Further evidence that extremism is a problem in the Muslim world.
I doubt the views expressed in the video are a perfect reflection of Islamic law, but there are several verses in both the Qur’an and the hadiths that seem to condone wife beating. Here is one such verse:
Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme. (Qur’an 4:34)
The appropriate translation of the above verse, however, is hotly contested. I side with those who think Islamic writings at least justify light beatings for recalcitrant women. But by no means did Islam introduce patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes to the Middle East. At worst, it merely codified them.
It can even be persuasively argued that Islam was progressive on women’s rights for its time. The Qur’an, for instance, only mandates “severe flogging” for adultery, whereas the Old Testament renders a more draconian sentence: death.
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife–with the wife of his neighbor–both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10, NIV)
If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:20, NIV)
And informed by these and other Bible verses, Brigham Young taught the doctrine of the blood atonement, whereby grievous sins like adultery could only be forgiven through the death of the guilty parties:
Suppose you found your brother in bed with your wife, and put a javelin through both of them, you would be justified, and they would atone for their sins, and be received into the kingdom of God. I would at once do so in such a case; and under such circumstances, I have no wife whom I love so well that I would not put a javelin through her heart, and I would do it with clean hands. (Journal of Discourses 3: 247)
(The practice of blood atonement was, thankfully, very rare in the Utah territory. Still, it’s appalling that Young believed he could kill adulterers with “clean hands.”)
My argument is not that all these religions are moral equivalents or equally dangerous. Rather, I just mean to stress that while extremism is currently a problem in the Muslim world, it is not a uniquely Muslim problem. Many religions have exhibited extremism in the past, and contain the seeds (faith, divine voluntarism) for extremism in the future—a point I often belabor at this blog.
The Arabic words in the verses are quite clear in indicating physical contact of some sort. All the debate I’ve seen on this topic are between whether the verse recommends only “light slapping” or heavy beating. When the scriptural debate can only be regarding how hard the woman is to be hit, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the claim that this is the infallible word of god.
“When the scriptural debate can only be regarding how hard the woman is to be hit, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the claim that this is the infallible word of god.”
I’d say so.
I’ve been trying to be less ignorant in response to the rise of Islamophobia but I’ve found that it’s a VERY difficult religion to research, mainly because of the language barrier and the debates over proper translation. Still, it’s been very interesting to examine Mohammed’s marriages and the stories of his interactions with his wives and their interactions with each other. There is a very common theme of sexual oppression and subjugation (which, to me, is not a strong enough word for it). I know the culture and time period accound for some of it, but there is still plenty to raise questions about Mohammed’s true character and desires. Like most other religions, there are things about Islam that I find beautiful and agreeable and things I find abhorrent and fundamentally backward.
Also, thanks for the Brigham Young quote. I’ve been trying to find it for a while since it’s so key to the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Sadly, the views expressed in the comment are reflective of the sharia as supposedly implemented today. Most Muslims fail to follow their religion, but instead concentrate on rebutting criticism, especially that of people whom they perceive to be Christian.
In the three Abrahamic religions, the husband is head of the household, the wife must be obedient to the husband, and husband and wife must be compassionate and patient with each other.
The Quran specifies the method of helping the wife achieve obedience, when compassion and extreme patience have been of no avail. He is told to admonishing her (until it becomes futile), and then refuse to sleep with the her. If and only if neither of these methods works, the Quran permits the husband to turn to recourse of last recourse: physical punishment. The punishment can be carried out with a small stick which is unlikely to harm her. He is not permitted to kick or push or beat hard. In fact, some scholars say the most (or only) appropriate tool for this is a stick of miswak or another piece of wood similar in size. A miswak is a 4-6″ long twig with a diameter of about 1/2″ which one chews on after eating. How hard it would be to hurt an adult by striking him or her with a miswak! The person would likely drop the miswak or find it difficult to get an angle at which he could harm his wife.
If the beating doesn’t work, the Quran instructs the husband to divorce the wife. So he could not reasonably believe that he is permitted to carry out wife-beatings for years and years. Also, if he is exasperated, he can choose not to discipline her at all, or admonish her but not beat her. Instead, he can simply divorce her. Islam calls for divorce in situations where the husband can only find displeasure in his wife.