Bilal Philips – Misconceptions About Muslims Part 1
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the misconceptions of divorce and the importance of strong legal frameworks in protecting individuals from terrorist activity. They also touch on the spread of diseases like AIDS and major Venereal diseases, the importance of education for women, and the cultural context of the society. The speakers emphasize the need for a strong legal framework and solutions to the situation, including the importance of protecting individuals from terrorist activity and the separation of women and men.
AI: Summary ©
salatu salam, ala rasulillah.
All praise is due to a law
of Peace and blessings beyond the last prophet of Allah,
Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, and and all the prophets of the law, and then all those who seek the path of righteousness until the last day.
The title of this evening's presentation
is popular misconceptions about Islam or about Muslims.
This topic is actually a very vast topic.
And the time that we have this evening is somewhat limited.
Especially considering that we're starting in about half an hour late.
Whatever going to do is divided into two basic areas.
One concerning
belief, that is misconceptions held by non Muslims concerning Muslim Denise.
And the other section will be misconceptions concerning the practices of ones.
And even these practices will themselves be divided according to
those practices, which have a religious origin to them, as well as those practices, which may be defined as purely social cultural practice.
Now,
beginning with the area of Muslims,
and the misconceptions surrounding them, and as I said, I will not attempt to cover all of the misconceptions, because we would be adults all night. If we were to try to do that, I will just cover the major ones, which I have found repeated quite often. And perhaps during the question and answer session, after the presentation. If you have some other questions that you would like to raise concerning
beliefs or practices that you feel you might have some misconceptions
with regard, then you may raise them, and perhaps you may be able to find some answers for you.
So as I said, We'll begin with the least
the first misconception concerns the concept of God.
Most non Muslim Westerners, or Easterners are familiar with the idea that Muslims call their gods a law
or officially pronounced in the West as
we pronounce it actually as a law.
The idea that the the whole usually is that somehow this god that Muslims
believe in, is a different God.
Christians have a god. And Muslims have another God, who they call among.
The fact is, that
God when we talk about the Creator, Sustainer
of the universe,
that God is the same God.
The God
for Muslims worship is the creator and Sustainer of universe
and even the name itself a law.
It is an Arabic
word, which means
the one and only God
who alone deserves to be worshipped.
And that is an idea which is shared by
God, one two, God is the only one who really should be worship.
And this is what the term a law means.
So whether you call God Jehovah,
or in Korean, Hallo name,
or whatever you call him.
As long as you're talking about that one creator and Sustainer of the universe, then we're talking essentially about the same God.
And this gun, from an Islamic perspective
is not in any way.
A special god of Muslims
As you may find in the Old Testament where
God is referred to was the Lord, God of Israel.
When you read many of the texts of sorts, it gives you the impression that the god here is like a special God of Israel, you know, he's the God only of Israel, there's nobody else God, you know, and because of that the people of Israel became the chosen children of God. They have special rights that nobody else has. This is not the Islamic concept. No, God is God of the universe is not a god, many special people are placed etc.
The second misconception concerning disease
is that Islam is a new religion.
It's usually referred to in books as the latest of the three great monotheistic
religions, or faith
is usually referred to they made this
new.
However,
it's Islam does not consider itself to be new.
The Prophet Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him, never claimed that he was bringing a new religion. And if you read the book of Revelation, which Muslims follow the Koran, from beginning to end, you will not find anywhere where Islam is referred to as a new religion. In fact, what you find is God saying that Islam was the religion of Abraham.
It was the religion of Adam. It was religion, of David, of Solomon, on a panel of all the prophets, those who may know, as well as those who do not know that Islam was in fact, the religion, the true religion of God revealed to marry.
And if one were to compare
the pillars of faith
in Islam,
with those health, for example, by Christianity,
what you would find is, in fact,
there are parallels.
Islam is a specific, specifically defined set of
pillars which are called the pillars of faith. You have the Pillars of Islam in terms of practice. I'm sure some of you have heard of the five pillars of Islam. One is the declaration of faith. Second one being, prayer, the compulsory prayer, and the heads going to make
a pilgrimage to Mecca, and giving
compulsory charity and fasting in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, known as Ramadan. These are the five pillars of Islam. And then you have along with that, six pillars of each of these six pillars, our
first belief in a belief in one God,
second, believe in the angels of God.
Third, believe in the prophets of God.
Fourth, in the Scriptures, revealed to those prophets
in the afterlife, that his resurrection
and judgment
and six in destiny,
both of the evil they are off, and the book
these are considered the six pillars of
faith or any man. Now these pillars
are found in Christianity. And no Christian would would argue against these fillers. I mean, these are part of the faith belief system of Christianity also.
Of course, what may one may ask after that is, well,
if they're all found in Christianity, then what was the need for Islam in Firstly,
why didn't we just stay with Christianity?
Well,
lo we share
the same
having
the same type of
belief in one God.
Belief in the Prophet,
the angels etc. The concept
That God, the prophets, the angels, the scriptures, the afterlife, the judgment etc, is different. There there is a difference in concept. So, just to give you briefly an example, in the Christian concept,
which comes out of Jewish tradition,
God is portrayed as one who rested on the seventh day,
after
creating the world, etc, he rested on the seventh day, Sabbath became the Day of Prayer. Whereas, in Islamic
Relief, God does not rest.
Rest is a quality of human beings.
Human beings need rest after you work along they are tired, and they refuse to recuperate. This is not a quality of God.
So there's a difference in terms of how God is perceived. In the case of the angel,
in the Christian concept, angels, you have good angels and bad Angel.
You know, Satan is considered to have been a bad Angel.
The Fallen Angel is called Lucifer. Whereas in the Islamic concept, no angels cannot do evil. Angels are being who are created by God, to do His will, within the universe.
And they cannot disobey God, they do not have free will, human being as free will.
The next category, that of the Prophet, in the case of Islamic prophets are looked at as being examples for mankind.
Good examples for mankind, as to how to live a righteous life. God's revelation, and the prophets became the examples of how to put that revelation into practice, how to live that revelation.
They were pure individuals who are protected by God from committing sin.
Not that they never committed any errors or mistakes, in judgment between what was good, and what is better, but that they never committed sin.
They were to be examples of a chosen by God, when revelation came to them, and this was the guidance for them. Whereas in the
biblical accounts, we find prophets committing *, you know,
adultery, and all kinds of
Kenya's sins and crimes are attributed to the Prophet. Again, the difference in context.
And when we go to the Scriptures, again to the questions of what constitutes scripture
is different Islamic concepts, what is scripture from God is what is revealed, the revealed Word of God.
So,
the, what we call the New Testament, you know, made up of the Gospels and the writings of Paul, after this would not be considered scripture.
What was revealed to Jesus, the gospel, if that had been written down.
So if we have it available today, and my thing it wasn't written down at the time of Jesus, but if we had it available today, as was revealed to Jesus, that we would consider it to be scripture, the song, as was revealed to David, that was considered scripture, but what we have today, which is called a psalm, which contains a lot of extraneous material things which have been added and deleted and written by human beings, we don't consider this to be scripture, we say it may contain some of the teachings of the Scriptures, but we would not classify it as being scripture.
And of course, the afterlife.
the afterlife, in terms of resurrection and judgment,
there is a lot closer similarity. However,
you may find accounts within you know, Christian tradition where Paradise is limited to 144,000
you know, you have some * really get off in this particular aspect and you know, it is that what it is, you know, it's only 144,000 going after that the doors are locked. Nobody else is making it into
where
From an Islamic perspective with all people
who submitted their wills to God follows the revelation of the Prophet lived righteous life, we all have the right to enter Paradise.
And the last half the battle, definitely.
Again, this area, maybe Christianity, and it's not really as clearly defined, you have a number of different interpretations as to what, to what degree there is, man's freewill, etc. In Islam, the concept of destiny are fairly clearly defined.
So though, these six pillars can be found, within Christian teachings, what we find is that what the prophet brought was clarity,
the confusion which had developed around these principles of faith, Islam, the final form of Islam came to purify these bring them back to their original state, to clarify for people, you know, what, in fact, are the
correct concepts of faith.
Another major misconception is that Mohammed, may God's peace and blessings be upon him is
a,
an intercessor, or mediator.
Just as for example, in Christian context, he,
people may pray through him use his name and prayer, you know, or may pray for him directly.
People get the impression that that is the same thing or the same way that Muslims may also use the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. However, in the case of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him is considered to be a human being who received revelation and conveyed that revelation to us. We do not direct any form of worship to him. We did not pray through him, or to him in any way, shape, or form.
Because we believe firmly that only God can answer prayer. And there is no need for any intermediary between man and God.
Another misconception is that the Koran was written by Mohammed, they got it upon him. However,
the prophet
was unable to read or write.
He dictated the revelation, certain scribes were out. And they wrote down these revelations, he did not write himself.
There's also the misconception that Muslims don't believe, for example, in the virgin birth of Jesus,
or the miracle, which he worked, or that he will return to the earth. Actually, all these three are part and parcel of Islamic belief. systems are required to believe in the virgin birth. There is a chapter in the Quran called the chapter of marriage, in which the birth of Jesus described in detail.
We believe in the miracles and miracles I mentioned there, bring that back to life,
taking the blind see, etc. However,
as it is presented in the Koran, it is made clear Jesus, when you work these miracles, he made clear to the people that he was doing it by the will of God.
So there would not be confusion in people's minds, that he was in fact God and doing things, but he was doing it by the will of God is a miracle to God works on his hands.
And of course, in return, Muslims believe that one of the signs of the last day will be the returning of Christ to the earth. In fact, we do not believe that he was crucified. This is where the difference comes in. more clearly.
We believe he was raised up by God. And it was made to seem to the people who tried to kill him with crucify him, but they did so. However, as the quiet explained, they did not succeed. God raised Him up and he would return us to the earth as one of the signs the last day
another
misconception which is also expressed, is that Mohammed? May God's peace and blessings be upon him, did not work any miracles.
In fact,
there are many miracles which are recorded which he did. But you'll find usually in Muslim literature that very little references made to it No, no great emphasis is put on. Why? Because the miracles which were done
during his lifetime, were considered to be of particular significance
to the people to whom he initially was set.
For a person today to be expected to believe in a miracle, which happened the time of Prophet Jesus, this is something which
is simply a matter of faith. I mean, there was no evidence for one to be convinced that you know, really, this did happen, or it didn't happen.
It's either believe it or you don't.
So what is usually emphasized, is the miracle of the Koran, because this is the standing miracle. Because Muslims believe Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him, was the last of the Prophet, none were to come after him. Then he left behind him a miracle, which would stand up to the day of judgment as evidence and proof to mankind, who thought
that he was, in fact, a prophet of God.
So
the Prophet did perform many miracles. But the most important miracle, the one of particular significance,
today, and in the future, is that of the quarter Island.
And the miracle of the crime lies not only as a literary masterpiece, which is inimitable, people have tried to imitate his style and content in the past and failed. And the challenge is there in the quad. For anyone who does not believe that this is from God, they should produce one chapter like smallest chapters towards the end of the Quran. A short, three verses,
four minutes challenge the challenge in Arabic
and the miracle of the crime, the material aspect of it. For a person who doesn't know Arabic is a little difficult to grasp. But for those people who have learned Arabic, and you have people like Maurice Buckeye, a French doctor who took the time to study Arabic, learn it and read the blog. And, you know, he became very convinced that this was in fact the Word of God and there are a number of orientalist, you know, Western writers who have
studied at length and speak, you know, quite eloquently concerning the
literary
greatness of the Koran, in Arabic collisional. However, there are certain other aspects which are more tangible to the non Arab, the non Arabic meeting speaking individuals, but that is in the line of
scientific facts
and information
which could not have been grasped at the time 1400 years ago when the Quran was revealed. information which has only come to light with the development of the microscope, the telescope, etc.
There are books which have been written, one of the most well known of these books called the quiet the Bible, in science, in which the same Dr. Moore's book I went on, to compare the different statements of the Bible in the Quran with regard to what are known to be modern scientific facts. And he showed time and time again, where the Bible seemed to contradict, you know, what is known to be scientific facts today, whereas the court consistently agrees with the scientific facts.
The last of the points I wanted to mention concerning Denise
Is that
Islam
is only for Arabs. This is a concept which many people have mistakenly thought Islam is for Arabs. However, when you take stock of all the Muslims, you'll find the Arabs who were in the Middle East area at up to about 100 million, whereas Muslims
in the rest
of the world
are approximately 900 million. So I are in a very small minority amongst Muslims. And you can in no way say that Islam is fire, Muslims and Arabs are synonymous.
This is not the case. In some places
where
people came in contact with Islam to the Turks. As in the case, for example of Yugoslavia, you'll find the Serbs and others will tend to refer to Muslims as Turks have made
them and Turks anonymous.
In other areas, I know in the West Indies,
in Trinidad, Barbados, and in Guyana, where the majority of Muslims were of Indian origin, they were brought as indentured laborers to work field their
people, the other people tend to look at Muslims as being synonymous with Indian as being like an Indian religion.
And in America, where
certain individuals have been promoted to the forefront as being representatives of Islam,
Islam has been identified with black people. And this is the religion of black people, you know, the name farrakhan and Niger, Mohammed, these are the names that tend to be associated with what in fact, both of these two individuals had nothing to do with Islam at all. Elijah Muhammad would not be considered a Muslim in any way, shape, or form. You have been in Islam, but he is inland, his teachings have nothing to do with Islam. Similarly, farrakhan is considered to be a deviant to the point of never ever been in Islam.
And Islam has nothing to do with color. So any individual who may try to promote Islam as being the religion of this group, or that
this nationality or that nationality
is in fact, teaching or giving deviant teachings.
Now, in terms of the religious
practices, which
when we find certain misconceptions,
the most common is that polygamy
usually once a person says,
especially in the West, you know, a person finds out you're a Muslim, the first thing they ask about is polygamy, this polygamy. You know, the idea in their mind is that most Muslims are polygamous.
However, when you go around the Muslim world,
what you find is that the percentage of people practicing polygamy, though, it is legally
valid, within any Muslim society is allowed to make practices, you don't find more than 10 to 15% of any given society practices.
Right here.
If you ask the 1000s, who are here in the room here, in this hall, how many of you have more than one way you will find that the actual numbers are quite small.
And the reason being
that polygamy is not just a free license, you know, like a free for all, I have like four wives, so I just won't get the four and you know, marry up.
You know, where you might find you know, I think Finally, because people think in terms of the woman, you know, moments where, you know, I've seen people come on television, guys, young guys. 25 years 36 wives, wow. 36 wives. Well, this, the idea of
all these wives and the concept of a man's role in relationship to his wife is quite different. It's not an open license that you might find, for example, amongst Mormons and others.
When Islam came, Islam didn't bring polygamy. polygamy was already in practice
in the Arabian
peninsula and around the world, threatening Christians practice polygamy, Jews back, people around the world practice, what is
the final form?
It's limited that number before
and it define the responsibilities in man, when he takes a second wife, that second wife is equal to his first wife, he must maintain her in the same way that he maintains the first wife,
equitably, not necessarily equally, because needs might be different, but equitably.
So, it is a responsibility.
It is not just a an open light. So, in a situation where a man now if he gets married to a second wife, you have to provide a home for that second wife,
yes, has to prove, you know, provides all of her needs, just as he provides for the first one, it becomes an economic burden for simple
which means that most people in the society either are not able or do not wish to take on the burden. So though they may wish
to have a second life,
and it is part of the nature of men
to want to have
another companion
this nature is either expressed in a legal way.
For example, in flowers has been legalized and responsibilities, right the cetera defined for it is expressed in an illegal way. In societies where you find monogamy is the law. But a man may have three or four girlfriends.
Or he
or he practices what we call serial polygamy, he marries one for a while, and he bought into a marriage another one for a while he divorces you know, you have
this, this, this desire for a multiplicity or, or variety, you know, is there, but it's just expressed in these on the forum.
So, though the desire may be there, within the Islamic context, the laws are quite clear in terms of responsibilities. So what you'll find is most Muslims, you know, just put the desire in the back. I mean, when the men talk, you know, compensation may creep around in that area, and maybe talk about the
second wife, I just can't afford it.
So it just stays in the area of
the
next major area of misconception concerning religious practices is that of divorce. I know when
I was checking out about Islam, when I was told about
was that Muslims, you know, when they want to get before the manager tells his wife really wants to divorce or divorce three times.
Great procedure.
And, of course, it's not very good sort of a practice to the woman guidance.
But when you actually get into the system, and you understand the way the law operates, what you actually find it is not that
there is a waiting period, there are conditions they may or may not pronounce divorce, when a woman is on her period.
Because
we know that when the woman goes through these biological changes,
it affects her psychology, often, you'll find women tend to be crankier around the time of their periods. So, due to this crankiness some disagreements may around may arise, and then a man may pronounce divorce because of annoying. So Islam prohibits divorce from being pronounced
when a woman is in her periods, one, two, he may not pronounce the word
in this
term between periods, if he has had sexual relations with his wife,
he has to go into a period where term wherein he has not had any sexual relations with her. So in other words, he's saying Okay, I'm going to pronounce the words I'm prepared Now, in order to
you know, I do not want to have any further sexual relations with you. This is put aside
and he now makes a rational choice.
If he decides he wants to go back to his wife,
then the divorce is canceled.
And even after the pronouncement of divorce, a man must wait three months three courses for the woman, she has to have another set of peers, and another set of peers. And on the third step, this is when the divorce is finalized.
And they should, they're supposed to live together, when the divorce is pronounced, they live together to give them an opportunity to be certain, whether this, in fact, is the route they want to take. And what you find in the Muslim countries is that usually when a marriage is a stage of phenomenon, divorce, the families will intervene. Because you have an extended family structure when, when two people married, it is not like in Western society where two individuals are married here, in our families don't come into play, what a man does here between him and him and his wife, you know, families don't get involved. Usually they don't, yeah, cases where they do, but usually
they don't. Whereas here, it is usually the case that they do get involved, it's unusual that they don't.
So you have these other factors that are there to try to work out the situation, and you'll find some solutions. So that divorce isn't like a common feature. You know, like in Western societies, you know, you find the divorce rate is almost 50% of marriages,
almost 50%.
Whereas here, the divorce rate is, it's, it's considered a high now, when it has reached 10%.
Here, and other countries, you know, this region where it has gone up to 20%, is considered alarmingly high.
The third concept I'd like to clarify is that of the worship of the copper,
people see the carbon, black cube on the television, see most of them in a circle around it falling down. And many have expressed to me that so why are you Muslims worshipping this object here?
I mean, what is inside of it, you gotta either live there? Or what do you keep inside of?
Why do you worship this object?
Actually,
this object is
a house of worship, in itself.
It is the house of worship, which was built by Prophet Abraham, according to Muslim belief, by Prophet Abraham, when he brought his wife, Hagar, and Ishmael and left.
He came back later after leaving them there. And when smile was
a young man, together, they built this house of worship.
And then, we believe to be the first house of worship, dedicated to the worship, the ones who got on.
So what has happened is that this house of worship has become the direction in which Muslims pray, not an object of worship, because you may go inside and pray inside there.
And people do, at certain times of the year, it has opened up and doors that are there near there, whatever we go inside and pray inside there. So it is not an object of worship. It signifies the link with the religion of Abraham was generally looked at as being like the father of the Prophet.
The link between Islam that we know today, that it is, in fact, a renewal, revival of Islam, meaning submission to the will of God, the religion of God, which was taught by Prophet Abraham. And when you go into the right of the pilgrimage itself, what you find is that much of it is related to the practice of Prophet Abraham, the walking, or Abraham or his wife, Hagar, for example, the walking between Ottawa
significant mountains of Mount Muslims walk between them during the rites of pilgrimage. And this is significant,
say in commemoration of the search of
a guard, the wife of Prophet Abraham, for water when she was left in the valleys by Prophet Abraham. And the sacrifice which takes place there during this period is also in commemoration of the sacrifice of Prophet Abraham, his willingness to sacrifice his son, which was replaced by an animal that will stand by
Also sacrificed animal during the
pilgrimage.
Another concept is that Muslims don't eat pork, because it is unclean.
Actually, in fact, according to Islamic law, pork is not considered merely specifically unclean. It is prohibited by God as his alcohol
and other practices, whether it's fornication, adultery, stealing, etc, these positions are for the protection of the human being,
either on a spiritual level,
magnify a vision of
use of any kind of icons, or images in worship, to protect him from falling into idolatry
or
protecting him on a social level like the admission of
adultery,
and fornication,
protection of his physical health, in the case of alcohol, and to some degree in the case of support
and
protection of his
his being in fashion that we may not even be able to comprehend.
Maybe not at this point in time, maybe 10 years from now, 50 years from now, or maybe never.
But we'd be believe that the prohibitions which God has given
is for the protection of math, and not arbitrarily identifying certain things as being unclean, you just don't touch this, but you make up stuff. But these things have in them harm to the human being. And because of that, they were pretty much
the job or the covering of the Muslim woman
covered covering up your body, either completely,
or everything except for face at hand. This covering has traditionally been looked at know from weapons circles as being oppression of the Muslim woman. She's a prep, she cannot dress she field, show her finery, this type of thing. She's obliged to cover herself up. And this is looked at as being more pressure.
Well, in fact,
it is liberation.
It liberates her
from
the oppression of men
from the harassment of men,
which is the natural product of
mixing men and women together, where women expose themselves.
All we have to do is look at the statistics
for race
in America over the last 60 years, 70 years,
we see a major increase taking place.
And this can also be linked with
the undressing of the North American female,
as her clothes got shorter, unless
we find rates increasing correspondingly,
it is not surprising.
So Islam recognizing that there is a fundamental and basic animal attraction between men and women.
One, which men because they are stronger, will tend to put into practice.
If given an opportunity
in order to protect women from unwanted advances,
they are covered.
And this is the intent.
When in the privacy of their home, they're perfectly
allowed to show they're finally dressed
in fancy dresses or whatever, you know, beauties beautify themselves because in their in their home, those people who will appreciate this like their husband,
if it moves him to you know be physical memory, this is something in the right context is allowed.
Legal
is in a state of marriage. This is some
beneficial for the society.
Whereas when she's outside the home,
she does not want these kind of advances, which would create a situation which is harmful to the society, where adultery, *, etc, you know, not only harms the children that come out of this relationship, but it also becomes a major
reason for the spread of disease.
When we look at the issues of AIDS, and herpes, the major venereal diseases etc. This is most widespread in the societies that are most promiscuous, where the male female relationship is wide open, then
this is where it spreads most rapidly.
This is why when aids became a major issue, people were talking about, you know, celibacy. You know, this is it,
you're going out,
you know, you the only way to protect yourself is virtually to be celibate. And are you married to this woman that
have any other religious crap, you know, people's
lifestyle.
But in fact, what you find in Muslim societies where relationships are limited, are kept within clear, limited bounds, that the spread of race
is on a much lower level not to say it's not taking place, because
Muslim societies lead a society of angels, you have people also committing adultery or fornication there, but the incidence is much less.
The last of the principles
are practices, which are religiously based, wherein there tends to be some misconceptions is that of the law, the criminal law,
the public executions,
application,
which is usually described
in western press is the hacking off.
And
this is looked at as being barbaric.
They call it a medieval
name. However,
what we find is that,
one, when a hand is amputated, it's not just a situation that a person still wants, and his coffin had chopped off. Just like that, you know, the issue of cutting a hand is something which
only takes place where
certain
principles have been applied. One,
if a person were to steal,
and he was working for somebody who was not paying in his wages, if he stole from him, the law would not be applied,
is justified.
If he stole in a circumstance where something was out in the open, you know, you left your, your watch
on the depth and he stole it, they're not gonna cut your hand.
The cutting of the hand, is for the individual with like a professional criminal.
One with deliberate, breaking into your hole, cracking your safe picking your pocket. These are people now it's not a question of just temptation. You know, it's like this guy, this is his plan. He's looking for a shortcut, you're working to earn your money, he doesn't want to work. He wants to shortcut he wants to take something for nothing. That individual he loses
if what he has stolen, has a value, you know, which is over a certain limit. It's not just you, you know, you're still a pen and paper. Put your hand No, I mean, did have a set value somewhere in the neighborhood of around 500 or something of that and upwards. That being compensated.
And the public executions of course in the western system, where
the idea of executing people for murder. You know, it stopped in many places though, people are bringing it back again.
You know, people have argued that when we execute murderers, this has not reduced crime.
We killed them, but they're still committing murders. So this execution is really not any form of deterrence.
However, in this society
where the execution takes place, publicly,
it has a different effect. Because it's different between different you know, when you take somebody into a bathroom, and you kill him there, you know, you hang him or you put some gaff on him or putting money in electric chair, the society doesn't see that only a selected group of people go in reporters or whatever. And they watch this and decided to hold of the seat. So in other words, this does not have any effect on the society.
at all, cruel, loud, cracking next to electricity just terrible.
We're here,
the execution is public,
not because of the show,
but because the intent behind
the application of the law is to deter others.
And the most effective way is for them to see this application. And this is why in the past, I mean, go back 100 years, you know, 200 years.
What she did find was public executions. You look at the old cowboy movies, I mean, they erected a gallows, you know, the whole town of gathering they would hang that's criminal.
It was public execution.
And what you'll find here is that 8 million people here
in the kingdom
knows who are executed usernames are read out.
Every Friday, usually, in the afternoons, they have a column that says,
because
if you add up the total numbers that are losing their head,
over the year,
you will find them and in the process of justice here is very swift, you don't have a whole set of people on death roll just wasting, you know, year after year, and lawyers fighting their cases.
I mean, if you commit murder, the evidence is clear. Without a doubt, 100% because they're not going to cut your head. If there is some doubts there. If there is any doubt that you didn't actually commit this crime, then
they may hold you in jail until sufficient
research has been done on the case. And if not enough, evidence is produced in the end, they will have to let you go, they will not execute you unless 100%. So once you finally add up the total number of losing their heads here, and here, you find that this total number is less
than the total number, who knew who committed murders
in New York City, which is 8 million people all in one week.
This is reality.
The difference is that great
as the major factor is that factor
determines.
So it doesn't mean that because people see executions taking place, that nobody is going to execute anybody and then murder anybody, because you have what they call crimes of passion, a person just
given an instance and he commits a murder.
So these will remain no matter what laws you put into effect. As such people are the ones mostly were killed, either people who have come under the influence of drugs
or they have committed crimes of passion. These are the people who are executed,
who commit the murder and are executed.
And according to lawyer if a person is insane, he is not executed.
However, we don't have in Islamic law what is known as temporary insanity.
You know this principle of temporary insanity where people can plead temporary insanity in western systems. In order to get enough psychiatry some lawyers and fossils together they can well they can show that this man lost his mind.
In the Islamic system law,
a person is judged insane if he was known to be insane before the crime is the person
who you don't have any doubts about this man belongs in hospital care, usually people keep such people in their homes and hospitals and that they become really violent.
So it has to be somebody who was known insane before the crash. Because really, when you look at the description of what the psychiatrist
puts for what the person, you know, what is it first of all considered to be insane, most of us would be considered insane, just walking around without doing anything, this man is insane. He's got this neural system, this cycle system system that
we're all virtually insane.
Wherever, from the flutter point of view, as I said, you can't have any pleas of temporary insanity. If you commit a crime, you are not known to have been insane before that crime, that you are going to suffer the penalty
in the area of social practice.
One, as I mentioned before, this idea that the Muslim is looking to hire this is not true, because you have Arabs or Christians
are for atheists.
So, when crimes of terrorism
take place?
No, these have been attributed to the Arab Muslims Arabs.
In fact,
it has nothing to do with Islam and
Islam prohibits terrorism,
terrorism being the taking of innocent life, people who are not involved in the conflict,
not involved in the war for you to put a bomb on a bus or on an airplane, you know, in a public place, train station, whatever, and just knock people out. This is prohibited.
The laws
concerning war are very clear what a Muslim soldier won was fighting a battle what he can do what he can do, you cannot kill innocent
people. A man who takes up a gun against you, you have the rights against him. Just go you kill him You can his wife and his children, his uncle, and everybody. This is prohibited. So Islam does not support terrorism in any way, shape, or form.
Another
social practice that of separation of women and men, were here, for example, women,
educated separately, there's a tendency to think, again to hear is the oppression of women, women cannot mix with men.
But again, this was for their protection.
The educational institutions
are there for them. Education is provided all the way to PhD. But it's separate education, they're taught by other female
banks, bank branches have been set up for them to be able to comfortably do their, their banking, without having to be in service of men, this has been provided for them.
You have market areas,
stores where in only women are allowed to go in.
Women want to buy
underclock
they don't necessarily want a man to be asking them well. What is the size
fit, you know, they would prefer if they have to deal with you know this thing prefer to deal with another woman. There's something embarrassing kind of situation. So for their protection from these kind of
clothing stores, you know, now especially springing up as people are becoming more and more conscious, which are especially for women.
And as I said, the separation is something fundamentally for the protection of women. only consider for example, cases that are right now in the courts.
In the Navy, where naval officers are being dismissed, because they had a party, in which male and female naval officers got together in the hotel and
demand line, the hallway of the hotel, it forced the woman to run through, like running the gauntlet. And, you know, they molested them, ripped off their clothes, followed them, etc, etc.
I mean, this is not an isolated incident incidents, but something which, you know, women are more and more talking about harassment of women on the job in their various, whether it's in the Army, Air Force, Navy, as lawyers, as doctors, as you know, the harassment of women is something which is being exposed more and more in situations, these particular situations where people are mixing freely. And as I said, Islam, nothing this has been a natural result. So in order to protect women,
they're separate.
They function amongst themselves, they can be themselves without the intimidation or the pressure of males.
One common misconception which I heard amongst many of the military that have come here was that most
Muslim men, here, they're almost excellent.
Because
as they will point out, see them all again.
Because in North America, if we see two men walking down the street holding hands, we automatically assume these two are gay or homosexual.
People have taken this practice, and then tried to analyze this culture on the basis of this, so they see me walking holding hands here. So here it is.
But in fact,
this is something which is just a part of the culture here. You know, not that it has any homosexual ramifications at all.
I know it's something for a Western person is very difficult really to grasp. And even myself, although I've been here for a long time, I know when you know, people took a hold of my hand, you know, I felt a little funny. in the initial stages, I pull my hand away.
And then sort of not to be, you know, to embarrass people, and that I would allow them to hold my hand. But you know, I still felt fine, even to this day, you know, now that even though most of it has gone away, but still, even to this day, you know, one of my Muslim friends need to hold my hand, I do feel a little funny.
But this is just cultural backgrounds. You know, I mean, I've never experienced anybody, you know,
making any homosexual advances to me after he held my hand. I mean, this is just the reality. And I've been here for, what, 18 years. So I'm living in different parts of the kingdom also. It's not the same as homosexuals. Here of course, there are in this society is
a society of human beings and these deviant
practices will arise and there will be here also, this society does not condone it.
The laws are very stringent. Again, you will see amongst some of those people who lose their heads or those who were caught, you know, practicing homosexuality
because the penalty for the course Islamic law