.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Rantings of a Sandmonkey

Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Rape is not up for debate!

Okay, this just pisses me off: A Muslim sheik told followers at a public meeting in Bankstown that women who were raped had incited men's lust by dressing immodestly and only had themselves to blame. Sydney-born Sheik Faiz Mohamad, 34, a former boxer who teaches at the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, made the comments during a lecture for more than 1000 people at Bankstown Town Hall. The Sun-Herald has a recording of the March 18 speech in which Sheik Faiz said: "A victim of rape every minute somewhere in the world. Why? No one to blame but herself. She displayed her beauty to the entire world . . . "Strapless, backless, sleeveless, nothing but satanic skirts, slit skirts, translucent blouses, miniskirts, tight jeans: all this to tease man and appeal to his carnal nature." He compared a woman dressed in such a way to a sheep. "Would you put this sheep that you adore in the middle of hungry wolves? No . . . It would be devoured. It's the same situation here. You're putting this precious girl in front of lustful, satanic eyes of hungry wolves. What is the consequence? Catastrophic devastation, sexual harassment, perversion, promiscuity." Ok, can we just say this one more time please: WHAT THE WOMEN WEARS OR DOESN'T WEAR IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR RAPE! I don't care if she walks naked in the street, it doesn't freakin matter, that still doesn't give anyone an excuse or an invite to raping her. CAPICE? This drives me nuts, because it's not just this crazy bastard in Australia, its a view held by many many people and i am ashamed to say many many egyptians. Even the women. The women will blame the girl who get raped for getting raped, for "walking alone at night dressed this way", even if dressed this way is nothing but an unveiled girl wearing tight pants. It is not the man's fault at all, men are animals, they can't help it. BULLSHIT! This is my greatest beef with Islam and Muslims (including friends, co-wrokers and members of my own family), when it really comes down to it: the belief that men and women are nothing but animals or pieces of flesh; that women have to cover themselves cause they might entice men to sin or rape them and that men should not be punished or held accountable for not having any self-control. "I couldn't help it, the way she was dressed made me rape her" shouldnt even be contemplated as an excuse. I am sorry, just ain't happening. And while we are at it, leaving a man and a woman in a room together doesn't mean that they will automatically have sex. I know it's a hard concept to grasp, but women won't just spread their legs to the first man who manages to get in a room with her; and neither will men automatically sleep with any woman that they are left alone in a room with. Take my word for it, it doesn't work like that! We are not cats and dogs people and there are things called attraction, self-respect, and that really strange concept called self-restraint. You may not have heard of it before, but it does exist, and it is not another tool for the evil west to corrupt our islamic morals and faith. And while we are at it, if you are really a good muslim and really have faith, then it doesn't matter what the woman is wearing, you shouldn't be sleeping with her in the first place, RIGHT? Remember that whole thing where if you even look at a woman lustfully you are committing Zennah ( fornication)? You do? Good, practice it. The next time you see a woman dressed provocativly, how about you just look away? You are a muslim, you have faith and you are a believer in god; how is it that the godless western heathens manage to hang out at nude beaches and NOT rape the women, while you consider that the way a woman is dressed on the street is an excuse to rape her? Aren't you the moral highground guy? Aren't you the one following god's true religion? Yes? Good, then FUCKIN FOLLOW IT! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Oh, those freakin hypocrites; they make me so so mad.Take deep breaths! Ok, i am calmer now. I propose that we take every man who rapes a woman and cut off his dick and then lump him together with the men who say that women are responsible and at fault for getting raped and send them all to an OZ like US priosn where they are to become official prison Bitches and have them get sodomized at least 4 times daily without condoms for a period that is a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 25 years. We should then release the pictures of the sodomy acts and their video testimonials all over the world and see what those rapist apologists will have to say then about how excusable rape is. Ohh, and if any of them gets HIV for getting raped up the ass by any chance, we will just tell them that they shouldn't have dressed as sexy as they did in Prison. After all, rape is the victim's fault!

15 Comments:

At 4/26/2005 08:02:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting (semi)fact: the sexual 'instinct' so prevelant in men is actually a 'maladaption' - it is a genetic 'defect' if you will that should have been weeded out of our gene pool eons ago, along with..get this...our sense of charity.

Both are maladaptations, i.e. instincts that are no longer necessary and shouldn't be part of our genetic reportoire.

Or so says New Scientist. I would've linked to it but the issue isn't out on the net yet.

The argument made by the shiekh is exactly like this:

We shouldn't punish robbers that steal from open cars because it is the car owner's fault for leaving his or her car open in the first place.

 
At 4/26/2005 08:52:00 AM, Blogger Nadia said...

nicely put, sandmonkey. couldn't have said it better myself.

you're right, we are on the same page today...

 
At 4/26/2005 09:31:00 AM, Blogger R said...

"Strapless, backless, sleeveless, nothing but satanic skirts, slit skirts, translucent blouses, miniskirts, tight jeans: all this to tease man and appeal to his carnal nature."

!!
The guy seems to be really looking around, isn't he?
He's like saying: All this to tease ME!

 
At 4/26/2005 11:40:00 AM, Blogger Kat said...

hahaha...I think this guy has been cloned. I was writing a nasty little rant the other day about women's rights and what happens when this so called "emancipation" happens in the west and that women are much more liberated by being protected behind the hijab and marriage.

He then used the same device as this guy to prove that western morals lead to more rape, drug use, etc. I would have laughed if the guy hadn't been so serious in his column.

Hummbumm is right, this is not just an attitude prevalent in Islamic society, it is just magnified by their ideology. If you've ever been in a court room where a rape case is being tried, if the woman is in anyway not "chaste", the defense will try to paint her as a Jezzabelle (sp?) to put it mildly.

But, we at least can stand up and tell them they are full of shit without being shunned, disowned or murdered.

I guess, all things considered, I much rather have this freedom and be subjected to ill attitudes then be imprisoned and sujbected to the same.

 
At 4/26/2005 11:59:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmm... I went with an Egyptian and he was an animal.

Wow.

SK

 
At 4/26/2005 04:04:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Talk about "passing the buck"! How could anyone in their right mind think that God would approve of them blaming THEIR lack of self control on someone else? I believe God is more concerned about a person's motives than what they actually do. A person can do something that looks wonderful on the surface, but the hidden motives in their heart may be anything but wonderful (greed, deception, selfishness, pride). What motives would drive someone to force sex on another person? Lust, power, control, self gratification? Doesn't matter who a person tries to blame. It only compounds the sin, by adding false witness on top of sinful motives.

 
At 4/26/2005 05:07:00 PM, Blogger Phantom of the Blog said...

i totally agree! well said!!

 
At 4/26/2005 05:28:00 PM, Blogger J. Francis Lehman said...

Some people will use any possible excuse to forgo personal accountability.

On the other hand, no amount of punishment after the fact can un-rape a girl, so ladies, right or not, fair or not, keep that in mind when you're out.

And don't rely on pepper spray. Better to learn kung-fu.

 
At 4/26/2005 06:23:00 PM, Blogger Annie said...

I agree with what you have said Sandmonkey. But when you said you had calmed...you really hadn't....you went on to say.... (:

As the mother of a daughter I love dearly, I also know there are certain clothing styles I would prefer she not wear. Women should also be held to a certain amount of self control and personal responsibility partially for their daughters sake. How about ALL humans need to practice self control and a bit of chastity and decency? It would be very hard to accept (in many societies) the idea that a girl is TOTALLY innocent if she were walking down the street naked. I agree that rape would not be her "fault", but I think women should not go naked and possibly bring out the worst in someone. We should all try to bring out the best in others.....including the guy that pissed you off...he should try that, too. He is obviously willing to bring out the worst in the worst of men, and give them an excuse for it.

 
At 4/26/2005 07:48:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent post. 100 % in agreement with you :)

 
At 4/26/2005 10:00:00 PM, Blogger KYP said...

Sandmonkey, your post, and all the responses above are great! Gosh, it's good to hear people talking sense. Jedati's notes are most practical, I think--both sexes practicing basic self-control in order to bring out the best in others makes for good personal (not governmental) policy. Really, it's courtesy. On a sober note, both the girls I know who were raped were modestly dressed, virgins who had hoped to stay that way until marriage. I'm glad to report that both of them have since met REAL men to whom they are happily married--guys who have never maligned them because of their sexual victimization, who treat them as valuable partners, who love them and with whom they enjoy faithful and contented relationships. That's what healthy intercourse--both sexual and social--is all about.

 
At 4/26/2005 10:15:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Men have been blaming women for centuries; most women even today feel somewhat to blame for being raped - oh, I shouldn't have let him in for coffee, or I should have known better than to walk home alone - there is every reason in the book. It's funny, but in the west, we actually had to teach men that "No", means "No." What are we dealing with, deaf morons here? Seems so.

 
At 4/27/2005 06:13:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well spoken Sandmonkey. Those of us who believe in God, be we Muslim, Christian (I'm a Catholic by the way) or Jew, also believe in sin and that we are RESPONSIBLE for our own action. What the girl wears or doesn't has no bearing on our responsibility.
Unfortunately this is not just a problem with fundamentalists, it is also prevalent in secular society. No responsibility for their actions. Too many famous sportmen have blamed their unwanted sexual advances and assaults on the female victims.
Get back to the basics. You do something wrong it is your fault. End of Story.

 
At 4/27/2005 06:17:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would think that the matter of what announces that a woman is "available" for sexual dalliance is different in different cultures, and is fluid. A german friend terlls me that Wal-Mart ran into trouble in that country because they h=wanted all their employees to smile at customers and aske them "How can i help you?" he reports that not only do German customers not apprecieate being asked questions (they will ask for help if needed) but that in Germany, according to him, only women offering themselves for sex smile at strangers.

here in the USA, about 20 years ago, a Minnesota judge acquitted a man who picked up a hitchhiker of rape because, he said, she was wearing jeans, and that announced that she was available for sex. S\he was axsking for it.

of course, such comments say more about the speaker than about the actual situation.

 
At 4/27/2005 06:27:00 PM, Blogger Michael Hendel said...

Another great post and great comments, but it seems to me this is just the tip of the iceberg. Miscogeny seems to be engrained in all cultures. Does Islam have any Virgin Mothers? While the miscogeny of many cultures is obivious, having lived much of my life in Europe, I am shocked my its prevalence in the US. So don't ask anyone to throw the first stone because you might start an avalanche.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home