strange answers by you
Reader comment on item: Finding Moderate Muslims - More Questions
in response to reader comment: ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS... From a Muslim's opinion

Submitted by G.Vishvas (Germany), Oct 21, 2008 at 05:49

YOU WROTE:

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"4. Demands for Sharia law in the West, or denying that Sharia forbids equal rights for women and members of religions other than Islam
Islam was the first feminist movement, before Islam came, women were treated like property, female children were buried alive, they had NO right to divorce, NO inheritance rights and were just oppressed...

When Islam came, It gave women the right to divorce, the right to be protected, the right to have inheritence, the right to not have to work (and if they did work, their husband STILL had to provide for them, and they would not have to contribute a dime to him) they have the right NOT to be judged by their appearence and treated like a piece of meet. If women in Islam are oppressed for these reasons, then you are clearly mistaken... In fact.. Women in the west are virtual slaves.. Made to work 40 hours a week, and then on top of that, come home and cook and clean while their lazy husbands sit on the couch. On top of that, for a woman to ever get anywhere, they have to dress in revealing clothing and put up with men looking at them in a lustful way, like they are a piece of meat.. how degrading is that??? In regards to other religions, I would like for you to find me a religion that allows other religions to be practised"

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My comment :

It is typical of muslims to present 7th century islam as the best that is possible. Women were not treated badly everywhere. May be in the 7th century arab world they were. Islam may have been an improvement over the arab conditions of 7th century. But you cannot generalise that everywhere. Even as islam was created in Arabia there were other places where women lived better lives. In fact the coming of islam to these places actually caused the women to loose their freedoms, rights and dignity.

We are living in the 21st century and not the 7th. What is the performance of islam today – that question is more relevant.

You can see muslim women labouring hard or begging in many muslim countries (e.g. Pakistan). Lazily got petrodollars, not islam, is giving the possibility of muslim women not working in the rich muslim countries. The way women are looked at in Pakistan shames many pakistani men too.

It is typical of muslims to present the women living in non-islamic societies as all suffering or as prostitutes or slaves. That is not true. Similarly muslims try to create the impression that women under islam are all happy and content. That too is not true.

Important thing is to carry out a sociological investigation and then compare. Fact is, in muslim societies it is almost impossible to carry out such an investigation or to obtain honest answers to the questions posed. Muslims are told to glorify islam and never say anything that lowers islam's glory. No muslim, especially a muslim woman, dares say anything critical about islam.

Islam is being practised in non-islamic countries and the muslims there have far more freedoms, protections and rights than what non-muslims have in muslim countries. In most muslim countries the non-muslims are tiny minorities and yet they are persecuted. As against that muslims are growing in non-muslim areas and even being very aggressive, arrogant and intolerant. In fact their behaviour is often very offensive.

Muslim history-writing is done with the intention of glorifying islam and justifying islam's claims and ridiculing or vilifying non-islam and non-muslims and scoffing at their claims. Muslims are the biased products of this biased upbringing. Your posting shows this bias also.

G.Vishvas

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