New book says the Qur'an gives women the same rights as men

Really, does it? So says one Nimat Hafez Barazangi, according to The Cornell Chronicle. Ms. Barazangi (and I choose that honorific deliberately) is a career feminist, of course. She insists that evil patriarchical tribal chiefs and other leaders have willfully misrepresented the Koran and what it has to say about the role of women.

Haven't I heard this sort of thing before? Yes. Replace Koran with Bible and you would naturally say, "Been there, done that, so what else is new?" The gender-inclusive language "debate" strikes modern Islam, just as it struck against Christianity. And once again, just as the Christians have seen it, a new generation of women seeks to strike at the foundations of Islam with a pick-ax.

Sorry, Nimat, but it won't wash. Muhammad wrote the Koran, for cryin' out loud. (You don't really believe that the Angel Gabriel gave the Koran to Muhammad on the mountain, do you? I doubt that you believe in much of anything--but that's another topic.) Muhammad was the biggest oinker of the lot--oh, sorry, Muslims don't touch pork, do they? Here's a man who took several wives, and his last was nine years old! And you think you're going to read that man's words as plumping for women's rights??? I've got news for you: according to the Koran and the Hadith, women are property. The Koran even has a verse prescribing wife-beating in it, similar to the original "rule of thumb" so infamous in legal circles. (A man was not liable for beating his wife so long as the rod he struck her with was no wider than the judge's thumb.) Muhammad even had a few words to say--favorable--about the rape-murder of women taken prisoner in war!

But what else can I expect? So many people look for compromise, usually between secularism and religion. I have two pieces of advice, Nimat:

1. Jesus loves you, and promises you a much better Deal--both personally and for women generally--than Muhammad ever did or meant to.
2. Watch your back. Remember Theo van Gogh.