I would be the first person you would expect to state that everyone has the right to practice whatever religion they choose. That, even after what I am about to reveal here, is still true. I am not an Islamaphobe. When I lived in Israel (about 11 months, Kibbutz Nahsholim), I knew some Moslem people. They lived in a neighboring village and amongst members of our Kibbutzim and residents of that village, we held many joint diners and other events. We traded with them, collaborated with then and some of our members even married into their families and theirs into ours. They were nice, good people and very good neighbors. So what I am about to reveal is not something I am particularly happy about sharing.
In all of the countries that are ruled by Moslems, practically all of them are dictatorships. None of them abide by basic human rights and some of them have some especially heinous practices.
Misogyny: All of the Abrahamic faiths have elements of misogyny. In fact it is mainly the most fundamentalist examples that practice it. But this article is about Islam so let’s go into it:
Following is a list of things that Muslim girls are taught:
- Women can’t speak during prayer to correct an Imam (men can) because their voices are too “distracting.” (This is based on the hadith, see “From Hadith – Regarding Concealment Of Voice During Prayer“)
- Women should lower their eyes in the presence of men.
- Women shouldn’t wear tampons, to preserve their “purity.”
- There are passages in the Quran that advocate beating disobedient wives (see this paragraph“In fact, the word in the Quran in 4:34 used for “beat” is “idreb.” It is a conjugate of the word “daraba” which primarily means “to beat, strike, to hit” – Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, page 538”).
- Polygamy is legal and practiced in many Muslim countries and permitted by the Quran
Saudi Arabia, where the laws and regulations are for the most part drawn from edicts in the Quran and where “religious police” (note that they aren’t called the cultural police) patrol the streets, harassing women for showing their ankles, preventing women from driving, enforcing the laws that prevent women from working or travelling without permission from a male guardian, and oh, don’t forget “beating young girls” to prevent them from escaping a fire because they weren’t wearing proper religious dress.
Women in some countries are expected (or required) to wear the hijab which is similar to the way Catholic Nuns used to cover their heads. Other countries require the burqa which totally covers a woman, and in extreme cases allows only their eyes to be seen.
In Saudi Arabia, until very recently, women were not allowed to drive a car.
In the Taliban’s Afghanistan, women are not allowed to go to school (at all) nor can they pursue a profession. In the Palestinian state of Gaza (yes, it actually is a country and is self governing) women are not allowed to be doctors, nurses or work in any healthcare profession (this is evident from recent news feed video taken at hospitals in Gaza).
There are other things too, minor things. But probably the very worst practice is Female Genital Mutilation. Among some conservative Muslim communities women are regarded as “unclean” and “not ready for marriage” unless FGM – the deliberate cutting or removal of a female’s external genitalia – is performed. Even though Egypt officially banned the practice in 2008, it is still practiced there. Other Muslim (or predominantly Muslim) countries where FGM is practiced are Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Ethiopia, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Indonesia, Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, among others.
Anti LGBQT laws: In Iran today, lavat (sodomy) is a capital offence and people are frequently executed for it. In Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania, sodomy is also punishable by death.
In Gaza members of the LGBTQ community are (when discovered) thrown off the tops of buildings.
Among other Arab countries, the penalty in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia and Syria is imprisonment – up to 10 years in the case of Bahrain. In those that have no specific law against homosexuality, gay people may still be prosecuted under other laws.
Freedom of Religion: Twenty-one of the Muslim-majority states are religiously repressive, meaning that the state governs according to an Islamist ideology through which it promotes and enforces a strongly traditional form of Islam and often violates the religious freedom of religious minorities and Muslim dissenters.
Slavery: In the following countries slavery is lawful and practiced: Eritrea, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.
Torture: Muslim countries who routinely torture dissenters are Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Egypt.
Reading over this list, I am astonished that there are so many American Progressives who support Islamic causses, and especially the Palestinian cause, which it left to fester, would surely produce an Islamic government that would practice many, if not most, or these practices.
For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.
