Apostasy in Islam - Hamza Kashgari

"Saudi women won't go to hell because it's impossible to go there twice"

Another day, another story about how idiotic Muslims/Islam are/is... Yes Muslims and Islam are attacked unfairly and uncategorically on a daily basis by the media but this story is a travesty that is rightly attributed. Well not to Islam as such but the absurdity of the Saudi regime.

Quick recap of 23-year-old Kashgari's ordeal: On the Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) birthday, Kashgari tweeted three things,

• On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you've always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.
• On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.
• On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.

Following this, there were 30,000 tweets regarding his tweets and a Facebook page set up calling for his execution, outweighing the numbers calling for his exoneration. He apologised and deleted his twitter. He attempted to claim political asylum in New Zealand, though stopped in Malaysia first, where he was promptly deported back to the Saudi authorities through Interpol. Apparently Saudi are to charge him with blasphemy, however many are worried or in fact excited that he will be actually charged with apostasy, having already being found 'guilty' of it by Saudi religious authorities.

Let's get something straight, yes, this country is the country in which the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are but by no means does this 'Kingdom of Saudi Arabia' represent Islam. This fact alone gives them undue regard from many Muslims around the world and more worryingly, from all Western powers. Saudi Arabia was created by Britain less than a century ago and still remains a western puppet that amongst other things, advocates bombing Iran. The royal douches practice and impose Wahaabiism, an extremely conservative form of Islam.

To surmise, allow me to quote Sir Colin Crowe, a British ambassador in 1963,
'dominated by a sect of Islam of a farouche and intolerant Puritanism, but ruled by a royal family whose extravagance and dissipation are only rivalled by its numbers. It has no modern code of laws and its criminal justice system is of mediaeval barbarity. There is not even a pretence of democratic institutions... corruption is widespread. The country sits on top of some of the richest oil resources in the world and enjoys a vast unearned income which has dissipated in pleasure, palaces and Cadillacs.'

Nothing much has changed then.

The Qur'an and Hadiths do not speak about blasphemy, it was one of those man-made things implemented into the Sharia after the Prophet (pbuh) had long gone. Any time there is a story that is Islam-related online you can expect an ignorant barrage of comments because every man and his dog has an opinion on Islam, but remember there is no requirement or recommendation for this 'crime' in Islam and the only authority; the Qur'an. There are countless stories about the Prophet being berated and having things literally thrown at him in the street and he never retaliated. Some Muslims say they revere him so much yet they are loathe to follow his actual actions and act like intolerant buffoons instead. There is even a video of a sheik weeping and unable to perform his sermon because he is so distraught at the talk of allowing Kashgari to live. Where's his tears for the Saudis (royals) who go off to Bahrain at the weekend to drink alcohol, or something much less trivial than drinking alcohol, you know things like children being maimed and killed in other Muslim countries. Nothing is said publicly about the atrocities perpetrated by certain regimes but God forbid a 23-year-old man makes barely offensive tweets!

Saudi Women Driving

There has been a lot of hubub about this issue, which I feel is disproportionate to the subject of equality and treatment of women around the world, e.g. female genital mutilation, mass rape, rape leading to women being legitimately punished... I have a lot of sympathy for Saudi women but the fact that they cannot drive is the least of their worries regarding gender equality so the publicity that this particular issues garners is actually patronising toward them.

Some clerics advising the legislative assembly in Saudi recently concluded that lifting the ban on women driving would lead to no more virgins, prostitution, homosexuality, pornography and divorce.

This adds fuel to the fire that this ruling has on the outside world's already Islamaphobic impression of the Middle East, it was a popular citation of 'pastor' Terry Jones, has been a source of protest of those idiot topless protesters (see previous blog) and is one of the biggest topics of the region in the West. It has become such a point of symbolism that I fear exactly because of it, the conservative authorities of Saudi will be even more resistant to lifting the ban.

Yet I somehow do not think that women driving would be a slippery slope, I think that they just may be a little more preoccupied with things like you know, being able to drive their own children to school, running errands, going to work and visiting their family and friends.

It is noble that one should want to physically protect the women in their family and society but not trusting them to resort to prostitution shows that it is not protection that they are concerned about, they actually literally believe that without legal bans women would want to whore it up. How homosexuality and pornography relates to women driving I do not know, can someone please explain this to me?? And God forbid women would want to divorce terrible husbands! Yet men there can divorce women without their presence or knowledge. Other ridiculous double standards include but are not limited to;

Women's testimony in court not being equal to that of a man; they almost always receive harsher legal punishments than men; gender dictating what ministries and restaurants they can enter; they can only do certain subjects at university; and at age 12 girls are forced to wear burkhas in public schools, the list literally goes on.

The argument for the other side of the argument is rarely cited so this is what I have gathered from the little sources I could find; Saudi is an extremely conservative country so the ruling befits this particular society just as liberalism and legalised prostitution befits other countries. Furthermore, they would not want their women to be treated as they are in the West i.e. sexually exploited and made to believe their entire self worth is from their looks. Finally, not all women want to be able to drive hence the relatively low numbers that attempt to defy the ban.

There is credence to both points of view but moreover, letting women drive as a token gesture, just as allowing them to vote was, will have no effect on the worse aspects of inequality.

See also http://raraproductions.blogspot.com/ and http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/