[antimedia] antimedia: Like all human beings....

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Thu Aug 31 22:35:22 EDT 2006


Posted by antimedia:
Like all human beings....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1157078120.shtml


   ....Muslims aren't above [1]being hypocrites when it suits their
   purposes. Just like Christians who can make excuses for sinful
   behavior, Muslims will do the same thing.

     For over a decade, the phenomenon of marriage without commitment,
     called misyar marriage, has been spreading throughout the Sunni
     Muslim world, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf
     countries. [1] In such marriages, the woman relinquishes some of
     the rights that Islam grants her, such as the right to a home and
     to financial support from her husband, and, if he has other wives,
     the right to an equal part of his time and attention. In most
     cases, these marriages are secret, without the knowledge of the
     man's other wives - even though a marriage contract is drawn up in
     the presence of witnesses, and although consent is commonly
     obtained from the woman's guardian, and the marriage is registered
     and documented at the courthouse. Demand is high for misyar
     marriages on online matchmaking sites, as well as through services
     using text messages and email. [2]
     Due to the substantial increase in the number of misyar marriages
     in recent years, and in light of the arguments over this issue
     among clerics as well as among the public, the Institute of Islamic
     Religious Law, which is a part of the Muslim World League in Mecca,
     decided to address the matter.
     In a fatwa issued on April 10, 2006, the institute permitted
     marriages in which "the woman relinquishes a home, financial
     support, and her part [in joint life] with her husband, or part of
     it, and consents to the man's coming to her home whenever he wants,
     day or night."
     The fatwa also permitted marriages known as "friend" marriages, in
     which "the girl remains at her family's home and she and the man
     meet any time they want, either at her home or anywhere else, as
     they have no [joint] home and livelihood." [3] Such marriages are
     aimed primarily at meeting the needs of young Muslims in the West,
     who are influenced by male-female relations around them but who
     want their relationships to have religious legitimacy.
     Advocates of misyar marriage argue that such marriages meet the
     needs primarily of women who have little chance of finding a
     husband for ordinary marriage. These include widows, divorcees, and
     especially single women who are beyond marriageable age [ awanis].
     [4] Those opposed to misyar marriage - including the vast majority
     of women - claim that it exploits the difficult social situation of
     unmarried women in Arab society, and is designed primarily to sate
     men's lust, with no concern whatsoever for women's needs and the
     needs of children born of these marriages.

   Muslims claim they honor women, yet they subjugate them like slaves
   and deny them basic human rights, hypocritically claiming they are
   "protecting" them.
   In this case, the religious leaders find "legitimate" reasons to
   approve of a process that is obviously illegitimate and, under normal
   circumstances, would result in the detestable "honor killing".
   Catholics have anullments, and Protestants have divorce. Adultery is
   winked at and excused because "we grew apart" and "we have needs" and
   other vacuous reasonings to excuse behavior that is obviously sinful
   according to the standard texts of each religion. Muslims obviously do
   the same thing.

References

   1. http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA29106



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