What has happened in numerous areas of the world is that religious zealots
of all forms - not just islam - take their faith so seriously that they use
it as an oppressing hammer to beat the piss out of people.
Excellent example: the neo-cons, controlled by the Radical Christian Right, have killed AT LEAST 100,000 CIVILIANS in their war on Iraq. Plenty elsewhere, too.
I would say something very offensive, but the reality is, the entire area
needs to be modernized in a monumental way in regards to it's treatment of
women.
The myths about the treatment of women in Islam continue, I doubt I will dissuade anyone here who simply want to believe them. But for those with any interest in the truth, try (again) doing a little homework: Study Indonesia as a positive example - the largest Muslim country in the world. Or are you of those who think Arab and Muslim are synonymous? The reality is that Arabs make up only 12% of Islam today.
Do some male-dominated CULTURE still have problems? Absolutely! But don't confuse the garbage Islam tries to clean out with Islam itself
The reality is that Islam brought the idea tha woman could own and/or inherit property to the Arabian peninsula 1400 years ago, at a time when women pretty much WERE property in most of Europe. Islam declared the unthinkable notion that a woman could say "no" to an arranged marriage! (Anyone wonder that Muhammad had his enemies?)
Hell, instead of War, for as much as I dislike MTV, I'd try to pop up as
many pirate TV stations and drop as many hot-looking chicks to walk around
the streets in good looking outfits as possible. I'm semi-convinced those
people just need to get some action and calm the hell down.
Actually you are close to decribing the reality happening in Iran today; the young are growing up with a taste for free _expression_, but with a healthy disdain for the excessives of the west. The hard-line Shi'a-extreme old guard is scared to death of this, but so are Bush's puppet-masters. The up-and-coming generation of Iranians have a dangerous combination: the solid ethical principles of Islam, and a clear picture of the modern world. Nukes? Screw nukes. It is this new combination that frightens the neocons.
--
G. Waleed Kavalec
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... the Muslims were horrified to see the way Western Christians treated
their women in the Crusader states, and Christian scholars denounced
Islam for giving too much power to menials like slaves and women.
-----Karen Armstrong, Muhammad A Biography of The Prophet,
Harper Collins Publisher, USA, 1992, p.199
