Women in the House of Saud

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced this week that women would have the right to nominate candidates for municipal office in this weeks' elections. While he did not use the term "vote" nominating candidates is as close as they get in Saudi Arabia, a country known for it's restrictions on women. The upcoming election is also of note because it is only the second Saudi election in the last 50 years.

The announcement was met with enthusiasm by women's rights activists who see this as a sign of more reform. In commenting on the announcement one activist said:

"Women's voices will be heard finally," she said. "Now it's time to remove other barriers like not allowing women to drive cars and not being able to function and live a normal life without a male guardian."

The announcement comes after a growing freedom movement in the Middle East known as the Arab Spring that has toppled the Mubarak regime in Egypt, lead to a successful revolution in Libya and led to escalating violence in Yemen and Syria. The decision may well be an attempt to lessen pro-democracy backlash in Saudi Arabia.

Salvation by the Shedding of Blood Part 2

In Part 1 we went over some of the Judeo-Christian beliefs and practices of blood sacrifice. If we understand the symbolic nature of blood, we will understand the nature of blood sacrifice. If we understand the nature of blood sacrifice, we will understand the repentance and atonement with God and our path to the East will be better illuminated thereby.

Blood is the perfect symbol for our mortal, corruptible state. Leviticus 17:11 reads, "For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul." Note that it says "the life of flesh" because before we existed here, on this earth, in our frail, mortal forms, we existed. What we lacked was bodies, what we lacked was mortality and a temporary separation from God; all of which are necessary prerequisites to atonement.

Blood is peculiar to the condition of mortality and a symbol of corruptibility. When a body is embalmed, it is drained of blood, which is replaced with a preservative. In a similar vein, (sorry, couldn't resist) Brother Joseph Smith recorded from his vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ that they had bodies of flesh and bones (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22) and that in their veins was a clear substance he called "spirit". Thus, the embalming process mirrors ascension.

We should also take into consideration the traditions about being ritually unclean. According to the Law, contact with blood or dead bodies or menstruating women etc. made one ritually unclean and unable to pray or worship. (Islam takes it a step further, contact with ANY woman makes a man unclean) This can be confusing when we talk about "being washed in the Blood" but I hope to clear things up.

Blood is the simplest, most distilled symbol for the mortal condition. Life is full of stuff-possessions, distractions, vices, hobbies, vocations, ideas etc. that while appealing to our eyes, are trivial and selfish. In order to come unto God we must set aside those things. It's tricky, because living in the world means we can't entirely forsake them either. What we need is a willingness to give up whatsoever is corruptible to gain the incorruptible, to gain atonement with God.

It takes faith, real faith, to sacrifice the things of this world in hope of a better one ruled by a merciful God. It is the faith made manifest unto God and ourselves through obeying the commandments and sacrifice which qualifies us for The Atonement. Jesus said "Not every man who saith unto me "Lord, Lord" shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father." James 2:17-18 says that faith without works (sacrifice?) is dead and that faith is shown by works (sacrifice).

The final point I wish to hit before ending part 2 is the necessity of mortality in the Great Plan to bring souls to atonement with God. Theologians have lamented the Fall of Adam for millennia but I firmly believe that being cast out of the Garden, away from God and into this corrupt state was essential so that we could gain atonement with God. Otherwise there would be no way to show faith, no need to show faith and even no way to have faith. Without the Fall, there would be no need of reliance on Him.

Thank God for Eve.

Evil and Wrong Too

In post-9/11/01 America, (as well as post-3/11/04 Spain and post-7/7/05 Britain) there is quite a bit of fear and resentment floating around towards Islam, for some odd reason I can't think of at the moment. In the US there have been those who have tried to bring a little humor and a little reason to the situation. A few years ago a show built around social commentary brought up the effect of attempts to depict Mohammad. After a decent commentary they asked, (dared) their network to allow them freedom of speech in their next episode. The network backed out and censored it.

But we are not here to discuss that issue. We are here to discuss the valiant efforts of Muzzammil Hassan to change negative public perceptions about Muslims. In 2004, they launched Bridges TV in Orchard Park, N.Y., which featured a mix of religious, cultural and news programming from a Muslim perspective, as well as non-Muslim programming. The station, operated by a multi-religious group.

In February 2009 his wife had the gall to file for divorce. He didn't take it well. Not wanting to propagate negative stereotypes of Muslims he did the civilized thing and.....no, wait, actually, he cut her head off in the TV station's office. Turns out that sort of thing is illegal in America and he got convicted. But you know what? Maybe he is the victim in all this......at least he thinks so.........because I don't see how a headless body could be seen as more of a victim than a convicted killer.

Boy, wouldn't it be terrible if Islam was unfairly portrayed as misogynistic?

Evil and Wrong

Another sad story of abuse of women in Islam has come to us out of Yemen. A 12 year old girl died from internal bleeding caused by intercourse three days after being married to an older man. I quote from the article, "Child brides are common in Yemen, where the United Nations estimates that one in three girls are married before age 18. Most are married off to older men with more than one wife, according to a study by Sanaa University." Certainly, Arab Islamic culture is not unique in having sex crazed men seeking ever more, and younger, women; if anything that's a global trend. What is unique is the degree to which it is entrenched, institutionalized, encouraged and even justified by the Koran.

It is known that Mohammad had four wives and widely accepted that he married he favorite wife, Aisha, at the age of six but held off consummating until she was nine. In Sura 2:223 (the Cow) Mohammad tells husbands that their wife is their "tilth" or field, to be entered and "plowed" as they please. Sura 65:4 (Divorce) outlines the procedures for divorcing your wife, with special instructions in case she has not yet reached puberty. There seems to be a doctrine that a Muslim man can do anything Mohammad did, hence why most Muslim countries allow up to four wives and taking young girls to wife is allowed and even encouraged, but you are not to consummate until "later" (wink) when they are grown up, like twelve. In addition, several verses refer to women as property. The degree to which the Koran dehumanizes women is truly appalling. Verses like 4:11 and 2:282 plainly say that a woman is worth half a man. 4:11 is where inheritance rules are laid down and women can only inherit half as much as a man. In 2:282 rules for witnesses are explained and also explained is that it takes two women to equal the mental faculties of a man.

Not wanting all of its misogynist credentials to come from sexual exploitation, Islam also threw in spousal abuse. Highlights from those six clips include in the second to last one at about 1:30 the cleric praying for spousal abuse, other juicy tidbits include viewing it as "therapeutic", not more than ten times, no causing bleeding, only a small stick, not in the face, not in front of children etc. Now the obvious counter-argument is that I found the six worst clerics and posted them, ignoring all of the moderates. To speak to that, I would like someone to come up with "moderate" clerics speaking differently on the issue. I actually kind think those were the moderates, given that they were advocating limits on wife beating not backed up by the Koran. Sura 4:34 (Women), a major verse on wife beating, has six main translations, five of the six say beat or scourge and the sixth dubiously inserts words to change the meaning to "beat them (lightly)"

While you can find strange inconsistencies in the lives of early leaders of other faiths, (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young's multiple wives come to mind) where this becomes salient is when trying to examine the status of women in Islam today. I can't conclusively prove the Koran is the cause of Muslim women's sad state today I think it's a good window. It could be a chicken and egg case, cultural attitudes bleeding over into the texts. What is clear is that the attitudes and practices in the Koran are a big part of the culture.

Now where this starts to get really interesting is when we take into account Islam's condemnation of the West as being decadent and morally corrupt. I agree, we are, For crying out loud, we defend the proliferation of Pornography in the West. Not only is pornography incredibly morally repugnant but its' highly caustic and destructive effect on society is almost impossible to overstate. I won't go into the whole terrorism vs. taking a moral stand in seeking change, we all have our preferred methods of changing the world for the better. In the West we have our fair share of sexual predators, the difference is we don't use scripture to legally protect it.