Is It Fact or Fiction (Part 11)

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    Here is the conclusion of our study of Myth #4 part 4: “Islam Oppresses Women and Forces Them into a Subservient Role.” (From “Myths and Facts about Muslim People and Islam” ADL.org). “The head scarf is often cited as an example of oppression. The Quran directs both men and women to dress with modesty but how this is interpreted and carried out varies a great deal. Many people think that Muslim women are forced to wear a hijab (head scarf), niqab or burqa. While it is true that in some countries with significant Muslim populations women are forced to wear the hijab, this is not the reason Muslim women wear the hijab in most cases, particularly in the United States. In fact, many women choose to wear a hijab, niqab or burqa on their own and do so for a variety of reasons including a sense of pride in being Muslim, a collective sense of identity or to convey a sense of self-control in public life.” 

   The head scarf is an example of oppression. Muslims claim that the hijab protects women, as some mufti stated that women are like jewelry and must be locked in boxes and kept at home. However, Mohammed, in the hadith, assured his Muslim believers that women come in the picture of the devil and leave in the picture of the devil. So I am a little bit confused. Are women in Islam jewels or devils?

   Now, how did the Qur’an direct men and women to dress with modesty?  We understand that women are commanded to wear the hijab. Qur’an 24:31 states: “And say to the believing women to restrain their eyes and to keep their private parts (maintain their chastity) and do not display their ornaments…”  Qur’an 33:59: “O you prophet, say to your wives and to your daughters and the women of the believers, let down their jalābīb (wrapper, large outer covering) over them (from top of head covering their entirety), that in this way they will be known (identified as a believing Muslim woman), so they will not be harmed...”

   However, there is not any command for men concerning what to wear. That is why I am not surprised, when I walk on beaches around the world in summer, I see Muslim women in full hijab while their husbands, with a full beard, no mustache (a sign of a true Muslim jihadi), and wearing summer clothing, are enjoying the beach. These Muslim men are true Muslim believers, obeying the word of Allah in its details, including forcing their wives to wear the full burqa while the men themselves are not suffering from the summer’s heat. If what the writer claims is true, then we ought to see men also in full burqa. Mohammed stated in the hadith that if a woman walks outside her home, Satan makes her attractive in the eyes of men. That is why women are commanded to wear the hijab. So the problem is not in the woman but in the eyes of Muslim men; therefore, I recommend Muslim men who cannot control their eyes to do what Jesus said in Matthew 5:29: “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”    

   How can we say that women are forced to wear the hijab as a problem of some Muslim countries if it was a direct command from Allah in the Qur’an and Mohammed in the hadith? Hijab has nothing to do with culture or country barriers. It is simply Islam.

   Traveling in our ministry, we meet women who used to be Muslims and have converted to Christianity. They clearly expressed the truth about their abusing husbands or fathers who forced these women to wear the hijab, but while being Muslims, they could not speak about these situations. Married to Mohammed is a book written by a friend of mine, a former Miss Virginia. Loving her husband, she converted to Islam, wearing the hijab. To please him, she worked hard to convert other American women into Islam, even though she herself did not believe in it. This is the story of many American women who are trying to save their marriage for their childrens’ sake. As we shared in the past, it is lawful for Muslims to lie, thinking that the end justifies the means. 

   The conclusion, stating women wear the hijab as a sense of pride in being Muslim, a collective sense of identity or to convey a sense of self-control in public life is simply fiction, not fact. For if Muslim women in the Muslim world or even in America have the freedom to get rid of not only the hijab but the savage cult of Islam, they would have done so many years ago. However, because of fear of death or even disfigurement of their faces by acid, they continue to wear it.

   The final paragraph in the article stated: “Another measure of women’s roles in Muslim society is leadership. Since 1988, eight countries have had Muslim women as their heads of state, including Turkey, Indonesia, Senegal, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh (two different women), Pakistan and Mauritius. Many Muslim countries - including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - have a higher percentage of women in national elected office than does the United States.”

   Is this Islam? Islam is not what people say or do but what Allah/Mohammed commands them to say and do. If the entire Muslim world changed today and became more moderate, loving, and kind, that itself would not make Islam good. Instead, that would be the end of Islam. 

   Read more about what Allah commanded in the Qur’an about women by getting a copy of The Generous Qur’an. Please check out our website at:
www.TheStraightWay.org

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