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View Full Version : If women are repressed … Don’t blame Islam


abdulhakeem
29-11-04, 11:23 PM
Alawi Abullah Abu Bakir Taha (editorial@yementimes.com?subject=Attn: Alawi Abullah Abu Bakir Taha adam_taha2000@yahoo.com For the Yemen Times)
adam_taha2000@yahoo.com
For the Yemen Times

I have read a recent letter written by S. Zeschky titled ‘a request about Nadia Mohsen. I’d like to reply to Zeschky.

First, you and everyone has the right to request but what you don’t have the right in doing, is labeling the Muslim nation with pure ignorance and I quote from your own words:

“Moslems: A religious sect where a bunch of good-for-nothing men like to demonstrate their manhood by suppressing, raping and physically punishing their women. On their own they would not be able manage anything. - Far beyond civilization and worse than in the Stone Age.”

Shall we bring some facts to your attention? The Arabs use to kill their newborn daughters and it is only when Islam, through the leadership of Muhammad and the guidance from God that this was abolished. Only through Islam was this done this and stopped.

Secondly, while women in the western world were not allowed to vote, were not allowed to have their name on the wealth of their husband, were not allowed to speak their mind, Islam was far ahead of your world and liberated Muslim women to have God given rights. Man is the oppressor NOT Islam!

It women have the right to vote, it gave the Muslim women right to speak, be heard instead of being a product, a tool, a doormat, to such that even when one of the Kalifahs, spoke about something concerning the dowry, a woman stood up and spoke it was her God given right to ask as much dowry she wanted, and so the leader responded that she spoke the truth, and delighted by her wisdom.

Aisha one of the mothers of the believers, was also a shining star for the Muslim nation; for men and women as a wise, legendary teacher many came for advice when Muhammad died.

Islam took women from what barbaric men once treated them as nothing but dirt, to noble creatures to be treated with respect and honour, and raised high, to such, men and women are equal in the sight of God in righteousness, and he or she is better in righteousness is known to God, Allah the All Mighty alone.

If anything happens and its wrong, then blame it not on Islam but the hypocrisy of men and corrupt governments. You didn’t do that instead went one step further and mentioned ‘Muslims.’

You label me, my fathers, my forefathers, my mother, my grandmother and the many brothers and sisters in Islam who sacrifice their whole lives enriching the British community in UK by giving their many hours to nurture their children because the education system teaches to only consume information not to think!

Thirdly, what you call and I quote again from your words “on their own they would not be able manage anything. - Far beyond civilization and worse than in the Stone Age.”

I laughed at this one because it was the western world that was in the Stone Age Zeschky. Your world were still throwing dirt into the streets, didn’t have toilets, the disease were coming from the rivers while the Muslims were great inventors, scientists, legendary astrologists and had a true understanding about nature, the universe. Here’s where I teach you about the influences of the “stone age” world you talk about, and simplify it for you:

Between the ancient civilizations, namely the Egyptians, Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese, and the Renaissance era in Europe, there was a gap, commonly called “the dark ages”, during which the flame was lit and raised, not by the West. Far from it Zeschky but by another culture and people called the Muslims. The very people you quoted as, “On their own they would not be able manage anything.”

Abu-Bakr Mohammaed Ibn-Zakaria Al-Razi 841-926 A.D, known to the Western World as Razes. He was the chief physician in Baghdad. His books on medicine were translated into Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, and Greek. He wrote a treatise on measles and smallpox called “de Peste or de Pestilentia” which was translated to Latin in 1565 A.D. It is a masterpiece in clinical medicine (Browne 1962). It describes the clinical difference between the two diseases so vividly that nothing since has been added (Keys 1971).

And I can give you, hundreds, to thousands that invented, that liberated men and women, that traveled to the four corners of the world, that discovered America before Columbus did, that stood and even terrified the Emperors of Rome. Knowledge that was either burnt, duplicated, stolen by the western that live in the dark ages!

Next time Zeschky, aim your words at the corruption of the Yemeni government to the Yemeni government not the Islam because that’s what you did very slyly, and then label it on Islam. It is the ignorant men who do not adhere to the true call of Islam that treat our people like animals especially when a journalist are being imprisoned and treated like animals. That’s what you should have said because that’s the truth but you didn’t use your head.

Just because its an Arab country and the man on the system and ruling it Arab and has a Muslim doesn’t mean, he will implement ‘shariah’ law to give women their rights. The stench of government corruption is also the mirror of society not the mirror of religion, but a spiritual decline and their lack of being pro-activeness and caring for each other, that overwhelms the nation itself to be nothing but a puppet of their egos and selfishness.

Islam is pure, truth but when handed to man, it must be a man that lives for God alone to serve his people. The government doesn’t serve its people but takes from them, and so the cycle begins in which people also take for just themselves from others.

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=794&p=opinion&a=4

A request about Nadia Mohsen

S. Zeschky szeschky@club-internet.fr (editorial@yementimes.com?subject=Attn: S. Zeschky szeschky@club-internet.fr)
I have my doubts that Nadia Mohsen, being sold by her father to a Muslim, is being a “happily married woman and loving wife”.

But as soon as she declares so personally and in public and also declares that she only wishes to stay in Yemen I shall believe it.

I find it very scary that even now some medieval governments allow men to sell their daughters like cattle.

Moslems: A religious sect where a bunch of good-for-nothing men like to demonstrate their manhood by suppressing, raping and physically punishing their women. On their own they would not be able manage anything. - Far beyond civilization and worse than in the Stone Age.

http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=791&p=letters&a=4

abdulhakeem
10-12-04, 12:01 PM
Muslim women speak about their faith

By Pat Christopher/ Correspondent
Friday, December 10, 2004


Many believe that Muslim women are oppressed by their religion, but that couldn't be further from the truth, according to Saliha Malik, president of the Boston chapter for the Muslim Women's Auxiliary.

"In some countries, women are oppressed, but it is not because of the Islamic religion," she said. "We can all get into society's traps - cultural thinking.... The Islamic religion is a blessing for women. Mohammed gave women rights."

Malik was one of the organizers for the Women Symposium on "The Holy Prophet Mohammed - A Mercy for Mankind" on Sunday, Dec. 5 at the Ahmadiyya Mission House in Sharon. The event was sponsored by The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, Women's Auxiliary.

The Ahmadiyya movement exists in 170 different countries around the world, according to Malik. All panelists recited in Arabic, the language of the Qur'an (Koran).

The symposium's purpose was to correct common misconceptions as well as have an interfaith discussion. Though open to the public, no one came, with exception of a reporter.

Greeted at the door, the reporter was asked to remove her shoes before entering the prayer area called the "mosque." Meanwhile the younger people, seated on the carpeted floor, were asked to stand out of respect.

All Islamic women present were clothed in different pastel chiffon-like Islamic dress, the hijab, covering the head and the body.

When asked why Islamic women dress this way, Malik said, "Mohammed had decreed this for us to help preserve our own integrity and safety from being approached in the wrong way and reminds us, as Muslim women, to be linking with God."

A sign on the wall read, "Mosque - cleanliness is a requirement of faith (Muslim)".

The women recited the Holy Qur'an - Qur'an meaning "a message of all the world," which was first read in Arabic by Najma Mahmood and then translated into English by Saliha Haneef.

Malik, an associate professor at Brown University in the arts, said that at the time of the Holy Prophet, women were "utterly degraded."

"Mohammad restored them to the equal status of a human being. He gave them rights to vote, to take public office, to inherit, etc," she wrote in an e-mail. "All of that took place earlier than when women here were liberated."

Asked about their leader's life, Malik said Mohammed was born in Mecca in 570. His father died before his birth and his mother died while giving birth to him. He was then raised by his grandfather, who died when he was eight years old. At age 40, Mohammed received his first revelation to be a prophet, a messenger.

"Islam is very concerned about the nature of our society, as a whole, and the society that our children are growing up in," she said.

The three panelists were:


Sadka Ahmad who spoke about "The Character of the Holy Prophet." Sadka Ahmad came to the United States in 1977 and lives in Maine. Ahamad, a designer of her own clothing, is a college graduate with a degree in political science.
Ateya Qureshi who spoke about "Mohammed the Liberator of Women." Ateya came to the United States in 1996 from Pakistan. After finishing high school in Pakistan, Ateya received an electrical engineering degree at Northeastern University in Boston.
Sadiqua Mian who spoke on "The Holy Prophet, A Model for Mankind." Sadiqua came to the United States in 1999 from Pakistan after getting married. Her husband and two daughters live in Southborough. She is the educational secretary for the Women's Auxiliary. Sadiqua has a graduate degree in public health from Harvard University. Her present work is in Immune Therapies for Organ Transplantation.
After each panelist finished speaking, Malik said, "Jazak Allah," which means, "May God reward you."

"It is our fuller way of saying thank you," Malik explained.

Malik comes from England and wasn't born into the Muslim religion.

"It comes to a point in one's life when one begins searching spiritually," she said.

She began reading books on Islam, though at first the religion, she confessed, did "not look so appealing."

"I investigated it (further) and found it to be a great source of strength and peace, particularly peace," Malik said. "Then, I began wearing full covering. Then came all the benefits."

She said she found Islam has liberated her

"I found that in the way of following the fashion or following the expected status of women here, that one can easily fall into the trap to please the opposite sex," she wrote. "I personally found that Islam liberated me from all of that. The way women are presented in our society by the media, and in various ways, we fall prey to being an object, we're suppose to please the men. When I look at the media, I am surprised to see how women are portrayed here - a lot of times in our society and in your society, women are not treated fairly.

"I didn't have to please. I didn't have to get up in the morning and think how can I be attractive. You remove yourself from that cycle as a Muslim women, you are still dressed attractively, but not in the way a man finds you attractive. You remove yourself from the trap to entertain or please by the way you look. .... The young girls here feel as if they have to have their navels showing to be attractive. Our girls don't have that pressure - they are very comfortable - free from that issue to have to show themselves to attract the eye."

http://www2.townonline.com/sharon/artsLifestyle/view.bg?articleid=143650