I've heard a couple things about the Quran, both conflicting. Back in college I took a M.E. history class and there were about 3 or 4 of us that were M.E. (in the class) aside from our teacher. One of th girls was Muslim and although she dressed normally, no head dress, she did say she had to make serious compromises with her parents to live a more normal life here in Chicago. She also said she read the Quran, out of curiosity, and said there was a lot of violence in it towards women.
Now the intersting thing is I saw a Muslim man speak at Willow Creek the day Afghanistan war broke out and he said Islam is a peaceful religion. I don't remember if he said anything about the violence the Quran teaches (and the wife beatings) but I have to admit, listening to him speak, was intersting. I did learn a few things about it, somethings I already knew, but most of what he talked about was peace. He also said something that I thought was very intersting, Jihad is not a word for them. There's no such thing as a Holy War. I don't remember exactly what he said about everything, because this was back in 02 I think, but like I said, it was intersting to hear him speak and get his interpretation on it.
Now as to the Christian perspective of fundamentalist Muslims, they are insane. Seriously, I've heard stories from my aunt about how they treat women in Iran, when they go to take their PASSPORT picture. They're not allowed to wear any make-up, not even lipstick. If they do have lipstick on, they're handed a klenex to take it off, if it doesn't come off comepletly, they're handed another one with a blade in it. Women can't even wear nail polish, if they do then they have to wear gloves! How is this normal? Yes there are normal Muslims living around the world, but there are a good number that are insane fundamentalists. Now a side note to what I wrote, when I heard about all that crap in Iran, it was back in the early 90s I think, and since then it's been changing for the better.
The students that are pressing for change now, have only known life in the oppressive state that they grew up in. They don't know what it was like to have lived in the more free rule of the Shah. Granted from what I've heard, the Shah wasn't the greatest, but he was far better than the Khuimeni(sp) and his insanity.
To correct something, women don't have half the rights as men, they have
no rights what so ever. If they did, then they wouldn't be treated as property. Look at the way women were treated by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Look at the way they were/are treated in Iran and Iraq. I've said it before and I'll continue to say it until the end of time, for a clear example of this go rent "Not Without My Daughter" staring Sally Field. It's not a touchy feely Hallmark type movie, it's based on a true story of an American woman who married an Iranian man. They had a daughter and when she was 6(?) they went back to Iran for "a visit" as he said. In reality she was held hostage by him/his family and when she threatened to file for divorce and come back here with their daughter, she was shown the crule reality that she has no rights there and that her husband would have gotten their daughter. She would have come back alone. When her husband realized she was up to something, he beat her and locked her up in a room alone. I don't remember if she was even given any food, but even the women in his family were against her.
She refused to do that and so she worked with a nice man who was sympathetic to America/the American lifestyle, who helped her smuggle both herself and her daughter out of the country via the hills.
Now for a more light hearted look at this, and more up to date, I recomend the movie "the Secret Ballot". Histarical. I'd definitley buy that one.
It's on DVD and it's in Farsi, but has both English and French subtitles. It's about a woman who's a ballot collector, that goes to a remote island off the coast of Iran, and she's driven around by a soldier. The thing that makes it so funny is this guy's lazy, he sees the package dropped from the plane, reads the note, but then when he sees the woman come and she tells him he has to drive her around, he says he didn't see any note, etc. There were some good sight gags in it too.
