PrintDecember 18, 2006
Islam's Apartheid
The dictionary defines apartheid as: An official policy of racial segregation promulgated in the Republic of South Africa with a view to promoting and maintaining white ascendancy.
In 1973, the General Assembly of the United Nations opened for signature and ratification the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (ICSPCA). It defined the crime of apartheid as:
"Inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial [religious] group of persons over any other racial [religious] group of persons and systematically oppressing them."[Italics are mine].
The declaration prohibits,
"Acts such as murder, infringement on freedom or dignity, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, imposition of inhumane living conditions, forced labor, or enacting measures calculated to prevent a racial [religious] group from ‘participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country' such as denying them ‘basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.'"
Islamic member countries of the time, such as Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are signatories to the above declaration condemning the barbaric practices of apartheid. Yet, these same countries, as well as other Islamic nations, are the most blatant violators of the declaration.
Discriminatory Islamic teachings condone and even promote wanton practices in violation of the United Nations declaration. Islam is an ideology under which male believers maintain domination, systematically oppressing females.
Islam, by fiat, discriminates against women. Qur'an 4:11
"Allah directs you in regard of your Children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females.... These are settled portions ordained by Allah."
There are many many more "directives" that for all intents and purposes make women chattel of men. Here are some of the shameful rules and practices of Islamic misogyny.
Tabari IX:113 "Allah permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not severely. If they abstain, they have the right to food and clothing. Treat women well for they are like domestic animals and they possess nothing themselves. Allah has made the enjoyment of their bodies lawful in his Qur'an."Tabari I:280 "Allah said, ‘It is My obligation to make Eve bleed once every month as she made this tree bleed. I must also make Eve stupid, although I created her intelligent.' Because Allah afflicted Eve, all of the women of this world menstruate and are stupid."
In this case Allah is half right. Women do menstruate. But He is also wrong. Extensive studies by impartial psychologists provide unequivocal documentation of the fact that women are equal in intelligence to men.
But don't contradict Allah and his beloved unerring mouthpiece, Muhammad. Sadly enough, even many Muslim women prefer to be treated like "domestic animals" who "possess nothing themselves," and are "stupid."
Thus, life goes on for the Muslim women with all the trappings of the Islamic misogyny. Here are some rules that keep women in their Muhammad stipulated place.
* If a Muslim woman is murdered, her beneficiary is entitled to one-half dyyeh-blood money, or compensation-as that of a murdered Muslim male.* A woman's testimony in the court of law is worth one-half that of a man.* A woman must provide four witnesses to substantiate her claim of being raped.* A man can divorce his wife by simply saying to her, "I divorce you," three times.* A divorced woman is entitled to a miserly compensation and automatically forfeits her rights to her children.* Women are barred from the lucrative and powerful cast of clergy.* Husbands are entitled to punish their wives corporally.* Men are allowed to have four wives at any one time and as many concubines as they desire and can afford.* Saudi Arabia, the custodian of "true Islam" imposes a raft of restrictions on women such as: women are not allowed to drive; they are not permitted to leave the country without accompaniment or explicit permission of their male kin; they are barred from most government jobs and much much more.* Among other Muslims, such as the Taliban and the Pashtoon of Afghanistan-Pakistan region, women are barred from education and not even allowed to leave the house unless accompanied by a male kin.* Since education, particularly professional education is often denied to women in many Islamic societies. There is scarcity of women physicians and male doctors are often forbidden to treat women patients.
Such is the plight of women under Islam. There is hardly the need to provide an exhaustive list of Islamic misogyny to qualify it as a shameful, discriminatory and oppressive religious apartheid.
Will Muslim women ever break out of their bondage and claim their rightful place among emancipated non-Muslim women? It is the long sub-humanized Muslim women who must discard Islam and claim their equal human rights. Muslim men will resort to every means to maintain their privileged position and their cruel dominance over women, citing the Quran as justification. Any document that consigns one half of the human race to second class status is null and void.
Its constitutional sub-humanization of women aside, Islam has a raft of beliefs and practices that violate fundamental human rights of non-Muslims in general. A few cases should suffice to fully substantiate the contention that Islam is religious apartheid. And there is no need to draw cases from the repugnant "extremist" Islamic groups such as the Taliban to make the case. Even the most "mainstream" and "peaceful" Islam is guilty of systemic apartheid. Just a couple of examples should suffice for now.
* On December 16, 2006, Egypt's Highest Administrative Court decreed that in order to receive an Identity Card, only Islam, Judaism, or Christianity must be entered on the application. No one of any other religion or no religion at all is permitted to list his belief or even leave it blank. Without the identity card, just about all the rights of citizenship are denied to minorities such as Baha'is, Hindus, and Buddhists. People are forced to choose between falsely claiming an approved religion and depriving themselves of just about all rights of citizenship such as jobs, education and medical care.* In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic law denies dyyeh to any and all people who are not Muslims or members of the only other three recognized religions. Every one of the 500,000 members of the Baha'i Faith can be murdered without the family receiving justice or compensation. As a matter of fact, the Islamic government itself has executed Baha'is for the sole "crime" of being Baha'is and has demanded that the innocently murdered person's family reimburse it for the bullets they used to execute him.* The Islamic Republic of Iran's President's repeated threat to wipe out Israel from the map is ignored by some as an empty rhetoric of an unhinged fanatic. Yet, Ahmadinejad's threats are far from the baseless saber-rattling of a zealot. Ahamadinejad's government has recently ordered the comprehensive gathering of data regarding the Baha'is and all their activities. This order is deeply troubling, since it is almost a replica of what another fascist, Hitler, did before launching the genocide of six million Jews and some four million other "undesirables". Ahamadinejad is an Islamofascist whose aim is to have a practice run on the Iranian Baha'is before embarking on destroying the Jews and other "undesirables," following in the footsteps of the German führer.
Islamic societies, to one degree or another, shamelessly practice all the sanctioned injustices listed in the U.N. charter on apartheid (see paragraphs 2 and 3, above). Islam is religious apartheid. And apartheid, by universal agreement, is an inhuman, unjust and condemned practice.
Islam cruelly practices its oppressive dogma on minorities in its lands; it is in clear violation of the provisions of Universal Human Rights. Ominously, Islam is encroaching in the traditionally non-Islamic parts of the world and doing all it can to impose its horrid doctrine on others.
It is for this present and imminent danger that the free people of the world must rise and do all they can to preserve their birthright of liberty. Muslims in the non-Islamic lands may seem harmless, and many of them indeed are harmless. Yet, Islam compels its leaders to uphold and promote its tenets at any and all costs to anyone. It is for this reason that on the one hand the Islamic governments sign the U.N. Charter that condemns apartheid, and on the other hand, these governments violate every provision of it when they are in power.
Islamofascism, the enemy of liberty, is at the gate. It is the duty of every free human to defend freedom by defeating the enemy.
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. He maintains a website, AmilImani.com.
