Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims

Islam's Shame: 'Lifting The Veil of Tears'


Islam is deeply anti-woman. Islam is the fundamental cause of the repression of Muslim women and remains the major obstacle to the evolution of their position.[1] Islam has always considered women as creatures inferior in every way: physically, intellectually, and morally. This negative vision is divinely sanctioned in the Koran, corroborated by the hadiths, and perpetuated by the commentaries of the theologians, the custodians of Muslim dogma and ignorance.

Far better for these intellectuals to abandon the religious argument, to reject these sacred texts, and have recourse to reason alone. They should turn instead to human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted on December 10, 1948, by the General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris and ratified by most Muslim countries) at no point has recourse to a religious argument. These rights are based on natural rights, which any adult human being capable of choice has. They are rights that human beings have simply because they are human beings. Human reason or rationality is the ultimate arbiter of rights - human rights, the rights of women.

Unfortunately, in practice, in Muslim countries one cannot simply leave the theologians with their narrow, bigoted world view to themselves. One cannot ignore the ulama, those learned doctors of Muslim law who by their fatwas or decisions in questions touching private or public matters of importance regulate the life of the Muslim community. They still exercise considerable powers of approving or forbidding certain actions. Why the continuing influence of the mullas?

The Koran remains for all Muslims, not just "fundamentalists," the uncreated word of God Himself. It is valid for all times and places; its ideas are absolutely true and beyond all criticism. To question it is to question the very word of God, and hence blasphemous. A Muslim's duty is to believe it and obey its divine commands.
Several other factors contribute to the continuing influence of the ulama. Any religion that requires total obedience without thought is not likely to produce people capable of critical thought, people capable of free and independent thought. Such a situation is favorable to the development of a powerful "clergy" and is clearly responsible for the intellectual, cultural, and economic stagnation of several centuries. Illiteracy remains high in Muslim countries. Historically, as there never was any separation of state and religion, any criticism of one was seen as a criticism of the other. Inevitably, when many Muslim countries won independence after the Second World War, Islam was unfortunately linked with nationalism, which meant that any criticism of Islam was seen as a betrayal of the newly independent country - an unpatriotic act, an encouragement to colonialism and imperialism. No Muslim country has developed a stable democracy; Muslims are being subjected to every kind of repression possible. Under these conditions healthy criticism of society is not possible, because critical thought and liberty go together.
 
The above factors explain why Islam in general and the position of women in particular are never criticized, discussed, or subjected to deep scientific or skeptical analysis. All innovations are discouraged in Islam - every problem is seen as a religious problem rather than a social or economic one.
 
Profoundly Anti-Woman

Islam took the legend of Adam and Eve [2] from the Old Testament and adapted it in its own fashion. The creation of mankind from one person is mentioned in the following suras:
 
4.1. 0 Mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multiple of men and women.
 
39.6. He created you from one being, then from that (being) He made its mate.
 
7.189. He it is who did create you from a single soul and therefrom did make his mate that he might take rest in her.

From these slender sources Muslim theologians have concluded that man was the original creation - womankind was created secondarily for the pleasure and repose of man. The legend was further developed to reinforce the supposed inferiority of women. Finally, the legend was given a sacred character so that to criticize it was to criticize the very words of God, which were immutable and absolute. Here is how Muhammad describes women in general: "Be friendly to women for womankind was created from a rib, but the bent part of the rib, high up, if you try to straighten it you will break it; if you do nothing, she will continue to be bent."
 
God punishes Adam and Eve for disobeying his orders. But there is nothing in the verses to show that it was Eve (as in the Old Testament) who led Adam astray. And yet Muslim exegetists and jurists have created the myth of Eve the temptress that has since become an integral part of Muslim tradition. Muhammad himself is reputed to have said: "If it had not been for Eve, no woman would have been unfaithful to her husband."

The Islamic tradition also attributes guile and deceit to women and draws its support from the Koran. Modern Muslim commentators interpret certain verses to show that guile, deceit, and treachery are intrinsic to a woman's nature. Not only is she unwilling to change, she is by nature incapable of changing - she has no choice.[3] In attacking the female deities of the polytheists, the Koran takes the opportunity to malign the female sex further.
 
4.1 17. They invoke in His stead only females; they pray to none else than Satan, a rebel.

53.21-22. Are yours the males and His the females? That indeed were an unfair division!

53.27. Lo! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name the angels with the names of females.
 
Other verses from the Koran also seem of a misogynist tendency.

2.228. Women who are divorced shall wait, keeping themselves apart, three (monthly) courses. And it is not lawful for them that they should conceal that which Allah hath created in their wombs if they are believers in Allah and the Last Day. And their husbands would do better to take them back in that case if they desire a reconciliation. And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.

2.282. But if he who oweth the debt is of low understanding, or weak or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember.

4.11. Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females.

4.34. Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart; and scourge (beat) them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them Lo! Allah is ever High Exalted, Great.

Equally, in numerous hadiths on which are based the Islamic laws, we learn of the woman's role - to stay at home, to be at the beck and call of man to obey him (which is a religious duty), and to assure man a tranquil existence. Here are some examples of these traditions:

??? The woman who dies and with whom the husband is satisfied will go to paradise.

??? A wife should never refuse herself to her husband even if it is on the saddle of a camel.

??? Hellfire appeared to me in a dream and I noticed that it was above all peopled with women who had been ungrateful. "Was it toward God that they were ungrateful?" They had not shown any gratitude toward their husbands for all they had received from them. Even when all your life you have showered a woman with your largesse she will still find something petty to reproach you with one day, saying, "You have never done anything for me."

??? If anything presages a bad omen it is: a house, a woman, a horse.

??? Never will a people know success if they confide their affairs to a woman.

It will be appropriate to include two quotes from the famous and much revered philosopher al-Ghazali (1058-1111), whom Professor Montgomery Watt describes as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad. In his "The Revival Of The Religious Sciences," Ghazali defines the woman's role: [4]

She should stay at home and get on with her spinning, she should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbours and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband and respect him in his presence and his absence and seek to satisfy him in everything; she must not cheat on him nor extort money from him; she must not leave her house without his permission and if given his permission she must leave surreptitiously. She should put on old clothes and take deserted streets and alleys, avoid markets, and make sure that a stranger does not hear her voice or recognize her; she must not speak to a friend of her husband even in need. ... Her sole worry should be her virtue, her home as well as her prayers and her fast. If a friend of her husband calls when the latter is absent she must not open the door nor reply to him in order to safeguard her and her husband's honour. She should accept what her husband gives her as sufficient sexual needs at any moment. ... She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband's sexual needs at any moment.

Such are some of the sayings from the putative golden age of Islamic feminism. It was claimed that it was the abandonment of the original teachings of Islam that had led to the present decadence and backwardness of Muslim societies. But there never was an Islamic utopia. To talk of a golden age is only to conform and perpetuate the influence of the clergy, the mullas, and their hateful creed that denies humanity to half the inhabitants of this globe, and further retards all serious attempts to liberate Muslim women.

What Rights?

The inequality between men and women [5] in matters of giving testimony or evidence or being a witness is enshrined in the Koran: sura 2.282 (quoted above).

How do Muslim apologists justify the above text? Muslim men and women writers point to the putative psychological differences that exist between men and women. The Koran (and hence God) in its sublime wisdom knew that women are sensitive, emotional, sentimental, easily moved, and influenced by their biological rhythm, lacking judgment. But above all they have a shaky memory. In other words, women are psychologically inferior. Such are the dubious arguments used by Muslim intellectuals - male and, astonishingly enough, female intellectuals like Ahmad Jamal, Ms. Zahya Kaddoura, Ms. Ghada al-Kharsa, and Ms. Madiha Khamis. As Ghassan Ascha points out, the absurdity of their arguments are obvious.

By taking the testimony of two beings whose reasoning faculties are faulty we do not obtain the testimony of one complete person with a perfectly functioning rational faculty - such is Islamic arithmetic! By this logic, if the testimony of two women is worth that of one man, then the testimony of four women must be worth that of two men, in which case we can dispense with the testimony of the men. But no! In Islam the rule is not to accept the testimony of women alone in matters to which men theoretically have access. It is said that the Prophet did not accept the testimony of women in matters of marriage, divorce, and hudud. Hudud are the punishments set down by Muhammad in the Koran and the hadith for (1) adultery - stoning to death; (2) fornication - a hundred stripes; (3) false accusation of adultery against a married person - eighty stripes; (4) apostasy - death; (5) drinking wine - eighty stripes; (6) theft - the cutting off of the right hand; (7) simple robbery on the highway - the loss of hands and feet; robbery with murder - death, either by the sword or by crucifixion.

On adultery the Koran 24.4 says: "Those that defame honourable women and cannot produce four witnesses shall be given eighty lashes." Of course, Muslim jurists will only accept four male witnesses. These witnesses must declare that they have "seen the parties in the very act of carnal conjunction." Once an accusation of fornication and adultery has been made, the accuser himself or herself risks punishment if he or she does not furnish the necessary legal proofs. Witnesses are in the same situation. If a man were to break into a woman's dormitory and rape half a dozen women, he would risk nothing since there would be no male witnesses. Indeed the victim of a rape would hesitate before going in front of the law, since she would risk being condemned herself and have little chance of obtaining justice. "If the woman's words were sufficient in such cases," explains Judge Zharoor ul Haq of Pakistan, "then no man would be safe." This iniquitous situation is truly revolting and yet for Muslim law it is a way of avoiding social scandal concerning the all-important sexual taboo. Women found guilty of fornication were literally immured, at first; as the Koran 4.15 says: "Shut them up within their houses till death release them, or God make some way for them." However this was later canceled and stoning substituted for adultery and one hundred lashes for fornication. When a man is to be stoned to death, he is taken to some barren place, where he is stoned first by the witnesses, then the judge, and then the public. When a woman is stoned, a hole to receive her is dug as deep as her waist - the Prophet himself seems to have ordered such procedure. It is lawful for a man to kill his wife and her lover if he catches them in the very act.

In the case where a man suspects his wife of adultery or denies the legitimacy of the offspring, his testimony is worth that of four men. Sura 24.6: "If a man accuses his wife but has no witnesses except himself, he shall swear four times by God that his charge is true, calling down upon himself the curse of God if he is lying. But if his wife swears four times by God that his charge is false and calls down His curse upon herself if it be true, she shall receive no punishment." Appearances to the contrary, this is not an example of Koranic justice or equality between the sexes. The woman indeed escapes being stoned to death but she remains rejected and loses her right to the dowry and her right to maintenance, whatever the outcome of the trial. A woman does not have the right to charge her husband in a similar manner. Finally, for a Muslim marriage to be valid there must be a multiplicity of witnesses. For Muslim jurists, two men form a multiplicity but not two or three or a thousand women.

In questions of heritage, the Koran tells us that male children should inherit twice the portion of female children:

4.11-12. A male shall inherit twice as much as a female. If there be more than two girls, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance, but if there be one only, she shall inherit the half. Parents shall inherit a sixth each, if the deceased have a child; but if he leave no child and his parents be his heirs, his mother shall have a third. If he have brothers, his mother shall have a sixth after payment of any legacy he may have bequeathed or any debt he may have owed.

To justify this inequality, Muslim authors lean heavily on the fact that a woman receives a dowry and has the right to maintenance from her husband. It is also true that according to Muslim law the mother is not at all obliged to provide for her children, and if she does spend money on her children, it is, to quote Bousquet, "recoverable by her from her husband if he is returned to a better fortune as in the case of any other charitable person. Therefore there is no point in the husband and wife sharing in the taking charge of the household; this weighs upon the husband alone. There is no longer any financial interest between them." [6]

This latter point referred to by Bousquet simply emphasizes the negative aspects of a Muslim marriage - that is to say, the total absence of any idea of "association" between "couples" as in Christianity. As to dowry, it is, of course, simply a reconfirmation of the man's claims over the woman in matters of sex and divorce. Furthermore, in reality the woman does not get to use the dowry for herself. The custom is either to use the dowry to furnish the house of the newly married couple or for the wife to offer it to her father. According to the Malekites, the woman can be obliged by law to use the dowry to furnish the house. Muslim law also gives the guardian the right to cancel a marriage - even that of a woman of legal age - if he thinks the dowry is not sufficient. Thus the dowry, instead of being a sign of her independence, turns out once more to be a symbol of her servitude.

The woman has the right to maintenance but this simply emphasizes her total dependence on her husband, with all its attendant sense of insecurity. According to Muslim jurists, the husband is not obliged under Islamic law to pay for her medical expenses in case of illness. Financial independence of the woman would of course be the first step in the liberation of Muslim women and thus it is not surprising that it is seen as a threat to male dominance. Muslim women are now obliged to take equal responsibility for looking after their parents. Article 158 of Syrian law states "The child - male or female - having the necessary means is obliged to take responsibility for his or her poor parents." The birth of a girl is still seen as a catastrophe in Islamic societies. The system of inheritance just adds to her misery and her dependence on the man. If she is an only child she receives only half the legacy of her father; the other half goes to the male members of the father's family. If there are two or more daughters, they inherit two-thirds. This pushes fathers and mothers to prefer male children to female so that they can leave the entirety of their effects or possessions to their own descendants. "Yet when a new-born girl is announced to one of them his countenance darkens and he is filled with gloom" (sura 43.15). The situation is even worse when a woman loses her husband - she only receives a quarter of the legacy. If the deceased leaves more than one wife, all the wives are still obliged to share among themselves a quarter or one-eighth of the legacy.

Muslim jurists [7] are unanimous in their view that men are superior to women in virtue of their reasoning abilities, their knowledge, and their supervisory powers. And since it is the man who assumes financial responsibility for the family, it is argued, it is natural that he should have total power over the woman. These same jurists, of course, totally neglect changing social conditions where a woman may contribute her salary to the upkeep of her family - power over women remains a divine command and "natural" or "in the nature of things." Muslim thinkers continue to confine Muslim women to the house - to leave the house is against the will of God and against the principles of Islam. Confined to their houses, women are then reproached for not having any experience of the outside world!

According to theologians, [8] the husband has the right to administer corporal punishment to his wife if she

1. Refuses to make herself beautiful for him;

2. Refuses to meet his sexual demands;

3. Leaves the house without permission or without any legitimate reason recognized by law; or

4. Neglects her religious duties.

A hadith attributes the following saying to the Prophet: "Hang up your whip where your wife can see it." There are a number of other hadiths that contradict this one. In those, Muhammad explicitly forbids men to beat their wives - in which case the Prophet himself is contradicting what the Koran, enshrining divine law, permits.

Case Histories: The Women of Pakistan

In Pakistan in 1977, General Zia al-Haq took over in a military coup declaring that the process of Islamization was not going fast enough. The mullas had finally got someone who was prepared to listen to them.
Zia imposed martial law, total press censorship, and began creating a theocratic state, believing that Pakistan ought to have "the spirit of Islam." He banned women from athletic contests and even enforced the Muslim fast during the month of Ramadan at gunpoint. He openly admitted that there was a contradiction between Islam and democracy. Zia introduced Islamic laws that discriminated against women. The most notorious of these laws were the Zina and Hudud Ordinances that called for the Islamic punishments of the amputation of hands for stealing and stoning to death for married people found guilty of illicit sex. The term zina included adultery, fornication, and rape, and even prostitution. Fornication was punished with a maximum of a hundred lashes administered in public and ten years' imprisonment.

In practice, these laws protect rapists, for a woman who has been raped often finds herself charged with adultery or fornication. To prove zina, four Muslim adult males of good repute must be present to testify that sexual penetration has taken place. Furthermore, in keeping with good Islamic practice, these laws value the testimony of men over women. The combined effect of these laws is that it is impossible for a woman to bring a successful charge of rape against a man; instead, she herself, the victim, finds herself charged with illicit sexual intercourse, while the rapist goes free. If the rape results in a pregnancy, this is automatically taken as an admission that adultery or fornication has taken place with the woman's consent rather than that rape has occurred.

Here are some sample cases. [9]

In a town in the northern province of Punjab, a woman and her two daughters were stripped naked, beaten, and gangraped in public, but the police declined to pursue the case.

A thirteen-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by a "family friend." When her father brought a case against the rapist, it was the girl who was put in prison and charged with zina, illegal sexual intercourse. The father managed to secure the child's release by bribing the police. The traumatized child was then severely beaten for disgracing the family honor.

A fifty-year-old widow, Ahmedi Begum, [10] decided to let some rooms in her house in the city of Lahore to two young veiled women. As she was about to show them the rooms, the police burst into the courtyard of the house and arrested the two girls and Ahmedi Begum's nephew, who had simply been standing there. Later that afternoon, Ahmedi Begum went to the police station with her son-in-law to inquire about her nephew and the two girls. The police told Ahmedi they were arresting her too. They confiscated her jewelry and pushed her into another room. While she was waiting, the police officers shoved the two girls, naked and bleeding, into the room and then proceeded to rape them again in front of the widow. When Ahmedi covered her eyes, the police forced her to watch by pulling her arms to her sides. After suffering various sexual humiliations, Ahmedi herself was stripped and raped by one officer after another. They dragged her outside where she was again beaten. One of the officers forced a policeman's truncheon, covered with chili paste, into her rectum, rupturing it. Ahmedi screamed in horrible agony and fainted, only to wake up in prison, charged with zina. Her case was taken up by a human rights lawyer. She was released on bail after three months in prison, but was not acquitted until three years later. In the meantime, her son-in-law divorced her daughter because of his shame.
Was this an isolated case? Unfortunately no. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report that one woman is raped every three hours in Pakistan and one in two rape victims is a juvenile.

According to Women's Action Forum, a woman's rights organization, 72% of all women in police custody in Pakistan are physically and sexually abused. Furthermore, 75% of all women in jail are there under charges of zina. Many of these women remain in jail awaiting trial for years.

In other words, the charge of zina is casually applied by any man who wants to get rid of his wife, who is immediately arrested, and kept waiting in prison, sometimes for years. Before the introduction of these laws the total number of women in prison was 70; the present number is more than 3,000. Most of these women have been charged under the Zina or Hudud Ordinances. [11]

The Western press naively believed that the election of Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's prime minister in November 1988 would revolutionize women's role not just in Pakistan, but in the entire Islamic world. Under Islamic law of course, women cannot be head of an Islamic state, and Pakistan had become an Islamic republic under the new constitution of 1956. Thus, Benazir Bhutto had defied the mullas and won. But her government lasted a bare 20 months, during which period Nawaz Sharif, who was the prime minister briefly in the early 1990s, is said to have encouraged the mullas in their opposition to having a woman as the head of an Islamic state. Benazir Bhutto's government was dismissed on charges of corruption, and her husband imprisoned in 1990.

The lot of the Muslim woman was harsh before Benazir's election, and nothing has changed. She has pandered to the religious lobby, the mullas, the very people who insist that a woman cannot hold power in an Islamic state, and has repeatedly postponed any positive action on the position of women.
Pakistan shows the same grim picture. Pakistan is one of only four countries in the world where female life expectancy (51 years) is lower than the male (52 years); the average female life expectancy for all poor countries is 61 years. A large number of Pakistani women die in pregnancy or childbirth, six for every 1,000 live births. Despite the fact that contraception has never been banned by orthodox Islam, under Zia the Islamic Ideology Council of Pakistan declared family planning to be un-Islamic. Various mullas condemned family planning as a Western conspiracy to emasculate Islam. As a result, the average fertility rate per woman in Pakistan is 6.9. Pakistan is also among the world's bottom ten countries for female attendance at primary schools. Some people put female literacy in the rural areas as low as 2% (Economist, March 5, 1994). As the Economist put it, "Some of the blame for all this lies with the attempt of the late President Zia ul Haq to create an Islamic republic. ... Zia turned the clock back. A 1984 law of his, for instance, gives a woman's legal evidence half the weight of a man's" (Economist, January 13, 1990).

Indeed a large part of the blame lies with the attitudes inculcated by Islam, which has always seen woman as inferior to man. The birth of a baby girl is the occasion for mourning. Hundreds of baby girls are abandoned every year in the gutters and dust bins and on the pavements. An organization working in Karachi to save these children has calculated that more than five hundred children are abandoned a year in Karachi alone, and that 99% of them are girls. [12]

Little did Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, realize how literally true his words were when he said in a 1944 speech: [13] "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners."

But we do not need to leave with a completely pessimistic picture. Pakistani women have shown themselves to be very courageous, and more and more are fighting for their rights with the help of equally brave organizations such as Women's Action Forum (WAF) and War Against Rape. WAF was formed in 1981 as women came onto the streets to protest against the Hudud Ordinances, and to demonstrate their solidarity with a couple who had recently been sentenced to death by stoning for fornication. In 1983, women organized the first demonstrations against martial law.

Notes

1. Ghassan Ascha, Du Statut Inferieur de la Femme en Islam (Paris: 1989) p. 11.
2. Ibid., pp. 23f.
3. Ibid., pp. 29f.
4. Ibid., p. 41.
5. Ascha, op. cit., pp. 63f.
6. G. H. Bousquet, L'Ethique sexuelle de L'Islam (Paris: 1966) vol. 1, p. 120.
7. Ascha, op. cit., p. 89.
8. Ibid., pp. 108.
9. Kurt Schork, "Pakistan's Women in Despair," Guardian Weekly, September 23, 1990.
10. Jan Goodwin, Price of Honor (Boston: 1994) p. 49-50.
11. Schork, op. cit.
12. Goodwin, op. cit., p. 64.
13. R. Ahmed, ed., Sayings of Quaid-i-Azam (Jinnah) (Karachi: 1986) p. 98.

Excerpted from Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books, 1995).

 


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Ibn Warraq is the author of Why I Am Not a Muslim and the editor of The Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, and What the Koran Really Says.


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Comment:


Name: vbv
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 03:23:01 -0700

Comment

There is so much muck and negative portrayal of women in the Bible itself,where the onus for the cause of the so-called original sin is squarely put on women , as though sex is a grave and unpardonable crime and ignorance is the greatest 'blessed' state, since 'Yahweh' the Biblcal god expressly prohibited his first 'creations' not to eat the fruit from the tree of Knowledge.How illogical ! God wants humankind to blindly follow him as a brainless 'zombie' in a permanent state of stupor, so that he can manipulate his 'creations' to vet his sadistic and voyueristic pleasures. How quaint that in this enlightened age of "Knowledge', science & technology and rational thinking ,people still believe in such gibberish and nonsensical crap! If christianity and judaism have denigrated women in their religions , islam goes one step further by dehumanising them by religating them to be merely an object of men's sexual satisfaction and sheer lechery.Women in islam are just sub-human species and they remain so as Mohamed has himself stated that on his visit to the socalled 'Hell' , he found it to be populated mostly by women and they have no place or privelege in the socalled 'Heaven',which anyway is dominated by men and their heavenly whores "Houris and prepubescent boys" in their endless sexual orgy and belching under the auspices of'Allah'. I t is really sickening ,disgusting and nauseating to say the least! Fight as much as they may their social position is not going to improve as women are supposed to be inferior to men according to "Allah" and his only prophet.The only way out of this horrible condition is to give all religions their deserving burial forever and embrace 'atheism' and a secular way of life or go back to intolerance and ignorance ,a veritable state of the Dark Ages.Religion is the bane of humankind and there is no alternative but to strongly and firmly reject it for the betterment of humanity.Religion only inculcates fear and mistrust amongst human beings and in in all its history has been guilty of only bloodshed and misery for most of humanity ,whereas the few who could use it and exploit the rest of us ,thrived in the lap of intrigue and amoral luxurious life.It has caused more damage than good; and good ,if any,was very peripheral to benefit only the exploiters. God must be stupid and the believers must be stupider if they cannot realise that in the progress of humankind both men and women are equal partners and they require each other in this endeavour as much as the other.They cannot exist without each other and I hope the religious fanatics realise this truth and summarily reject their faulty bigotry in favour of a moral and rational thinking.


Name: No Sharia
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 04:40:03 -0700

Comment

The misogyny of the catholic and protestant churches has in practice been pretty much abandoned during the last century. And it has never been so pronounced as in islam. However, history is not the issue here. What is important is that even today these hateful and awful opinions are still observed and practiced in islamic countries and by muslims. This alone makes it to a religion that ought to be abandoned by all believers if they had an understanding of real ethics or morality. Regards, No Sharia


Name: Godot
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 07:41:18 -0700

Comment

The article starts with this sentence (Islam is deeply anti-woman). It implies that men in Islam are enjoying much better lives under than women. As a male apostate, I don't recall that my life was much better under Islam than any of my female family members. I would prefere a different sentence...(Islam is deeply anti-man, woman and hermaphrodite, ie, anti-human beings). This does not imply that neither ALL animals are treated equally under sharia, pigs have a special status, they are fortunate to be considered un-comestible!


Name: UsKanna
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 09:20:35 -0700

Comment

ISLAM is EVIl. Period. I am sick and tired of this EVIL IDEALOGY. Sometimes, I do feel we in the US should have seperate laws for MUSLIMS, let us adopt SHARIA for Muslims while the rest of us be treated with our secular laws. Let them have their SHARIA, stoning to death adulterers, cut off their hands for stealing etc etc. UsKanna


Name: Pat
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 10:48:08 -0700

Comment

VBV, you cut off the name of the tree. It wasn't all knowledge. God forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Until Eve gave in to the serpent, humans were ignorant of evil. They were just another animal, concerned only with survival and reproduction.


Name: allat
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 13:06:29 -0700

Comment

You could almost say that to the islamic males, the female is only an animal - an animate incubator.


Name: allat
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 13:12:46 -0700

Comment

You could almost say that to the islamic males, the female is only an animal - an animate incubator.

"No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. "

As I recall, the Paks are Punjabi - people of Northern India. Ahhh, those beatiful Punjabi women with their former glorious colors. What a waste!

In 2012, will we see, Pakistan, as well as the Bengalis, as a failed experiment? Yeah, that's half of any culture.


Name: agnostic
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 16:16:38 -0700

Comment

A timely article to remind mankind the evil of islam and the enforced sufferings of our fellow women by islam. Thank you Ibn Warraq, sir. The naked and brutal Evil of Mo where female genital mutilation is warranted is clear evidence of this death cult ideology from the pits of hell . Only a satanic soul sserving satan would devise such barbaric cruelty on another Human Being. Female Circumcision is no little snip and a piece of skin thrown into the bin. It is surgery of the most cruel kind and for no other reason than the pleasure and atisfaction of men made mad by Islam. Men who order one of the three kinds of mutilation demanded by Sharia Law. The first type is the removal of the entire clitoris or the clitoral hood. Type two involves removing not only the clitoris but part of all of the inner vaginal lips.Type three and the most popular in the sick Moslem world is the removal of the entire external genitalia. The wound is then sewn together, leaving a tiny hole, the size of a matchstick. ? By cutting and sewing up the girls, it ensures that they are virgins on their wedding day. The wound is then reopened for sex on the wedding night by using a knife. Women are for mens pleasure and childbearing only. To the mad muslims they have no other purpose. And the West, the idiotic, stupid, stupid West embraces this evil ideology, calls it a religion to insult all religions, and that muslims are generally peaceful people. Anyone who tries to rationalise this evil is himself evil to the core. A muslim is not a good person, period. An ex-muslim wrote: "when I see a muslim I see, smell and feel Evil" Yeah, right on!


Name: agnostic
Date: Monday August 13, 2007
Time: 17:28:41 -0700

Comment

Those in the west if you agree that islam is a peaceful religion and its tenets are for the good of mankind, then convert to islam. Have your wives and daughters undergo genital mutilation. Delight in their suffering. This applies to amnesty international too. Forget about your hypocrite stand on human rights. Join the gang of barbarians and revel in utmost cruel atrocities ala the quran. Marry your babies to old men, and kill your daughters when they refuse to sleep with their aged husbands as one father did to his 13 year old who refused to bed her 59 year old husband. Enjoy honor killing and smell the blood of the innocent. Enjoy seeing 10 year olds swinging on immediate-constructed gallows , raped before death. Your reward will be eternal erection and eternal copulation in the islamic paradise. Think about all that sex, food, wine, and sex galore. Perfect for sick, sick, sick minds. The evil of indifference, the evil of tolerating the intolerant, the evil of cowardice, this is all that is needed for evil to take seed and triumph.


Name: Marie
Date: Tuesday August 14, 2007
Time: 13:24:16 -0700

Comment

VBV, a lot of people who blame Eve as the cause of original sin do not have a correct understanding of the Bible and have biases about women and equality. The cause of original sin is when both Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command and ate from the of Knowledge of good and evil. Before they ate the apple, God stated that both men and women are to be equals, that is they were to be partners on the same level. After they ate the apple and lied to God about their guilt, God told Adam and Eve that as a consequence for their behavior, men will have power over women and enmity will be placed between both sexes. contrary to what so-called Christians say and do, Jesus Christ respected and raise them up on a higher pedestal of equality. Woman at the well was one of the first people that he revealed himself as the Messiah and some of his disciples, such as Mary Magdalene. Jesus also made statements that both men and women are children of God and we are all the same. Also women were also amongst the first missionaries to do evangelistic work with the Apostles and there was Phoebe, the first Deaconess who preached the Gospel to her people. Islam on the other hand is a disgusting religion that degrades women to a level lower than animals.


Name: Marie
Date: Thursday August 16, 2007
Time: 13:26:33 -0700

Comment

Great Article.


Name: Tarik
Date: Friday August 17, 2007
Time: 06:37:58 -0700

Comment

One cannot defile and denegrate the perfect, in fact woman liberating, God created ideology of Islam based on the actions and miscommunications of a very small minority of the world's Muslims. Undoubtedly the atrocities against women in Pakistan, and anywhere in the world for that matter, need to be immediately admonished and addressed. But to place blame for these on Islam, and ultimately God and His Messengers, is reprehensible and sensational, I think, to sell a few books and create a name for an author who appears headed for Hell. I stopped reading after the blasphemy started, so hopefully I missed something and am wrong about the intent and contribution of this article.


Name: JC
Date: Friday August 17, 2007
Time: 08:20:31 -0700

Comment

Tarik: They are only doing what the Quran is saying? Are you now denying is authenticity? Either you believe in what the Quran says and back these individuals, or you don't. Which is it?


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Friday August 17, 2007
Time: 12:22:52 -0700

Comment

It's obvious that Muhammad was a false prophet. Muhammad taught that women are second class. Yet men are made from flesh of their mothers. Since men are fashioned from flesh of their mothers, why are men greater? Why should men have more rights than their mothers? Clearly, Muhammad had a problem with women. Isn't that why Muhammad disrespected women? Why did Muhammad take Aisha under the covers when she was only nine years old? Clearly, Muhammad was a lecher who had no respect for little girls. Did Muhammad take advantage of little girls because they were "second class"?


Name: David
Date: Friday August 17, 2007
Time: 14:42:00 -0700

Comment

Christianity was never anti-woman? - You have to be kidding me, according to the bible a woman, having no spirit, is not even a 'person'. Read Genesis, in it God created Adam to 'till the soil' and breathed 'spirit' or 'life' into him. Afterwards he created Ev from the rib of Adam (base material, from below not above like Adam) and unlike Adam God did not 'breath' spirit into her. So that pretty much means she was never a 'person' only base material from 'below' - ever wonder why woman is considered to be the root of all 'sin' ? heh. I love how you pit fairytale against fairytale that when actually read are pretty much the same thing. Christianity hated women and you know this, they were not allowed to hold rights that men had, nor were they allowed to own properties or divorce - I mean PUH-Lease. The problem with the middle east is not 'Islam' but the mixture of Church/Mosque and state. These two have always mixed like water and oil and thank god that the founding fathers understood this well.


Name: Me
Date: Friday August 17, 2007
Time: 22:44:41 -0700

Comment

If you compare Islam and Christianity the differences are startling, Islam 4 wife???s ??? Christian 1 wife Islam divorce is allowed on making the statement 3x???I divorce you???- Christian God hates divorce. Islam Heaven is mostly men ??? Christian anyone who follows the Son gains heaven. Islam women are Islam not equal even before God ??? Christian Women are equal before God. Islam the prostitute and adulteresses are executed ??? Christian Jesus forgave the prostitute and adulteress and said sin no more. Islam Entry of heaven Islam at the whim of god ??? Christian It Islam a promise of God Islam Before entry god considers the good & bad a person has done. ??? Christian the believer is instantly safe in heaven Islam Murders (suicide bombers) instant entry to heaven - Christian only murders who have sought the forgiveness of God will entry. Murders dying in the act of the crime would NOT be accepted. Islam heaven is a house of prostitution with virgins for the men. ??? Christian there are no men or women, all become new creatures. Islam heaven is about making the after life one long party - Christian heaven is all about being at peace with God. Islam a martyr is someone who dies in battle - In Christian a martyr is some who dies telling others about God. Islam is all about being a slave in submission ??? Christian is about being adopted as a son or daughter of God. Islam is about making war with those not considered Muslim ??? Christian is about taking the message of the Gospel, the God news of God to all peoples Islam allows forced conversions acceptable - Christian forced conversions NOT acceptable Islam Prayer is the repetition of the same words ??? Christian Prayer is talking to God. Islam god is unknowable and distant ??? Christian God wants us to know Him and is very personal. Islam there is no peace until Islam rules the world ??? Christian there is peace when God rules the individual. Islam the message in Arabic is only the true word ??? Christian the Word is for all mankind in any language Islam learning to say the Korean in Arabic even if you do not understand the Arab language Islam a great thing ??? Christian Learning the Bible in another language that you do not understand is meaningless. If the world were ours to give, who would we give it to? God made the world; can we give back what he already owns? If we kill all those who do not believe the same as us, will this please God? Did he not make all humankind? If I kill myself in the service of God will he not be pleased? Do you remember who gave you life only He should take it? God could have made us slaves to His will, yet He gives us all freedom of choice. Clearly all mankind is evil at heart. So surely it is in the hearts and minds of the individual that should seek God? Do we worship because we are compelled by are birth, or by who our parents are, by our country or culture? God said seek me and you will find me! Jeremiah 29:13, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God, Romans 5:1 Seek the righteous and peace of God and be saved Matthew 6:33 The Word of God should change people to seek God and not to kill mankind.


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Saturday August 18, 2007
Time: 07:04:02 -0700

Comment

Dear David, what fairy tale have you been reading? My Christian faith (I'm Catholic) has never taught that a woman was of lesser value than a man. Your interpretation of Genesis is all screwed up. Let me quote what Genesis has to say: "God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him, male and female, he created them"(Genesis 1:27). Now, you tell me where God says that a woman was of lesser value than a man. Notice that God created male and female in his image. So how can one be greater or lesser than the other? Try to do better, David, so that we can get along.


Name: Muslim and PROUD of it
Date: Saturday August 18, 2007
Time: 23:54:48 -0700

Comment

God did not create man and woman equal. If He had created them, man and woman should have the same features and organs. But it is not the same. Islam does not exploit women as sexual objects unlike the west. I would like to add that David and Philip Saenz are using diff version of the bible. Ask yourself, human are changing the bible every now and then. So how can it be the truth?


Name: Muslim and PROUD of it
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 00:03:14 -0700

Comment

I find christian understanding of original sin funny. Everything that happen only happen with the permission of allah. Adam alayhis salam and Hawa alayhis salam (Eve) ate the fruit cos allah wanted them to eat the fruit. Think, you all non muslim do not have full faith in God that he is the doer of everything. Turn towards Allah with repentance for verily he is the most merciful.


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 01:15:03 -0700

Comment

Muslim and Proud, unlike you, I am not afraid to publish my name. I doubt if you are a real Muslim unless you are proud of what your false prophet Muhammad did, and proud of your historical documents. Are you proud of the Muslim Taqiyya that teaches that Muslims can tell big lies in order to advance their violent religion? Are you proud of Muhammad, who was obviously a pedophile? Muhammad married a little girl by the name of Aisha when she was six years old, and then Muhammad, who was about 52 years old at the the time, had sex with Aisha when she was barely 9 years old. In my country, such a lecher is called a rapist and a pedophile!! Why aren't you ashamed of Muhammad? The Qur'an teaches hatred! It teaches that Muslims must not make friends with especially Jews and Christians. Why are you proud of that teaching? The Qur'an teaches that women have less rights than a man, and that a husband can beat his wife or wives. Why are you proud of that? You think you are very clever by saying that men and women are not equal because of their physical differences. Proud Muslim, we're talking about human rights, and not about physical differences. Proud Muslim, I've met beautiful Muslims, but that's because they were more like Jesus Christ than like Muhammad the violent pedophile. Would you emulate Muhammad? Proud Muslim, if you would emulate Muhammad, then, you are a real Muslim, evil and violent. Here's my name again: Philip Saenz


Name: Muslim and proud of it, Mosa
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 02:53:45 -0700

Comment

Prophet Muhammad s.a.w married Aisha r.a and did not have pre marital relations with her unlike what is happening in the west. Laws of God is obviously more valid than laws of Government. However, if a muslim is living in your country, most islamic scholars advise those ppl to follow the laws of the country with regards to marriage age.


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 06:04:13 -0700

Comment

Dear Mosa, well, at least you gave one name. Mosa, what do you fear? Why were you ashamed to answer my questions? Down deep you know that Islam isn't a nice religion. You're talking about premarital sex. Of course it's wrong. However, for Muhammad raping a little girl that's only nine years old is far, far worse. Where Muslims have taken over completely, old men are "marrying" little girls that are even less in age. Muslims call it marriage, but we call that forcible rape. You know very well that it isn't marriage. Mosa,you know very well that those so-called marriages of the Muslims are very evil, far more evil than premarital sex between two consenting adults. Many of those young Muslim girls don't want to "marry" the lecherous, old Muslim men. You know it but you won't admit it. Why are you ashamed to admit it? These poor young girls are actually raped. Don't you feel sorry for these young girls who don't won't to be raped by old and evil Muslim men? The poor young girls cry and cry because they are forced to "marry" horny, old Muslim men. They are raped!!! Why don't you feel sorry for the poor young girls? Is it because of your "religion of peace"? Can't you tell that Islam is the religion of violence? Bad Muslims prove it every day. Are you that blind? Why were you ashamed to answer my previous questions? I'll bet you have not read your Muslim historical documents. They are full of violence which lead me to believe that Allah is actually Satan, who is also full of hatred and violence. There are some very good Muslims, but that's because they are not following their religion. The good Muslims are more like Jesus Christ, who was also kind and non-violent. If the nice Muslims were following their religion, they would be as violent as Muhammad was in his day. I'm glad they're not emulating Muhammad. The evil Muslims that you hear about every day are evil because they are following their religion, the religion of hate and violence, that is, Islam. If you don't answer my questions, I will not dialogue with you anymore. I will dismiss you as insincere. Philip Saenz


Name: Muslim and proud of it
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 06:34:09 -0700

Comment

I want you to tell me where is it that Islam tells people to tell lies to advance the religion. I want you to tell regarding that during the era of Prophet Muhammad and the 4 rightly guided caliphs. I also want you to know that you are listing only one side of the story only. Prophet Muhammad PBUH married other women who were all widows. When he was 25, the first woman he married was a 40 yr old widow. I also believe in Isa alayhis salam(Jesus) as prophet of Allah.There is a great diff btw rape and marriage.This world is very short while the hearafter is very vast. One day everone has to go under the ground. Out of the 60 years, we spend 20 years working, 20 years sleeping and we only have 20 remaining years. We have to think whether are we dedicating even one year to the creator. Think about the great blessings God has bestowed upon us such as eyes to see his creations. May allah give u and me guidance that we find the true path.


Name: A story about the patience of Muhammad PBUH at the city of TAif
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 06:44:15 -0700

Comment

Some of the people in Taif tried to chase the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) away; they got together with the boys in the streets and chased the prophet (pbuh) out of the city. They threw stones at the prophet (pbuh) and Zayd as they tried to escape from them. Zayd was injured when a stone hit him in the head as he protected the prophet (pbuh). Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was also injured and blood from his wounds ran down his legs and clogged up his sandals.When they had travelled a short distance, they rested against one of the walls of a vineyard. as Muhammad (pbuh) rested, a couple of Makkans who owned the vineyard recognised Muhammad (pbuh) and took pity on their state. They sent their servant Addas with some grapes for the two visitors. The prophet (pbuh) thanked Addas and ate the grapes beginning with the name of Allah. Addas was surprised with these words and began to talk to the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Addas was a Christian slave and when the prophet (pbuh) asked him where he was from, he replied Nineveh. The prophet (pbuh) said the noble Yunus was from there. Addas was very surprised and asked the prophet (pbuh) ???How do you know about Yunus???? The prophet (pbuh) replied, ???He was my brother and I too am a prophet.??? Addas was very surprised and kissed Muhammad (pbuh) on the hands and forehead before returning to his duties. The two brothers had witnessed this and they asked Addas about his behaviour. Addas said that that man leaning against the wall is none other than a prophet. The two brothers shouted at Addas and told him that he should not leave his religion and follow Muhammad (pbuh). The Makkans were against the prophet and did not want anyone to follow him. After a short prayer the prophet (pbuh) made a dua to Allah. In the dua, he praised Allah and said to Allah that may he forgive him for his short coming and in his inability to deliver the message. He said that although he had been injured and hurt by the Makkans he was happy as long as he had not displeased Allah


Name: Philip Saenz
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 13:46:44 -0700

Comment

This letter is only to the bad Muslims, who are too ashamed to answer embarrassing questions about Islam. I'm not writing to the good Muslims, and there are many. I know because I have met them. Remember, I'm writing only to the bad Muslims. Okay, here are some more embarrassing questions that I'm sure you will avoid answering. I'm sure you bad Muslims are aware there are many sects in Islam. You have the Sunni Muslims, the Shiite Muslims, the Kurds, the Wahabbis, and about 68 other Muslim sects. Now, which one of these sects is the perfect sect of Islam? I'm sure you are aware that all these sects contradict each other here and there. That alone should prove that these sects don't come from God since God doesn't contradict himself. Okay, which sect is the true Islam? The Sunni Muslims are murdering the Shiite Muslims every day because, as the Sunnis put it, "the Shiites are infidels." The Shiites are murdering the Sunnis every day because, as the Shiites put it, the "Sunnis are infidels." This is pretty much the norm among all the other Muslim sects, and this despite the fact that all these Muslims belong to the "religion of peace." If it were not so tragic, it would be hilarious. Okay, which sect is the pure Islamic religion? I can't understand why the bad Muslims can't understand that their Muslim sects are very violent and contradictory. Not only do the evil Muslims murder Christians and Jews on their spare time, but also each other on any given day. This happens because all the contradictoy Muslim sects belong to the "pure sect of Islam, and to the 'religion of peace.'" Now, which Muslim sect is the "pure sect"? What is really sad is that bad Muslims are claiming that if everyone became Muslim, there would be peace. I'm saying that if there weren't any Muslims, they would not be murdering each other. Since so many of you are very much like Jesus Christ, nice, kind, clean living, and not like Muhammad, why don't you instead embrace Jesus Christ as your hero?


Name: vbv
Date: Sunday August 19, 2007
Time: 22:06:10 -0700

Comment

Muslim and proud of it. You are skirting the issue. Your Mohamed married Khadija ,his first wife 15 years older than him, not because he was in love with her , but he saw an opportunity to escape from poverty ( he was poor and a typical vagabond) and he waited patiently for her death to start of his marrying spree as well as taking hundreds of captured women from his immoral wars," as his right hand possessed them".These women were nothing but war booties.Lecher that he was ,he did not spare his foster son Zayyed's wife Zaynaab (adding one more to his collection of wives/concubines) and also his best friend Abu Bakr's 6 year old daughter Aisha.Mind you , these are historical facts written by Mohamed's contemporaries / followers , and not something written by 'infidels'. Worse,these "Islamic historians" gloat over Mo's virility in his old age visiting all his concubines/wives every night! These matters are also reported in your Hadees and Sunnah.The 'infidels' were unaware of these 'meaty' facts of the founder of islam until recently and they were always on the defensive due to their ignorance of these facts and also being under the impression that muslims are a pious lot , rather defending their piety with violence too. Now the curtain has been raised ,thanks to websites such as the present one and also the information available on the net, we know that piety in Islam is a misnomer for bigotry and intolerance.There is no respect for women in islam , they are mere there for sexual gratification and to bear children.They have no place in islamic heaven and they are not going to get 72 male dicks there ( like 'houris' made available by your Allah for men) to sexually satisfy/gratify them. Sex ,loot ,murder and massacre are the onlypious deeds/duties of a muslim.


Name: allat
Date: Saturday September 15, 2007
Time: 11:44:26 -0700

Comment

Well, I tried, but I must confess, I finally succumbed:----- How do I hate islam, let me count the ways

I hate it because as a woman, I would serve you tea, while you sat there waiting. I would be your slave and you, master..... I hate islam because there would be no songs, no music in the heart. The ways are countless. Rather, my dear, let us struggle together to be free, to express ourselves, in any manner, better to be free from ALL religion/ Better to be gone from this life that live within submission.....

However, Godot, does have a point. How's your dancing, Godot? You go for merengue or samba?


Name: allat
Date: Saturday September 15, 2007
Time: 12:09:52 -0700

Comment

To: Muslim and proud of it:.......You would have chosen this alias, unless you WEREN'T PROUD TO BE mUSLIM! The truth that you are ashamed of the evil act, the cowardly slaughter of other humans, shame of being one, reveals itself, subconsciously. If you were really proud to be in this cult, you wouldn't have to even mention it. The nerve of you! In truth, we, outsiders, know islam is the most violent, repressive of cults, without a shred of respect for non-muslims. You, people, don't even respect other muslims. One book that I read states: "this is the most anti-human group of humanity, ever known." Another states, from the author: "I friend of my mine, formerly islamic, told me in Paris: 'We are able to prevail, because they are afraid of us." Away with you, islamics. It gets tired, you stupid arguments, defenses, and excuses. We're getting wise you you and your whinings. This time you don't only have to deal with the Europeans and Asians - the poor, peasants slaughtered by the millions, in previous centuries. And your picking them off, one by one, those poor defenseless people, then and now, without weapons, and who have been defanged. In Germany, Italy, and Sweden, etc. LET'S SEE HOW YOU DO IN AMERICA, WHERE WE STILL HAVE GUNS! Try to rape women in the U.S. South where their menfolk, have shotguns and hunting mastiffs. Let's see whether you can get away with your little games, here.

We, thank God/Goddess, survived the christianity of the Middle Ages, we don't need more of the same - under the guise of islam, now, today, in the 21st century.

Allat- Pagan Polytheist Amazon


Name: The Evil Allah
Date: Sunday September 16, 2007
Time: 02:50:32 -0700

Comment

i really thank this site for revealing the truth about islamic opression of women. I find it disgusting the way islamic women are repressed and then they are told they are given more rights than women in other religions or in the west which just inst true.Islam is the most misogynistic relgiion of all time. Women are murdered for being raped , circumcized, allowed to be beaten, force to constantly cover themselves and not even allowed to worship witht he men at their local masjid.But then again what do you expect from a religion focused around sex that was started by a pedophile?


 
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