Islamic State or Muslim Country—Is there a Difference?
Amongst the major
misconceptions that exist today amongst people in the West is the belief that
"Muslim countries" are places where Islam is the rule of law from
both a personal and governmental perspective. This leads many in the West to
then equate whatever is going on in such “Muslim” countries with the practice
of Islam—something which, in most cases, couldn’t be further from the truth!It also leads many people in the West to
wonder why so many Muslims are seeking to live in the West if they have Islam
in their own homelands? The answer lies in the fact that "Muslim
countries" are, for the most part, nations where only the population is
predominantly Muslim, and not places where Islam is the primary law of
the land.
In fact, the vast majority
of these “Muslim” countries are run by severely tyrannical, oppressive
dictatorships similar to, and in many cases worse than, governments like that
of the World War II era dictators. A brief look into the policies and practices
of countries like Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Jordan and Pakistan, just to name a
few, will reveal severe and routine human rights violations and curtailed civil
liberties. (Strupczewski,
J. (2004, Dec 8). Experts: Men Distort Religion to Justify 'Honour' Killings.
Reuters. Retrieved from: https://wwrn.org/articles/14661/ )
The dictators in these countries
regularly rig elections, jail or murder any opposition party leaders and/or
their followers, arrest entire families and keep them indefinitely in jail,
without due process, and regularly practice acts of physical and emotional
torture on prisoners, among other grave injustices and human rights violations.
For that reason, like the
immigrants who came before them from Europe, many Muslims have fled these
countries to come to the West seeking freedom and rights. But don’t make the
mistake of thinking that Islam has anything to do with the oppressive conditions
that caused these people to flee from their homelands. A basic understanding of
Islamic law would show that Islam is the absolute opposite of what is being
practiced in these countries.
We now turn our attention
to the issue of so-called “honor” killings, one of the true crimes of
oppression in the world today. It must immediately be made clear that in no way
does Islam condone, validate or support this oppressive and backward practice.
Yet, most often when these heinous crimes are reported in the media, they often
seem to occur in “Muslim countries”. This has unfortunately created an
association in many people’s minds between these dreadful crimes and the
religion of Islam. Is this justified though?
“Honor” killings are crimes
that target women who have usually been victims of rape. Since these women have
tarnished the “honor” of their families by being raped, they are then killed, almost always by a family member, in order to
remove the dishonor from the family. Of course, in any civilized society this is
quite inconceivable as these women should rather be receiving counseling and
emotional support from their families after enduring the horror of rape.
As has been clearly
explained above though, in the Shari’ah of Islam, a woman who has been
raped is entitled to criminal court proceedings, not against her, but against
her attacker. She should be protected by the Islamic governmental authority and
given the emotional support that she needs, for she has done nothing wrong.
Indeed, the Islamic punishment of her assailant should strike fear into the
heart of any man who would even consider victimizing a woman.
The current reality though
is that men all over the world are twisting the teachings of religion,
not only Islam, but also Christianity*, to justify abusing their wives, sisters
and daughters, leading to thousands of these "honor" killings a year in
which secularcourts provide virtual immunity for
the perpetrator. In those countries where honor killings are known to occur,
one would in fact be hard pressed to find any convictions of the family member
who takes it upon himself to kill the raped woman.
Horror stories of women,
and even girls as young as seven, being beheaded, burned to death, maimed,
beaten, raped, forced into suicide or mentally abused, underscore that
patriarchal violence against women pays no heed to religion.In reality, almost all cases are rooted in
cultural and tribal beliefs, rather than anything resembling religion.
When asked what role Islam has
to play in honor killings Mrs.Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to Pakistan's prime
minister on Women's' Development replied, "Islam as a reason for the honor
killings is rubbish".* She blamed such violence in Pakistan on "the
feudal tradition, the culture and the tribal system." She also said that
such men found it "very convenient to say that what they don't want to do
is against Islam and what they want to do is in the name of Islam."*
In line with her
statements, reports clearly show that "honor" violence also occurs
among Christian families. "After we got married, Hell started," a
Christian woman from the Middle East said during a taped interview. Beaten and
raped for questioning her husband's business practices, she fled to Sweden when
he threatened to sell her into prostitution.*
* Strupczewski, J. (2004, Dec 8). Experts: Men Distort Religion
to Justify 'Honour' Killings. Reuters. Retrieved from:
https://wwrn.org/articles/14661/
Such a horrific practice
can only be uprooted by education and strict legal enforcement. It is a shame
that such people have neglected or become ignorant of every advice of the
Prophet to men regarding the treatment of women. He encouraged kindness and
patience, and reminded men that God would indeed question them on the Day of
Judgment concerning how they treated the women in their care.
In Islam, rape is not
classified as a distinct crime category in the Shari’ah law, which has
led to some confusion concerning the punishment for it as will soon be
discussed. Some poorly educated Muslims have falsely understood that rape needs
to be evaluated under the heading of zina (fornication/adultery), whereas
in actuality, rape falls under the category of Hiraabah, or terrorism
crimes.
Hiraabah is an Arabic word which
means ambushing people and frightening them with weapons or with the threat of
force, killing them, terrorizing them and seizing their property by force and openly.
Wealth is mentioned specifically because typically Hiraabah is
associated with robbery, but the ruling applies equally to people who terrorize
others for the purposes of rape. In Islam, Hiraabah is one of the most
serious of the major sins, and it is forbidden according to the Quran and the Sunnah.
In fact, God describes the punishment for terrorism in the Quran as follows:
Indeed, the penalty for
those who wage war against God and His Messenger, and who strive to cause corruption
upon earth, is that they be killed, or crucified, or that their hands and feet
be cut off from opposite sides, or that they be exiled from the land. That is
for them a disgrace in this world, and for them in the Hereafter is a great
punishment.{5:33}
The Difference in Islamic Law between Adultery and Rape
The early Islamic scholars,
most notably al-Dasuqi and Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi, explained the reason why
rape is to be considered a crime of Hiraaba as opposed to a crime of zina
(fornication or adultery). Ibn al-‘Arabi relates a story in which a group
of travelers was attacked and a woman in their party was raped. Responding to
the argument that the crime did not constitute Hiraabah because no money
was taken and no weapons were used, Ibn al-‘Arabi replied that "Hiraabah
with the private parts" is much worse than Hiraabah involving robbery,
and that anyone would prefer to be robbed than to be raped.( Sabiq, A.-S. (1972). Fiqh
al-Sunnah. al-Qa¯hirah: Da¯r al-Kita¯b al-Isla¯mi¯) This classification is
logical, as the "taking" involved in such a case is that of the
victim’s property (the rape victim’s dignity and sense of security) by
force.
Thus, rape as Hiraabah
is a violent crime that uses sexual intercourse as a weapon. The focus then in
a Hiraabah prosecution is the accused rapist—specifically his intent and
physical actions—and not second-guessing the consent of the rape victim. Hiraabah
does not require four witnesses to prove the offense as has sometimes
mistakenly been believed by some of the pseudo-Shari’ah councils making
headlines today in rural Pakistan and Nigeria. Instead, the prosecution is
based on circumstantial evidence, medical data and testimony.
Consequently, establishing
that a criminal case is that of rape is extremely critical because in an
Islamic court, it could mean the difference between life and death to the
perpetrator. Hence, a thorough evaluation is performed to determine if the
person accused actually committed the crime. If evidence shows that the
intercourse was consensual and the alleged rapist was unjustly accused, both of
them would be determined to have committed zina (fornication or
adultery), and both of them would be punished for it.
The Western Secular Punishment for Rape
Reviewing the current
criminal punishment trends in the West in general, and the US in specific, one
begins to understand the great frustration that doctors, police officers,
families and rape victims feel when it comes to rape. Reports have shown that nearly
seventy percent of rapes are not reported to law enforcement in
the US.( Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime
Victimization Survey, 2010-2014 (2015)). What are the reasons behind these staggering statistics? First,
it is important to get a grasp on the actual prevalence of the problem.
In 2002, there were 247,730 victims of rape, attempted rape or
sexual assault. Of these victims, about 87,000 were victims of completed rape,
70,000 were victims of attempted rape, and 91,000 were victims of sexual assault.
(2002 National Crime
Victimization Survey, U.S. Department of Justice)
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
there are over 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in America
today—that’s approximately 20% of the US population. (Central MN Sexual Assault
Center: https://cmsac.org/facts-and-statistics/)
Every 2 minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually
assaulted. (2002
National Crime Victimization Survey, U.S. Department of Justice )
Up to 4,065 pregnancies may have resulted from such attacks. (Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN) estimate, based on 2002
National Crime Victimization Survey, U.S. Department of Justice)
Factoring in unreported rapes, about 6% of rapists will ever spend
a day in jail.( Central MN Sexual Assault Center:
https://cmsac.org/facts-and-statistics/ )
In the UK, approximately 50,000 rapes are estimated to occur each
year, but only 600 rapists are sent to jail. In 1985, there was a 24%
conviction rate in rape trials, yet by 2003, it had fallen to just 5%. (Sawyer, M. (2003, Jul
31).50,000 rapes each year, but only 600 rapists sent to jail. Retrieved from:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/31/ukcrime.immigrationpolicy )
Why is rape so common in an
open society like America? While there are several contributing factors, if the
punishment for a particular crime carries little or no risk relative to the
possible benefits of the crime, then the criminal is more likely to do the crime.
Unfortunately, as economist W. Kip Viscusi noted, “the risks posed by the
criminal enforcement system [in the West] are notoriously low and data show
that youthful criminals know it." (Viscusi, W. (1986). The Risks and Rewards of Criminal Activity: A
Comprehensive Test of Criminal Deterrence. Journal of Labor Economics,
4(3), 317-340. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2535056 )
Indeed, the data on the
criminal prosecution of rape in America are appalling. Of course, the nearly
70% of rape/assaults that are not reported to law enforcement never end in any
jail time or punishment for the perpetrator. But what of those that are reported?
Is there any connection between reporting rape and receiving any justice for
victim? Unfortunately, the numbers are not encouraging. Reviewing the data that
RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) has compiled we see that out of
every 1000 rapes: (https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system)
310 are reported to police.
57 reports (18% of those reported) lead to an arrest.
7 cases (2.25% of those reported) will lead to a felony
conviction.
6 rapists (1.9% of those reported) will be incarcerated.
Furthermore, RAINN reports
that perpetrators of sexual violence are less likely to go to jail or prison
than other criminals.
So considering the very
real risk of potential reprisal by the rapist, or the social stigma, compared
with the exceedingly small record of convictions, most women in the West will
choose to never report rape.
