Quote Of The Day #40

“It is narrated on the authority of ‘Abdullah b. Umar that the Messenger of Allah observed: O womenfolk, you should give charity and ask much forgiveness for I saw you in bulk amongst the dwellers of Hell. A wise lady among them said: Why is it, Messenger of Allah, that our folk is in bulk in Hell? Upon this the Holy Prophet observed: You curse too much and are ungrateful to your spouses. I have seen none lacking in common sense and failing in religion but (at the same time) robbing the wisdom of the wise, besides you. Upon this the woman remarked: What is wrong with our common sense and with religion? He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Your lack of common sense (can be well judged from the fact) that the evidence of two women is equal to one man, that is a proof of the lack of common sense, and you spend some nights (and days) in which you do not offer prayer and in the month of Ramadan (during the days) you do not observe fast, that is a failing in religion. This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Abu Tahir with this chain of transmitters.”

In a previous post, I remarked on the difference in the attitude of scientists and religious leaders to evidence that contradicts their beliefs. I related a story from Richard Dawkins about how as an undergraduate he had a tutor who shook hands with a man who had disproved a theory he had spent fifteen years promoting. This is not the attitude most religious leaders have about their doctrines. They will censure and censor their critics, with violence never far from the surface. Some more ‘modern’ religionists will ‘reinterpret’ their ‘holy’ books until they mean the direct opposite of their literal meaning. Another favoured tactic of ‘liberal’ Christians is to claim the hateful tales in the Old Testament are mere metaphors. Unfortunately for them this undermines the entire basis of Christianity since Jesus Christ supposedly suffered his hideous torture and death to redeem humankind from the Original Sin (capital letters!) of Adam and Eve. It beggars belief that some people think the ‘creator’ of the universe would put himself through all that pain for the sake of a metaphor.

 

The Bible is a group of sixty-six books that were written and rewritten by numerous, mostly unknown, authors over a period of more than a millennium. This contrasts with the Koran which is (allegedly) entirely the work of Muhammad of Mecca during his ‘prophetic’ career from 610-632AD. It is a core belief in the Islamic faith that the Koran is exactly the same in 2018 as when it was spoken by Muhammad. Not only that but the Koran is the eternal and uncreated word of Allah and cannot be ‘interpreted’ by humans. What it says is what it means. Interestingly, the Islamic tradition does not just consist of the words of Allah in the Koran but also the actions of Muhammad and his closest followers (the Sunnah) and the sayings of Muhammad (the Hadith). This quote I have shared is from the Hadith according to Sahih Muslim who is considered by Sunni Muslims to be the second most reliable collector of Hadiths despite his work dating from more than two hundred years after the death of Muhammad.

 

One of the great mysteries of our times is the alliance between the ‘left’ in the West and ultra-conservative Muslims, not to mention their fascist co-religionists, Islamists. In the name of some twisted version of anti-racism and the insane doctrine of intersectionality, people who loudly proclaim themselves to be ‘progressives’ have made common cause with people who are violently misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic.  Even mainstream Islam, wedded as it is to some pretty old-fashioned ideas, seems pretty right-wing to me. But the alliance between radical feminists and Islamists is truly disturbing. As this quote demonstrates, Islamic doctrine condemns woman to second-class status. The Koran and Hadiths explicitly say that woman are only worth half a man in terms of inheritance and testimony. But in Australia, the USA and Britain numerous media personalities claim to be both feminists and followers of Islam; in a mad reversal even George Orwell couldn’t have invented, the hijab, mandated by exclusively male clerics, is called a symbol of feminism, ‘resistance’ and ‘liberation.’ Whilst women in Tehran risk arrest by refusing to wear the hijab, repulsive anti-Semites and Sharia supremacists like Linda Sarsour can get away with declaring jihad against President Trump. Doublethink at its finest.

 

‘Muslim feminist’ – hilarious oxymoron or dark joke played on some of the most vulnerable women in our society by people who really should know better?