As the late, great Paul Harvey was fond of saying, usually when commenting on some outlandish practice in another part of the world, a part of the world where the American standards of liberty and property don't apply, it's not one world. Never is that more true, more easily observed, than when taking in the pronouncements of certain Muslim clerics. Some of these people blithely excuse things we find anathema; spousal abuse, child marriage, and the death penalty for gay people.
Here's the thing: Some of these people aren't ranting from some cave in Crapholistan. They are here, in the comfortable environs of Western civilization, and are preaching a message that we can and should find horrifying.
Case in point: In the United Kingdom, in the Hackney Islamic Community Centre, "teacher" Yasin Munye is making some statements that should have sane people recoiling in horror.
Many of the most extreme views are contained in a series of video lectures delivered from the centre by Yasin Munye, an 'ustaadh' (teacher) who reads from Manthumatu al-Kaba'ir, a poem that collects what Islam recognises as 'major sins'.
He defined one of them as: 'Disobeying the husband, leaving the house without his permission, and disobeying the husband when it comes to calling her to bed, when it comes to calling her for intimacy, when she says 'no' without any excuse'.
He said: 'Advise her, and boycott her in bed, don't touch her in bed - and discipline them physically as well, by lightly hitting them to show them who is in charge.'
If she refuses, he says, husbands 'don't have to give her a house anymore', adding: 'If a person has multiple wives, then he doesn't have to stay with her; he can abandon her and stay with the other wife until she becomes obedient again.'
That's as clear an advocacy for spousal abuse as one is likely to find anywhere, in or out of the Islamic world. Note the promotion of things we see today in the most extreme parts of the Islamic world: Wives cannot leave the house without the husband's permission, she cannot refuse her husband's sexual advances for any reason, and he can strike her if she disobeys. Yes, spousal abuse isn't unknown in the Western world, but in the civilized world, spousal abusers are considered among the lowest of the low. When I was a young man, a guy who struck his wife all too often ran afoul of her father and brothers, who would impart a rather harsh lesson on the abuser. In this goblin's world, it's considered a virtue.
What's really baffling is the "Queers for Palestine" shouters in the West, who have little idea how the Islamic world would treat them; but again, this "teacher" doesn't hesitate to lay it out.
In the same lecture, Mr Munye called gay sex 'one of the most evil acts' and 'a crime' that sees both participants 'executed in the Sharia'.
He continued: 'Scholars, they differ on how the execution occurs. Some of them say he is executed through the sword, like every other normal execution.
'Others say that they are thrown off of a tall building and rocks are thrown after that on top of them.'
We've come to expect this kind of thing in Afghanistan, in Iran, in Gaza. But this is Britain. Or, at least, it was. But we should remember, before we write off Britain as a lost cause: They're here, too.
A video clip released by the Middle East Media Research Institute this month revealed that the Az-Zahraa Islamic Center in Detroit, Michigan, tells Muslim men how to beat their wives.
In the clip, a Detroit-based imam explained to male followers how to discipline their wives with physical force.
Shiite Imam Bassem al-Sheraa explained to the class in the video that when the Quran calls on a man to give his wife a “beating,” it’s not meant to cause markings or pain.
This guy is in Detroit. In Michigan. In the United States. He is condoning spousal abuse, as long as the evidence of that abuse is concealed. One wonders what his stance is on throwing gay people off rooftops. And the Left, in Europe and in America, is making common cause with these people?
The spousal abuse part is what I find galling. In 1990, I met a gal who was then only 24 years old; I very quickly came to realize that she was not only the sweetest gal I was ever going to find, but also the toughest; she has more physical and emotional courage than anyone I know. We've been together for almost 35 years now, and I would die before I would cause her any harm — and I would die protecting her from anyone who would. Of course, that ain't exactly plan A; plan A would be to do unto the goblin threatening her, first. So it's beyond my comprehension that anyone, particularly a supposed religious leader, would describe this as acceptable, even desirable.
And we have allowed these people into our countries.
It is, as I've been saying and writing for years; this is the great conflict of our time. I've devoted an entire chapter to it in my upcoming book, Here's Why And I'm Gonna Tell You. It's not a clash of civilizations. It's a clash between civilization and barbarity. There can be no other word for the ideas these people are promoting.
