Islamic women’s groups have welcomed a call by the peak body for Australia’s Muslim clerics that imams around the country should use their sermons this Friday to denounce domestic violence.
The president of the Australian National Imams Council, Imam Abdel Aziem, has appealed to Islamic religious leaders to speak out against family violence in their khutbah, a sermon usually delivered before prayers on Friday, Islam’s holiest day of the week.
.... “Islamically, it’s very clear that violence against women is very much forbidden.”
Imams play an important role in contextualising passages within the 1,400-year-old religion’s holy book that appeared to subordinate women or condone their physical abuse, she said.
[TOP RATED COMMENT] If they're serious then they should start by denouncing the old Surah 4:34. You know the one, when God says it's ok to beat disobedient women. Can't see it happening though.
[SECOND] You beat me to it ... Sura 4:34 (Pickthall translation): 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 them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.
Good luck getting a cafeteria ... sorry, "moderate" interpretation of the sura from the imams. [The Guardian] Read more
