Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims

Moderate Islamic Beheading: Honor-Killing in Buffalo

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim who is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on Islam including, Women in Islam. He was a contributor to the book Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out as well as to Beyond Jihad: Critical Views From Inside Islam. His latest contribution is in Why We Left Islam published by WND Books.


FP: Abul Kasem, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

I’d like to talk to you today about the “moderate” Muslim who beheaded his wife in Buffalo.

The liberal/Left, of course, isn’t too interested in this particular story and, as always, it's going out of its way to de-Islamize it.

But let me ask this, before the mainstream media succeeds in pushing the victim, Aasiya Z. Hassan, into historical invisibility – as it has done to so many victims of Islamic jihad and Islamic gender apartheid: When Muzzammil Hassan chopped his wife’s head off, was he doing something that he had learned to do from Islam?

Kasem: To my mind, this horrible slaughter is a case of honor killing. The killer, Muzammil Hassan, is certainly well-versed in Islamic theology and jurisprudence. He is the CEO of Bridges, the Islamic Television Station which he started to propagate the “true” image of Islam to the Western World. It is hard to believe that such an impeccably qualified person would not have been aware of what he was doing. Most likely, Muzammil Hasan had planned this all very well, and he did it according to Islamic fashion, i.e. slaughtering by beheading.


FP: Can you tell us about the legitimacy that Muslims find for honor killing in their religious theology?

Kasem: Well, you don’t need to go further than the Qur’an, which is the basis of honor killing in Islam. Let us read 4:15:

YUSUFALI: If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, Take the evidence of four (Reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way.

This verse clearly tells that a disgraced woman is condemned to a solitary confinement till death. The alternative is the judgement of Allah. The Qur’an is not clear what that judgement of Allah could be. There are various interpretations on this. Therefore, it is a fish market: anyone (man) may do to his woman whatever he wishes, including ending her life.


FP: So what is your reading of what happened in this case of beheading in Buffalo?

Kasem: According to Islam, if a woman disobeys her husband she is disgraced. Therefore, when Aasiya Zubair, the wife of Hassan, resorted to the Western justice system to seek protection from her menacing husband, she had certainly broken the Islamic tenet of complete surrender to the wishes of her husband. Thus, she had dishonoured her husband, his reputation and, most importantly, the Islamic code of conduct for an obedient wife. Therefore, it is not surprising that the killer had to end her life Islamically, to restore his pride, honor and religious conviction.

Let us read verse 4:34:

YUSUFALI: Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all).

Please note that in verse 4:34 Allah permits a husband to punish his disobedient wife. It is worthy to observe that this verse says if the husband suspects or fears disobedience and rebellion; that the actual acts might not have taken place. This verse also says that the men are the protectors of women. Thus, Islamically, Aasiya was foolish enough to seek the protection of Canadian law. It was a clear violation of Qur’anic injunction of verse 4:34, a challenge to Islam. And, as per the Islamic law, if anyone violates the Qur’anic command the only punishment is death by beheading. Thus, we may conclude that Hassan has acted in the manner that Qur’an commands him.


FP: So in Islam, a woman is nothing more than her husband’s property.

Kasem: Absolutely. There are a number of ahadith that say that a Muslim woman’s status to her husband is no more than a slave.

Here are a few examples:

A woman is a sexual property, the righteous woman is the best property…(Ibn Majah, 3.1855):

‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr (Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said that Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Verily, the world is a property and nothing of the property of the world is better than a righteous woman.

A husband is the owner of his wives’ chastity… (Ibn Majah, 3.2388):

‘Amr b. Shu’aib (Allah be pleased with him) reported his father to have said on his grandfather’s authority that Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said in a sermon he delivered, “It is not lawful for a woman (to make a donation) from her property but with the consent of her husband when he becomes the owner of her chastity (i.e. when he marries her).

Since in Islam, a woman is the property of her husband, it is imperative that the husband reserves the full right to dispose off his property in any manner he wishes.

That a woman is a servant (a sexual slave) to her husband is stipulated in Hedaya, the Hanafi Law Manual, the legal code for the Muslims of Hanafi sect. This is what is written in this Sharia Book:

Woman is a servant and the husband is the person served (Hedaya, p.47):

Case of marriage on a condition of service from the husband.— ……………it is not lawful that a woman should be in a situation to exact the service of her husband who is a freeman, as this would amount to a reversal of their appointed stations, for one of the requisites of marriage is, that the woman be as a servant, and the man as the person served; but if the service of a husband to wife were to constitute her dower, it would follow that the husband is the servant and the wife as the served: and this being a violation of the requisites of marriage, is therefore illegal; but it is otherwise with the service stipulated to be performed by another free person, with that person’s consent, as this offers no violence to the requisites of the contract; and so also in the case of service of a slave, because the service performed by a slave to his wife is, in fact, performed to his master, by whose consent it is that he undertakes it; and the same with the case of tending flocks, because this is a service of a permanent nature, and admitted to be performed for wives, and therefore, does not violate the requisites of marriage; for the service of the husband to his wife, as a dower, is prohibited only as it may be degrading to the former; but the tending of flocks is not a degrading office.


FP:
What is our conclusion in terms of what the evidence points to?

Kasem: Though this murder is chilly, ghoulish, barbaric, and senseless, I would say that Hassan has acted in conformity with Islamic tenets. His wife was no more than a chattel to him. He simply got rid of this obnoxious object of his life. If he committed this honor killing in an Islamic country such as Iran, Jordan, Iraq…he would get very light sentence, perhaps a jail term for a few years.


Reference:

The Holy Qur’an. The internet version of three English translations can be read here.

Imam Abu Abdullah Muhammad b. Yazid ibn-i-Maza Al-Qazwani (with Arabic Text), Sunaan Ibn-i-Majah, Vol. III. Translated in English by Muhammad Tufail Ansari. Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi, 2003

Hamilton, Charles. Hedaya. Translated in English in 1870 from the Persian version,  Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi, 1994.


Abul Kasem is an Bengali ex-Muslim and academic. He has contributed in Leaving Islam - Apostates Speak Out and Beyond Jihad - Critical Voices from Inside and Why We Left Islam.. He has also written extensively on Islam in various websites and is the author of five e-Books: A Complete Guide to Allah, Root of Terrorism ala Islamic Style, Sex and Sexuality in Islam, Who Authored the Quran? and Women in Islam. Mr. Kasem leaves in Sydney, Australia. He can be contacted at abul88@hotmail.com.


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Name: jenn
Date: Friday February 20, 2009
Time: 05:22:15 -0500

Comment

Muslim men do exactly what their evil prophet told them to do. To kill , rape and loot


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Friday February 20, 2009
Time: 17:12:47 -0500

Comment

If Muzzammil Hassan had beheaded his pretty wife Aasiya in my southern state, he would get the death penalty. And if Muzzammil says that he murdered his wife because it is allowed in his religion, then, he immediately condemns himself. The case would end there, and then he would be condemned to death by lethal injection.


Name: LUNATIC JIHAIDS WANT TO DEFEND JIHAD...HOW PIGGY AND LUNATIC CAN U GET ?
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 00:58:43 -0500

Comment

Do not post in all-capital letters please!


Name: Sahih Muslim
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 01:13:50 -0500

Comment

This guy Kasem is a stupid who wrote horrible stuff abt Hindu religion and was rebutted successfully by a Hindu few days ago. I am sure it must have humiliated him a lot. If I were in his place, I would put my head in shame for the rest of my life. I saw Hindus quoting paragraphs from that rebuttal. I realized that Kasem purposely mistranslated Hindu verses to please his masters. He is doing the same with Quran and hadees. Be careful about this guy.


Name: Moderate Muslims
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 03:29:57 -0500

Comment

Now we know what to expect from moderate muslims. But what will we have to expect from less moderate muslims?


Name: Shakespeare for Muslims
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 06:00:14 -0500

Comment

To behead or not to behead!


Name:
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 07:46:19 -0500

Comment

This idiot Abul Kasem is a Zionist-Christian agent who never wrote anything against Judaism and Christianity. Or maybe he is an Evangelist Christian?


Name: To H-fanatic above
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 08:25:29 -0500

Comment

You are living in Dark Ages. Woe unto you!


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 14:39:39 -0500

Comment

Since I entered the fray fighting mainly against the so-called religion of Islam, actually an evil ideology, I've noticed that fanatical Muslims never lose, no matter what. Israel can counterattack and maul most of the Islamic criminal to death, but somehow they, the remaining few Muslims, are always the "winners." The same thing occurs when the Muslims debate anyone; the outcome is that the Islamist comes out the victor. Don't the Muslims ever lose? Not according to them. There are 57 backward Muslim Third World Countries, but somehow these Muslims living in these countries are the "enlightened and the best of people." What a joke, but what can you say? That's the reason I hardly ever debate with the ignorant; somehow, you never win when you go against a very ignorant person. In the mind of the very ignorant, he "always comes out the victor." When a person is that stupid, he never understands even when he loses his pants. In his mind, he is well dressed. So the ex-Muslims never win because the remaining Muslims who debate the "apostates," belong to the "true religion" even though there are 72 contradictory Muslim sects. In the fanatical Muslim mind, all the Islamic contradictions are the "truth and nothing but the truth." Like I said, what a joke.


Name: EQ
Date: Saturday February 21, 2009
Time: 17:12:33 -0500

Comment

He would be sentenced to death and a martyr among muslims


Name: barack obama
Date: Tuesday February 24, 2009
Time: 23:12:31 -0500

Comment

i am obama and ia ma muslim in heart and i give you a 2 weeks deadline to close this site otherwise i punish you severly. i swears to allah


Name: To All Hindus
Date: Wednesday February 25, 2009
Time: 06:25:11 -0500

Comment

This is what your book says In the teachings of Manna Herma Sistra concerning women, one can read: "A woman may live without a choice regardless of whether she is a little girl, a young lady or a mature woman. A young girl is under the command and choice of her father. A married woman is under the command and choice of her husband. A widow is under the command and choice of her male children, and she may never become independent (after the death of her husband). A widow may never remarry after the death of her husband, but rather, she must neglect all that she likes in terms of food, clothes, and makeup until she dies. A woman may not own or possess anything, as whatever she may gain or acquire shall go straight and immediately to the ownership of her husband".


Name: lw1 to To all Hindus
Date: Wednesday February 25, 2009
Time: 13:25:06 -0500

Comment

I am not a Hindu,but I know that Hindus have moved forward from what you have written.Of course there are some people who change more slowly,but the law in India allows widows to remarry.Women can go out unaccompanied by a male relative without fear,women can drive a car etc which a Saudi Arabian woman would not be able to do.Moreover Muslims in India get a grant to perform Hajj.Hindus do not get a grant.Muslims get reserved places in jobs,education including higher education where they can get admission to universities with lower scores.Show me a Muslim country that gives preferential treatment to Hindus.Would Christians be allowed to build a church in Saudi Arabia? Can a Christian carry a Bible with him in public? You haven't expressed your views about the beheading.


Name: See Your Image
Date: Sunday March 01, 2009
Time: 18:19:15 -0500

Comment

While writing this piece of crap you fail to realize or admit the plight of women under the free society which you so boast about. Every year thousand's of women get raped and killed due to domestic violence in western countries. Why don't you then blame this wretched system for such heinous crimes. Care to remember the case of Scott Peterson who murdered his wife and unborn son. If you can't remember go to the following web site http://www.courttv.com/trials/peterson/110107_peterson_insurance_ctv.html OR to look at more Western psychopaths go this website http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/07/22/why_do_men_kill_their_wives/ OR have a look at this website http://justice4mothers.wordpress.com/


Name: lw1
Date: Monday March 02, 2009
Time: 14:04:34 -0500

Comment

Plight of women under the free society is not prescribed by the Bible and that is the difference. Yesterday it has been reported that President Ramazan Kadyrov of Chechnya has justified the right of male relatives to carry out 'honour killings' after seven young women were found shot dead.


 
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