Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Divine Sanction for Wife Beating

The translation of the passage "beating them lightly" has been softened in the Sublime Quran , published by a Chicago author. But this translation is in the minority, sadly. HotAir, blogging the Qur'an, this segment on women, ending with this reference to her translation:
Unfortunately, however, this is not a unanimous view. Sheikh Syed Mahmud Allusi in his commentary Ruhul Ma’ani gives four reasons that a man may beat his wife: “if she refuses to beautify herself for him,” if she refuses sex when he asks for it, if she refuses to pray or perform ritual ablutions, and “if she goes out of the house without a valid excuse.” Also, Muhammad’s example is normative for Muslims, since he is an “excellent example of conduct” (Qur’an 33:21) – and Aisha reports that Muhammad struck her. Once he went out at night after he thought she was asleep, and she followed him surreptitiously. Muhammad saw her, and, as Aisha recounts: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?”

Wife-beating exists in all cultures, but only in Islam does it enjoy divine sanction. Amnesty International reports that “according to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, over 90% of married women report being kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused when husbands were dissatisfied by their cooking or cleaning, or when the women had ‘failed’ to bear a child or had given birth to a girl instead of a boy.”

Aisha herself said it: “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women.”

Next week: What becomes of those whom Allah has cursed.

Can we stand to read this? But this is about us infidels. And now there is a new souped up Qur'an, an al-Qaeda recruiting tool for jihad. Banned in Qatar.

Oh, and how about this item. They can beat their women, but they can't kick soccer balls, and want to fight about it. Charming. The Beeb reporter thinks it's all our fault. We're culturally...insensitive.

Related posts: Raping Women and Children, Beat Them Lightly

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