Comments on: What is and isn’t Islam?

By: Kiwi

Kiwi — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:35:24 +0000

Apologies Houriya – I was referring to para. 11 which mentioned the harsh treatment of women by the Taliban and whilst many of these are regional tribal customs, some (acid throwing, honour killings) are criminal.
The last sentence of the paragraph reads ‘Other examples are female circumcision, most widely spread in Africa, and honour killings’.

But circumcision is legal under Islamic law therefore it is neither criminal or cultural – it is legal and mandatory for muslim women of the proscribed schools. Van Dam, by tacking this sentence at the end of a paragraph discussing tribal cultures and criminal offences obfuscates to make it seem that female circumcision is not part of Islam.

As I said before, it can be found in The Reliance of the Traveller -A Classic Manual of Islamic Law published in 1994 and accredited by Al-Azhar. Surely if van Dam were going to write about ‘ What is and isn’t Islam’ he should have checked Sharia lawbooks and presented female circumcision as it is written in Islamic law – not just as a sentence which is ambiguous and looks as if it has just been tacked onto the end of a paragraph as an afterthought and in an effort to make it seem as if it may be cultural or criminal.

He has treated ‘honour killings’ in the same way, trying to make it look as if this is a crime under Islamic law. Of course, under Islamic law there is no retribution against parents or the parents parents for killing their children/grandchildren.

Interesting article, yes, but more for its ambiguity than its truth, which he tries to gloss over for obvious reasons.

By: Houriya

Houriya — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:52:13 +0000

@ Inspector Gadget – Yes I agree with you. There is nothing wrong in adopting cultural aspects that are good.

@ Kiwi – what are you on about?

@ Ibn Khaldun – Didn’t ‘Sheikh’ Qaradawi say that one of the forms of FGM is permissible? (bearing in mind that ALL forms of female genital are mutilation, not circumcision)

By: Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:07:14 +0000

Is that true? Do scholars even discuss FGM?

By: Kiwi

Kiwi — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:39:44 +0000

Shame Dr. van Dam has not read the ‘Reliance of the Traveller’ where section e4.3 states that circumcision for females is obligatory although the Hanbali schools holds that it is not obligitory but sunna, and the Hanafi school condsider it a mere courtesy to the husband.

I can’t see that as being ‘cultural’!

By: Faisal

Faisal — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:09:00 +0000

Homosexuality is legal in Indonesia but as far as we know, "there are no gay people in Iran". Saudi Arabia punishes thieves by amputating their limbs but Pakistanis and Bangladeshis reward them by making them their political leaders.

By: Inspector Gadget

Inspector Gadget — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:12:38 +0000

All true.

But if we say that the bad things that are done in the name of Islam are cultural rather than ‘Islamic’ does that not also mean that the same should necessarily apply in reverse?

I.e. Should we also recognise that good things associated with Islam (i.e. hospitality in the Arab world) are not necessarily ‘Islamic’ but are rather cultural?