Dear Editor,
Further to our letter in SN of August 12 (‘I don’t suggest revealing dress is the only reason for rape’), replying to Ms Chaudhury’s letter in SN of August 7 (‘Letter heaps scorn on the victims of rape’), we regret that our response was incomplete. The further amplification of some points is now presented.
Ms Chaudhury speaks of the “barbarity” practised in the name of Islam in that rape is a socially accepted form of punishment in certain Islamic societies. Mr Editor, it is unthinkable that a religion as noble and magnificent as Islam can sanction such a barbarity as a means of punishment. If this form of punishment as practised in the Indian sub-continent, of which she claims to have knowledge, is sanctioned in Islam then is it practised in Nigeria, or Indonesia or in Libya and other countries in Africa or anywhere else for that matter? Following flights of her imagination, she concludes that I will approve/condone/agree with something that is patently un-Islamic. I am sorry to disappoint you, Ms Chaudhury, but what you wrote is rubbish. Like you Islam condemns it. Islam and I do not defend this “barbarity practised in the name of Islam.” Ms Chaudhury attributes to me a position that I do not hold and then castigates me for holding it.
She repeated this when holding out that I am in support of genital mutilation – a position which not only do I not hold, but my position, the Islamic position, is the opposite. To help understand the point, when there was unrest in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants, and innocent people, including children, were bombed/shot and killed, did anyone blame the Catholic Church or the Protestant Church? If there are criminals, from an Islamic standpoint, in the Indian and Pakistani societies, their criminality cannot be blamed on Islam; but Ms Chaudhury does this (blame Islam) because she lacks understanding of what she is seeing. She also makes the quite common, elementary mistake of branding people with Arabic names, or because they live in countries with large Muslim populations, as Muslims. Indeed, with a name like Amina, even Ms Chaudhury may be mistaken for a Muslim!
Mr Editor, it appears to me that the crux of the matter has to do with the Islamic injunctions about female attire. It must be quite obvious to you, Sir, that in the Western world the concepts of modesty and decency have no place any longer. The concept and practice of modesty now serve to attract the contempt of those who cannot or will not practise it. The position of an atheist/agnostic would give him the freedom to say that women can dress or act as they please, a position admirably encapsulated by Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment where he says, “If there is no God then everything is permissible.” Western people, among others, regard, or have a tendency to regard Muslim women as “oppressed” mainly because of the mode of dress prescribed by Allaah (God). This raises a question as to whether there are any other religions/value systems that “oppress” their women or groups among them. We see in front of us nuns who until recently dressed extremely similar to Muslim women. If you contend that nuns are unrepresentative of the wider female population, then know that everyone in Islam obeys the same laws, nuns and non-nuns alike. We have among us other groupings who place value on modesty and decency and who are similarly dressed. I was present at a Hindu funeral where the Pandit spoke out against women being bareheaded, stressing the major nature of the omission. Are these groups, which have nothing to do with Islam, “oppressing” their women? And how many similar groups there may be if we care to check around a little?
The litany of misrepresentations against Islam and Muslims continues with Mr de Freitas’s contribution in SN of Saturday, August 9 (‘Rape is not an issue of Western clothing as Mr Nasi wrongly suggests’). Here he cites a United Nations person, who, nothing short of miraculous, has suddenly discovered pervasive child abuse in Afghanistan. Mr Editor, in a country where even the armed forces are reluctant to leave their camps (stories from the BBC and CNN) this miracle working UN person was able to get information/possibly travel throughout Afghanistan to report on widespread child abuse in Afghanistan. It is miraculous twice over that this UN person could discover what experienced reporters from around the globe were unable to unearth over a period of several years since the invasion by Allied forces. It is miraculous thrice over that the international media, which is perceived as being mainly hostile to Islam, have not picked up this story.
However, there are still large numbers of decent people, modest men and women, still alive in the world, but you will not find too many of them in the West. The revelations from the Creator still govern their lives, such revelations having core values not being subject to human interference. This is so because the people who believe in revealed religion know that it is from God and that no man/woman or men/women can alter it to improve it.
It would make interesting reading if we could have opinions about what constitutes modesty and decency in today’s world from Mr de Freitas and Ms Chaudhury. But please, no misrepresentations and no miracles.
Yours faithfully,
Mujtaba Nasir,
General Secretary, CIOG
