From: khushro@niagara.eecs.umich.edu (Khushro Shahookar)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Words Feminists find Demeaning!
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:30:42 GMT
Reply-To: khushro@niagara.eecs.umich.edu (Khushro Shahookar)
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor


In article <26575@life.ai.mit.edu>, exuasqa@exu.ericsson.se (Asem
Qaddoura,xt-dk,1209) writes:
|> 
|> This is not a flame, but I had to defend my religion against such
statements.
|> Please, don't waste your/my time on things that happens but don't reflect 
|> Islam.  And if you think it does reflect Islam(the religion of
justice), then
|> don't say what you understood, instead say what does Islam teach.  If you
|> don't have any resources, let us know and I will be happy to provide
you with
|> it.       
|> Thank you all
|> 
|> In article 713648718@bronto.cs.duke.edu, ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein
Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani) writes:
|> >In article <1992Jul28.164720.23446@ucunix.san.uc.edu>
minhaszt@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Zafar T Minhas) writes:
|> >>
|> >>Behnam Sadeghi writes:
|> >>>
|> >> >One question I wondered about for some time was this:  Given the fact
|> >> >that women are opppressed in the U.S. as well (e.g. refer to statistics
|> >> >regarding rape, wife-beating, lack of equal pay for equal work,
etc.), why
|> >> >is that Americans [and Westerners in general], shed rivers of crocodile
|> >> >tears for Muslim women while pushing the grave problems of women
in their
|> >> >own countries under the rug?  I arrived at the conclusion that it is not
|> >> >the status of Muslim women that these people really care about. 
They don't
|> >> >give a damn about Muslims, be they male or female.  All they care about
|> >> >is covering up their own problems and insecurities, easing their
conscience
|> >> >about the miserable status of American (and Western) women, and making
|> >> >themselves feel better by putting down others. 
|> >> >
|> >
|> >> Salam Alaikum Behnam, may add one more thing, not only is it that
they are
|> >> trying to cover up there own problems, but when it comes right down to it
|> >> these people who just moan about the plight of Muslim women, these WHITE 
|> >> people are just racist.
|> >
|> >> sincerely
|> >
|> >> zafar minhas
|> >
|> >And we supposedly should be happy going around bragging about the status of
|> >women in our own (homeland) societies and feel no responsibilty
whatsoever in
|> >voicing the plight of millions who are suffering (with the explicit
or implicit
|> >approval of religious and state authorities) under the harsh social,
religious,
|> >moral and civil codes.
|> 
|> 	People's acts doe not always refelect the teachings of their religion
|> 	So, don't balme the suffering you claim(if it exists the way you 
|> 	calim) on Islam, my concern in this issue is Islam and its teachings.
|> 	
|> [[Same remarks repeated throughout the article]]
|> 
|> 
|> 
This has a lot to do with Islam.
I congratulate ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani) on
speaking out
against the evils of his society. He has compared the plight of the
women in America with the REAL plight of women in any so-called Islamic
country of your choosing - say Saudi Arabia, Iran or Pakistan etc.
Unlike America, which is secular, these countries are well-known as
Islamic countries, some of them have a
complete Islamic legal system, and others are moving in that direction. 

Can anyone deny that all the social evils listed by Mr. Rafsanjani are
really present in the societies of any of these Islamic countries? Then
how does this not reflect on Islam?
It is true that Islam does not teach us to do all these social evils; it also 
prescribes punishments against them. 
Similarly, American law does not ask people to commit rape, or
discriminate in employment, it also prescribes punishments against these
evils. 
Yet, these evils exist in alarming numbers both in America, as well as
in any Islamic country. An overwhelming majority of people ignore the
teachings of Islam 
on women's rights, and the Islamic governments and the Islamic legal
systems in 
these countries do not care.

I completely agree that the only reason why there are fewer rapes in
Islamic countries is that in these countries women dare not report rape,
ie assuming the 
Islamic country governments are reporting such statistics honestly in
the first place - Can't tell if there is no freedom of the press. 

Isn't it about time we speak out against these major social evils, and
then suggest some way to solve the problem?
The problem is, what can we do to solve this problem? America can always
try to solve its problems by increasing the punishments prescribed in
the law, or remove 
some of the known loopholes. 
 If the country's legal system is already Islamic, and these social evils are 
still present, then nothing can be done about it, because an Islamic
system cannot be changed.
--
Copyright KHUSHRO SHAHOOKAR,   $0.02
khushro@eecs.umich.edu   Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor