Boreal
Remembering Uzza
If Islam Was Explained to Me in a Pub
Rape Without Compassion Becomes the Norm
Gerry: What do rapes in India have to do with young men running after women
fleeing a battlefield more than a thousand years ago?
Uzza: I do not want to condone the actions of rapists or those who seek intimacy through the capture of the object of their affection.
Archie: That is one way of putting it.
Uzza: It all has to do with the scarcity of females. In India, the scarcity is real and is the result of the deliberate killing of females in their millions when technology to detect the sex of a fetus became widespread. In the time of Muhammad, scarcity was apparent, not real. It was caused by the hoarding of females by rich and powerful men, usually older men, thereby depriving a significant number of young men of female companionship. Muhammad took advantage of this imbalance by telling the so-deprived that the females of the unbelievers they killed were theirs for the taking as a reward from God[157].
Bob: Did the believers rape their captives?
Uzza: Some married them, which you might consider rape if the vows were coerced. Virgins intended for sale were usually not violated for it reduced their market value. That left married women and widows for whom rapists, before Islam, showed some compassion.
Archie: And the Prophet was okay with this?
Uzza: Muhammad did not so much create a new religion but a synthesis of pagan practices and Jewish traditions and beliefs.
Gerry: What does this have to do with this "compassion" shown to raped widows and wives?
Uzza: Pre-Islamic Arabs tried to avoid impregnating unmarried women or another man's wife by practicing coitus-interruptus and not leaving a lasting impression, which would make it difficult for the women, if and when they were released or sold, to get on with their lives. Muhammad put an end to that. Muhammad's admonition against coitus interruptus[158] and, by extension, contraception is another reason why family planning in Muslim majority countries is non-existent or ineffective[159].
Bob: What about condoms?
Uzza: Most schools of Islamic Law allow condoms within a marriage as a temporary measure only; the same for the birth control pill for a woman if she has her husband’s consent. All are against men having a vasectomy or women a tubal ligation, for this would be interfering with Allah's right to schedule a pregnancy at some point in the future.
Archie: Like I said before, that is nuts.
Uzza: How is it more stupid than the Catholic Church's stand against contraceptives when the human race is drowning in its own excrement?
Archie: Good point!
Gerry: The Prophet was a man of his time who assumed much when it came to the Will of His Benefactor. But, surely Allah did not sanction the rape of the unmarried or another man’s wife, let alone rape without compassion?
Uzza: I do not know about rape without compassion, which may be, as you said, Muhammad assuming too much, but Allah not only approved of, but encouraged the rape of married women in front of their captive husbands[160], if he too survived his encounter with the believers, something even the early converts to His Cause had been reluctant to do.
Bob: Why would he do this?
Uzza: Perhaps for the emotional pain it would inflict on those who denied His mercy and compassion or that He even exists.
Gerry: Religion, too often, brings out the worst in us because we think we are doing God's Will.
Archie: When it’s that other guy's will.
Uzza: I believe people are born good. All the death and destruction that seem to follow Islam everywhere is not normal.
Gerry: Could it be because Islam teaches a different definition of what is right and what is wrong that children grow to do such horrible things to others and themselves, thinking it is the right thing to do? Doing what they think God expects of them when it’s not God at all.
Archie: You got that right!
Uzza: It is not the Devil, it is not Muhammad, it is us. Nothing compels us to be so cruel to each other. Maybe global warming will bring an end to our existence and that will be a good thing.
Gerry: Uzza, don't get all gloomy on us.
Uzza: Violence, including rape, is what happens in war. The pre-Islamic Arabs tried to avoid war at all cost because of the violence and the resulting deaths. Then Islam came along and elevated violence into a virtue and death into something you yearn for. Maybe Islam is right and wrong reversed?
Archie: Thank you!
Uzza: All you have to do is say the magic words: “I declare there is no god except God, and I declare that Muhammad is the Messenger of God,” and what had been both illegal and immoral becomes not only lawful, but the right thing to do if you do it to someone who does not share your beliefs. With a few simple words, wrong becomes right! I never quite looked at it that way.
Gerry: Uzza, you're letting Archie get to you.
Uzza: And soon, they will be coming for your wives and daughters because you are evil and wrong for not believing in Him and the one he allegedly chose to speak on his behalf, and it will be the right thing to do.
Gerry: Don't say that.
Uzza: What else would you like me to say?
Footnotes
8:68 But for a prior ordinance of Allah, you would have been afflicted on account of what you have taken (an ordinance which made it lawful for Muslims to take spoils and captives) by a terrible punishment.
8:69 So eat of the lawful and good things you have taken as booty. Fear Allah; Allah is truly All-Forgiving, Merciful
[158] Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:
that while he was sitting with Allah's Apostle he said, "O Allah's Apostle! We get female captives as our share of booty, and we are interested in their prices, what is your opinion about coitus interruptus?"
The Prophet said, "Do you really do that? It is better for you not to do it. No soul that which Allah has destined to exist, but will surely come into existence."
Bukhari 34.432
[159] As reported by the BBC, Muhammad’s views on coitus interruptus and by extension contraception have encouraged "more conservative Islamic leaders [to] openly campaign against the use of condoms or other birth control methods, thus making population planning in many countries ineffective."
The Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) sent a military expedition to Awtas on the occasion of the battle of Hunain. They met their enemy and fought with them. They defeated them and took them captives.
Some of the Companions of the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) were reluctant to have intercourse with the female captives in the presence of their husbands who were unbelievers.
So Allah, the Exalted, sent down the Qur’anic verse: (4:24) "And all married women (are forbidden) unto you save those (captives) whom your right hands possess."
Abu Dawud 2.2150
4:24 Or married women except those your right hands possess (captives of war or slave-girls). This is Allah’s decree for you. Beyond these it is lawful for you to seek, by means of your wealth, any women, to marry and not to debauch. Those of them you have enjoyed, you should give them their dowry as a matter of obligation; but you are not liable to reproach for whatever you mutually agree upon, apart from the obligatory payment (the dowry). Allah is indeed All-Knowing, Wise.