Reply to Be Wary of Racism and Islamophobes

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[quote=Anonymous]Wow!  Been a couple of days since I checked into this thread an see pages and pages have been added, almost all about the oath some women made at the gate of Medina.

I think it's fair to say this may be the only general listserv that hosts such heated debate over such obscure historical events.

About Jahaliyya--I've never heard it referred to as the days of darkness, but rather as the days of ignorance, and specifically ignorance about the monotheistic God.  In other words, the days of paganism.

I don't believe there is any evidence people of the jahiliyya were any more cruel or barbaric then those who followed them.  Yes, there was infanticide, but most people on the Arabian peninsula lived hard scrabble lives that became even more difficult in a time of drought.  Infanticide would have been an economic response as it was in China and many other places.  Moreover, the practice of infanticide, which was not limited to female children, appears to have been the practice of one tribe in Arabia, and even then only in times of famine.

Women in the jahiliyya clearly could live pretty emancipated lives as Khadija did.  However, women who were captured or sold into marriage did have a pretty miserable lot.  Under Islamic rules, they would have been entitled to more rights.

As one PP has said there is a bit of marketing around the term; and it is pretty common to paint a very dark picture of the jahaliyya that was relieved by the Quranic revelations to Mohammed.  History is written by the winners.

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