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A NON-MUSLIM acquaintance recently
sent me a photograph of her friend who was holding the Toronto Sun
newspaper in his hand with the recent headline: “Is beating women
allowed?” (Or something to that effect) in reference to a marriage
guidebook penned by the late Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, an Indian
scholar of Islam. The book is available in Canada much to the
horror of the Canadian public. I have not yet read the 160-page
book “A Gift for the Muslim Couple” by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi
and I doubt that the editorial and reporting team at Sun Media has
either. Regardless, the Sun Media is generating much fear and
paranoia for what seems to be cheap publicity points.
Sensationalist articles and television shows targeting the Muslim
community are mainstream in the U.K. and U.S. Unhindered, this
wave seems to be rising now in Canada.
Tarek Fatah of course wants the bookstore owner charged under the
law. This is not unexpected of Fatah who has made a lifelong
career out of stabbing his own community. Strangely he becomes
bitterly resentful (as he did on March 1, 2012, at University of
Toronto when he isn’t awarded the honor he feels he deserves from
his “racist” circus masters in return for vilifying Muslims. What
does he think? Fatah, you are nothing more than a cheap condom for
the Michael Corens, Jonathan Kays, Ezra Levants and others out
there to screw over this community and then flushing it down the
toilet. If they begrudgingly bear you on the same panel as
themselves, its not for your rugged good looks, but the damage
they can inflict on the Muslims using your small brain and a big
mouth. Alas, Fatah’s daughter Natasha showed way better
understanding than him of the way the game works when she
remarked: “...when people you thought were good and decent, reveal
their racism, and you find out your offence isn’t worth their time
because you’re just another Paki.”
I do however blame the self-appointed Muslim community leadership,
which began either mindlessly condemning Thanvi’s book in unison
or has remained pathetically silent about the issue. Where is the
Imam Council? Where is Ali Hindy? Where are the champions of faith
who are foremost in their dawah efforts? Their silence is
deafening.
I for one believe that the criticism of the Muslim community based
on this book is unfair for the following reasons:
A Guide for the Muslim Couple was written in the 19th century. Its
author, A. A. Thanvi, was born in 1863 and died in 1943. It is
unfair to use this book to assert the Muslim male’s alleged
contempt for women. It is from before the time women could vote,
work freely, get into professional colleges, own full property
rights and be legally protected against spousal violence in the
west. If invoking this 19th century book is allowed to thrash
Canadian Muslims today, then critics should be allowed to cite
works from that same era to make the case for Western males’
contempt for women as well. And if the mere presence of this book
in the 21st century counted a crime, what then should we say to
the world that sees the Western woman objectified, sexualized, and
humiliated in bondage and sadomasochistic videos, criminally
accessible to 5-year olds on the net, in the name of entertainment
by the 20 billion-dollar porn industry here at home? What about
the continuing violence committed against women in society at
present? In none of the stinging reviews was there as much as a
peep about violence perpetrated against women committed
overwhelmingly by non-Muslim (white) males. Was protecting Muslim
women the Toronto Sun’s real agenda or was it to brushstroke the
Canadian Muslim community in a negative light?
For example, NOW (National Organization of Women) tells us that on
an average of 3 women are killed in the US every day, one-third of
whom are killed by intimate partners. NCIPC cites that 4.8 million
American women suffer bodily attacks and rapes from their partners
every year – that’s 600 women per day. The Justice Dept informs us
that one in five American college women will be raped at some
point during their college years. College is preparation for the
real world I suppose.
Is Canada much different? Afraid not. Women continue to outnumber
men nine to one as victims of assault by a partner and are 3 times
as likely to be killed by their partners as are men. According to
the Canadian report Assessing Violence Against Women 74% of female
killings occur at the hands of ex-husbands. Remember all this goes
beyond fixing employment and income disparity and maternity leave
disputes; it’s about letting women live in our society.
Under the current situation, it appears amazingly hypocritical to
accuse the Muslim community of a “particularly sinister” kind of
misogyny using a little known couple’s guide, all the while
ignoring an ocean of a problem around us. It reeks of
anti-Muslimism, nothing else.
And just when we may hold Eric Brazau, the shady man who broke the
story in the Toronto Sun about Thanvi’s book, as some
bleeding-heart friend of Muslim women, an impression he never
fails to make as a “gentlemanly” guest on radio shows, be aware
that this seven-time convicted violent offender has been
criminally charged in the past for reportedly riding his bike in
public alongside a hijabi lady and continually harassing her by
calling her a terrorist and telling her to go back to Afghanistan.
Toronto Sun itself broke the story in the past when it was
newsworthy, but deliberately made no mention of it this time.
Yesterday’s scum becomes today’s crusader for Muslim women rights.
Incredible.
To make things clear on our end: Islam, like all pre-modern
religions, does not, I repeat, does not stand for equality of
spouses in a conjugal relationship. Man has a role in the family
as a protector, provider and a moral leader, which is distinctly
different from the one God awards to the woman. This is the truth.
To the Muslim leadership that denies it, I say, shame on you for
telling people lies! You know well that men have a responsibility
to be the captain of the ship, to be the moral guardians first and
foremost who will be held responsible before God for the moral
direction of the family institution in society – which today is in
shambles. Although Islam is certainly not “oppressive” to women,
it does require wives first and foremost with guarding the
household in their husbands’ absence. Chauvinistic? Unfair?
Exploitative? Perhaps. But this is what we are commanded, and if
we turn back we hurt none but ourselves.
Moreover, if Thanvi’s theological book hurts public sensibilities
so much, then let the detractors be brave and shout words of
protest against all theological works – without singling out Islam
or Muslim men. Would the “ethically-appalled” Eric Brazau, who
broke the story of Thanvi’s book to Toronto Sun, saying: “I
thought that it is incredible that this kind of thing can be found
in Canada”, make similar raids into Jewish and Christian
bookstores with a similar agenda? I don’t think so. Think about
this: I have five copies of the same one book that gives women a
status way lower than this Muslim book ever could; it’s called the
Bible. And guess what? It’s way more popular in the homes and
bookstores.
According to the Bible woman is the source of all sin, the cause
of global death (Ecc. 25:13), the source of all wickedness (Ecc.
42:13), can be shameless like a dog (Ecc. 26:25), is of a sinister
nature (Ecc. 7:26) is a recipient of special punishment from God
(Gen. 2:15), brings shame when she opens her mouth in church (1
Cor. 14:35), becomes unclean to touch during periods/childbirth
(Lev. 15:19), must be ruled by man (3:16) (1 Corinth 11:3), must
submit to husbands in everything (Ephesians 5:22-24), must learn
to shut her mouth and be fully obedient (1 Tim 2:11) should wear a
sign on her head of her husband’s authority at all times (1
Corinthians 11:7-9) etc. This of course does not include centuries
of Bible-inspired literature along the same vein that is still
freely published and adorns the shelves of any corner bookshop. I
would not burn the bibles in a pyre in protest because not only is
it unIslamic but it would be provocative to those who deeply
regard it as God’s word. However would a “selfless champion of
women” like Brazau or the local useful idiot Tarek Fatah take on
the Holy Bible for its misogynistic content, its influence and
consequently demand its ban as they’d like for Thanvi’s book? We
have to wonder.
Would they take on the Hindu scripture Manusmriti, a distilled
version of the Hindu Vedas out of the mouth of Lord Brahma, which
orders wives to worship their husbands like gods? Or that a woman
unaccepting of a man’s sexual advances may be raped? (Brihadaranyaka
6.4.6 and 6.4.7) or the Rig Veda which calls women lacking
intellect and enjoining widow-burning in words: “Let these wives
first step into the pyre, tearless without any affliction and well
adorned.” (Rig Veda X.18.7) – all as being indirectly responsible
for 16 ‘dowry murders’ and unknown number of female infanticides
occurring in India ever day? 50 million women in India are
mysteriously missing according to one UN report.
Similarly, when orthodox Jewish men in western countries get up in
the morning and thank God every day for not making them a woman
but a man (in a prayer called Amidah), or bar women from becoming
rabbis, teaching the Torah or praying in a synagogue here in the
West would these pro-feminist activists take to the streets in
protest against that? If the situation called for it I know I
would hold discussions with religious elders of all faiths to try
to come to a common understanding. This is a positive approach.
Dialogue, not incitement.
Lastly, for any criticism to be valid, it must be fair and
balanced. The Toronto Sun review focuses only on the things in the
book unacceptable in western culture for the purposes of cheap
sensationalism. Study proper book reviews in academic journals and
you will note that they do not try to deceive the reader by
showing only one side, but give a balanced perspective of what the
author is trying to say. For example, in the Toronto Sun’s report,
it states: “In the book’s opening pages, it is written that `it
might be necessary to restrain her with strength or even to
threaten her.’” There must be a context to this which the critic
conveniently ignores. Any man would restrain a woman "with
strength" and words if the situation called for it and would
expect the same from her.
As far as the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him), is concerned, he gave the Muslims the best advice when
he said: The best of you are those who are the best in conduct
toward their wives. His wife Ayesha testifies that the Prophet was
never seen to hit a servant, woman or an animal. His example is
what we Muslims are to emulate at all times.
We Muslims are also enjoined to lend an ear to criticism. Some
criticism however is simply unfair and amounts to propaganda and
hate-incitement against one target community by giving the
audience an incomplete or a distorted picture. The Toronto Sun
review article on Thanvi's work A Guide for Muslim Couple is
guilty of casting suspicion of misogyny and wife abuse singly on
the Canadian Muslim community with no mention or regard for the
era of the book’s authorship, misogynistic works of other faiths,
presenting a distorted, one-sided impression of the book, and
failing to mention female abuse as a serious issue confronting
society at all levels. This is an example of journalism run by a
vile agenda against the Muslim Community.
Sheharyar Shaikh is the former President of North American Muslim
Foundation. He is specializing in contemporary Islamic thought and
modernity.
The above article first appeared on TheMuslim.ca on March 29,
2012.
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