"In some instances, ignorance allows you to retain power"

Longtime readers of Jihad Watch will know that Islamic spokesmen in the West routinely claim that non-Muslims are only suspicious of Muslim intentions out of "ignorance" of the true, peaceful Islam. This, of course, goes hand-in-hand with the idea that it is not Muslims, but non-Muslims (like Geert Wilders in Fitna), who are responsible for linking Islam with violence. This approach deftly shifts the focus away from acts of violence committed by Muslims in the name of Islam, and onto the alleged "Islamophobes" who are supposedly victimizing Muslims by connecting Islam with violence. Anyway, today in The Ranger Online, a publication of San Antonio College and Alamo Community College, there is an article entitled "Islam teaches respect for women" by Martin R. Herrera. It reports on a lecture series held on women in the Islamic world.

Meneses and the other two women on the panel, Aurora Deiri and Narjis Pierre, acknowledged conditions for women vary from country to country but they stem largely from the culture that existed prior to Islam's spread throughout the world and the nuances of varied interpretations of the theology.

Deiri likened it to the subtleties of the many Christian faiths that exist today.

Except for extreme instances of disparity, which Meneses said is becoming more rare, Islam has pushed women's rights sooner and more significantly than Christianity. "If you ask me if there is any feminism in the Muslim world I say ... it is in the Muslim world," Pierre said.

It is difficult for the Western world to see this, Deiri said, because there is very limited understanding of the Islamic religion.

This ignorance causes people to misinterpret some of the external practices of Muslims that Westerners often cite as oppressive, she said, such as the wearing of head scarves by women.

When asked how Christianity and Islam can be so far apart today when they have so much they share in common ancestry, Deiri replied, "In some instances, ignorance allows you to retain power."

So any oppression of women in the Islamic world is simply a remnant of pre-Islamic culture, and Islam has been better for women than Christianity. It is doubtful that Deiri mentioned any of this:

Rather than regarding women as human beings equal to men, the Qur'an likens a woman to a field (tilth), to be used by a man as he wills: "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will" (2:223).

The Qur'an also declares that a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man: "Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her" (2:282).

It allows men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls also: "If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice" (4:3).

It rules that a son's inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: "Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females" (4:11).

Worst of all, the Qur’an tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them" (4:34).

It allows for marriage to pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures “shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated” (65:4).

None of that is cultural. Nor is reporting on it, or on how women still suffer from these and other Islamic teachings, a matter of "ignorance." In fact, paradoxically enough, it is Deiri and others like her who are spreading genuine ignorance by ignoring, denying, and downplaying all this. And indeed, ignorance allows you to retain power -- in light of that precise and apposite statement, it is important to ask: to what end is Deiri retailing these half-truths and distortions? What power are people who do this trying to retain?.