Sexual Abuse? "Islam Is the Answer"

This article first appeared in Eagle Rising.

Obviously they are reading about Harvey Weinstein over in the UK because The Independent has published an op-ed by a Muslim lawyer named Qasim Rashid. He is also a national spokesman for Ahmadiya Muslim Community USA. Mr Rashid opined that the answer to all this sexual abuse in the world is….Islam. Here is his op-ed.

Where does one begin? I will take Mr Rashid at his word that he shares our disgust at the actions of Harvey Weinstein, rapists, and sexual abusers in general. His solution is what I find laughable.

Mr. Rashid conveniently tells us about the verses in the Koran that preach respecting women. He tells us about times when the Prophet Mohammad defended the virtue of this or that woman. It is also, however, a fact that Mohammad took captive women as sex slaves for himself and his fellow warriors. It is also a fact that the teachings of Mohammad, the Koran, and the hadith have firmly placed Muslim women in a position of inferiority. Mr Rashid did not mention the verses in the Koran that talk of “that which your right hand possesses”. That expression refers to those you are holding in slavery-including women and children. (For reference, read Koran; sura 2 verse 178, sura 4 verse 24, sura 8 verse 69, sura 16 verse 25, sura 23, verses 5-6, sura 24 verse 32, yttttttttttsura 33 verse 50.)

Mr Rashid does not mention that according to sharia law, a woman must have four male witnesses to corroborate her charge of rape. Failing that, the women can be branded an adulteress. Under sharia law, the penalty for adultery can be death.

There is currently a rape epidemic in Europe. Sweden, for example, is  considered the rape capital of Europe. Germany is seeing a dramatic increase in rape. The cause? No, European men have not suddenly turned into rapists. It is the migrant, refugee, asylum-seeker avalanche that has engulfed Western  Europe. The vast majority of these people are from the Middle East and North Africa. They are overwhelmingly Muslim.  Mr Rashid referred to French women being sexually harassed on  public transportation. The vast majority of these offenders are Middle Eastern or North African.

The problem is that many Muslim men (not all) do not respect non-Muslim women and consider them whores because they do not dress and act the way they expect their women to dress and act. In the UK, the country has experienced numerous cases of gangs of mostly men of Pakistani origin, recruiting, drugging and forcing young British girls to be sex slaves (sexual grooming). This is not the invention of some tabloid. Read the court cases that are on going at this very time.

Do I need to even mention what ISIS is doing to non-Muslim women they have captured in Syria and Iraq?

I should note that the Ahmadiya Muslims, who principally come from Pakistan and India, have a good record when it comes to not being involved in terrorism. It also needs to be mentioned that they are rejected by mainstream Muslims and badly persecuted in Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries. That is because they believe in a latter day prophet named Ahmed who lived in the 19th century. That is blasphemous to other Muslims who believe that Mohammad was the final prophet.

Yet, having heard their presentations, I know they also stick to the party line when proselytizing for Islam. They do not deviate from the Koran or the veneration of Mohammad as the perfect man to emulate.

The bottom line here is that the answer to sexual abuse in our society does not lie in Islam. To be fair, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and so many other predatory males are not Muslim. Likewise, I would never accuse all Muslim men of being rapists or even most of them. I have no idea what the percentages would be. But I maintain that most of the Muslim men we see in Europe and the Middle East who are sexually abusing women are relying on the teachings from Mohammad and the Koran to justify their actions.  That is why I say the answer does not lie in Islam.