The great big "Ask about Islam" thread

Good idea OP, I'll start:
What is the reason for women in stricter Muslim countries not being able to move about by themselves (a male relative must be present)? And where in the Quran is this written?

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Posts snipped, as I said, keep it civil.

It was an honest question...

biko wrote: »

Good idea OP, I'll start:
What is the reason for women in stricter Muslim countries not being able to move about by themselves (a male relative must be present)? And where in the Quran is this written?

It's not a ruling from The Quran, but comes from the Hadith. The main reason for it is for the woman's own safety and protection. There's a very good article on it here - http://www.suhaibwebb.com/islam-studies/faqs-and-fatwas/is-it-okay-for-a-woman-to-travel-on-her-own-abu-majid-al-hanbali/ and it delves into what type of circumstances it is applicable in today's world. I don't want to copy and paste the whole thing here, but here's a snippet summary:

Originally, there is a prohibition for a woman to travel alone without a mahram (relative) to somewhere which takes over one day and one night to get there. The Hadith is in Bukhari #1088... Back then they would travel much slower by camels and walking, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) was speaking about the desert where there were no police and no security in most cases... The Prophet was not making rulings which were expected to remain exactly as they are until the Day of Judgment... If it could be said that there is just as much chance for harm to come your way going to the local store as it would going somewhere far then if that chance was scarce then it would only be recommended to have a male escort in going somewhere far.

My own personal take on it is that Islam acknowledges that women are the physically weaker gender, and more at risk of physical/sexual attacks than their male counterparts, and makes appropriate provisions to reduce the risk of them coming to harm. If you look at the statistics where around 250,000 cases of sexual assault take place annually in the United States alone, one can make a strong case for these provisions to be in place. I'm not saying that sexual assaults don't occur in Muslim countries, and admittedly there's probably a lot of under-reporting, but I'd imagine if people do abide by Islamic principles, the rates would be considerably lower.

And it's not just women that are the focus of these principles. Gender-mixing without good reason is disliked in Islam, and men are also advised to not approach women who don't have a mehram with them.

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Do you feel that the media have a lot to answer for in terms of how Islam and Muslims are depicted? For example, it always seems to focus on people who hold the most extreme views (burning effigies, chanting stone throwing etc. Etc.).

And slightly related to this, do you have any opinion on how it seems ok for comedians or tv shows to make jokes about other religions (catholics and Jewish mainly), but Islam is a strictly taboo subject.

Yes, the media do have a lot to answer for, but not all the media we're fed is truly independent, and many of them have their own agendas. In part, it has to do with the political views of those in charge and what message they want to broadcast. In part, it has to do with making money - they'll get more ratings by showing extremists, and not so much by showing everyday Muslims doing everyday things, which is what's needed to help foster tolerance and integration, but that's not in their specific interests.

To the second part, I don't think it's ok to make derogatory jokes about any religion. I use the word "derogatory", because there are many different types of jokes, and there are many jokes about Muslims and Islam that I'd find genuinely funny. But then there are a lot of jokes which aren't in good humour, and have a more racist/belittling tone behind them. We're developing a South Park (tv show) mentality, where the more offensive something is, the funnier it is, and it's ok to say anything. Personally I disagree with that mentality, because people have a right to be aggrieved by certain types of jokes, e.g. ones that fuel stereotypes, and expecting people to "just take it and see the funny side" doesn't foster mutual respect, especially in multicultural societies.

As to why specifically Islam is a taboo subject - there are a few reasons. Muslims tend to hold their religion very close to them, and it's not that we lack a sense of humour, we consider it entirely inappropriate for jokes to be directed at our Prophet or God. In the same way most people don't appreciate jokes being made at their parents. That's one reason, and then there's also how different people react when something offensive is publicly said - some of us ignore it, some write letters of complaint, some make press statements, some organise demonstrations, some burn flags/effigies and others send death threats. I certainly don't agree with the latter forms of protest, because there's a way to go about these things.

It probably wasn't ok to make jokes about Catholicism until fairly recently either, but with people becoming less religious in the past few decades and the power of the Catholic church fading, there's less opposition to offensive jokes when they are made - if there were more protests and condemnation, I'm sure comedians wouldn't make as many jokes.

wuffly wrote: »

Is it more acceptable or less of a 'sin' to drink alcohol than to eat pork? Genuine question as i know Muslims that will drink but will not consider eating pork? Just wondering what the difference is?

Both are explicitly forbidden in The Koran, so neither is really acceptable at any level (suffice for the rare occasions when you're stuck in the middle of a desert and only have pork to eat). Muslims differ considerably in their adherence to the religion, and most of us go through good phases and bad phases - a bad phase for one person might be missing a few prayers here and there, whereas a bad phase for another would be drinking alcohol regularly. Some things will be more deeply engrained in some people that others, so a person might be tempted by the odd gamble or pint of alcohol, but would never consider pork because of how they were brought up or what values they have. So, the Muslims that you know who drink probably do know deep down that they're wrong in what they're doing, but are probably turning a blind eye to it. Very few of us manage to follow all the rules perfectly, mind you, but the vast majority do not drink alcohol.

iDave wrote: »

What is an acceptable punishment for apostasy?

Four pages of good reading on the topic here (although the apostasy bit specifically is from page 3 onwards)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056923122

SoulandForm wrote: »

Doesnt Islam believe that there were other cycles of creation on this planet before Adam came along?

Were not the Jinn in charge of the planet so to speak before us?

Can you recommend any good books dealing with the Jinn?

There's nothing concrete in the Quran one way or another about prior cycles of creation on this planet before Adam. Different opinions exist about the issue, some do say Jinn were the first to dwell here, some say they weren't.

I've never really gone looking for any Jinn literature, so cant help you with the last bit. And apologies about the rather late reply, have had a busy couple of weeks.

Islamic countries are some of the most oppressive countries in the world, why is this?

From what I am led to believe Saudi Arabia base this oppression against Women, Drinking etc by following Islamic religious laws. Morocco is also a Islamic country and adheres to Islamic law too, but is worlds apart from Saudi?

How do you explain this and why is it acceptable that the law of the land is religious law?