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Women turning to Islam are aware that many cannot understand why any Western woman would choose a religion often depicted as oppressive of women.
But they insist that depiction is a false image perpetuated by the media, and that in fact Islam is more forward-thinking about gender than many Western traditions. As evidence, they note that Islam allowed women to own property and vote long before Western cultures.
In modelling a more egalitarian form of Islamic culture in the US than in some parts of the world, these women also say they may influence Muslims worldwide.
"Unfortunately, the way Islam is practised currently in some countries is not ideal," said Christina Safiya Tobias-Nahi, 30, who became Muslim six years ago.
"A lot of countries are looking to see how we practise it here, and we have the potential to be a really strong role model for men and women in other countries."
These new Muslim women generally choose to cover their hair with a scarf, or hijab, to follow Muslim dietary laws that include prohibitions on pork and alcohol, and to pray five times a day.
Many of their families are profoundly unhappy.
"When I got home ... my dad didn't want his other kids to see me in my hijab," Ms Graziano said. On the other hand, "It's liberating because people don't look at you and think about your figure and your hairstyle, and guys don't look at you and think about making a pass at you."
American Muslim women tend to view the subjugation of women in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran as aberrant examples of Islam.
They point to the fact that while no woman has been a serious contender for president of the US, Muslim women have led Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey and a Muslim woman is poised to become the next leader of Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world.
Islam, as a religion which (unlike Christianity) refused to attribute gender to the Godhead,1 and never appointed a male priestly elite to serve as an intermediary between creature and Creator, started life with the assurance that while men and women are equipped by nature for complementary rather than identical roles, no spiritual superiority inheres in the masculine principle.2 As a result, the Muslim community was happy to entrust matters of equal worth in God's sight. Only this can explain why, uniquely among the classical Western religions, Islam produced a large number of outstanding female scholars, on whose testimony and sound judgment much of the edifice of Islam depends.
I take it that you dispute that Crusade means "holy war" and is a term strongly associated with violence by members of a particular religion against those of other religions, and as appropriately a "trigger" term as Jihad when used by modern leaders in the context of conflict between people?Chadarnook said:Go fuck yourself. Debate what I write or stfu.
cru·sade Audio pronunciation of "crusade" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kr-sd)
n.
1. often Crusade Any of the military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.
2. A holy war undertaken with papal sanction.
3. A vigorous concerted movement for a cause or against an abuse. See Synonyms at campaign.
More worth attention than most of what Chadarnook posts, though.
Not really. Dictionaries list in descending order of usage/association.Chadarnook said:It's pretty obvious that everyone associates it with #3.
What, this is true IMO. It's even a fairly good article as far as such go - worth the read. Unlike many of the links you provided in the next thread over, most of which provided little to nothing worthwhile in terms of information and were, in some cases, rather poorly written.Chadarnook said:I was addressing:and nothing more.TJHairball said:More worth attention than most of what Chadarnook posts, though.
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