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November 10, 2005

Norway: Mosques Supporting Wife-Beating Should Lose State Funds

Today's Aftenposten reports that the Norwegian Equality minister has stated that Mosques and Islamic community centres which support the beating of women should lose funding from the state.

Karita Bekkemellen was speaking to the newspaper Dagsavisen where she stated that "It is completely unacceptable and the government will examine using state support as a means of pressure. Imams must distance themselves from violence against women, not come with statements that can legitimize it."

Ms Bekkemellen told the newspaper that she would be bringing up the issue with the Minister for Culture and Church Affairs, Trond Giske.

The World Islamic Mission (pictured) is Mosque and cultural centre for one of Norway's largest Muslim communities. It is housed in the Gronland district of Oslo. Its leading figure is the imam, Syed Ikram Jilani, who has publicly stated that it is acceptable for a man to beat one's wife, to show the husband's anger.

Jilani believes that this should be carried out in special circumstances, such as when the wife has been unfaithful. He states that a few blows to the body are sufficient. Considering how Muslim women are being increasingly encouraged to wear all-enveloping costumes, where hardly any parts of the body are visible, this seems like a recipe for secret abuse. In fact Jalani has said that the woman should not be "visibly injured".

Jilani, as have other Muslim supporters of wife-battering in France and Spain, suggests that the beating should only happen when other avenues of approach are made, to change the woman's behaviour.

Ms Bekkellmen will have none of this. "I don't even want to hear the reasoning. It is not on to talk about "symbolic blows". There is zero tolerance for hitting. We will fight violence against women by Norwegians and we cannot accept it from our new countrymen," she said.

Recently an Algerian preacher from Lyons, Abdelkader Bouziane, was deported from France for advocating that women should be beaten in cases of adultery, and an imam from Spain, Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, was sentenced to a term of community service (reading Spain's constitution) and a fine, for publishing a book called Women In Islam, in which he advocated using a stick to beat unruly wives. Instead of beating the woman on her body which is never seen, Mustafa suggested beating the woman on her hands and feet.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 10, 2005 11:27 AM

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