I am not trying to suggest that we should question the teachings of the Quran itself. I am sufficiently convinced of it's authenticity as the word of our creator and a miracle on it's own.
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Amen to that
If the verse you mention does indeed present itself in the exact way you mention it, any further discussion should be moot.
Unfortunately, anyone with common sense will tell you that that is not what the verse means. It hardly even presents itself in the way she mentions it (in addition with the strings of human authority attached), is not specific.
As Exterminatus points out, however, the issue of enforcement would still be of paramount importance.
And once again, your words will fall on deaf ears. This is a culture of authoirity.
Please try to understand that what I am urging you to question and consider carefully is the "authority" that claims the indisputable correctness of it's own opinions. This "authority," itself very human and fallible has it's own interests.
Yes yes a thousand times yes. This is what most so-called Muslims fail to understand. This is what American religious freedom was founded upon.
Imagine a physics teacher with a PhD begins teaching a class, and after all is said and done, he leaves. One of the lesser qualified students takes his place, and continues the class, interpreting what the teacher said differently.
Surely you realize that such interests do not necessarily coincide with the majority of Muslim women.
This also needs emphasis.
The issue of Hijab is an important one because I believe it is at the epicenter of a vastly interconnected network of dubious beliefs (or at least rather hard to swallow ones).
Yes once again. This message needs to be spread.
The permanent shedding of the Hijab can lead to many other changes closely related to Muslim women's rights. This makes the issue of paramount importance, at least to me. Would you not agree that the possibility that this is an oppressive rule that is invented by self-styled zealots has profound implications?
She might know it deep down inside, but if a person has been lied to all their life it's kinda hard to break the habit, especially if that liar has been hiding behind the word of Allah.
On the issue of the West and women, I could not agree with your more. The so-called "right" to female indecency does not engender freedom; it engenders a quite insidious kind of repression that is very hard to discern or defeat.
I must emphatically disagree with you there.
While I don't approve of women going out and dressing indecently, I do not believe that it is our job to enforce it. We should turn our heads and even open our mouths and tell them what we think, but ultimately it's up to Allah to determine punishment.
You and I have a different definition of repression. What I define as repression is the use of unjust force by a human being against another human being. If a woman, misguided as she may be, voluntary chooses to dress revealingly, it is no ones fault but her own. She CHOSE to dress that way, and SHE will deal with the consequences. No one put a gun to her head and ordered her to dress indecently. No one passed a law requiring women to dress like it's 200 degrees fahrenheit. No one did anything of the sort, her free will speaks for itself.
Western feminists do not understand the relation of the so-called "sexual freedom" to the fact that they are yet to set any meaningful foothold in Western politics. Little do they realize that they have been "elevated" from property to commodity.
Not only do they realize it, but the majority of our women choose the way they are viewed. It's unfortunate, but it's better than the alternative (punishment for not covering up by humans).
Little do they realize that they have been fooled into surrendering all respectability and to think that being routinely violated like male public property to be freely consumed and discarded without a social blanked when they make the “mistake” of getting pregnant or old is somehow desirable or raises their social stature.
It is at this point that Muslims show their equal ignorance about Western society. The point of freedom is not to "fool" people into making the wrong decisions. These women are completely capable of making their own rational choices. Like I said it's unfortunate that most of them don't, and it's unfortunate that most people in the West are so stupid that they resort to this behavior, but humans are rational beings at heart and don't need control.
Most Muslims (or at least the type you find online) see humans as helpless sheep that need the strict authority of the Q'uran as interpreted by other fallible humans. The central core belief of the Western World (or at least America) is freedom of choice, and the consequences thereof.
However, I also believe that there is space for a middle ground. I believe one can learn from mistakes made and formulate a better option.
The middle ground is to look at the Q'uran as true and absolute, but not to rely on the flawed interpretations of your fellow man. The Word of Allah must be interpreted by Allah. Those who ignore it shall pay the consequences at the hands of its creator, not by humans.
As our Thomas Jefferson once said, "If people are unfit to govern themselves, then surely they are unfit to govern others. Or have you made angels out of kings and queens? Let history answer this question!"
