:bism: (In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful)
format_quote Originally Posted by
czgibson
Greetings,
Greetings, old friend! :)
It's being discussed, so it's an issue by definition.
"issue: a subject or problem that people are thinking and talking about" (Cambridge English Dictionary)
Peace
How unfortunate that your words remind me of sometimes the attacks leveled on President Donald Trump. True, I don't have a high opinion of our current U.S. President, but there are honestly some accusations that strike me as hysterical and even patently over the top against President Donald Trump to paint a false picture. As someone who deliberately voted for Former Secretary Hillary Clinton and someone who has self-identified as a liberal on the political spectrum her entire life, I can tell you that it is these types of idiotic reactions have given ammunition to the people on the right of the political spectrum to continue to defeat Democrats despite populist leftist policies being that with which most American people agree regardless of their political affiliation.
Similarly, "issues" as you say as the above are similarly being discussed on Internet circles, but these topics are blatantly presented in a hysterical and over the top fashion to unequivocally paint a false picture, and then they cannot understand why Muslims like me continue to ignore their stupidity. Let's remember that the highest percentage of people who convert to Islam are from the female population, not men; and it is about time I think that we stop infantilizing Muslims generally and specifically Muslim women and thinking of them as lower beings who are willing to subjugate their intellect to what is supposedly an "inferior" and "sexist" and "misogynistic" religion. To clarify, I have discussed this topic previously, not because I think it is an issue in Islam but because these comprise of ridiculous charges made against Muslims as a "gotcha" or worse to show us as people who are thinking "happy" thoughts about women of other faiths being raped under the subjugation of Islam.
Let's be clear: Rape is sick, disgusting, immoral, and evil (in any situation, historical or present). And Islam never said or even implied it is okay to rape any person regardless of their religious or political affiliation in any situation (historical or present). And for anyone to say or imply otherwise is to perpetuate a lie. There were situations in wartime or in the aftermath of war in which women were taken under the protection of Muslim households to prevent them from falling into destitution or prostitution, and the reality is that we as human beings form attachments to even animals if we're living with them, never mind actual human beings. So, Islam addressed the reality that a romantic attachment or physical attraction may form between the man and the woman when they are interacting with one another on a daily basis (even given the observation of modesty emphasized in Islam). So, Islam gave permission in those situations for men to not forswear sex with those women provided they know to treat the women as human beings who are given rights similar to a legal wife if not the actual status of a legal wife. The woman's status in that household then becomes identical to that of Biblical Hagar who was a handmaiden to Sarah and was not the actual or legal wife of Prophet Abraham
(may peace be upon him); just as Hagar was not a "sex slave" just because she consented to have sexual relations with Prophet Abraham, the woman in this situation did not become a "sex slave" either by virtue of her status in the household in that time. Sexual slavery is literally something else, something of which probably 99.99% Internet trolls have no idea but like to level as a charge against Islam. And as someone who has dealt with some sexual trafficking victims in my line of work and know the ensuing trauma these victims face and carry as a burden, I have no compunction in giving Internet trolls a figurative middle finger in my mind for their idiotic charges made in hatred against "Mooselimbs" and Islam but I suppose stupid is as stupid does.
Peace.