Originally Posted by
Romanis
I think you're generalising a wee bit too far. No doubt you have a point - that these women might be dumb or illiterate and even too submissive. But I believe to claim many or even a majority is a wee bit too far.
Before you do, you must however consider the way the religion is practised or at the very least observed or supposed be observed by their adherents.
Islam is a religion that believes in submission. In fact I think the word Islam or Muslim, means submission. A Muslim is supposed to submit himself to Allah, the Almighty. The basic principle in Islam is to believe there's no other God except Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger. As such the words and teachings of Muhammad is to be observed and imitated as far as possible. The Quran itself is not a book which you can read cover to cover, it's a book of revelations made to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel. To understand these verses, you need to read it in conjunction with the Hadiths (Muhammad's teachings) or some other similar book.
Muhammad himself says in these books that Allah is Supreme and not to be questioned. His dictates are to be followed without question. And man can never fully understand the reasons of Allah's dictates. You're supposed to follow them. Now I'm not gonna into the semantics of these. Whether it's true or logical, whether any Angel of God appeared to Muhammad and whether it's a prudent thing for Muslims to question their religion. All these is beside the point, Muslims are taught to follow these teachings (of course problems arise with interpretations and how a narrow reading might justify certain acts of violence etc). But the basic principle stands, they are supposed to follow the commands listed in the Quran.
So it's not just the women, the same is for men as well. And a very clear majority of Muslims are very happy and content to follow these instructions without question. Many Muslim if not most Muslim women are therefore comfortable and agreeable to it. So when you say:
Indeed, since many are illiterate, they are uninformed rather than lacking in intelligence. Others are unwilling to examine their faith, too ready to (ironically) submit to their lords and masters here on earth and extremely confrontational.
It's not the case that they are that. They are educated, they are intelligent and happy to submit because of their faith. If you try to tell them not to and give your reasons however logical they may be, it will be dismissed as heresy. So the point is, if they are comfortable and agreeable, who are we from a different faith or with no faith even, to say they are wrong. Every different faith has something which we can pick bones at. And because Islam does not allow dissent, similarly it's not our purview to question them for accepting it as it is.
The only thing we can say, well if you're comfortable with thee edicts well and goodonya. But while we accept these practises of yours, similarly you must allow us to do things differently. And if you come to our society, we will give you space but your observance of your creed cannot interfere in the way our society is set.
As for your analogy to Nazism, that's a different matter isn't it? If the Nazis won the war and dominates society today, those who do not, will be considered stupid and a lot of other things. The victors write the history when it comes to war.
I'm not saying I disagree entirely with the point you're making, we may and will find some of the Islamic edicts daft and cannot fathom why people follow them. But it's their choice to make not ours.