War on Muslim Women, a Great Conference by Abdullah Hakim Quick
By Milena Rampoldi, ProMosaik e.V.
A timely – and still valid – conference was held in Australia in 2008 by Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, a Canadian Muslim convert and scholar of African origin. The conference was titled, “War on Muslim Women” and talks about the internal discrimination of women in Muslim community, which has nothing to do with Islam, which liberated women. So we have to change ourselves… as Muslims, this is Quick’s message to the Muslim community as a whole. The concept in Islam is co-operation and not hierarchy in ‘Tyson’s way’. The concept is separation between women and men, but never oppression, and never gender-apartheid.
According to what Dr. Quick says in the introduction to his conference, we have to deal with ourselves, because the war on Muslim women is also an internal one, and not just a Western war against Muslim women. Women are oppressed by Muslim men, and this is contrary to Islam. Even if the books and the press in the West have focussed so much on Muslim women as the enemy number one, and the target number one of discrimination at all levels, in his opinion Muslims have to deal with themselves and fight misogyny in their own communities and in the Ummah.
And this is a thesis based on the following Quran verse saying:
“Allah will not change the conditions of the people until they change in themselves.” (Quran 13:11)
So the general conclusion made by Dr. Quick is that we have to change ourselves, since Allah is aware of all what we do. Muslims have forgotten themselves after their victory because instead of being responsible people, they forgot their responsibility. And so their victory became a bitter one.
We do not promote women, and this is the main mistake of Muslim communities today.
We do not educate girls, and this is contrary to Islam. In Muslim history, women empowered generations. How can we disempower women today in the name of Islam? According to Islam, women are the blood relations of the man (in Arabic: shaqiqa). So Quick asks Muslims: how can you oppress a woman in the name of Islam?
The oppressed person is protected by Allah. In Islam, it says that if an oppressed woman raises her head to Allah, there will not be a veil between her and Allah.
Oppressing women is jahiliyya, ignorance. Islam meansw liberation of women. Islam gave rights to women at all levels. So how can the idea dominate in Muslim society that the more I oppress my wife, the better Muslim I am.
How can you enter Islam and put women down? This is not Islam. Since Islam is the liberation from slavery for all human beings. In Islam there is no obedience to the creation, when the creation does not obey Allah.
Allah talks about separation between women and men, but never about a second-class treatment. This is apartheid. This is not the separation under terms of equality in Islam. Another problem we have in the Muslim community, says Quick, is that we always speak about women’s obligations instead of of women’s rights.
The basis of all community and society, is female education. Educating women means educating the whole community and society. If Allah gave rights to women, how can we take them away from them?
After all this criticism which makes us think about ourselves as Muslims, Quick makes proposals about how to solve this situation, this internal war against women.
(1) We all need to increase our taqwa, especially Muslim men. In fact, in the countries where men oppress women, they are not able to agree on anything, and fight one against another.
(2) We have to focus more on character than on ibada. We have to learn how to deal with our community, from Muslim to Muslim.
(3) We have to understand the concept of manhood and womanhood in Islam, and rethink the real concept of leadership in Islam. In Islam, leadership has nothing to do with hierarchy as oppressive power, but with complementary cooperation. The Muslim man and woman complement one another. Family is not oppression, but cooperation. Quick compares the Muslim family to a football team.
We need social services to look behind the veil. There are a lot of problems of abuse behind the veil. Muslim men need to radically change the way they are. We need community development and women’s empowerment in Muslim society today. Quick concludes by reminding that the oppressor has to fear the oppressed, because between the oppressed and Allah there is no veil.
– See more at: http://www.promosaik.blogspot.de/2015/10/war-on-muslim-women-great-conference-by.html#sthash.5LIT23Ix.dpuf
