TORONTO — Violence against women has no place in a religion that proclaims equal rights for males and females, Canada’s Muslim leaders say.
Ongoing publicity surrounding an Ontario murder trial featuring prominent discussions of honour killings motivated imams throughout the country to tackle the topic of domestic violence in their Friday prayer sessions.
Their sermons reinforced one of the key messages of the Qur’an and reminds Muslims that respect for women is a fundamental part of their faith, they said.
Imam Syed Soharwardy planned to deliver the speech twice in his Calgary mosque. Members of his congregation were to hear a message of gender equality that originated with no less an authority than Islam’s founding father, he said.
“Domestic violence is very un-Islamic. It’s a crime in the eyes of the law, it’s a crime in the Islamic teaching,” Soharwardy said in a telephone interview. “Prophet Mohammed has clearly said in very unambiguous words that women has rights on men and men have an obligation to treat their wife and daughters . . .with kindness and courtesy.”
Soharwardy said members of the Islamic Supreme Council and other Muslim organizations across Canada felt the need to speak out against the image of repressive violence emerging from a courtroom in Kingston, Ont. There, Mohammad Shafia, his son Hamed and his wife Tooba Yahya are facing four counts each of first degree murder in the deaths of four female family members.
The bodies of three teenage Shafia daughters, as well as Mohammad Shafia’s first wife in a polygamous marriage, were found floating in a car that had been submerged in an eastern Ontario canal in 2009.More at CTV
Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance
CAIRO: An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any “sexual thoughts.”
The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Sawsana news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.
He said that these fruits and vegetables “resemble the male penis” and hence could arouse women or “make them think of sex.” Bikyamasr.com cannot independently verify the accuracy of the news item at time of writing.
He also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.
The sheikh was asked how to “control” women when they are out shopping for groceries and if holding these items at the market would be bad for them. The cleric answered saying this matter is between them and God.
Answering another question about what to do if women in the family like these foods, the sheikh advised the interviewer to take the food and cut it for them in a hidden place so they cannot see it.
The opinion has stirred a storm of irony and denouncement among Muslims online, with hundreds of comments mocking the cleric.
One reader said that these religious “leaders” give Islam “a bad name” and another commented said that he is a “retarded” person and he must quite his post immediately.
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