Understanding Islam IX: More Misogyny and Islam’s Honor Killing

Men are allowed to perform honor killings on women. An honor killing is when a man kills a woman because she has violated his honor. A Muslim male must control the sexuality of the females in his household or he is dishonored. The Qur’an speaks at great length about women’s rights (lack of them). Among them women are to receive half the amount of inheritance of a male. In a court of law it takes testimony of two women to equal testimony of one man. If a woman testifies against a man and he denies the accusation, then the testimony has no weight at all. In Islamic court this makes cases of rape impossible to prove.

Muhammad commented that he had seen Hell and the great majority of its inhabitants were women. Why were they there? They had not fully appreciated their husbands. In the same hadith, it is stated that women were spiritually inferior to men and women are not as intelligent as men. This treatment extents to the afterlife too where men become sexual deviants and women remain subjugated and servants of men.

Then there is the Burqa / head-to-toe covering that often includes the face. Some Islamic women say that it is not really required. Again, we encounter dualism (or contradiction). We know this much: Muhammad made all of his wives wear a veil. So although there is not a universal commandment that says women should wear a burqa, we do know that from other precedents…Muhammad’s life and emulation of it is the highest pinnacle of Islamic behavior. Burqa is therefore expected of obedient Muslims.

Another aspect of Islam is polygamy. The Qur’an is quite clear on polygamy. A man can have up to four wives. There is also the travesty of stoning. Sharia law is very technical about stoning. It even denotes the stones should to be chosen so they do not kill immediately. They have to be big enough so that when enough of them are thrown, they will kill the victim. Death by stoning is meant to be a torture that the entire community participates in.