The plight of Muslim women is a heated topic of discussion in the secular world, at least within those circles who are brave enough to discuss it, which, oddly enough, do not include hard-core feminists movements like NOW. It's lamentable enough that they're mum on the Shari'a mandate that women hide their faces from the outside world, or are forced to pray and study in rooms separate from men, or are considered deficient in intelligence to men, must be forced to share their husbands with up to three other women, but cannot have multiple husbands themselves, etc, etc, etc. But where are these so-called women's rights groups on the issue of Muslim wife beating? Strangely, it seems, that in the liberal mind multiculturalism is the one trump card to civil rights.

It cannot be denied that the wife is completely inferior to the husband in every way, and that it is permissable for him to beat her if she gets out of line. Indeed, judge Christa Datz-Winter cited Qur'an 4.34 in her ruling, which states that God created men superior to women, who must be subservient to their husbands, else the husband may admonish them, force them to sleep on the couch, or beat or scourge her.

It makes sense in a secular society for non-Muslims to be shocked at this "extremism". But to the supposed devout Muslim, one cannot help but wonder where the problem is. The Qur'an, a book which is not such as could ever be produced by other than Allâh (Q10.37), is pretty clear on the issue at hand, and, among other edicts besides sanctioning wife beating, it states unequivocally that no other authority or guidance besides Islam is acceptable (Q7.3). The judge, wrong as she was to rely on the verse in a German civil court, did not otherwise cite the verse inappropriately. The logical deduction would appear that what the woman really needs is a divorce from Islam, until one then ponders that the punishment for divorcing Islam - death - is considerably worse than a slap across the face. It is the ultimate irony that the woman expresses shock that a German court would cite her own religious law against her, yet she continues to adhere to a belief system she clearly does not believe in.

Islamic doctrine has only slightly less contempt for Muslim women than they do for the kafirun. Muhammad, of course, married a six year old girl, Ai'sha, who was with the dolls, and had intercourse with her at the age of nine. Muhammad, upon visiting hell, found that most of its inhabitants were women, because they were ungrateful to their husbands. He said that women were deficient in their intelligence, as evidenced by the fact that the testimony of a woman is worth half of a man; and deficient in faith, as evidenced by the fact that women cannot fast nor pray while menstruating (Sahih Muslim). It is related in the Sirat Rasul Allah (pg 644),

[A] Woman came to (Mu'adh) and said, 'O companion of God's apostle, what rights has a husband over his wife?' He said, 'Woe to you, a woman can never fulfil her husband's rights, so do your utmost to fulfil his claims as best you can.' She said, 'By God, if you are the companion of God's apostle you must know what rights a husband has over his wife!' He said, 'If you were to go back and find him with his nostrils running with pus and blood and sucked until you got rid of them you would not have fulfilled your obligation.'

The heart of the matter comes down to the compatibility of Islamic beliefs with free society. In America in particular, it is impossible for a Muslim to freely practice his or her beliefs even though the criminalization of wife beating, waging jihad, executing apostates, and keeping slaves, etc, prohibit the free excercise of Islam. No Muslim woman should bring her Islamic beliefs to America or any other free society expecting emancipation from the yoke of oppression of their former nation. Even in Australia, imams compared uncovered women to unwrapped meat, the scent of which will surely meet the noses of hungry predators (rapists). In Detroit, 81% of Muslims polled "somewhat" or "strongly" (59% "strongly") agreed that Muslims should be ruled by Shari'a. No, Saudi Arabia does not oppress women. Iran does not oppress women. Nor does Pakistan, Afghanistan under the Taliban, or anywhere else Muslim women are mistreated. The culprit is Islam itself, and if they don't like it, and, more importantly, if we don't like it, we, as free thinking people, should speak up and speak out. In particular, Muslim women should speak out in a coherent manner, that they cannot hold to belief in a Creator who loves all Creation and yet vicariously holds such contempt for certain creations based on traits having nothing to do with, as Martin Luthor King put it, the content of their character. After all, why would God create women with deficiencies in intelligence and faith, yet still hold them accountable for it? This, ironically, he does to kafirun as well, creating them like cattle, with hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not (Q7.179).)

No wonder Muslims are so afraid to scrutinize their faith.