On the 13th of February, 2017, then Senator Jacqui Lambie, and Islamic youth leader Yassmin
Abdel-Magied, had a screaming match on Australia’s Q&A, and within it, Yassmin asserted the following:
“Excuse me, Islam to me is one of the most, if the most feminist religion.
Right… we got equal rights well before the Europeans.
We don’t take our husband’s last names because we ain’t their property”, and
I simply can’t let that slide… this is Islam is the Most Feminist Religion – Debunked.
“Anybody that supports Sharia law in this country should be deported.”
“So, do you know what Sharia law is?”
“Yes, but it does not have--" “Do you know what it is?
Me praying five--" “Are you too for Sharia law?”
“Of course – me praying five times a day is Sharia, right.”
“Like basic… do you even--" “What about equal rights for women?
What about, what about--" “That’s completely separate from Islam!”
“Oh, so now you can be a Sharia law supporter and half pregnant at the same time?
Come on…”
“What are you talking about?
You are talking about stuff you don’t know anything… like, okay, I’m not going attack
you personally, but my… but the frustration is that people talk about Islam without knowing
anything about it, and they’re willing to completely negate any of my rights as a human
being, as a woman, as a person with agency simply because they have an idea about what
my faith is about.
Excuse me, Islam to me is one of the most, if the most feminist religion.
Right we got equal rights well before the Europeans.”
“We don’t take our husband’s last names because we ain’t their property, right.
We were given the right to own land.
We are con… like the fact is, what is culture is separate from what is faith, and the fact
that people go around dissing my faith without knowing anything about it, and want to chuck
me out of a country--I have done, and Muslims…
The fact is Jacqui I agree… with you…wait, wait--” “The fact is there is we have
one law in this country and it is the Australian law, not Sharia law.”
*Cheering* “Not in this country.
Not in my, not in my day.”
“In Sharia it says you follow the law of the land on which you are on.
It says in Islam you follow the law of the land on which you are on.”
*Applause* “You tell me why are women… treated like second class citizens.
Why gays are killed?
You tell me that.”
“That is not my religion.”
“Jacqui, Jacqui, both of you.
Can I just say that shouting at each other is not going to help…”
“That is true.”
“So please stop.”
Meow… crap, I’m going to get accused of misogyny now!
(“That’s a whole other level of harassment, really!”).
Jokes aside, within this short exchange Jacqui and Yassmin both make several assertions,
and while I find fault with Jacqui’s (and specifically her rhetoric), I find greater
fault with Yassmin’s, as not only are they factually incorrect, they’re dangerous!
Over the last few years there’s been an influx of female Muslim activists insisting
that Islam is a girl’s best friend, and it's about time that real feminists called
out this insulting tripe for what is it.
"So what I'm offering you today is the story of how Islam has made me a feminist."
“Who in society deserves my respect and kindness?
And so the Prophet replied "Your mother" [...] What it means is that your mother actually deserves
three times more respect than your dad does just because she had to bear with you for
nine months.”
“So many times you've brought up women and Islam...
I'd just like to correct that I've read the Quran, and all Muslim scholars would agree
with me that Islam gives women a lot of rights.”
[…] “I mean, I am a young Muslim woman myself, I sit before you, I have a voice,
and I can speak to you and I can look you in the eye, and I do have my rights.
And when I go to Iran-- I'm actually Iranian as well, and so when I go to Iran I also have
my rights.”
“We’re going to take that a comment, and as a very passive one at that.”
*Clapping* “Oh now we’re not – we’re not!
We’re not going to take that as a comment.
I can see your face, I can see your hair, and I can see you sitting in an audience with
young gentlemen - don't you tell me you can do any of that in Iran."
"I can though..."
"No you can't."
"Yes I can."
"No you can not!”
*Laughter* […] “You insult your sisters in Iran who're being beaten… who’re being
beaten and raped every day when you say that they have their rights in the Islamic Republic--
It's an insult to the women of Iran."
Yeah, Hitch!
You go, girl… so here’s the plan – I’m going to identify and then address each of
Yassmin’s claims, starting with her concept of Sharia Law.
“Anybody that supports Sharia law in this country should be deported.”
“So, do you know what Sharia law is?”
“Yes, but it does not have--" “Do you know what it is?
Me praying five--" “Are you too for Sharia law?”
“Of course – me praying five times a day is Sharia, right.”
Yes, praying five times a day is Sharia, but so too is stoning homosexual to death, executing
apostates, and requiring two female witnesses in court to oppose one male witness.
To put it simply, the term ‘Shari ah” refers to Allah’s immutable divine law,
and it evidently originally meant “way” or “path”.
Hence, Sharia Law means divine law, and it’s derived from various Islamic sources, such
as the Quran and the Hadith.
Now the reason this needs to be made clear is because Yassmin’s Sharia Law is… well,
Yassmin’s: “You tell me why are women… treated like second class citizens.
Why gays are killed?
You tell me that.”
“That is not my religion.”
Really, Yassmin?
Executing homosexuals isn’t an edict of your religion?
Because the Hadith plainly states that “If a man who is not married seized committing
sodomy, he will be stoned to death”, and within the Quran your prophet Mohammad says
“Whoever you find committing the sin of the people of Lut, kill them, both the one
who does it and the one to whom it is done”.
According to the ILGA, there are currently eight countries in which homosexuality is
punishable by death – that being Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen; parts of Somalia
and northern Nigeria, and coincidentally, they all justify this punishment with explicit
reference to the aforementioned Islamic sources: that is, they all justify this punishment
with explicit reference to Sharia Law.
And so yes, Yassmin can say “That is not my religion”, but in doing so she’s committing
a No True Scotsman fallacy – she’s hand-waving away legitimate criticisms of Sharia Law by
insisting that only her very unique interpretation is the “real” one.
To dust-off and reemploy the almighty glove of Hitch, she’s doing her sisters abroad
(who’re truly suffering under Sharia Law) a grave disservice.
Moving on, I think Yassmin is very much mistaken when she says “What is culture is separate
from what is faith”, and “That’s completely separate from Islam!”
The truth is that culture and religion heavily influence one-another, and under the rubric
of a theocracy they are pretty much indistinguishable (as is the case, for example, in Saudi Arabia).
As a culture, Saudi Arabia overwhelmingly despises homosexuals because it’s overwhelmingly
Muslim.
We see this type of scapegoating by Islamic apologists all the damn time – they attribute
all that is bad about Islam to “culture”, and all that is good about Islam to “Islam”,
and this is precisely what Yassmin is doing here.
Anyhow, next, I want to respond to the statement that Yassmin received an applause for: “In
Sharia it says you follow the law of the land on which you are on.
It says in Islam you follow the law of the land on which you are on.”
*Applause* Yes, due to a verse in chapter 4 of the Quran, which states “O ye who believe!
obey Allah, and obey His Messenger and those who are in authority over you”, Sharia Law
holds that Muslims must follow the laws of the land upon which they are on, BUT only
if those laws are is not in contradiction with their religion.
Or to quote the Hadith, “It is necessary upon a Muslim to listen to and obey the ruler,
as long as one is not ordered to carry out a sin.
If he is commanded to commit a sin, then there is no adherence and obedience.”
And so what this equates to is Muslims saying “Yes, I’ll live according to your rules,
but only if they don’t contradict my rules...”
And finally, I want to address the crux of Yassmin’s central claims: “Excuse me,
Islam to me is one of the most, if the most feminist religion.
Right we got equal rights well before the Europeans.
We don’t take our husband’s last names because we ain’t their property.”
To begin, when Yassmin says “We got equal rights well before the Europeans” I’m
fairly certain she’s misspoke, because female Muslims don’t have equal rights even TODAY,
let alone historically.
What I think she meant to say is that that “Muslim women had MORE rights than European
women during the early days of Islam” – which, so far as my research yields, is correct – the
Romans, Athenians, and of course, Christians, horrifically subordinated women.
However, LONG before the inception of Islam, many NON-European women enjoyed significantly
more rights than Islam has ever granted them.
For example, in Mesopotamia, women could buy, own, sell and inherit land, could engage in
commerce, and could testify in court as EQUAL to men (unlike, say, women TODAY under Sharia).
Secondly, when Yassmin says “We don’t take our husband’s last names because we
ain’t their property” she’s clutching at straws.
Sure, Muslim women don’t take their husband’s last name, but historically they have been,
and to the largest extent still are, treated as if they’re second-class citizens.
For example, a Muslim woman can initiate divorce, but imams will often inhibit her less she
has her husband’s consent or proof of legitimate grounds (because, again, according to Sharia
Law, a woman’s word is worth only half that of a man’s) – but if a Muslim man wants
to divorce one of his wives, he can do so at any time and without reason, so long as
she’s not menstruating.
So yeah… tell me again how Islam is THE most feminist religion…
“My frustration is that people talk about Islam without knowing anything about it.”
This is most certainly true, I’ll grant Yassmin that, but she (and other Muslim apologists)
talk about Islam as if people know nothing about it, and that’s also not acceptable…
The truth s that Islam is not only not the most feminist religion, it is actually one
of the biggest threats to feminism.
Since the Quran asserts that it is the last revelation, it’s unchanging misogynistic
edicts are forever tethered to antiquity, and while “moderate” interpretations will
continue to grow vaguer and vaguer (such has been the case with Christianity), the fact
remains (and will always remain), that Islam is NOT the most feminist religion – and
it certainly isn’t more feminist than non-religious secularism and humanism.
Anyhow, I’m Stephen Woodford / Rationality Rules, and as always, thank you kindly for
the view, and an extra special thank you to my wonderful patrons and those of you who’ve
supported the channel via PayPal and merchandise.
As a quick update on the Debunked card game, I’ve managed to finalised a lot of the rules,
have designed a few of the cards, and am aiming to release a Kickstarter for it late January
/ early February, and so if you’re interested, please stay tuned by following me on Facebook,
Twitter, or Patreon.
Until next time my fellow apes, until next time.