Recently, there have been many social media posts and news
articles relating to Saudi Arabia and its backwards treatment of women. I have
been reading many posts about how women in Saudi Arabia are now fighting for
their right to drive a vehicle.
I have known about this backwards and illogical law for a
while now. These laws and regulations that I hear about strike me in a very
deep way, mainly because of my roots and upbringing. I was born Muslim, and
raised in a family that believes in the religion. My parents are what you can
call modern Muslims, not extreme like the Muslims you may hear about often in
mainstream news.
I remember as a teenager hearing about these crazy laws. I
realized that there was a huge misconception when it came to Muslims and Islam
in general after participating in a project that our Moral Education teacher in
9th grade assigned to our class. Each student was assigned a world religion and
had to create a 1 hour oral presentation based on their research of that
religion. It was a good way to expose the students to the different belief
systems around the globe.
Unfortunately, the student that was assigned Islam found his
information mostly from biased news articles and Islamaphobic references. I remember him basically explaining that Islam
was a religion where the women were beaten by their husbands regularly, where
women were not respected and where God was a punisher who encouraged violence
and hate against everyone that was not of the Islamic faith. I sat there in
awe, shocked by the misinformation being spewed from this 9th
graders mouth. What bugged me even more was the fact that the teacher sat there
saying nothing, and once the presentation was done, there was a round of
applause, and the teacher joined in! When it was time for questions, my hand
shot up, and that was it, for the first time in my young life, I stood up for a
religion that I was not truly following and that I was not passionate about,
only because I knew the truth and felt an urge to fix the potential damage from
the misinformation provided.
I asked the student where his references were from and he
answered that they were mostly from news articles about incidences in Saudi
Arabia and some from Pakistan. I then asked if he realized that Muslims lived
all over the globe, that there were Muslims in China, Indonesia, and even here,
in North America. He of course, at the risk of looking like he didn’t do his
research, answered that he was well aware. I then explained to him and to the
classroom, while looking at the teacher, that I was born and raised in the
Islamic religion, and that I whole heartedly disagreed with his research. I
explained that Islam was a religion where respecting a woman was as important
as worshipping Allah. I explained that the disrespect and the mistreatment of
women in Islam was not rooted in the religion but actually rooted in the
cultures that adopted Islam as their belief systems. I was able to get the
classroom to open their minds and to see that the presentation had been based
on biased information. The teacher applauded my efforts at straightening things
out, and decided that I should create an additional presentation based on Islam
for extra marks. I learned two things that day, 1. Speaking your truth is extremely important and 2. Having a big mouth lands you extra work....
I know where my passion stems from, and it has nothing to do
with a specific belief system or a religion. My passion is for truth, peace,
justice and acceptance. My passion is to create ties between people and destroy
any walls that are built by misinformation and fear. My passion is to spread
truth, to open minds and to broaden my own horizons and others. My passion is
to be just, to be truthful, to be a voice that speaks up when fear is being
spread. My passion is to defend myself and others when necessary. I will always
find ways to spread truth, I will always find ways to spread acceptance and to
build bridges. I have stood up for every faith, from Hinduism, to Islam to
Christianity, whenever I hear fear and
misinformation being spread, regardless of what faith or culture is aimed at, I
voice the truth that I have learned by knowing people from these faiths and
cultures, and in turn, some minds become
more open.
That was a 9th grade classroom of about 20
students. My voice was enough to fight the misinformation. Now, we have
misinformation spreading like wildfire across the world through mainstream
media and social networking. My wife is passionate about women’s rights and the
war for gender equality, and so am I. She posted some news about the fight in
Saudi Arabia for women’s driving rights, I know that my wife is open minded and
that she is not ignorant to think that these backwards laws in Saudi Arabia are
a reflection of Islam and the Muslim people, but it made me think, and brought
back memories from that 9th grade classroom. I wondered, if people
all over the globe were sitting there thinking that these retarded laws were
founded by Islam. I wondered if the women around the world were relating the
Saudi Arabian Wahhabi terrorists to the religion itself, and I could not help
but come to the conclusion that there was not enough information out there to
argue that these laws and that the Wahhabi extremists were not the norm for
Islam. It occurred to me, again, that
there is so much misinformation being spread and that I need to voice the
truth.
The truth is this:
Saudi Arabia has been hijacked by a group of extremists
called the Wahhabi's. The Wahhabi's basically took over Mecca (Islams Holiest
city) and created an ultra conservative and perverse version of the Islam that
the prophet Mohammed originally brought forth. Many of these perversions are
based on an extreme patriarchal social system that treats women like lower life
forms and has no respect for basic human rights. People must understand that
the way women are treated in Saudi Arabia is not in any way shape or form
reflective or representing the beliefs of Islam. Saudi Arabia is one of those countries that
need a major revolt, a major shift in power. Saudi Arabia has only been safe
because of its ties with the west and relationships with gigantic corporations.
If it wasn't for those ties and relationships, Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabi's
would have been chased into the desert and left to die long ago....for more information on the subject, there is a great book called 'The
Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremist' by Khaled
M. Abou El Fadl.
.
So, the next time you see news or posts about how badly
women are treated over in Saudi Arabia, please, do not immediately think “ugh, Muslims
are all crazy bastards, disgusting people who do not know how to treat women or
human life in general”, think instead “those damn Wahhabi's and their Saudi
system, I hope and pray that the people will be able to finally fight them out
of power, I hope that the west will finally stop supporting them and their
system, power to the PEOPLE in Saudi Arabia”. Power to the people...remember, a
person is not defined by what they wear or by what religion they follow, you
cannot define a human being by labeling them...remember that we still have a
long long way to go before we get to where we need to be...it starts with
spreading truth, and being open
minded..it starts with being selective with what you choose to believe. Do not
believe everything you read or hear as truth, do your own research...look
deeper than what you see on the surface...do not be so easily swayed and
manipulated into building walls and creating boundaries based in fear and
hate...do not be so easily manipulated into hating your fellow men and
women....use your mind and your heart, together...
With Love
S
