The American preacher Yasir Qadhi has fashioned an entire career out of promoting obnoxious views.
Women are not spared, oh no. Have a look at this exchange:
A question from the audience: “What kind of occupation would you recommend for a sister? A job that a sister could do?”
Qadhi’s answer: “Well the question arises, would I recommend a job for any sister? And the answer is in general, in general no. In general it’s not something that a sister should do.”
Sharia offers great protection to women, you see, and they must know their role. Qadhi enthuses:
So if you stick to the sharia, you will keep your honour and dignity and liberty. And if you go beyond the sharia, this is where the wolves and the predators [men] will come and try to get you. So the general rule is that sisters should not work. They should not work because their role is as wives and mothers.
…
We have a job to do and that is to bring about an ummah, to bring about a generation. Men have been assigned a role in that job and women have been assigned a role. It is not fair to compare apples and oranges.
There are a few exceptions in Qadhi’s backwards book. Women may teach Muslim girls and work as gynaecologists. But there is a catch – they must have male permission.
So if her husband allows her, or if she’s not married and her father wishes, her father allows her to work, she may work as long as the environment is permissible and she is doing something which she needs to do and she’s not interacting with men.
To make sure the point is clear, after noting the exceptions which men may approve he turns right back to that “general rule”:
Frankly, with all due respect, I don’t see the need for women in many other fields. There are only a few fields. Like for example in engineering. As I said, I don’t see the need. We have men, they’re doing the job. We don’t need women in this field where they’re going to interact with men, where they’re going to go with them. What’s the point?
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The general rule is that the best job that a mother can do is to be a good housewife and to take care of her children.
Furthermore, women must be content with their oppression:
Stay at your house. Your food and drink will come to you. What more do you want? Your husband will provide for you all that you need. What more do you want? Instead of looking at it from a negative way, look at from a positive way. You take care of the small, little things of the house, you please your husband, and in return your husband will give you the far more difficult things to do, of earning money and doing this and that.
In early April Mr Qadhi will begin yet another UK tour. This time his hosts will be MEND, the Islamist political activist group that is nothing more than a rebranded “iEngage”. You can read about iEngage’s awful record here. Qadhi and MEND are an excellent match.
One of Mr Qadhi’s fellow speakers on the MEND tour will be Baroness Warsi.
Warsi seems rather keen on MEND. Here she is at the launch of its “Muslim Manifesto” in Parliament earlier this month. To the left is Labour MP Andy Slaughter, an inveterate promoter of extremists.
Once he reaches these shores, perhaps Mr Qadhi could give Baroness Warsi a stern lecture about knowing her place.
