Muslim Insanity

Alon Levy's picture
Submitted by Alon Levy on January 18, 2006 - 9:52am.

Via The Countess: Islamic clerics issue various insane rulings concerning sexual practices. I don't suppose any of them, or of their followers, is likely to consider what a Jew says seriously except as evidence for a Jewish conspiracy against Islam (our motto: we don't exist, move along). The most conspicuous part of the article is about anal sex - not because it's more sensitive than other sexual acts, but because Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of most Iraqi Shia who is so powerful that Riverbend appears to hate and fear him more than she does Bush, says that anal sex is permissible if the wife agrees.

Now, on the surface of it, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that. After all, anal rape is hardly acceptable in any sane moral system. But this ruling of Sistani's raises the question, "Why does he specifically mention consent to anal sex?". If it's obvious that consent is required for sex, then it's enough to say, "Anal sex is acceptable." In other words, the hidden assumption behind "if the wife agrees" is that other forms of sex do not require the wife's agreement. Put another way, according to Sistani it's okay for a man to rape his wife vaginally but not anally.

There are several ways to take it from here. The social one is that it's high time mainstream Islam progresses beyond the Dark Ages and recognizes that the lack of SRY does not make one a slave. The political one is that this is the most important man in Iraq, and half the country votes according to his wishes. And the religious one is that this is what religion looks like when uninhibited by a secular culture that regards such rulings as a laughing stock. Where you take it from there is up to you.

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