations to her husband. And besides that if she disobeys her husband even for a twinkling of an eye, she would be thrown in the lowest part of Hell, except she repents and turns back
    – Mohammed asked some women, “Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half that of a man?” The women said, “Yes,” He said, “This is because of the deficiency of the woman’s mind.”
    – I have not seen any one more deficient in intelligence and religion than you (women)
    – I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers are women.
    – Bad omen is in the woman, the house and the horse
    – After me I have not left any affliction more harmful to men than women
    – Don’t wear false hair for Allah sends His curse upon such ladies who lengthen their hair artificially
    – Treat women well for they are like domestic animals and they possess nothing themselves. Allah has made the enjoyment of their bodies lawful in his Qur’an
    – Women, slaves and camels are the same
    – Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman
    – “Women are like cows, horses, and camels, for all are ridden,” is in fact recorded in Tafsir al-Qurtubi (see vol. 17, p. 172)
    – If you relax the woman’s bridle a tiny bit, she will take you and bolt wildly. And if you lower her cheek-piece a hand span, she will pull you an arm’s length … Their deception is awesome and their wickedness is contagious; bad character and feeble mind are their predominant traits
    – “[A man’s wife] fears him, while he fears her not, a kind word from him satisfies her, where nothing of hers has importance in his eyes, it is she who must tolerate the presence of concubines, and it is she who worries when he is ill whereas even her death would leave him indifferent
    – If a man calls his wife to his bed and she refuses, and he spends the night angry with her, the angels curse her until morning
    – Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals [awan] with you and do not possess anything for themselves. You have taken them only as a trust from God and you have made the enjoyment of their persons lawful by the word of God, so understand and listen to my words…
    – Muhammad’s last words on women during his farewell speech:
    – God allows you to put them in separate rooms and to beat them but not with severity. If they refrain from these things they have the right to their food and clothing with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons. (Sirat Rasul Allah. Translated in English by A. Guillaume. First published by Oxford University Press, London in 1955)

    • glendl says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 12:54 pm

      Doesn’t “awrat” translate as ‘walking vulva’ which is what a woman is considered?

      • Carolyne says

        Sep 25, 2019 at 7:52 pm

        I don’t think so because that’s the part they amputate in childhood.

        • gravenimage says

          Sep 25, 2019 at 8:01 pm

          Carolyne, even a woman with he clitoris chopped off is still considered a walking vulva as pious Muslims see it.

        • gravenimage says

          Sep 26, 2019 at 10:21 pm

          her clitoris

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 7:52 pm

      Thanks for that ugly list, Miortimer.

      And yes, glendl, that is exactly how women are regarded.

  5. Antiislamicman says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 11:02 am

    What a nasty religion.

  6. m says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 11:04 am

    Message to Siti Kasim: ‘Mercy and compassion’ in Islam are only for Muslim alpha males, but for no one else. Didn’t you figure that out yet?

  7. Michael Copeland says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 11:09 am

    “…the third acceptable way to “beat” your wife is with a bunch of grass or twigs..”
    Well, bamboo is a grass.

    • mortimer says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 11:20 am

      – [Muhammad said] “Hang up your scourge where your wife can see it”

      – Kash-shaf (the revealer) of al-Zamkhshari (Vol. 1, p. 525)

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 8:04 pm

      This “twig” is a Miswak (also called a toothbrush), but is also a thick vine to begin with. Dried, this is like beating someone with a thick branch. It can do a lot of damage.

  8. mortimer says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 11:18 am

    Mahathir began his first term conservatively; during the 1980s Mahathir became more authoritarian. In 1987 he instituted the Internal Security Act, which permitted him to close four newspapers and order the arrests of 106 political activists, religious leaders and political opponents, including Anwar Ibrahim, his former deputy prime minister.

    He banned The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for printing negative editorials about him, and supported a national law condemning drug smugglers to death, resulting in the execution of several Western citizens.

  9. glendl says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 12:51 pm

    And there is:

    A woman should leave her home on 3 occasions.
    1). When she moves to the house of her husband.
    2). When she attends her father’s funeral.
    3). When she attends her own funeral.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 25, 2019 at 8:05 pm

      Yes–I’ve heard this vile litany before.

  10. jewdog says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 2:52 pm

    Let Me Count the (Sharia) Ways:

    Let me reveal
    All the weapons I conceal
    When I love you
    Let me count the ways

    Let me explain
    Every contusion on your brain
    How I love you
    Let me count the ways

    You come apart
    From the terror in your heart
    And I love you
    Let me count the ways

    And if you stray
    You’ll surely rue the day
    Cause I love you
    Let me count the ways

  11. MikeyParks says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 3:56 pm

    That’s nothing! In America, women occasionally get pinched in the butt! No kidding!

  12. Angemon says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    Lawyer and activist Siti Kasim has called on Education Minister Maszlee Malik to explain an Islamic Studies examination question for Form Five students on permissible ways to “hit a disobedient wife.”

    So the calls to wage war against infidels are halal for her. Got it.

  13. The unexpected voice says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    Nasty, yet expectable from an islamic country.

  14. gravenimage says

    Sep 25, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    Islamic Studies in Malaysia: Three Ways to Beat Your Wife
    ………………

    Yes, this is orthodox Islam–and no, there are no Islamic texts that soften this.

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