The Devil, the old Christian saying goes, can quote scripture for his purpose. When it comes to Islam, it seems that the Devil can claim that Islamic scripture suits his purpose – without even quoting that scripture at all.
And, as we know, Islamic scripture allows its followers to lie for its purposes.
The latest example of Islamic dissembling is a Crikey piece that asserts the author is an expert on the Koran, and that the Taliban’s treatment of women “contradicts Islamic teachings”.
During my youth, I was an extremely devout Shia Muslim, regularly attending prayers at mosques and diligently reciting the holy book, the Qur’an, as a qari (a person who recites the Qur’an with the proper rules of recitation). I even committed important sections of the Qur’an to memory and studied their meanings line by line. I never encountered teachings or policies that would justify the complete suppression of Muslim women’s rights. In fact, the Qur’an explicitly states that men and women are equal in the eyes of God.
Does it? Where? If the author is such a Koranic expert, surely she should be able to, as she boasts, recite such a statement at will. Yet, she doesn’t.
Is it because no such verse exists? The closest most Islamic sources cite is Sura 4:124: Those who do good, whether male or female, and have faith will enter Paradise and will never be wronged. This doesn’t explicitly say that men and women are equal at all, only that both are enjoined to “do good”.
Elsewhere, meanwhile, the Koran is quite explicit that, Men are appointed guardians over women. (Sura 4:35)
More importantly, the author is repeating a common deception regarding Islam: the “that isn’t in the Koran” gambit. Because what such a devout Muslim must know, is that the Koran is not the sum of Islamic scripture. It’s like arguing that if something isn’t in the Old Testament, it’s not in Christian scripture.
This lie is the more obvious because Christians are used to their scripture being compiled into one book: the Bible. But Islamic scripture spans multiple books: the Koran, the Hadith (sayings and doings of the Prophet) and the Sira (biographies of the Prophet). Many fundamental Islamic religious precepts, including the Five Pillars of the Faith, are not in the Koran at all.
So, arguing that just because it’s not in the Koran means that it’s not Islamic, is an obvious lie.
The teachings of Sunni Islam never questioned women’s rightful place in society.
That may be – but it avoids addressing what “women’s rightful place in society” actually is. Also, as the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research reminds us: “fairness is not necessarily sameness”. Thus, what is considered “fair” under Islamic law won’t necessarily be what non-Muslims consider “equality”. Necessarily, “some practical rulings will differ between men and women to ensure better outcomes for both”.
What the Taliban consider “better outcomes” is naturally not going to be the same as what a Western feminist would consider.
Sunni Muslims vehemently oppose the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan, arguing the group’s interpretation of sharia law does not align with any schools of thought.
That’s easy to say: citing proof is required, but never given in this article.
Instead, we’re just fed more blatant untruths.
In both Afghanistan’s constitution and Islamic laws, there were no explicit prohibitions on women’s daily lives or social activities.
Crikey
Afghanistan’s constitution was formally abolished by the Taliban in 2022, so what it said or didn’t say is irrelevant. As for Islamic law: which school, for a start? Islamic law is not a single body of jurisprudence, but at least five prominent schools, which hold sway in different parts of the Islamic law.
And all of them contain explicit prohibitions on how women’s daily lives and social activities. Whether it be rules on hijab, female circumcision, inheritance and so on.
And so it goes on. The author repeatedly asserts that the Taliban’s treatment of women is contrary to the Koran and to Islamic law, yet never once cites a single sura, sunnah or fiqh.
It may be that the word we’re looking for, here, is taqiyya.
