Dear Editor,

Every now and again people gratuitously mount unwarranted attacks on Islam, generally premised on ignorance of the structure of revealed religion and quoting a person or two whose blasphemic views coincide with theirs. This is the case with Mr Justin de Freitas’s recent letter captioned ‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.’

First I fail completely to see the connection between orphaned and maimed Muslim children in Iraq and Afghanistan and homosexuality. Even several leaps of the imagination fail to establish a connection. Maybe Mr De Freitas can explain this irrelevancy in a subsequent letter!

The question of the status of Muslim women is too wide to deal with in a letter. Before I answer the specific points raised please note some points on the status of women at the advent of Islam. In Arabia women were inherited as property by sons on the death of their husbands; some female infants were buried alive; the number of wives that a man may have was unlimited; the property owned by the woman automatically became the property of her husband on marriage and so on. It was Islam that conferred on women the honor and dignity that was rightfully theirs as human beings.

Islamic law specifies that when women leave their homes they must be covered except for the hands and face. The burkha, which is additional cover, is therefore a choice of the woman involved. Note that I have said ‘a choice of the woman involved’ because no one including the husband can order her to do it because Islamic law is clear on the subject. The extensive coverage of the female body is specified to preserve morality in the society among other purposes. The hijab indicates to the people on the street that the wearer is a decent person and should not be molested. On a broader scale Islam saves women from being viewed and acting as sex objects. Mr Editor, walk any day on the street and you will see western women dressed to emphasise their shape and flaunt their sex.

Complete Article in SN

Al Haj Mujtaba Nasir probably has his head buried in the sand or in some bodily orifice which is devoid of sunshine.

The next time he takes a trip to Saudi Arabia he should try and learn about the way women are dehumanized there. He should try and find out why women are not allowed to drive, go out in public with a male non-relative and hardly ever allowed to work. He should ask himself why certain women's rights are worth half a man's in Sharia law. If a man is one human, then a woman is considered as half a human. That is dehumanizing if I ever saw it. He should also investigate why honor killings are common in Islamic countries. Why men kill their own daughters to uphold the family's honor and why the punishment for these crimes is a slap on the wrist if any.

Can someone tell me what is this honor that they are upholding.

This article by Al Haj Mujtaba Nasir, General Secretary, CIOG is severely dangerous to the people of Guyana. This is just the commencement of radical Islam in this country!

Radical Islam?
Nasir just restated what Islam teaches....respect for women.

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
The burkha, which is additional cover, is therefore a choice of the woman involved. Note that I have said ‘a choice of the woman involved’ because no one including the husband can order her to do it because Islamic law is clear on the subject The burkha, which is additional cover, is therefore a choice of the woman involved. Note that I have said ‘a choice of the woman involved’ because no one including the husband can order her to do it because Islamic law is clear on the subject

Islamic law specifies that when women leave their homes they must be covered except for the hands and face. She is an infidel if she does not comply. What choice? Become an infidel? What hath Islamic law to say about menswear when such kind leave the home?

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Radical Islam?
Nasir just restated what Islam teaches....respect for women.

Bai, respect is taking off your(women) clothes and having all men gawking at them.. the more you take off, the more respect...porn stars are the most respectable.

If you cover (even by choice), you're oppressed....

quote:

Originally posted by ICIP:

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
The burkha, which is additional cover, is therefore a choice of the woman involved. Note that I have said ‘a choice of the woman involved’ because no one including the husband can order her to do it because Islamic law is clear on the subject The burkha, which is additional cover, is therefore a choice of the woman involved. Note that I have said ‘a choice of the woman involved’ because no one including the husband can order her to do it because Islamic law is clear on the subject

Islamic law specifies that when women leave their homes they must be covered except for the hands and face. She is an infidel if she does not comply. What choice? Become an infidel? What hath Islamic law to say about menswear when such kind leave the home?

It says that the men must also dress modestly...I suppose your religion condones walking half naked in the streets..more power to you..

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
Bai, respect is taking off your(women) clothes and having all men gawking at them.. the more you take off, the more respect...porn stars are the most respectable.

If you cover (even by choice), you're oppressed....

Why don't men cover up? I hope you are getting the gist of this debate!

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
It says that the men must also dress modestly..

In a burkha?

quote:

Originally posted by ICIP:

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
Bai, respect is taking off your(women) clothes and having all men gawking at them.. the more you take off, the more respect...porn stars are the most respectable.

If you cover (even by choice), you're oppressed....

Why don't men cover up? I hope you are getting the gist of this debate!

What does it matter to you?

There is no debate here..just obsession...Why do you worship a stone? You ever see me getting on your case fuh this? It is THE MOST illogical thing to me...

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
What does it matter to you?

The rise in radical Islam concerns the disbelievers and so are statements by Al Haj Mujtaba Nasir. Please note that I grew up in Guyana where Islamic women did not have protect themselves in burkas from "gawking" men. pssst do men in Guyana and Trinidad less gawkers than those in the middle east and afghansitan and pakistan etc?

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
There is no debate here..just obsession...Why do you worship a stone? You ever see me getting on your case fuh this? It is THE MOST illogical thing to me...

You should ask the stone worshippers why they conduct such acts. I would guess it is along the same reasoning why you face the Kaaba when you pray and you will get less blessing or none if prayer is offered in a different direction! wattack!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by ICIP:

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
What does it matter to you?

The rise in radical Islam concerns the disbelievers and so are statements by Al Haj Mujtaba Nasir.

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
There is no debate here..just obsession...Why do you worship a stone? You ever see me getting on your case fuh this? It is THE MOST illogical thing to me...

You should ask the stone worshippers why the conduct such acts. I would guess it is along the same reasoning why you face the Kaaba when you pray and you will get less blessing or none if prayer is offered in a different direction! wattack!!!!!!

Your "wattack" comment only shows your childish mentality...I suppose you sat back and smiled at you 'accomplishment'...You probably even have one o' them Bush's "Hey, I did that, didn't I?!!" smirk on your face - try to grow up lil...

Islam is here to stay whether you agree with it or not, though from your ramblings I conclude that you know nothing about it...it always amuses me, though, to see how the likes of you are so obsessed with it...
More power to the burka wearing women...and kudos to the sheikh

quote:

Originally posted by limer:
Your "wattack" comment only shows your childish mentality...I suppose you sat back and smiled at you 'accomplishment'...try to grow up lil...

Islam is here to stay whether you agree with it or not, though from your ramblings I conclude that you know nothing about it...it always amuses me, though, to see how the likes of you are so obsessed with it...
More power to the burka wearing women...and kudos to the sheikh

Me obsessed with god and those who run behind her? You have to be out of your mind! Let me remind you that I do not come from such weak pedigree.

Another reminder to you is that I must be vigilant upon those who pomulgate rules of god because before you know her rules will move from places of worship to my home.

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Radical Islam?
Nasir just restated what Islam teaches....respect for women.

Once again for ICIP attention.
What the Shiek wrote is what Islam teaches and not "radical islam"

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Once again for ICIP attention.
What the Shiek wrote is what Islam teaches and not "radical islam"

If the Shiek be true, then 96% of Guyanese Islamic women who do not wear burkhas to protect themselves from the roving eyes of men are all going to hell because they are infidels!

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Radical Islam?
Nasir just restated what Islam teaches....respect for women.

Once again for ICIP attention.
What the Shiek wrote is what Islam teaches and not "radical islam"

The man pines fuh attention...

ICIP you want to get attention then you should wear ah burka in public I bet you will get more attention than you can handle.

What about a bukta instead? :))

quote:

Originally posted by ICIP:

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Once again for ICIP attention.
What the Shiek wrote is what Islam teaches and not "radical islam"

If the Shiek be true, then 96% of Guyanese Islamic women who do not wear burkhas to protect themselves from the roving eyes of men are all going to hell because they are infidels!

Infidels??? They going to hell because they don't wear the hijab? Says who?
That is your conclusion.

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Infidels??? They going to hell because they don't wear the hijab? Says who?

The Sheik said "[w]hen someone accepts, as Muslims do, that this Quran is the revealed word of God (Allaah), then he has to accept the whole thing because rejection of a part or some parts of the Quran makes that person an infidel." Now translate!

http://www.kaieteurnews.com/?p=4149

August 6, 2008 | Letters

Focus more on the behaviour of men

Dear Editor,


In his SN letter (“Western clothes dehumanise women into sex objects” – Aug 5th) Mujtaba Nasir claims people are mounting unwarranted attacks on Islam. This is the first of several wrong-headed notions he spreads throughout his letter.

To begin with, no one is assailing Islam; I had made clear my opposition to radical religious fundamentalism. If Mr. Nasir, the General Secretary of the CIOG, is involved in the fundamentalist brand of Islam, a practice the world now condemns as “Islamo-fascism”, only then should he feel himself under attack. If that’s the case, then Nasir’s got bigger problems than me.

I want to keep this letter short so I’ll stick to what is generally known as cognitive dissonance, or Mr. Nasir’s insufficient grasp of the modern social realities in which he lives. It is this lack of understanding that causes religious fundamentalist to insert their God into areas of life where their own intellect fails.

Nasir is offended by my charge that certain beliefs are “archaic”. At the same time he declares that diseases are sent by his God. Today, even primary school children, in fact even people without any formal education, are aware of the germ theory of disease. Only an archaic mentality would believe that diseases are caused by supernatural or Godly curses.

General Secretary Nasir declares, “Islam allows freedom of belief” then he goes on to explain what makes a person an “infidel”. Apparently the contradiction escapes him; you cannot label a person an infidel, one deserving of punishment according to Sharia law, while in the same breath you say he is free. If he is really free, then you should not be lambasting him as an infidel for his beliefs.

But the laugh out loud self-contradiction came when Nasir tells us that Islam regarded women as property, infant girls were buried alive, men coveted everything that women owned and so on, then he added, quite sagely, that this same Islam “conferred on women the honour and dignity that was rightfully theirs as human beings.”

“Ayaan Hirsi is probably not a good person to quote with her record of conviction for visa fraud,” Mr. Nasir says innocently. He neglected to mention that Ms. Hirsi committed visa fraud to escape Muslim men who had cut away at her vagina and later forced her into marriage as part of her Islamic faith.

There is a serious and hidden danger buried in Nasir’s letter. I am surprised and disappointed that women’s groups in Guyana have not rejected the concept that women are somehow responsible for the violence meted out against them, particularly rape.

Nasir insinuates it repeatedly in his letter:
“The extensive coverage of the female body is specified to preserve morality in the society.” In other words, he is saying that women’s dress and not some men’s lack of integrity causes immorality in society.

“The hijab indicates to the people on the street that the wearer is a decent person and should not be molested,” Nasir declares. So if a woman is not wearing a hijab what does that tell a person on the street? That the woman is indecent and is open to being “molested”?

“On a broader scale Islam saves women from being viewed and acting as sex objects,” Nasir says. To me, what Islam needs to do is teach their men to think and act less like sex-starved, lecherous perverts. The sexual objectification of women happens in the minds of Islamic men.

It is man’s inability to exercise mental discipline and physical self-control that is the issue here. A woman who needs to cover herself with a “bee-hive” looking burkha as defence against a man’s unwanted sexual advances is living in a society where the male is morally defunct and intellectually inferior to the cave-dwelling Neanderthal.

Nasir seems to endorse Sharia law which he claims will allow citizens to live fully in peace and obtain justice. The only country to have lived by the rules of Sharia was Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Here we learned that childhood ends at age 11 for some Afghan girls when they are married off to old men and that many such girls sought to escape their fate through suicide. We hear of Anisa, a 12-year old schoolgirl who was gang-raped by five Muslim gunmen in Sarpul province in the northern region of the country.

Afghanistan, under Sharia law had the highest srate of violence against women in the world. Suicides committed by Afghan women were higher than that of men.

The International Telegraph wrote that “AID workers in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have reported a dramatic increase in the number of women committing suicide because they can no longer bear the country’s all-pervasive Islamic code. In the worst cases, women have taken their own lives by swallowing caustic soda - an agonising and lingering death. In addition, the number of women admitted to mental hospitals with severe depression has more than doubled since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and forbade women to work.”

Space constraints prevent me from further exploring the immoral male chauvinism imposed by the Sharia code that Nasir endorses. It is somewhat embarrassing that in modern day Guyana there are men who would try to slip by sexual bigotry and gender prejudice as being a higher moral code. It is alarming (and bodes ill for the future) that such men are teachers in our society.

Finally, Mr. Nasir wanted to know what’s the connection between homosexuality and Afghan and Iraqi children. Letter writer Sheik Mustapha understood. He said: “Muslims are generally silent on matters of major significance . . . but are vociferous on matters which are of little or no significance to the Muslims generally.” So, the link is you Mr. Nasir, and your reluctance to shift your attention away from men’s bedrooms to real issues that affect Muslims spiritually.


Justin de Freitas