Many misconceptions surround women’s rights in Islam. The prevailing view by people in the West, and especially what is portrayed in the media, is that women in Islam are oppressed, subordinate to men, and have no say. Is that really true? How have people reached these assumptions?

One reason why the status of women in Islam is misconstrued is that people tend to mix cultural practices with what they think are Islamic practices.

The religion of Islam and people’s cultural traditions are two very different factors. For example, the ban on driving in Saudi Arabia is a socio-political edict, and not necessarily an Islamic law. Women used to ride horses and camels during the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

We hear news reports of young girls in a remote Pakistani village who were banned from going to school, and people falsely claim that Islam bars women from education. Again, this is a cultural problem and has no basis in Islam whatsoever.

Preventing women from education is an un-Islamic practice. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave lectures to women which he held at the mosque, and women were encouraged to learn. Aisha, the wife of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was one of the most knowledgeable authorities on Islam. She has transmitted over 2,000 Hadiths, or sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), which she has memorized by heart. She was educated in Hadith, jurisprudence (Islamic law), poetry, and the Arabic language. On many occasions, great men such as Umar ibn Al-Khattab asked Aisha for her opinion on certain rulings.

Women of knowledge were highly revered and valued in the days of early Islam. A woman, Hafsa, the daughter of Umar ibn Al-Khattab, was chosen to be the safe-keeper of the first complete written copy of the Holy Qur’an (the only one at the time). What an immense responsibility but also privilege to have in her possession the only copy of the Holy Qur’an in the world at the time. That shows the high status of women in Islam.

British researcher and author of women’s history books, Helen Wojtczak, said that in Europe, during the so-called Renaissance, education was revered by society. Famous literary salons became centers of intellectual debate and educational lectures but women were excluded from them. At the time, merely teaching girls to read and write would suffice. Some aristocratic women did receive better education, but even then, a woman who was highly accomplished feared being labeled as “mannish” or even accused of witchcraft.

The problem is that many people have forgotten history. British laws were far more oppressive to women than Islamic laws. Islam granted women rights that European women at the time only dreamed of; including financial, social, familial, and political rights.

Islam rescued the women in Arabia from the appalling situation they were in; they were treated as property, as inferior to men, as prostitutes, with no legal rights, until Islam liberated her and granted women their God-given rights.

Annie Besant, a prominent British women’s right activist, speaker, and writer shed light on women in Islam.

“I often think that the woman is more free in Islam than in Christianity. It is only twenty years [in 1912] that Christian England has recognized the right of women to property, while Islam has allowed this right from all times. Look back to the history of Islam, and you will find that women have often taken leading places – on the throne, in the battle-field, in politics, in literature, in poetry,” she wrote in 1932 in her paper, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad.

That is the problem; people do not look back to the history of Islam, they look only at the scarf or hijab on a Muslim woman’s head and cry, “Oppression!”

Women in Islam, as far back as the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), more than 1,000 years ago, were politically active and they held important roles in public discourse and decision making. When Umar ibn Al-Khattab was the Caliph, the ruler of
Makkah, he informed the public of his plan to set a ceiling (or limit) to the amount of money a woman could ask for as dowry from her husband-to-be.

A woman in the crowd openly opposed him and stood up in public to voice her opinion. She stated that the right of women was given to them by God and that the Caliph should not limit or restrict what Allah had kept liberal.

Omar ibn Al-Khattab agreed with the woman, admitted that he had made a mistake, and withdrew the ruling that he had proposed.

In his famous statement, he said, “The woman is correct and Umar is wrong.”
He was the ruler at the time, yet he found no fault in accepting the political opinion of a woman over his own.

he political landscape was much different for the women living in the same era in Europe. Women continued to be excluded from
politics during which Muslim women were active in politics.

Up until the late 1800s, women spectators were allowed to attend hearings of the House of Commons in British rule, on the condition that the women remained silent; they were not allowed to speak up.

According to Wojtczak, in 1884, when women began fighting for their rights to participate in debates and to be represented in government, the men in power argued, “Women are by nature and also according to God and the Bible meant to be subordinated by men. Politics is none of women’s business; they know nothing and indeed should know nothing about it.”

Islam gave women the right to a divorce, whereas in Western societies, divorce was unfathomable; it would only be considered in rare cases and usually if the man initiated it.

Although divorce is permitted in Islam, it is the last resort, because divorce leads to breaking up of families, which will have a negative impact not only on the children involved, but also on society as a whole. Nonetheless, divorce was an option that women or men could use as repose from a failing marriage.

In Islam, hundreds of years before the feminist movements of the West, a woman could get a divorce if she was being mistreated, or abused. Most women in the West prior and up to the 19th century did not enjoy that privilege. In the year 1670, only 4 British women were able to obtain a divorce in the courts, compared with 318 British men who successfully initiated divorce.

Wojtczak wrote, “Until 1923, the sole ground for divorce [for a woman to petition for a divorce] was adultery. This meant that even if her husband beat her daily for 50 years, starved her, locked her in the house, or jumped on her belly until she miscarried, no working class wife could get a divorce.”

That was not the case in the early days of Islam. Not only could women obtain divorce on grounds of mistreatment, the husband was also responsible for paying child-support.

Imani Jaafar-Mohammad, a practicing lawyer in the US, wrote in the Journal of Law & Practice, “Divorce existed before Islam, but the advent of Islam made the divorce process much more favorable to women. Women’s property is not divided during a divorce. Whatever a woman earns or is given before and during the course of the marriage remains her property if the marriage ends. This prevents men from taking advantage of women’s property or wealth through marriage.”

In Islam, a woman’s earnings and properties remain hers and hers alone, and the husband has no right to usurp any of it.

Financial rights were granted to women centuries before it was granted to their counterparts in the Western world.

In an era as early as the 600s, Islam allowed women the right to inherit estates and own property under their names. Women in the West were struggling to obtain rights that Muslim women enjoyed.

The article, Women’s rights and their money, in The Guardian, reports that in the 1100s in England and in the Americas a common law called ‘coverture’ was the norm, which is the belief that married men and women are one financial entity. This meant that married women could not own property, run businesses, or sue in court.

Not until the year 1839 did American woman gain the right to own property in their own names; the state of Mississippi was the first. Not until the year 1900 did a woman in England become able to enter contracts on her own, collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right. Finally, for economic purposes, she became an individual.

Taking off the headscarf, letting her hair down, and exposing a woman’s body are not signs of liberation of women.    »»» Sailan Muslim (Sri Lanka)

Umar ibn Khattab (God be pleased with him), the first Muslim ruler after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) said:

“Women are not a garment that you can put on or take off however you like. They are honoured; they have their rights.”

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“ISIS is very similar to the Kharijites, who were a toxic off-shoot of Islam,” Yusuf told us. “It’s not Islam; it’s a perversion of Islam, and to label these militant externalities as Islam is to legitimize their actions.” The Kharijites were the 7th century self-proclaimed Muslims who sowed discord in early Islamic history. They were known for their extremist doctrines and their penchant for declaring other Muslims as disbelievers—an act known as takfir—and engaging in murderous violence against them. Amongst their acts was the assassination of the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the first Imam of Shia Muslims and regarded as the fourth and final “rightly guided” Caliph by Sunni Muslims.

Yusuf adds that the continued presence of many religious minorities in the Middle East up to the modern age, whether they be Yazidis, Assyrian and other Christian denominations, Jews, Mandaeans, or Zoroastrians, is testimony to the tolerance that existed for centuries in Muslim-ruled lands and belies the claim that ISIS’s actions are consistent with Islam. While acts of persecution have occurred, at times at heightened levels, Yusuf states that unlike Europe, where non-Christian communities were actively wiped out over the centuries, the Muslim world was, for the most part, a place of religious acceptance and tolerance. Under the Ottomans, for instance, the rights of Jews, Christians and others were guaranteed by the state itself. “Historically Muslim societies have been multicultural environments, and Muslims have had far less abuse toward minority communities than other civilizations,” Yusuf explains.

Yusuf questions the media’s decision to spotlight the views of extremists, adding that it only serves to elevate their status. “They relish the media attention, but why are we even giving these people voices?” he asks. “We don’t see the media, for instance, give platforms to KKK leaders as authorities on Christianity, or Jewish extremists to speak for Judaism, and certainly not the neo-Nazis to address race relations.”

Yusuf also notes that the specific set of beliefs that binds together most so-called Islamic extremists is the most extreme version of Salafism—the starkly fundamentalist and exclusivist sect of Islam that originated in 18th century Arabia, and which groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda adhere to.

The Salafists “promote a self-righteous Islam that teaches contempt for others—the Prophet himself was not like that,” Yusuf says. “If you don’t have religious fallibilism, you have immense problems. This is what happens when you have these exclusivist, self-righteous monsters out there who are absolutely certain and who think God-given certainty enables them to act with impunity.”    »»» ThinkProgress (U.S.)

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First it was Shamima Begum, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, three schoolgirls from Tower Hamlets who smuggled themselves to Syria during their half-term holiday. Then it was “Jihadi John”, the Islamic State executioner who was unmasked by the Washington Post last week as the Kuwaiti-born Londoner Mohammed Emwazi.

The stories of the three schoolgirls and of Emwazi are very different. But the same questions are being asked of them. How did they get radicalised? And how can we stop it from happening again? These are questions being increasingly asked across Europe. A recent report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation suggests that there are now 4,000 European fighters with Isis, a figure that has doubled over the past year.

What is it that draws thousands of young Europeans to a brutal, sadistic organisation such as Isis? “Radicalisation” is usually seen as a process through which extremist groups or “hate preachers” groom vulnerable Muslims for jihadism by indoctrinating them with extremist ideas. Some commentators blame western authorities for pushing young Muslims into the arms of the groomers. The advocacy group Cage UK claimed last week that Mohammed Emwazi had been driven to Syria by MI5 “harassment”. Others stress the “pull” factor in radicalisation. The problem, they claim, lies with Islam itself, a faith that, in their eyes, legitimises violence, terror and inhumanity.

Neither claim is credible. Whatever the facts of his relationship with MI5, Emwazi himself was responsible for joining Isis. No amount of “harassment” provides an explanation for chopping off people’s heads.

Nor is Islam an adequate explanation. Muslims have been in Europe in large numbers since the 1950s. It is only in the last 20 years that radical Islam has gained a foothold. Blaming it all on Islam does nothing to explain the changing character of Muslim communities and their beliefs.

The problem with both approaches is in the idea of “radicalisation”. Marc Sageman, a former CIA operations officer who worked with the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s, is now a distinguished academic and a counter-terrorism consultant to the US and other governments.

It begins with the jihadis as they are at the end of their journey – enraged about the west, and with a black-and-white view of Islam – and assumes that these are the reasons they have come to be as they are. But for most jihadis, the first steps on their journeys to Syria were rarely taken for political or religious reasons.

What draws most wannabe jihadis to Syria is, to begin with, neither politics nor religion. It is a search for something a lot less definable: for identity, for meaning, for “belongingness”, for respect. Insofar as they are alienated, it is not because wannabe jihadis are poorly integrated, in the conventional way we think of integration. Theirs is a much more existential form of alienation.

Most homegrown wannabe jihadis possess a peculiar relationship with Islam. They are as estranged from Muslim communities as they are from western societies. Most detest the mores and traditions of their parents, have little time for mainstream forms of Islam and cut themselves off from traditional community institutions. It is not through mosques or religious institutions but through the internet that most jihadis discover their faith and their virtual community.   »»» The Guardian (U.K.)

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The highest Islamic authority in Egypt, Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, the Egyptian state’s authority responsible for issuing religious edicts, said on Monday in a statement that the so-called Islamic State’s (ISIS, Daesh) execution of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya was an act empty of the “great tolerance of Islam”.

He insisted that the militant group has no understanding of the meaning of the Holy Quran.

He added that the IS group’s attribution of certain sayings to Prophet Mohamed was erroneous.

IS published a video on Sunday in which it justified its beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya by quoting alleged sayings by the prophet.

In his statement, Allam mourned the victims.

He said that extremist groups are attempting to spread “sectarian strife and infighting between Muslims and their Christian brethren”.

He however added that he has faith that Egypt will be victorious against its enemies.

“The blood of our Christian children and brothers is the same blood as that of Muslims… which belongs to the Egyptian nation,” he said.

Egypt’s only comfort is that its beloved children died on the side of Right in a battle against Wrong, Allam said.

The United Arab Emirates-based Council of Religious Elders, chaired by the Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb, condemned the killings, declaring them to be entirely against the teachings of Islam, and extended condolences to Egyptians, Egypt’s Orthodox Pope Tawadros II and the families of the victims.   »»» Ahram Online (Egypt)

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President Obama speaking at the Countering Violent Extremism Summit held in Washington, DC, said “We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.

He continued, “They (terrorists) try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam. We must never accept the premise that they put forward because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders. They are terrorists.”

He added, “We all know there is no one profile of a violent extremist or terrorist. There is no way to predict who will become radicalized.” “We are here at this summit because of the urgent threat from groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL and this week, we are focused on prevention,” he remarked.

Writing an Op-ED in Los Angeles Times previewing the summit, President Obama remarked, ‘Groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL promote a twisted interpretation of religion that is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world’s Muslims. The world must continue to lift up the voices of Muslim clerics and scholars who teach the true peaceful nature of Islam. We can echo the testimonies of former extremists who know how terrorists betray Islam. We can help Muslim entrepreneurs and youths work with the private sector to develop social media tools to counter extremist narratives on the Internet. More broadly, groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL exploit the anger that festers when people feel that injustice and corruption leave them with no chance of improving their lives. The world has to offer today’s youth something better.’   »»» MeriNews (India)

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Norwegian Muslims organised a peace vigil in Oslo on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Jews a week after fatal shootings in Denmark targeted a synagogue and free-speech seminar.

As the mainly elderly Jewish congregation filed out of the synagogue after Shabbat prayers, a group of young Muslims, many of them teenage girls wearing headscarves, formed a symbolic ring outside the building to applause from a crowd of more than 1,000 people.

“This shows that there are many more peacemakers than warmakers,” 37-year-old Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the organisers, told the crowd.

“There is still hope for humanity, for peace and love across religious differences and background,” he added, before a traditional Shabbat ceremony was held in the open air with many demonstrators adding their voices to the Hebrew chants.

Norway’s chief rabbi, Michael Melchior, appeared visibly moved when he said it was the first time the ceremony had taken place outdoors with so many people.

Ervin Kohn, a Jewish community leader, said: “It is unique that Muslims stand to this degree against antisemitism and that fills us with hope … particularly as it’s a grassroots movement of young Muslims,” adding that the rest of the world should “look to Norway”.    »»» The Guardian (U.K.)

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Thousands of traumatized mourners gathered on Monday at the Coptic church in al-Our village south of Cairo, struggling to come to terms with the fate of compatriots who paid a gruesome price for simply seeking work in Libya.

Thirteen of 21 Egyptians beheaded by Islamic State came from the impoverished dirt lanes of al-Our, violence that prompted the Egyptian military to launch an air strike on Islamic State militant targets in Libya.

Black banners hung on the walls of the Church of the Virgin Mary, proclaiming “Egypt rise up, the blood of your martyrs is calling for you to take revenge”. Relatives fainted from grief.

Sheikhs from al Azhar University, the Muslim world’s main centre of Islamic learning, which condemned the beheadings, joined the mourning.

Many could not fathom why men who simply wanted to support their families back home would be butchered by Islamic State, the ultra-orthodox militant group that took over parts of Syria and Iraq and has now expanded its operations to Libya.

“They are not humans. They are monsters. They are holding unarmed people (who) were going to bring bread for their families,” said Father Tawadros, pastor of the church.   »»» Reuters

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The murder by Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) thugs in Sirte, Libya, of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians this weekend provoked the first formal Egyptian military incursion into another state’s territory since the 1991 Gulf War. Egyptian fighter jets bombed warehouses, training camps and other assets of Daesh in Derna.

Cairo-based journalist Bel Trew writes that the Egyptian minister of pious endowments was shown on al-Arabiya declaring that those who beheaded Christians had “departed from the (Islamic) faith.” I.e. he said they are no longer Muslims.   »»» Informed Comment

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that “People of the Book” (Christians and Jews) who live peaceably in a Muslim land must be protected in their lives, honour and property by their Muslim neighbour. He said that anyone who harms such a person harms him and offends God.

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The burning of a Jordanian pilot by Islamic State (Isis) has triggered a unified outcry from senior religious clerics across the Muslim world – including a jihadi preacher – who insist the militants have gone too far.

Abu Mohammed al-Maqdesi, considered a spiritual mentor for many al-Qaida members, said the killing of Lt Muadh al-Kasasbeh was not acceptable in any religion.

At Friday prayers in neighbouring Iraq, where the militant group has seized territory in a third of the country, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a senior Shia cleric, said in a sermon that the “savage” act demonstrated the extremists knew no boundaries and “violated Islamic values and humanity”.

Religious groups, often at odds over ideologies or politics, have increasingly been speaking out against the militants, who continue to enforce their rule in Iraq and Syria through massacres, kidnappings, forced marriages, stonings and other acts of brutality.

This week, Isis militants released a video of Kasasbeh, a Muslim, being burned to death in a cage. While the beheading of hostages from the US, Britain and Japan drew condemnation from most religious sects within Islam, the gruesome images of the airman’s murder served as a unifying battlecry for Muslims across the world.

Jordan joined a US-led military coalition against the militants in September, but said it would intensify its air strikes in response to the killing of the pilot. On Thursday, dozens of fighter jets struck Isis weapons depots and training sites, Jordan’s military said.

Outrage escalated in the capital of Amman after Friday prayers, with demonstrators unfurling a large Jordanian flag and holding up banners supporting King Abdullah II’s pledge for a tough military response to avenge al-Kasasbeh’s death. “We all stand united with the Hashemite leadership in facing terrorism,” one banner read.

Now, even al-Qaida has grown more outspoken against Isis, a former al-Qaida offshoot in Iraq. That criticism has left the Isis extremists increasingly isolated.

Even clerics aligned with Isis are said to be speaking out against the pilot’s killing. Rami Abdurrahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said extremists dismissed one of its religious officials in Aleppo province after he objected to how the pilot was put to death.

The religious official, Saudi cleric Abu Musab al-Jazrawi, warned during a meeting that such killings contradicted the teachings of the prophet, Abdurrahman said. Other clerics in the meeting in the northern town of Bab launched a verbal attack against the Saudi cleric, who was later sacked and referred to a religious court, he said. The incident could not be confirmed independently.

Grand imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the world’s most prestigious seat of Sunni Islam learning, the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, said this week that the militants deserved the Qur’anic punishment of death, crucifixion or chopping off their arms for being enemies of God and the prophet Muhammad.

Pakistani Sunni cleric Munir Ahmed, in his sermon in Islamabad, also dismissed any theological basis for the crime, saying the “gruesome” death of the Jordanian pilot was “the most horrible act of cruelty”. It was a punishment that “Allah has kept for his own authority and no human is authorised to do it”, he said.   »»» The Guardian (U.K.)

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French authorities on Tuesday honored a Mali-born Muslim employee who saved lives at the kosher supermarket attacked by terrorists as a hero and granted him French citizenship.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised Muslim Lassana Bathily, 24, for his “courage” and “heroism” during a ceremony in the presence of Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Cazeneuve said Bathily’s “act of humanity has become a symbol of an Islam of peace and tolerance.”

“Tonight I’m very proud and deeply touched,” Bathily said with tears in his eyes, humbly stressing that he doesn’t consider himself a hero. “I am Lassana. I’ll stay true to myself.”

Bathily was in the store’s underground stockroom when gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst in upstairs on Jan. 9 and killed four people. Bathily turned off the stockroom’s freezer and hid a group of shoppers inside before sneaking out through a fire escape to speak to police and help them with their operation to free the 15 hostages and kill the attacker.   »»» New York Post

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