Reply to The subtle micro aggressions of islamophobia

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
So why was the purity statement in the oath for these specific women coming to the Prophet from Mecca? Because these women sometimes were traveling with their children, some of them were illegitimate. Moreover, a woman who was without a guardian, and especially one who was engaging in fornication and adultery in those days was engaging in behavior that was quite unsafe for her. The Prophet had to let these women know that such behavior, fornication and adultery, which were common in pagan communities, would not be permitted in Islam. This is also why every effort was made to marry these women off to Muslim husbands as quickly as possible. It was safer for them to be under the guardianship of a Muslim husband if they now had no guardian. Why wasn't this purity aspect mentioned to the men? Because men did not travel to see the Prophet with their children (illegitimate or not) and paternity was impossible to establish if fornication and adultery were so commonplace in pagan communities. Besides, fornication and adultery, while still prohibited and punishable in islam for men also, was much more dangerous and risky behavior for a woman when she engaged in it.

I don't know why this is so difficult to accept and understand. [/quote]
You don't know that these women traveled to see the prophet with their children, and men didn't. You made that up, just like a very specific number of children you said they had with them. That, too, you made up.

The oath was forward-looking.  The women were asked not to fornicate/lie/steal/kill going forward. There was no reason men could not have been asked to abstain from the same going forward.   Adultery and fornication were commonplace for men as well (although it's a Muslim theory, not a universal one, that pre-Islamic Arabia was a hedonistic heaven) so under that theory,  there was no reason to assume that men did not engage in these behaviors, and therefore no reason not to ask them to abstain from them going forward.

Why didn't the prophet have to let men know that fornication and adultery would not be permitted in Islam?  It's forbidden for both men and women so why did women have to be reminded and not men? Is this the point where you make up your story about 2-4 children in tow AGAIN?

I should also note that marriage is not the only alternative to fornication and adultery.

Note also a one-time deal to pay off the dowries non-Muslim husbands must have paid to these women.  For the newly Muslim women, the prophet said reimburse their husbands and go ahead and marry them.  This is a very generous offer considering that if a Muslim woman initiates a divorce from her Muslim (not pagan) husband, she is commonly obligated to repay him the dowry herself - without husband #next chipping in. A good deal, collecting two dowries, if you ask me. 
[/quote][/quote]

You should read Andrew Marshams, "Islamic Monarchy,  Ascension and Succession in the First Muslim Empire." The entire book is about rituals and oaths in Islam. In this book he evaluates the kinds of oaths the Prophet used. [b]He clearly states that the oath administered to the women (mentioned in sura 60:12) is for conversion and allegiance and nothing else. [/b]

This was also validated in an article published in the Oxford Islamic Studies Online, "Women and Islam" by John L. Esposito. Esposito earned a PhD studying Islam and held postdoctoral appointments at Harvard and Oxford. He should be to your liking, since he is not a Muslim, but perhaps you will argue that since he now works at Georgetown and his center received an endowment from Saudi Arabia, he is not to be trusted either. Hmmm? <http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e2510>.

"In Islam, men and women are moral equals in God's sight and are expected to fulfill the same duties of worship, prayer, faith, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca. Islam generally improved the status of women compared to earlier Arab cultures, prohibiting female infanticide and recognizing women's full personhood. Islamic law emphasizes the contractual nature of marriage, requiring that a dowry be paid to the woman rather than to her family, and guaranteeing women's rights of inheritance and to own and manage property. Women were also granted the right to live in the matrimonial home and receive financial maintainance during marriage and a waiting period following death and divorce...The historical record shows that Muhammad consulted women and weighed their opinions seriously. At least one woman, Umm Waraqah , was appointed imam over her household by Muhammad. Women contributed significantly to the canonization of the Quran. A woman is known to have corrected the authoritative ruling of Caliph Umar on dowry. Women prayed in mosques unsegregated from men, were involved in hadith transmission, gave sanctuary to men, engaged in commercial transactions, were encouraged to seek knowledge, and were both instructors and pupils in the early Islamic period. Muhammad's last wife, Aishah , was a well-known authority in medicine, history, and rhetoric. The Quran refers to women who pledged an oath of allegiance to Muhammad independently of their male kin. Some distinguished women converted to Islam prior to their husbands, a demonstration of Islam's recognition of their capacity for independent action. Caliph Umar appointed women to serve as officials in the market of Medina. Biographies of distinguished women, especially in Muhammad's household, show that women behaved relatively autonomously in early Islam. In Sufi circles, women were recognized as teachers, adherents, “spiritual mothers,” and even inheritors of the spiritual secrets of their fathers."

I'm sorry, but you do not have a good understanding of Islamic history or pre-islamic history. Your hatred seems to prevent you from reading any source authored by Muslims or Arabs. But why haven't you read what the majority of nonArab and nonMuslim scholars write then? I can only guess that your arrogance will prevent it if they contradict you. I'm quoting or referring to nonMuslim scholars here.  It is proof that you persistently publish erroneous, misleading information about Islam to downplay the fact that Islam did elevate the status of women. [/quote]

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