I mentioned some outdated beliefs that go hand-in-hand with outdated religious beliefs. Instead of throwing the question back at me, why don't you respond? Or do you believe in sea monsters, too? |
This was a way to show off their manliness, right? Well, some women have beards, too, you know. . . |
No, they're imitating Mohammed. Which some women can indeed do.... |
+1 to everything, especially the part that is bolded. |
It wasn't me. I am agnostic on Leila Ahmed and unaware of the rigor of her theological pedigree. I know her primarily as a historian who wrote about women's rights and position in pre-Islamic Arabia, and her views on the subject are far apart from the tired myth of "jahilia was hell for women." I am merely pointing out that you can't really evaluate the rigor of someone's Islamic scholarship credentials based on whether you personally approve of what you have to say. There are literally hundreds of scholars who believe, based on their studies, that covering is necessary, and it's illogical to discard their scholarship wholesale because you happen to disagree with its conclusions. Furthermore, if everyone who majors in Islamic studies comes from the bottom of the genetic barrel, then this charge would apply equally to Leila Ahmed. Just saying. I don't know you but I am sensing that you aren't really well versed in Islamic scholarship enough to be able to sort out whose daleel (chain of evidence) is right and whose is bogus. You are evaluating scholars based on your personal views about conclusions to which they come, and that's wrong. Finally, there are like dozens of Western-educated Islamic theologians who all support veiling. |
I've already responded enough for smart people to understand, but can dumb it down if you like. I believe in people's right to live as they like. I don't believe in the powers of arrogant DCUM posters to "move forward" the entire religious community to which they are wholly unrelated. I especially don't believe in your ability to subvert religious scholarship because you believe you know better based on nothing but NOT being a religious scholar - as if ignorance qualifies you for anything. |
NP. Sure, there are many many Islamic scholars who support covering. Does that invalidate the ones that don't? Do you count the numbers, and if more are on one side of an issue than the other, then follow the majority? Islam seems to be full of scholars, who support all sorts of contradictory opinions. I don't automatically assume they are all wrong, or worthless scholars. |
DCUM debates all sorts of subjects with varying degrees of rigor and seriousness. You seem to be saying that Islam should be sacrosanct, that we (DCUM generally) will besmirch Islam by discussing it. Is Islam that flimsy, that anonymous internet people cannot discuss it? Why can we not question head coverings, from a feminist, political, or religious perspective? |
Leila Ahmed was born in Egypt and reared there, but her family emigrated to Europe when life became difficult under Nasser. She received her PhD from Cambridge. So her scholarship is in the Western tradition. Dalil means proof and is used in Islamic law. Are you sure you did not mean isnad, or chain of narrartors of a hadith? I ask because what is being contested here is what is in the Quran and not what it is in the hadith. Hadith are not needed to discern meaning in the Quran, which itsel says its meaning is clear, so whether you are speaking of dalil or isnad it is irrelevant. |
I remember reading one interpretation of the beard as a representation of manliness. http://www.al-islam.org/articles/islamic-perspective-of-the-beard
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Historians are historians are historians. A religious scholar is an historian with an angle. In order to understand the Quran or the Bible or the Vinaya, scholars study the text and the history around those words. But when you're devout, your interpretation takes a "different" route, as your goal is to "protect the word." That is all. But b/c I'm apparently dumb and can't "understand" that a religious scholar's interpretation is the end all, I can't comment on some misogynistic practice called veiling. Again, PP, I ask you, Why didn't you respond to what I wrote? Do you think the world is flat? that the Earth is the center of it all? that a sea monster sank the ship by the Bermuda Triangle? all outdated beliefs - just like those preserved in ancient texts like the Quran by brainwashed "scholars" |
Whoa! Did someone say the beard was beautiful adornment? How can this be consistent with the requirement for modesty? Why aren't men with beards required to cover them? |
Good catch! Male beards, like female hijabs, is another element of the neo-Islamism that makes up requirements it says one must follow lest one be damned. And none of these beard wearing people today had fathers or grandfathers with beards, as you can tell from pictures in the Middle East from those years. Mustaches, on the other hand, were pretty much ubiquitous--nothing religious about it, just a cultural thing. |
I wasn't aware that you have single-handedly decided that hadith has to be excluded from the body of Islamic law foundations. I mean, you are free to think that hadith is irrelevant. You should know that this is a minority position in the Islamic theologian crowd. Most scholars look to strong hadith as examples of how Quranic verses were practiced. But do please feel free to tell Muslims the way they pray is wrong and irrelevant - because you know, the movements of Muslim prayer aren't really outlined in the Quran, but somehow the entire Muslim world knows how to pray. |
Very good point, PP. Made me chuckle too. Yes, Asra is like the Perez Hilton advocating for homosexual rights in Catholicism. |