Taboo

I have a close relative who lived with a guy for close to 20 years. One day, after she had turned down his advance; he beat her and raped her. This brings up the rule that boys are taught since childhood that you do not EVER hit a girl. Today, of course if some woman struck first and was kicking your ass, you bet you would defend yourself. How often does this happen? The basic rule holds fast: As a boy or a man, you NEVER strike a girl.

Within the Islamic world, a fairly large argument is taking place where the interpretation of the Koran allows not only that you can hit a woman, but also can take your wife by force. Some say that the Koran allows it, others say no. I do not know the particulars of interpretation of Arabic. I have heard that inflection of voice imparts meaning, so the written word can be interpreted in multiple ways because the inflection is left out. Actually, I do not give a damn. Just the fact that this argument is going on makes me sick.

Physical violence upon women is not just a problem within the Islamic world. However, it is a much larger problem within the Muslim world simply because the above argument about striking your wife is actually taking place. Combine this with the large incident rate of ‘honor killings’ and this is a very large problem. Physical violence appears to be a common symptom of the Islamic community for a number of reasons. We constantly hear about how Islam is being ‘insulted’ and some riots have occurred somewhere as a direct result. We hear about ‘honor killings’ and other acts of domestic violence like some man being spurned by a woman and threw acid upon her face. Although we in the Western world must admit that we have similar problems, they do not appear to be so consistent, nor do they appear in such frequency. After all, my relatives’ boyfriend broke a MAJOR rule when he did what he did. (Not to mention breaking the law) What if you thought that the rules allowed for this? You would believe that you did not do anything wrong. This is precisely what is going on within the Muslim world.

Much of this problem stems from the Koran itself, simply because it CAN be interpreted in ways that allow for this. With all of the controls in place to ‘help preserve the modesty of women’, it only makes sense that domestic violence would be much more common compared to places where the rules (And laws) against such behavior is absolute. This is only part of the problem.

I believe that much of the domestic violence we see within the Islamic world is simply frustration because Islam takes away so much. With so many rules against ANY type of interaction between men and women, combined with such a controlling lifestyle, it can only be expected that humans will lash out due to frustration. Anger appears to be the only emotion that IS allowed by Islam, so anger management becomes a real problem simply because it is the ONLY outlet. In any case, the idea that only a very small minority of Muslims believes that physical violence upon women is allowed by the Koran is about as weak an argument as that of southern slaveholders who beat their slaves were only a very small minority of the slave owner population. With slavery, we had to wage open warfare to rid our country of that evil. I find it very difficult to believe that it is possible for the Islamic world to adopt our view of just this one issue (Of violence against women) without ‘insulting’ Islam to the point that would justify open warfare. This is just one more reason why warfare between Islam and us is not only inevitable, but also necessary.