For the past few months, the Dhaka Tribune has been publishing articles promoting a very different version of Islam, far different from the traditional image that has been around for 1,500 years. I believe the first was the absolutely ludicrous article about how people who do not even believe in Allah can also be regarded as shaheeds according to Islamic principles.
The writer of the article would have suffered much had he written this for a Bengali newspaper. However, he was shrewd enough to know that English newspapers in Bangladesh are usually read only by tolerant intellectuals who have greater digestive powers, and therefore the probability of problems surfacing was little.
Later we saw an article, from the same author, on how Islam probably does not condone polygamy. And then came another piece from yet another writer who claimed that feminism and Islam have but nothing incongruent in-between them.
I wonder what is coming next! I can suggest a few titles myself! How about: “Does Islam really dislike homosexuality?” or “Is drinking really forbidden in Islam?” Who cares about what Imam Ghazzali thinks, or Imam Bukhari, or the millions of scholars who have expounded Islam for the past 1,500 years?
There seems to have emerged a perverse movement to prove that Islam does not confront the mainstream philosophies of life in the Occident. How is it done though? It is done through fabricating false explanations and mentioning only the supporting examples hiding the contradictory ones.
I would like to state here one of many possible examples of deliberate or inadvertent efforts to misconstrue verses from the Qur’an by one writer in his “Must Islam and feminism contradict?” (Dhaka Tribune, February 15). In asserting that Islam supports the supposed equality of the sexes, the following famous verse (Chapter 16, verse 97) is used: “Anyone who works righteousness, male or female, while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world, and we will surely pay them their full recompense.”
The problem is, there seems to be a peculiar inability to comprehend the fact that the equality stated in this verse is in terms of the reward, and not in terms of social roles assigned to men and women. In fact such a provincial analysis of Qur’anic verses is becoming common these days, producing very sophomoric conclusions and thoughts.
Islam very conspicuously distinguishes between men and women, and their respective roles in society. As I pointed out in one of my articles for the Dhaka Tribune (“Gender equality and Islam”), the very concept of equality of sexes does not exist in Islam simply because they are not equal in terms of capacity, specialisation, mental, physical, psychological tendencies, and social and familial roles, just as a shirt and a pairs of pants are not comparable.
There are completely unequivocal statements about the inequality of the sexes and their differences both in the Hadith and the Qur’an, on the other hand. I must abstain from listing them here, since the essay would become too long, but any interested reader is welcome to contact me for a comprehensive analysis.
All Islamic principles are derived from a set of fundamental beliefs. The first is absolute monotheism, the second is the transience of the material world, the third is accountability for actions, and the fourth is spiritual purification.
All Islamic regulations respect these. The segregation of sexes is only to ensure spiritual purification, for example. As a practicing Muslim, I am enraged at people being so frivolous and experimenting with Islam as if it were a toy at the hands of so-called intellectuals.
I am used to confronting open vilification of Islam from straightforward enemies, but not such covert and sly attacks which are but machinations to promote a completely false image of the glorious religion. I sincerely request all such intellectuals to stop disseminating lies about Islam.