The tragedies and tears which knife crime have brought to the forefront of the British landscape, have become cause of conversation for everyone. The epidemic that seems to be sweeping the country has been pitched in the media as a problem which all of us are potentially vulnerable to. And rightly so, of course, being callously stabbed alive, repeatedly, in broad daylight, in a public area for no reason at all, is a reality which would send chills down the spine of anyone. And for such a threat to exist in the very society you live in, is enough to cause a very relevant debate.
However this week, the charity "Refuge" highlighted the less discussed fact that every week, two women in the UK die from domestic violence. Last month, Joan Smith in the Independent, very interestingly pointed out that although our brimming concern for knife crime in British society is very relevant and expected, there is another violent crime which affects scores of people across the country, and doesn't just mainly occur in inner-city hotspots like knife crime. The swollen bruised face of a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence rarely makes it onto the front pages of all the main newspapers, even though there are 12.9 million victims of domestic violence a year, whereas from 2007-8 there have been 130,000 recorded incidents involving knives.
Domestic violence accounts for about 16% of all UK violent crime. It is however chronically underreported, so it is likely that many homes up and down the UK harbour couples for whom inflicted bruises and injuries are commonplace. Victims can be both men and women, however statistics show that 77% of victims are women.
The government have initiated various action-plans in order to try and tackle the problem: the Domestic Violence National Plan; pregnant women and children in education being routinely assessed for domestic violence; every police force having a domestic violence coordinator; and the much documented recent Sanctuary scheme - an accommodation scheme supporting victims to remain in their own homes with surveillance.
Government initiatives also included so called preventative measures such as the Crime Reduction Programme funded project which was aimed at raising awareness amongst young people in schools about violence in order to shift attitudes.
However, how far have all these initiatives, actually helped to tackle domestic violence across society? The problem remains at epidemic proportions. Identifying families suffering from domestic violence, providing support to these women facing domestic violence and better policing to be able to arrest perpetrators all have their place within a society but will do little and have done little to address the root causes of the crime and therefore reduce its prevalence within society.
If we are to really significantly tackle a violent crime inflicted mainly upon women, we need to get to the root of what it is that makes any man think and feel that he has the right to physically beat or emotionally abuse a woman. The victim profile for domestic violence ranges from housewives to professionals to businesswomen. Therefore, the level of education or progress up the career ladder is clearly no marker for immunity or protection from this heinous crime. Ultimately, the treatment of a woman with respect, responsibility and care is hinged upon establishing, nurturing and protecting a certain view within individuals and society towards them. This is of respect, responsibility and care. Any value or any mindset that compromises this view erodes away at the barrier of protection of women within marriage or society generally.
Within liberal societies, "personal freedom" rests upon the belief that an individual may act and view issues according to his own desires. His or her own whims become the measure of what is right and wrong. This is hardly an outlook that establishes, nurtures and protects a mindset of responsibility towards others. The idea that a man can view or treat a woman as he desires is hardly a mentality conducive towards the respect, good treatment and protection of women. These liberal values have also enabled newspapers, magazines and the advertising and entertainment industries to exploit the bodies of women in the name of freedom of expression to secure economic profit. Cheapening the view towards women in such a way by using her simply as a commodity to satisfy the desires of men, does nothing but degrades her status and respect within society. The overriding message is that it is acceptable for a man to view and use a woman as he likes.
Unfortunately, domestic violence, abuse and exploitation of women are also prevalent within the Muslim community in the West and the Muslim world. One main cause has been the adoption of non-Islamic Eastern cultural views toward the woman as being of less worth and subordinate to the man. These backward traditional views have contributed to a mentality of disrespect and disregard for the woman within some men in society. These views and the crime of domestic violence have been provided with fertile ground to grow in some Muslim countries. These non-Islamic regimes and systems have often turned a blind eye to injustices against women and have done nothing to overturn these backward views of women within their societies.
In contrast to the perception amongst some in Western and Muslim societies - a perception further sold to the world by the incompetent oppressive regimes in the Muslim world - Islam abhors domestic violence and considers it a crime punishable by the law. However, unlike liberal societies, Islam does not promote personal freedom and leave it to men’s desires to view and treat his wife or any woman as he likes. Nor does it endorse the view that women are inferior to men as exists within some Eastern cultures. Rather Islam strove to eradicate these backward traditions and views within society from the beginnings of the Islamic civilization.
Islam seeks to nurture a mentality of respect, care and protection of the woman based upon a mindset of accountability to the Creator rather than his own whims. The Prophet Muhammad (saws) said, “Fear Allah regarding the woman, they are an amana (trust) in your hands”. He(saw) said, "O people, your wives have a certain right over you and you have certain rights over them. Treat them well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers." [Tirmidhi]. He (saws) also said, "The believers who show the most perfect faith are those who have the best disposition and the best of you are those who are best to their wives " [Tirmidhi].
Islam has described beautifully the relationship of tranquility, love and mercy that should exist between a husband and wife. Allah (swt) says, "And among His signs is this, that He has created for you wives among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and He has put between both of you affection and mercy". [Surah Ar-Rum (30): Ayah 21]. The man and woman seek these values in marriage not only due to their love for one another but in hope of the beautiful rewards in the Hereafter. Allah (swt) also describes in the Noble Quran the nature of a husband - wife relationship - that they are "a garment for you and you are a garment for them" [Surah Al-Baqara (2): Ayah 187]. The image of garments for one another beautifully exemplifies the type of relationship Islam advocates in a couple - of covering and protecting one another from any type of harm. In addition Islam prohibits any action that exploits the beauty or body of women within society. Her intellect and skills are to be her only qualities to be used in employment and public life.
Although Islam has obliged the man and society to treat the woman with respect and dignity, it is the implementation of the Islamic laws within the Khilafah state that waters the soil of a Muslim society with the Islamic values and nurtures and promotes this view to its citizens and would prohibit any action that would compromise this. Therefore within the Khilafah state, not only would it seek to overturn the backward traditional views towards women as well as punishing severely those found guilty of violence against their spouses, it would also outlaw the exploitation of the woman’s beauty through provocative adverts, images, or TV shows and all other such avenues – as all these would cheapen the view of women in society.
It has been the absence of this state and hence the absence of the Islamic laws on a societal level that has allowed such poisonous ideas and injustices against women to grow within the communities of the Muslim world.
The Islamic Khilafah is not a utopia where acts of domestic violence will never exist for human beings are all subject to flaws and shortcomings. However the debate that is pressing for us today, is what type of value system and body of laws would minimise this crime and what type of values and system have the potential to exacerbate the problem. Until this debate is had, the bruised faces and battered bodies of women will become all the more common in the East and West.
[Article written by Dr Imran Waheed]
About this blog
In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.
This blog is dedicated:-
1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.
This blog is dedicated:-
1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.
30 Aug 2008
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What they said...
“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”
[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]
"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"
[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]
"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."
[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]
"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."
[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]
"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."
[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]
“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”
[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]
"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."
[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]
"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."
[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]
“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”
[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]
"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"
[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]
"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."
[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]
"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."
[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']
"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"
[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']
"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.
[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]
"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"
[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]
"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"
[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]
“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”
[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]
[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]
"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"
[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]
"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."
[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]
"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."
[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]
"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."
[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]
“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”
[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]
"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."
[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]
"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."
[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]
“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”
[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]
"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"
[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]
"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."
[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]
"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."
[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']
"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"
[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']
"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.
[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]
"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"
[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]
"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"
[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]
“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”
[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]
“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”
[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]
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