How can muslims claim to be of God when they treat women so bad?

Question

Do they not see that to stone women in the twentieth century is backward and only makes people think their religion is evil?

How can any religion justify stoning to death a women who was raped because it shamed her family?

Don't answer please with the excuse of attacking christians. I am no pro any religion. I am pro God. However I can say you will not find any female in the United States stoned to death for this kind of thing or having an affair. What gives muslim men the right to decide this?

Answer 1

You are asking a couple of questions here, each very valuable. Let me see if I can dissect your question a bit.

1) You want to know why Muslim men treat women so bad
2) You want to know how religion can be used to defend behavior you consider immoral
3) You want to know why femicide does not occur in the U.S. while it does occur in some Muslim societies
4) You want to know who gave Muslim men the authority to treat women badly.

I would like to address each of these questions separately to avoid conflating unrelated issues.

First,it is not true that all Muslims treat women poorly or that Islam as a whole condones violence against women. The United States, for example, has a sizable Muslim population and - as you note - religious femicide is not a common occurrence here. Like all religions, there is an enormous diversity within Islam and it is hard to determine with any certainly how Muslims (as a whole) treat women. In Christianity, for example, there are denominations that vary so greatly they could hardly be considered the same faith! You have the Unitarian Universalists on one end of the spectrum and the Seventh Day Adventists on the other; both are Christian, but neither can be said to describe all Christians. Likewise in Islam. Wahhabism, the strain of Islam founded in Saudi Arabia and practiced by Osama bin Laden, is only one small sect of Islam and cannot be considered representative of all Muslims or Islamic denominations.

2) Religion is used as a rationalization for all sorts of things, good and bad. Although there are pretty clear moral codes in all of the major religions, that has never stopped opportunistic people from calling for abhorrent things in the name of their otherwise noble faith. The Spanish Inquisition is an example within the Christian world; one could ask how any religion would justify torturing someone to death because they would not renounce science. Of course, it was not religion that was doing the justifying, it was people taking advantage of religion to further their own aims. Witch Hunts are another example (and close to home for me -- two of my ancestors were hanged for 'witchcraft'); they are the fault of people, not Christianity! Again, this happens in all religions -- even so-called peaceful faiths like Buddhism. (Did you know there are Buddhist militant groups?)

3) Rates of femicide are indeed higher in certain Muslim countries in comparison with the United States. However, it is not clear that religious preference can be credited with this difference. Many of the Muslim societies with the worst treatment of women are also those with autocratic political systems, extreme economic inequality, and decentralized government. In a society where there is inefficient and often autocratic government, a poor population without chances of advancement, and a weak central state, it should not be surprising that there are higher rates of violent crime. Another country that fits this description, but is not Muslim, would be predominantly Catholic Mexico. If you are not familiar with the waves of femicide occuring in Juarez, you should look it up. Of course, no one would suggest that Catholicism accounts for higher rates of femicide in Mexico, so it stands to reason that Islam may not be the root of misogyny in the Middle East.

4) No one 'gave' Muslim men the right to decide this -- no more than the Bible gives Christians the right to stone a witch. The vast majority of Muslims worldwide do not believe in the sort of Islamic law (Shari'a) practiced by, for example, the Taliban. Remember, after the Taliban fell, the people of Afghanistan were dancing in the streets happy to be free of ridiculous "religious" restrictions. In Muslim Turkey, wearing an Islamic headscarf is prohibited in schools! Even Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, told his followers to follow the example of their brothers, the Christians and Jews. It has been the acts of a few extremists which have twisted this message and given a bad view of Islam to much of the world.

Hope this at least gives you some things to think about! And remember, the media covers things that are sensational, not things that are mundane. Muslim extremists make a good story, average Muslims living average lives don't sell as many papers. Imagine if we were to judge Christianity only by its most ridiculously extreme advocates -- the Inquisitors and witch-hunters and Christian white supremacists (like Tim McVeigh - the OK City bomber). Doesn't sound too fair, does it?

Answer 2

After living for 27 years in a Muslim country, I have yet to see evidence of men being generally cruel to women. There are good or bad people in every society but I would not generalize it across the Muslim world - abusive husbands exist everywhere. And who told you that a raped woman is to be stoned? You obviously have no research of your own and are expressing hatred after hearing other people talk and going through the odd website.
As a married Muslim with a professional economist for a wife, I do not see any legitimacy granted to me in being cruel to my spouse; she would kick me right back and leave me the next moment.
When was the last time you read the full Quran? I thought so. So stop spreading hatred, please.
And yes, this is not the twentieth century anymore.
Cheers & God bless.

Answer 3

It's truly a pity, isn't it????

Islam is a really confused Religion, because it's followers have not exactly understood it, correctly and they are lead by mad mullahs and Imams who don't deserve their place there!

Please permit me to ask the Muslims whether or not Isa Massihe [Jesus Christ] is next to the All High and is His Will? Is it not true that every devout Muslim adores Isa Massihe who shall deliver all the good Muslims and Christians, after having destroyed al Dajjal and take them all to Heaven?

If this is so, then why do you not learn from His having saved Mary of Magdalene where he asked those who'd gathered to stone her "Let he who hasn't sinned, cast the first stone!"?????

Is it not true that Allah is the Most Beneficient, the Most Merciful, the Most Omnipresent and Omniscient?

Then, explain to me how can you expect Him to suffer your acts of intolerence and violence????

All the best!

Cheers!

Simon Templar

Oh, by the way, it is not the woman who was raped who is stoned to death, but the prostitute or an adultress; in accordance with the Mosaic Laws that Mohammad brought back, while these had been repealed by Jesus Christ absolving Christians of them.

Answer 4

Do you even know any Muslim women? Try talking to a couple and you will find out how wrong your ideas are about women in Islam. Your example of stoning a woman is a CULTURAL practice and not a religious one. There is a huge difference.

Answer 5

I wonder what the christians were thinking when they killed over 100, 000 "witches" in Europe. That was them then, this is now and tomorrow it will be someone else. This is humanity for you. Its not about a religion or a group of people its about humans using any excuse to justify their perverted actions. You cant just look at muslims.. look into history. Its been done by peopel of all religions and walks of life.

Answer 6

Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I'm exposed and it's no big surprise
don't you think I know exactly where I stand
this world is forcing me to hold your hand cause I'm just a girl little ol' me
don't let me out of your sight
I'm just a girl all pretty and petite
so don't let me have any rights
oh...I've had it up to here! The moment that I step outside
so many reasons
for me to run and hide
I can't those little things
i hold so dear
cause it's all those little things
that I fear cause I'm just a girl

No Doubt - Just a Girl

Answer 7

they are just doing as the men in the christian bible always did.
the bible has not changed just because some men have different ideas. if women commit adultery , all of civilization is thrown into chaos as nobody knows whose child is whose. they must be stopped and severly punished as an example to others to not repeat the offense.
if women do not want to be stoned, they should keep thier legs crossed for all but their lawful husband. is that too much to ask?

If you think it is, than you are not a good christian who is willing to follow the laws of god.

Answer 8

Muslims, like every other adherent of various religions, are just as susceptible to sin as we are.
Its not difficult to see that incidentally, Islam has been hijacked by a form of cultural, religious withdrawal from the rest of the world. This is because for many years in the past, Islam had been aggressively, as well as non-aggressively (albeit successful) spread by Muslims, through various forms of missionaries, from war, to trade.
It was not illogical at the time for the people to believe that Islam was invincible. Hence, many Muslims began to be brought up with the belief that as long as there is Islam, the Muslims are infallible, no matter what they do - God is on their side.
As with all societies, change happened. Their religion broke into different sects, further divided, and many people sought to "repair" and "purifying" their religion by going back to a puritanical form of religion (like Wahabism in Saudi Arabia).
This is where the trouble started.
With the mindset that Islam exists and hence Muslims are infallible (from their previous military might, trade domination and other things they were dominant in from the past), they could not accept the change that occurred in the world.
Many withdrew into the puritanical shell. Many others allowed themselves to be taken hostage by the many so-called "Mullahs" who preached violent forms of Islam - from claiming back Islam's previous dominance in the world through violence, or by encouraging their followers to victimize themselves instead of working hard to attain progress and prosperity, like other nations.
This caused a chain reaction.
Many nations who proclaim to be Islamic, instead of focusing on a relevant, bigger picture (like charity, good deeds, etc.), began to focus more on trivial, ridiculous things like the hem of a woman's skirt, the length of a man's beard, etc, etc.
This was also a way to direct the common people's focus off corrupt governments run by elites who profess to be religious but truly have no religion.
Encouraged to focus on fervent puritanical forms of religion, on cultural traditions and other distractions, the people became simple, illiterate and most of all, poor.

Some may quote Saudi Arabia or Emirates as a place where people are not "poor", nor "illiterate".
But they grew not because of their own doing, but because of pure luck - oil.
Plus, the oil made a group of elites incredibly wealthy, but those who have been to KSA or Emirates can observe themselves - the majority of people are still extremely traditional and simple.

While it may be easy to condemn these people for stoning women for bringing 'dishonour', we must also remember that only by education can we change these people, not war, not judgment, nor criticism.

Jenova

Answer 9

A) that's not all muslims
B) the century does not define the culture, they have not had the same advancements as we have, they do not have wal-marts in every town, abortion clinics, welfare systems, their rules are what they came up with to help their society survive as it is now, not how it may be a hundred years from now

Answer 10

This is the law of their culture, and we have no right to judge it by our own standards. How can people claim to be of God when they allow their clergy to molest little boys, and then just move them to another unsuspecting parish when they get caught? How can people claim to be of God, when they support killing unborn children?

How can people claim to be of God, when they spend their energy criticizing and condemning the culture of others before they fix the hypocrisy of their own culture?