Why do some people enjoy being ignorant about Muslim women?

Question

When many people see Muslim women living their lives happily, they do not want to believe it. They cannot stand it, and almost do not tolerate it. They enjoy being ignorant about Muslim women, and choose to believe what they want, which is usually something fabricated or a misconception about Islam.
Omer i actually got this from one of your answers so i wanted to share it
thanks

Answer 1

I don't enjoy being ignorant about anything. Unfortunately, you are right. I don't know much about the nation of Islam save for what little the Bible says about Ishmael.

I do try to be tolerant of those of other faiths, and I don't buy into everything the television tells me. Do you know of some good sources that might talk about your faith from a more moderate stand point?

Thanks,

-B

Answer 2

Women in the west were subjugated to men for many years. We had no rights over our children, no rights over our money, no rights over the laws in our land. We have had to fight long and hard to get the equality we have today - the right to wear what we want, talk when we want, have the right to keep our children in cases of divorce, earn our own money, be educated. Rightly or wrongly the muslim attitude towards women - the headscarf, the burkah, the apparent subordination, the lack of concern among some muslims for girls' education - is seen as a threat to all we have worked for and achieved.

I understand from other questions that according to the Koran women have rights and should be educated, but that is not what we see among a lot of muslims.

It's not just that non-muslims are ignorant of muslim women, it's that muslims also seem to be ignorant about why western women are so protective about our rights now. They are important to us, and muslim people coming to live in the west should understand the importance of women's rights to us. That's not to say that we shouldn't try to understand how muslim women feel, but the understanding has to work both ways.

For me the burkah, the honour killings, the forced marriages and the lack of education for some muslim women represents a threat in that it's a resurgancy of the domination that we fought so hard to overcome.

Muslim women probably have a lot to teach non-muslim women, but the reverse is also true - there are a lot of positive things muslim women can learn from non-muslims.

Muslims are just as guilty of fabricated misconceptions as everyone else. The only way we can overcome this misconceptions is by talking openly and honestly - so I starred your question :-D

why do I get a thumbs down for explaining some of the reasons why there is mistrust of the way some muslim women live and are treated? If you don't want to know, then don't ask.

Answer 3

Some people have very funny ideas about happiness. We can be happy in almost any circumstance. All people have burdens they choose to carry, as do Muslim women. Americans often think they are free, but how many women would feel free to NOT pierce their ears, or wear make-up, or shave their legs?

We all have our images we live behind. Covering your face seems a minor one.

People are attached to their identity. They take their larger image of whatever group they belong to and confuse it with themselves. Look at the huge amount of not just action, but HATRED in the people who protested the Danish cartoons? That wasn't freedom, that was a bunch of people threatened to the core of their identity.

The same is here. Women, happy in Islamic countries? It's a threat to every women's movement in the West! Put it down! Free the women!

And in Islam, the women are of two approaches:

1) I am doing what I want! Leave me alone!
2) I am not allowed to do what I want, why?

Many are happy with the choices of being the way they are. They should be allowed to continue without all the nonsense and silliness of it being "Bad".

But those women who don't want to should have the choice.

Freedom. You don't have it. You will.

And if anyone gives you trouble about dressing as a proper Muslim woman, I'll defend you.

Answer 4

It's prejudice perpetrated by the U.S. media(and other western medias) particularly when we've invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.....and haven't won the "hearts and minds" of its peoples.

Usually the most extreme case of bad behavior against a woman who's Muslim is highlighted - for instance an honor killing or a woman or girl buried alive(for not having an intact hymen). Of course these examples have happened and are murder. But, within the Muslim world, this is changing. Muslims themselves, men and women, are changing the barbaric, sexist behavior. For instance, HRH King Abdullah and HRH Queen Rania(of Jordan) have been working against these barbaric tribal practices(which have nothing to do with Islam).

But, to highlight the highly educated women who are Muslim from various countries is something one doesn't see in the U.S. media. Instead a burka clad woman is shown.

In contrast, I've yet to see a report on Orthodox Jewish women in NYC that live as virtual slaves, having to work long hours to support their husbands(with their religious studies), some suffer from violent husbands and most all are forced to wear hideous wigs and not use birth control.

And we see very little of the fundamentalist Christian and Extreme-Mormon women that are used as breeding-machines, married off in their early teens into polygamy , not allowed to have a higher education and have to wear hideously ugly 'plain dress', not allowed to cut their hair or wear makeup ect.

The media elites decide how a group of people are going to be portrayed, unfortunately. It's all about who the current 'enemy' is at the time.

Answer 5

No problem at all, I like that you utilized that :)

Aside from what I already said, Islam is currently a target of a biased media, which spreads its message to the masses. This is called propoganda. The western media manipulates many who are ignorant and are not open-minded. Unfortunately...thats a huge chunk of the west. People will believe what they hear, especially if it sounds good to them. Making Islam look bad, sounds good to them. So they stick with it, and accept all they hear as truth. After all, when one knows so little about something, he or she will accept any knowledge given to them about it as truth. Instead of going out of their way and seeking the truth, these people trust their impartial source. It is not fair that the west can only hear one side of the story--the media's perspective of things. And the media doesn't care about the truth, oh no, it cares about the ratings, which in turn ultimately means the MONEY. They take whatever story they can that they know will get a lot of attention, using 9/11 as proof, and gladly report away. I'll just be striaghtforward--the media is anti-Islamic. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Of course, people will deny this, or supply an explanation such as"Well, we need to know what's going on in the world, and if that means being aware of terrorists, then so be it!" Money truly is the root of all evil..

Many people want to believe that Muslim women are oppressed. They like it when they have something to pick on. And in this case, it is Muslim women, and Islam in general. The news, aka the media, only shows these Muslim women when they are oppressed, or crying, or upset, but fails to ever show them when they are happily living life. True Islam in no way oppresses women, and stresses that men and women are equal. Any Muslim woman can attest to that. Women are not to be forced to do anything. Allah (God) will judge them. The husband should encourage them to be religious and follow the right path, but should by no means force his wife to do anything, for it is Allah who will judge her, not the husband. Allah knows her true intentions, and therefore we should let Allah handle her. For some people who believe Islam oppresses women, watch this 1-minute video. This is just one of many that proves that Muslim women are proud to be Muslim and are not oppressed.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pB3LqkvUpvc


The media only gives one side of the story; this blinds the people it is directed towards (the whole west). Showing only one side makes many of the viewers ignorant, and the media absolutely loves these kinds of people. Ignorant, gullible people who will go their way because a story appealed to their liking. And this contageous "disease", I will call it, is spreading faster than ever. And that is why it is up to us Muslims to educate those "infected" with ignorance, and to recover those who may potentially fall victim to the media's scheme. As Muslims, we must work together and eradicate this ignorance bestowed upon Islam. The media has gone so far as to convincing people to want to eradicate Islam (isn't that sick?). I say we eradicate the massive curse of ignorance that surrounds it.

Answer 6

Women getting severely beaten, abused, raped etc has nothing to do with Islam. In fact, those has nothing to do with any religion that I know of. But human love to stereotype. I am a Muslim husband and I've been told on how to treat my wife. I was taught by my religious teachers that under Islam, "beating the wife" must be done in strict way not to cause pain but to remind our wife of any wrongdoing. That "beating" must not be harmful, painful or leave any marks and other conditions that I won't mind if my wife want to do same to me 100 times a day. Causing pain to your wife simply means you are committing sin.

Answer 7

I think most people can accept that women do tend to be weaker than men, and that men certainly cannot have babies, so there are valid distinctions between men and women, but that shouldn't be used as a reason to say that therefore women are worth less than men, that their opinions are less valuable than those of a man, that a woman should not rule over a man, and so on. These things are in the Qur'an, are they not?

Answer 8

People enjoy it out of their own stupidity. People have no education whatsoever about Islam here in the west. This is a nation that loves being cruel and hateful to others. They are so busy with their materialistic lives, their drugs, sex and boyfriends, that they have no time to get educated. I used to get angered by all this stupidity, but not anymore. It is these people who are drowning in their own ignorance, not I nor my religion. They will never see the light, so do not worry about them. They should be doing plenty of that for themselves.

ANTI-CHRIST, you are so funny. You along with others here are so wrapped up in the popular beleif that all muslims are from other countries, that you STILL have not learned that Islam is a RELIGION, not a RACE. I am an American, born and raised in Alabama, to parents and grandparents from Alabama... It is so strange that people come here with so much misunderstanding and ignorance, yet they answer questions like they know everything. Man, get a life.

Answer 9

"Where ignorance is bliss, tiss folly to be wise" sir Tomas......


This is why we need to continue to push for education. If you notice it is those who are not educated that will tend to say that all Muslim women are unhappy or oppressed. The media has a great deal of responsibility for perception that the world has about Muslimahs. Hardly have we seen in any Hollywood movies Muslims being depicted in good ways. This is another reason why Muslims should conduct themselves according to the Quran and Sunnah

Answer 10

I have met many happy Muslim women who are happy in their faith and wouldn't want to leave.

I have also met a number of unhappy Muslim women who are not happy in their faith and would either like to leave or have left it.

I have met fewer unhappy Muslim men who are not happy in their faith and would either like to leave or have left it.

They all do exist, I've met them. If someone wants to leave the Islamic faith, and this is something they have prayed about and feel they have the correct answer, e.g. that they want to leave it, is it their right to do so?

Personally I don't mind either way, never met anyone I couldn't like or get along with. But do you allow those who are not satisfied with the faith to leave it?

Or are they to be persecuted for their beliefs?