The FATWA of Islam’s Women

Free At Last - To Weep Aloud

These days, especially related to the recent desire to execute Solomon Rusdie due to the alleged blasphemous way that he insulted the Holy Quran in his controversial book, Satanic Verses, the authority of a Fatwa has become misunderstood. A Fatwa’s original intent was to be a finding after scholarly research, but it was not necessarily binding. But whether certain circumstances in Islam have come about as the result of official fatwas or not, in the history of Islam there have been numerous situations where the strong opinions of a certain man or men have had a binding effect on the direction that Islam has taken. But these new directions have often not been directly related to either the teaching of the Holy Quran or to the teaching of Islam’s Prophet.

For instance, at the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam brought to women a new gender respect and equality that was unknown in Arabia. Women under Islam were given two new but quite welcome rights. Women were given the new right to inherit the property of their deceased husbands. But if a woman’s husband divorced her, she had the right to keep all of her dowry as her own personal property.

Often in Islam, what is positive and helpful for women gets subverted when particular men who do not have women’s best interests at heart, reach positions of power, authority and influence. Thus, after the Prophet had died his successors often introduced negative and punitive reforms to Islam that would have definitely been rejected by the Prophet and which definitely had no foundation in the Quran.

For example, the second caliph, Umar, though having an outward form of piety, did not have the high respect for women that characterized the Prophet Muhammad. Consequently Caliph Umar was the person who first introduced segregated prayers as a standard requirement and this same obligatory segregation remains the standard practice today. Caliph Umar would not even allow the Prophet Muhammad’s own widows to perform the Hajj. Also, according to Reza Aslan, in his recent book, No god but God, The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, this caliph also instituted several penal ordinances against women.

It is not my intention to enter into any kind of debate whether segregated prayers for Islam is the preferable practice or is not the preferable practice for Muslims. The reality is, that this has been the standard practice for all Muslims for so long, that it is woven into the collective conscience of the majority of Muslims as the right thing to do. Therefore, since prayer has been practiced this way for so long, that to do prayer any other way would be considered wrong by most Muslim men and women.

My point is this. In the beginning of Islam there was not segregated prayer and other certain constraints on women which are considered a vital part of Islam today. Segregated prayer was not encouraged by the Prophet nor was it encouraged by the Quran. So if it had not been instituted into Islam by a certain strong male personality it would not be a vitally accepted practice in Islam today. So the reversal of many of the Prophet Muhammad’s social reforms which originally empowered women occurred as a result of the personalities of certain men who became Caliphs and were not necessarily restrictions for women which were the Will of ALLAH, or the teaching of the Quran, or the example set by the Prophet himself.

In no way attempting to undermine the authority of the Holy Quran as it is accepted today, but this same strong male personality factor had a definite imprint on Islam when one strong male personality, himself decided which wording of which manuscripts would become an official part of the historical documented official manuscripts of the official Quran. There were numerous variants of manuscripts of the Quran which were in existence at the time of the third caliph, Caliph Othman. He was so confidant of his religious and spiritual abilities that he took the title for himself, Khaliphat ALLAH – Successor to ALLAH. Also, so confidant was he in his ability to do the right thing that he collected numerous oral and written revelations of the Quran and canonized them in his attempt to be the one to establish an orthodoxy. Then he had all variants of the other copies of the Quran’s manuscripts rounded up and all of them brought to Medina. There in Medina, he ordered that all of the variations that he had not put his own stamp of approval on, be burned. Of course the question to be answered is this. Was this self proclaimed Successor to ALLAH, 100% correct in all of his selections? Or, were parts of some of the burned variations actually more correct than the manuscripts the self confident Caliph decided to keep? Only ALLAH truly knows the precise answer. However, it seems reasonable that the Caliph did not 100% of the time make the correct decision.

Another question for all thinking Muslims to ponder is this. It is generally accepted among Muslims that the Quran is co-eternal with ALLAH. And it is not my intention to question this sincere belief among Muslims. (Although I must honestly confess that if the Holy Quran is truly co-eternal with ALLAH, I have personally wondered why it had personal comments about the Prophets relationships with his wives.) But what I do think is important for Muslims to realize is this. As recently as the ninth century there were at least two respected schools of thought on the issue of whether the Quran was created or whether it is co-eternal with ALLAH.

The Rationalists or Mu’tazalite took the position that the Quran had been created quite similar to how the Scriptures previous to the Quran had been created. But the Traditionalists took the position that the Quran is co-eternal with ALLAH. A virtual inquisition or investigation went on for years with the ulama (religious scholars) known as Traditionalists finally discrediting the Mu’tazalite. So it has been accepted orthodoxy among virtually all Muslims since the 9^th century, that the Quran was not created but is co-eternal with ALLAH. Nevertheless, a rational Muslim has to ask his or her self this important question. Because a certain school of thought won a sustained debate, does that settle the difference in perspective 100%, that the winners of the debate were 100% right and that the losers of the debate were 100% wrong? Or, did other factors enter into which school of thought won the debate which had very little to do with actually who was more right and who was more wrong?

What I am convinced that ALLAH considers possibly the most important subject for the Muslim mind to consider and debate, is whether ALLAH’s Messiah truly did die and rise. I am actually 100% convinced that the Messiah did actually experience being murdered and then experienced rising from death. However, I would continue to be convinced of the truth of his death and resurrection even if I could be convinced that I am wrong about the correct interpretation of An Nisa 4:157. In this paper I will not again go into my reasoning to support my conviction of what 4:157 actually teaches because I have previously developed my argument so many times in so many different papers on this web site. However, I will add to my argument that when An Nisa 4:157 is interpreted correctly, in its context, this profound verse substantiates the death and resurrection of ALLAH’s Messiah which is emphatically taught again and again in the New Testament (the Injeel).

Two Additional Factors

There are other verses in the Quran in addition to An Nisa 4:157 that teach the death of the Messiah. The Quran is emphatic that when there is any question or lack of clarity about that the Quran is actually teaching, it is the teaching of the previous Scriptures that the Quran tells us to turn to, in order to settle the potential lack of clarity. Please see Yunus 10:94 where the Prophet himself is instructed to go to those who have been reading the Book before him in order to resolve any doubts about the meanings of his revelations.

But the end of the matter is this. The previous Scriptures reveal that ALLAH had every intention of allowing certain Israeli leaders to openly display their wickedness to the world by arranging the murder of the one to whom the Quran refers to as faultless. But ALLAH was not allowing His Messiah to be degraded. But He was allowing the perpetrators of the ugly crime to degrade themselves by purposely but illegally executing a totally innocent man. Nevertheless, ALLAH would 100% shower His own indisputable vindication on His innocent, obedient servant by raising him up from death.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that this horrible betrayal of justice occurred in the Israeli system of injustice, certain powerful and persuasive leaders of Islam have glued themselves to their indefensible positions. They demand that all Muslims believe that the Jews were too evil and the Messiah was too good for ALLAH to have allowed his good Messiah to be the victim of such injustice at the hands of such bad Israelis.

If they are so insistent in believing that instead of always ultimately punishing the perpetrators of killings and murders, that ALLAH instead prevents the murder, why does the Quran speak of other quite innocent Prophets of ALLAH being unjustly murdered by the same Israelis who supposedly did not murder the Messiah? And if their argument is that ALLAH prevents injustice occurring to the innocent rather than finally punishing the perpetrators, why is ALLAH not immediately protecting the innocent Palestinians from all of the injustice and murder that has occurred to them for almost five decades since their land was unjustly given away by the ignoble U.N.?

Middle Easterners are totally correct when they justifiably complain about the Israeli lobby being manipulative and powerful. But the Israeli lobby has met its match. The powerful male Muslim lobby, without having one shred of logic to make its case in the arguments that it uses for its own people against the Messiah dying but rising, continues to convince all Muslims that he did not die and rise. Yet every argument that it uses can be exposed as being totally unsupportable. But despite their arguments not being defendable, the capable, deceptive, manipulative, clever Muslim lobbyists, like the Israeli lobbyists, remain undefeated. They stick to their unsupportable story like glue to a floor tile, and not even the obvious truth dissuades one billion five hundred million Muslims from the obvious falsity of those Muslim lobbyists’ own blatant prevarications about the Messiah not dying and then rising from death.

Since there is true integrity combined with a true fear of awful judgment from ALLAH, in the head and hearts of a few influential Muslim leaders in a few Muslim countries, the following will most certainly occur.

If at least one courageous Muslim leader in Saudi Arabia issues a constructive fatwa allowing belief in the Messiah’s death and resurrection and another does so in the U.A.E., another in Yemen, another in Qatar, another in Jordan and one more in Lebanon or Turkey or Iraq or Iran or Indonesia, a constructive change will begin in Islam. No, the fatwa will not be binding. But it will be a bold, unheard before, better late than never, proclamation that will be very, very, very pleasing to ALLAH.

The New FATWA From Male Muslim Leaders

“To all brother and sister Muslims throughout the world. In light of the overwhelming evidence from the Holy Quran, the overwhelming evidence from the Scriptures preceeding the Quran and the overwhelming evidence from the historical records, we leaders in Islam to whom ALLAH has given leadership responsibility, issue the following very sincere and exceptionally important fatwa.

We wish to make it clear to all Muslims everywhere that we sincerely believe that it is not pleasing to ALLAH for Islamic leaders to leave the wrong impression in the minds of sincere Muslim believers. Therefore, we want all Muslims everywhere to know that they are to follow their own sensitive consciences on how to understand the true intention of An Nisa 4:157.

We Muslim leaders now realize that there is a quite reasonable chance that this verse was not intended to be understood in an exact word for word way. Instead, it has a much more profound meaning and is actually ridiculing the wicked Israeli leadership for presuming to believe that they themselves could forever end the innocent, healing life of the courageous son of Maryam.

Therefore, all Muslims are now released from needing to believe that someone was on the cross who appeared to be the Messiah but who was not.

Muslim Women’s FATWA

In view of how recalcitrant the Muslims male leaders have been in abdicating their responsibility to acknowledge the now Risen Messiah’s amazing victory over both death and over the evil plan’s of his Israeli murderers, it does not give us women much optimism regarding their willingness now to take adequate constructive action. Consequently, it definitely appears that these same Muslim leaders will not now choose to take the positive action that will be pleasing to ALLAH.

Therefore, O Women of Islam, here is something very important for each and every Muslim woman to consider. It is an important part of the culture of the Middle East for women to express their emotions through weeping and/or wailing when they observe a person or persons enduring intense suffering or even dying because of illness, accident or even murder.

But here is the irony. It is ALLAH Himself who is most important in the entire Universe. Since this is obviously true, you would think it would naturally follow that since ALLAH Himself has only one Messiah, that His one and only Messiah would have a special importance in the minds of all Muslims that would be accorded to no one else with the exception of the special honor that they respectfully accord to their own special Prophet Muhammad. Since this is so, then it would follow that if any one would deserve deep, sincere weeping and wailing on his behalf during a time of intense physical and emotional suffering, it would be ALLAH’s only Messiah.

But deeply ponder this almost unbelievable reality. It is quite probably that out of all the individuals that compassionate Muslim women have wept and wailed for in the Middle East, not one tear, not one sound of wailing has occurred for the ALMIGHTY ALLAH’s one and only Messiah. And why is it that this amazing absence of compassion has occurred regarding the one innocent person who deserved a compassionate response as much if not more than any other person in history? And the answer is not the fact that his suffering and torture is separated from us by so many long centuries that it is impossible for us to experience emotion regarding an event that is so distant from us in time. For we all experience strong emotions and tears regarding loved ones, whether they be friends of relatives, who have been long departed.

No, it is another reason that there has been absolutely no weeping or wailing for ALLAH’s only Messiah. It is that Muslim authorities have ordered, taught, conditioned and brainwashed Muslims to believe that ALLAH’s only Messiah did not defeat death but instead secretly escaped death by ALLAH Himself participating in a CIA/Mossad type deceptive tactic.

Worse yet, Muslims have been conditioned by certain powerful Islamic leaders to be very fearful if they don’t obediently believe that the Messiah did not experience death like they have again and again been told that they are supposed to believe. And even more overtly evil is the horrible fact that the Muslim mind has been conditioned to think that it is actually thinking something evil when it believes the truth about the Messiah actually dying but being enabled by ALLAH to rise again.

Please consider this. Quite possibly not one compassionate Muslim woman has ever shed even one tear for the one man in all of history who is most deserving to have tears shed in his behalf. Quite possibly not even one compassionate Muslim woman has made one sound of sympathetic wailing for the one man out of all of history who most deserved such wailing. But why did none of these outward signs of compassion occur? Because these fine, compassionate women have been either taught or effectively brainwashed that ALLAH’s own Messiah experienced no suffering and therefore deserves no compassionate remembrance. This calloused treatment of ALLAH’s only Messiah was and is disgraceful. Consequently, this regretful circumstance is exceptionally displeasing to the Merciful ALLAH.

It deserves to be realized that this purposeful cover-up of the Messiahs great suffering which is still continuing today, is a serious stain on Islam. But this stain is not simply the result of a unique belief system that is only one small part of the great monotheistic religion of Islam. This stain is the result of a wrong belief that has inflicted untold damage on the great monotheistic religion of Islam. If the male leadership of Islam is wise, it will take the necessary steps to remove this regrettable stain and in so doing, will greatly improve Islam’s relationship with ALLAH. Come on! For confused, authoritarian Islamic leaders to have allowed a horrible situation to develop where sincere Muslims are actually thinking that they are doing something wicked when they believe the truth, is in itself absolutely wicked. And these powerful leaders must change their ways and no longer cause such wickedness to occur which is a result of their own religious totalitarianism. Wise Muslim leaders must take immediate steps to release Muslims to believe the truth about the Risen Messiah’s death and resurrection. If they do not take these necessary steps they are lining themselves up to be recipients of ALLAH’s wrath.

Nevertheless, to cover the period of time until these men begin to release Muslims from their bondage to the lie that ALLAH’s own Risen Messiah did not die, sincere Muslim women are being forced to issue and follow their own FATWA whose letters can stand for “Free At-last To Weep Aloud”.

This Fatwa stands for the realization that as long as Muslim women are still psychologically controlled by being forced to think that it is wicked for a Muslim to believe that ALLAH enabled His Messiah to defeat his own crucifixion by raising him from death, they are forced to live in suffocating bondage. This bondage orders them to believe that with ALLAH’s deceptive assistance, His Messiah secretly escaped his own crucifixion. But Muslims are not allowed to believe that ALLAH instead assisted him by enabling him to defeat death by infusing him with new life after he had actually died.

Wonderfully, after Muslim women are at last free from that horrible bondage to a false belief, for the very first time they are liberated to openly reveal their unrestrained compassion for the cruel suffering that ALLAH’s only Messiah was forced by murderous Israeli leaders to endure. So they are at last free to release their compassionate emotions in sincere sympathy for him by weeping and wailing aloud.

While they were still in the bondage to wrong belief, of course they had absolutely no sympathy or compassion for a Messiah who had never experienced suffering? Therefore, this believed, manufactured lie has robbed ALLAH’s own Messiah of all the compassion and appreciation he has so deserved. But for those fortunate women who now realize that they have been brainwashed and lied to about the Messiah’s cruel suffering and execution, they have experienced a wonderful double blessing that the men continue to resist experiencing. If these women have truly released their locked up emotions so that they can finally weep because of the severe agony their Messiah definitely once endured, they themselves have experienced a true spiritual bonding with ALLAH’s own anointed man from Bethlehem. As they sincerely continue their compassion for and appreciation of the deep suffering he endured, a cleansing occurs in their previously locked up hearts and minds. The callousness they had exhibited to ALLAH by so many years of rejecting the suffering which His Messiah had so patiently endured, is then cleansed by the loving, enduring bond that they now have formed with him.

But the sincere fatwa that these enlightened women would like circulated throughout Islam in their behalf would be much more comprehensive than only dealing with the Muslim male leaders cover-up of the Messiah’s suffering, his cruel death, and also his amazing Resurrection.

It would be similar to the following;

Oh brothers and sisters throughout Islam,

Of course all women are aware that any FATWA by women cannot be official because it is only males who are allowed to officially represent Islam. But we women wish to go on record with certain deep concerns regarding the extensive limitations demonstrated by our male leadership.

The following are vivid examples of the exceptional lack of vision these men have demonstrated in their leadership.

Example 1: New Life For Islam

Every one recognizes that Islam needs a shot in the arm that will bring new life to Islam. Yet, right in the pages of the Quran is a still living Messiah who parallels the Prophet Muhammad as for being a dynamic, life giving personality. Yet, the stuck in the mud leaders of Islam, when they are not ignoring him, work overtime to marginalize this Risen Messiah and to minimize his positive attributes. How can they possibly work so hard to miss such an opportunity to advance Islam that is literally jumping out at them from the pages of their own Quran? By appropriately making “eminent in Islam” the one whom the Quran emphatically describes as being “eminent in this world and in the next”, new life and vitality will be emphatically brought to Islam.

Example 2: “The Bush named, ‘Kill Em Quickly’”

Even a cave man who is retarded should be able to recognize that President George W. Bush and his “shoot any body and every body” Vice President, Dick Cheney, have made a mockery of the Christianity they claim to represent.

Since the two of them want to imitate the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin, you would think that the leaders of Islam would take advantage of this opportunity to expose their shameful representation of Christianity in their brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Yet, instead of Islam exposing these two leaders’ brazen unrighteousness, it has only been the out spoken President of Iran who has openly pointed out the terrible contradiction in how they are so tragically representing Jesus Christ in Iraq. Unfortunately, though a number of Iran’s President’s criticisms had validity, he himself lacks credibility due to his threats regarding the destruction of Israel and other outrageous comments he comes up with. Regretfully, those Muslim leaders who have universal credibility, offer little or no criticism regarding the gross hypocrisy being publicly displayed by the U.S. Administration.

Example 3: The Devaluation of Women

There can be no doubt that the Prophet Muhammad greatly esteemed the women of his time. However, for the leaders of Islam to have so slowly attempted to return women to the exceptionally high status that they had attained under the Prophet, is shameful. The way that Islam has separated the sexes and have made women subordinate to men and in some places made veiling obligatory are definitely innovations introduced by the Prophet’s successors and are not supported by the Holy Quran. For Islam to achieve the status that it deserves and for Islam to be truly pleasing to ALLAH, the male leaders of Islam must take immediate steps to free Muslim women from their evil bondage to the higher status of men.

Example 4: The Tragic Contradiction

(The Absolute Genius, Ridiculousness and

Childishness of Muslim Male Leaders Having It Two

Contradictory Ways At The Same Time)

We, the Women of Islam are ashamed that we must salute our brothers in Islam for far surpassing our Israeli cousins in being able to convince the world that black is actually white and that white is simultaneously black. Also, it makes it an even worse comparison that the Israelis accomplish their magic in the political realm while our male leaders very successfully manipulate ALLAH’s own valuable truth in the theological realm.

The case in point is this. It is absolutely indisputable and incontravertable that in our Holy Quran, the case is made again and again and again that our Holy Book both confirms and is a guardian over the sacred truths contained in the sacred Scriptures preceeding the Quran.

And this responsibility and guardianship of the previous sacred Scriptures is not a responsibility that the Quran treats superficially. Therefore, when the otherwise sincere leaders of Islam brazenly cancel the entire message that their Holy Quran’s pledges Muslims to protect the previous Scritpures, it brings tremendous shame to all of Islam. And this is the very thing that Islamic leaders do when they take one verse out of the entire Quran and use that one, isolated easily misunderstood verse to make the case that the main messages of the entire Scriptures have been changed. So in effect these brazen, clever Muslim leaders have cancelled the previous sacred Scriptures which their own Quran has solemnly promised to protect.

Example 5: The Unintended Canceling of One of ALLAH’s Greatest Victories

ALLAH is the author of life. All life comes from Him. We women of Islam understand that there is one exceptionally strong, major theme in the previous Scriptures, the very scriptures which the Holy Quran is pledged to protect. That major theme in the Scriptures which the Holy Quran is solemnly pledged to protect is this: That ALLAH would bring new spiritual life to people throughout the world through the new physical life that He would impart to His Messiah after Israeli leaders had tried to end his life forever by crucifying him on a cross in Jerusalem.

The death of the Messiah who was ALLAH’s obedient servant was inconspicuously but definitely predicted throughout the Scriptures which were written before the coming to earth of His Messiah. Also, the Injeel, which was written after his life on earth, is filled with accounts and references to his death and resurrection which occurred in Jerusalem and with references that the wonderful news of his amazing victory over death was to be taken to people throughout the entire world.

Relating back to Example 4, when Muslim leaders convince Muslim followers that the two events of his death and resurrection, which are so strongly emphasized in the Scriptures, did not occur because these Scriptures mysteriously have been changed, they are virtually challenging the Mighty purposes of ALLAH. These leaders’ open opposition to His Messiah’s great victory over death is definitely putting both these leaders and all Muslims in eternal peril.

This is not a matter to be taken lightly. Also this is definitely not a matter to argue and debate endlessly about. This is an urgent, important matter which requires the immediate urgent attention of all serious Muslims.

Example 6: Not a Man But a Muslim Woman Exposed Abuse by Muslims Through a Movie

It is absolutely ludicrous that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda take the majority of the blame for the pervasive negative influence of radical Islam on our severely wounded world. That misdirected blame is somewhat similar to blaming the manager of “Food Services” on the Titanic for the sinking of that ship.

It is the desperate lack of progressive courageous, honest leadership in Islam which has created a vacuum that an Osama bin Laden and an Al Qaeda were destined to attempt to fill. The regrettable but relevant reality is that recent leaders of Islam have not gotten their own act together to come up with a united voice and a constructive strategy against the many destructive excesses of the West. Neither have they unitedly offered one decisive voice against the U.S.’ one sided support of Israel in Israel’s hostile and decades old conflict with the occupied, ripped off Palestinians. Additionally, Muslim leadership has not developed a united voice to expose the U.S. aggressive exploitation of the Iraqis in both Gulf Wars. Regrettably, taken together, these gross failures to take effective action by less than competent Islamic leadership have created a vacuum which appears to beg for a radical aggressive brand of Islam to fill it. Regrettably, radical Islam has aggressively filled that giant void.

But the first seeds which initially grew radical Islam were unfortunately planted centuries before the First "on" Gulf War. But it was not Islam which planted the first seeds within Islam to grow violence which has now turned into Radical Islam. Quite regretfully, it is reasonable to name those initial seeds that were planted so many centuries ago, as “The Crusade Seeds.” For it was mainly a defensive response to the external threat to Islam introduced by the violent (“Christian”) Crusades that originally caused the concept of Jihad to be transformed into being seen as a necessary “war” to defend the religion of Islam.

In the 20^th Century it was the U.S. itself in league with especially Pakistan and Saudi Arabia which gave additional impetus to political and radical Islam by using and exploiting Muslims in Afghanistan to help undermine and defeat the U.S.’ dreaded cold war enemy, the Soviet Union. So it was the ever righteous U.S. which provided the Afghan Jihadist with ideological and political instruction, as well as financial and technical assistance to fight the perceived Communist threat of the Soviets. Significantly, according to a book review of No God But God by Reza Aslan in the May 15/06 Nation Magazine, the U.S. assistance to those fighting the Russians in Afghanistan included helping them develop radical, militarized madrassas in order to train and psychologically prepare soldiers, some of whom would later become the “terrorists” who the U.S. is now hunting, imprisoning or killing. So it has been the U.S. and not just the Osama bin Laden types who have been guilty of subverting key tenets of the Islamic Faith by helping to redefine jihad so jihad could become an individual military activity where virtually no distinction is made between a combatant and a non-combatant.

(For those who might just doubt that the U.S. government would do something as evil as turning even its own enlisted soldiers into cold-hearted killers a reading of the article, “How a (U.S.) soldier learns to kill” in the May 19/06, issue of  “The Week” magazine, will have their naive eyes opened. Two quotes state:

“When you become a U.S. soldier, you do not acquire a moral license to kill, you accept a moral obligation to kill”

“You have learned that the U.S. Army is not interested in incapacitating shots. ‘Shoot! Shoot! Shoot to kill!’ is one of your road-march cadences.”

So it is not only the political radicalization of Islam by Muslims from within Islam, that Muslim male leaders have been forced to combat, but have been ineffective in doing so. But it is also the manipulation, exploitation, and politicalization of Islam facilitated by the powerful U.S. that the male leaders of Islam are quite reluctant to speak out against. They do not wish to take the dangerous risk of “rocking the boat” by offending or antagonizing the powerful U.S. government. In all fairness, it must be acknowledged that Islamic leaders have a legitimate reason to fear the most recent brazen motto of the U.S. Administration, “Shoot First and answer the questions of the Republican Congress later.”

In addition to combating the crimes of radical Islam, there are additional abuses especially against women in Islam which are crying out for Muslim male leadership to reform. But the male leadership in these areas is failing miserably to take the bold initiatives which are required to make male leaders more responsible to protect all Muslims and especially women.

For instance, on May 17, in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the title of the article read, “Critic of Radical Islam is leaving Netherlands.” But what male Islamic leader had the courage and the inclination to be openly critical of radical Islam so that his open criticism would be written about in thousands of different newspapers throughout the world?

The answer is that it was not a male Islamic leader who had been the out spoken critic of Radical Islam. Instead, it was a diminutive female Muslim law maker who was so bold to take such a grave risk. But not only did Ms. Hirsi Ali repeatedly and openly confront the aggressive evil agenda of Islamic extremists who resort to violence even against women and children. She also wrote a screenplay entitled “Submission.” This short film featured the stories of four Muslim women who had been severely abused by their husbands. Significantly, the director of the film which outraged many Muslims, was not a Muslim, but was a European director, Theo Van Gogh. This courageous man obviously realized that he was risking his own life to direct this film which was exposing abuse against four Muslim women. Tragically, this risk taking director did pay with his own life for his part in revealing this abuse. He was soon violently murdered by a resentful Islamic radical who hated the film’s revelations. But the murderer conveyed a loud, clear message by his cowardly act.

“You may pay with your life if you openly criticize abuses in Islam.”

Even after the brutal murder of her colleague, Ms. Ali continued to be compelled to serve her mostly abandoned sisters in Islam. But not just by speaking out against radicals. She also has continued to strongly address the important issues of free speech, the brutal murders of women who were thought to have brought shame on their families (when many times they had brought no shame on their families) and to speak against the savage practice of the genital mutilation of women.

Tragically, each of these crimes against women that this courageous Samoli woman publicly speaks against are areas that ALLAH is very aware that irresponsible Muslim male leaders continue to blatantly ignore.

Another vivid example of ALLAH compensating for male indifference and male callousness, by Himself raising up a courageous Muslim woman to fill a huge gap. This particular tragic male vacuum I am referring to exists in the predominantly Islamic Kingdom of Jordan. There the MERCIFUL has found a courageous women who hates the tragedy and injustice of women being abused, of women being murdered, and of children being abused and is doing everything in her power to expose the abuse, to prevent it and to see that it is appropriately punished.

Because this capable journalist for the Jordan Times especially hates injustice and abuse against women and children, she uses her considerable writing talent to make others aware of the abusive treatment of these vulnerable abused persons that her professional career in journalism brings her into contact with. Her wonderful sense of justice is at such a high level that she appears to fear no man, to fear no woman, and to fear no religious official, and to fear no government official. In reality, it must be that she has at least some support from others in her faithful struggle against the abuse of women and children. But from the outside the support she must inevitably receive is not visible. So it appears that her up hill struggle against the murder of women family members known as “honor killing” has been an extremely lonely battle. So largely due to the relentless efforts of this one woman, crime against often totally innocent young women is now taken more seriously by both society and law enforcement officials. Regretfully, however the mostly Muslim law makers and law enforcers continue to sentence male family members who have murdered daughters, sisters, cousins etc. to very light sentences for supposedly protecting the family honor.

Significantly, ALLAH Himself remains very aware that it continues to be mainly Muslim women and not Muslim men who have both the courage and the concern to take constructive action against these inhumane crimes. Sadly, the men’s positive contributions continue to be negligible. It appears that one of the proudest achievements of the male leaders continues to be the successful prevention of any woman from driving in the public streets of Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, a very few liberated women who have reasonable husbands or progressive fathers, occasionally take secret drives on lonely desert roads despite their being forbidden by zealous Muslim leaders from doing so.

One Black Man and Two Black Courageous Liberators

It is quite well known that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a respected and successful leader of the Civil Rights movement which brought previously denied rights to Afro American citizens of the U.S. What is much less well known to most people was the tremendous resistance and stern warnings to the Reverend King that he received from many of his fellow civil rights activists. His colleagues were exceptionally fearful of his offending the White majority by the Black moving too fast in demanding their rights, though they had been denied these rights for so many long decades.

While Dr. King was imprisoned in the Birmingham jail, he wrote several letters expressing his vigorous disagreement with those timid, play it safe, persons who were so afraid of offending the stubborn White oppressors of the Blacks. But think of the humiliating treatment that American Blacks would still be receiving from the powerful White majority if Dr. King had listened to his critics and had not been courageously aggressive in standing up against the calloused injustice of the White Majority.

Rosa Parks

This brave woman could have easily gotten up and moved to the back of the bus when the White bus driver had first ordered her to do so. But she refused to once again give in to this gross humiliation. Then, a few minutes later a White police officer again ordered her to give up her seat to a white man and once again she refused. Though it was the law of much of the enslaved South that she move to segregated seating when there were no more seats on the front of the bus, she knew it was absolutely right to refuse. She was convinced that it was not the Will of GOD that she continue to cooperate with such degrading humiliation so this one courageous woman refused to be any longer humiliated. Therefore, she was the person whom GOD chose to begin the courageous Montgomery bus boycott. So her brave action began the end of the gross humiliation of Blacks by Whites in the entire U.S. Please consider how much worse racism in the U.S. would still be today if this one small Black woman had not stood up against evil on this one bus among the hundreds of buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Because she stood up against this evil demand by this one enslaved to immorality bus driver and the evil demand of one enslaved to immorality policeman, all of the Blacks in Montgomery Alabama joined this one shy woman in a successful boycott of every immoral bus in the entire city.

Harriet Tubman

Very few Americans know the story of this exceptionally courageous former slave. Harriet Tubman was certain that she received dreams and visions from her Risen Messiah revealing to her that she was to risk her life to be a secret conductor on the Underground Railroad where she would guide slaves from the enslaved South to more freedom in the less enslaved North.

While still a teenage slave on a southern plantation, she herself had endured the horrible experience of having her angry slavemaster throw a heavy iron at her head. The purposely thrown iron injured her head so severely that for the rest of her life she would suddenly pass out and lose consciousness for several minutes. Despite her severe disability, she would disguise herself and sneak into slavery territory. There, she would cleverly avoid being captured while leading a small group of often reluctant Black male and female slaves to freedom in the North.

Significantly, like so many Muslim women have been virtually brainwashed to believe that whatever their male Muslim leaders (or masters?) have told them is true, actually is true, many, of the African American slaves believed that it was proper to always remain loyal to their male White American slavemasters, no matter how cruelly these slavemasters treated their young and old human property. Because of the resistance of some to escape to freedom, there were a few times that the tiny but confident Harriet pointed her gun at the reluctant and fearful escaping slaves. At crucial times she considered it wise to make them more afraid of her than they were afraid of their former slavemasters. So even though Harriet had periods of passing out, had a huge reward offered for her dead or alive, and though blood-thirsty bloodhounds could often be heard barking, trying to pick up their scent, Harriet never lost her courage or her commitment. But even more amazing, in 29 extremely dangerous trips to southern slave country, the tiny Harriet Tubman never lost one slave for whom she was attempting to serve the Risen Messiah by delivering slaves to freedom.

Since many courageous women of Islam have been brainwashed to believe that ALLAH’s Risen Deliverer who was sent to deliver them, was truly no deliverer at all it is helpful for these women to have a living example of an amazing deliverer in Harriet. (Instead these women have been convinced to wrongly believe that their courageous Living Messiah was an uncourageous escape artist. So they now can receive tremendous encouragement from both of these two small in stature but great in heart, Afro-American Women. For where would American and the world be without these two amazing women who were convinced that they were aided by their Risen Messiah to vigorously struggle against injustice and the enslavery of the human mind as well as the human body.

Conclusion of “Women of Islam’s FATWA”

If our sincere, Fatwa does not sufficiently reveal to Muslim male leaders the depth of Muslim women’s disappointment, disallusionment and frustration with how our male leadership is rapidly taking Islam in a down hill, backward direction, we hope the following comparison will help communicate our serious concern. But there is one area in which the current mail leadership of Islam has been eminently successful. It has efficiently and enthusiastically encouraged Islam to major in the minors and to minor in the majors. (This is giving high priority to insignificant issues while ignoring that which is supremely important to ALLAH.)

Free At Last

The final victorious praise from former American slaves to ALLAH for their liberation from the bondage of slavery was:

Free at last, Free at last, thank GOD ALMIGHTY, We’re Free at last!”

Similarly, these must be a tremendous cry of victory from Muslim women who have now been freed from the bondage to the lie that ALLAH did not send them a Deliverer. Why? Because ALLAH did indeed send them a Deliverer who for their benefit decisively defeated both death and the Israelis. So women must now from the depths of their hearts cry out a similar message of praise as came from the hearts of the former Afro-American slaves.

“Free at last. Free at last. Thank the ALMIGHTY ALLAH. We’re Free at last!”

So here is our comparison that will demonstrate to you men how strongly we women feel that male Muslim leaders are rapidly leading Islam in a backward direction.

The Crash of the BMW

You leaders of Islam appear to be like men in a BMW that is stuck in reverse with the gas pedal all the way to the floor-board, racing down a steep mountain road traveling backwards. But you leaders fail to realize the deep danger that you are in so you are all smiling. Each of you is naively shouting this promise out your BMW’s open windows as you speed downward, to an inevitable crash.

“Don’t worry! We know that Islam will eventually triumph because Islam will never allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia.”

Respectfully,
The Former enslaved to a Myth,
Women of Islam