August 13, 2007

Religion of the Damned?

What kind of religion teaches that hatred between husband and wife is the norm? What kind of religion teaches that such hatred may be expected? 

A cleric, Mahmoud Al-Masri - a teacher of Islam to little children - was televised in Egypt. last month. Here are some excerpts (you can view the clip on the Memri site).

Mahmoud Al-Masri: We should not teach our children to lie, because it is forbidden. But there are three types of lies that are permitted. Let me tell you what they are.

[...]

The first, my dears, is lying to the wife in matters of the heart. You are not married yet, but Allah willing, you will be one day, and then you will know what I'm talking about. The wife always likes her husband to say sweet things to her: "I love you," "I'm crazy about you," things like that. All the forbidden things he used to say before he was married –he should say them now, when they are no longer forbidden. The wife always likes to hear emotional stuff, in order to feel stability in life. The wife does not want money. She wants sweet words and emotions. Sometimes, the husband reaches the point where he gets tired of his wife, and can't stand her, and doesn't want to see her anymore. The same goes for the wife – she can't wait for the day that Allah will take him away from her. So what should we do in such a situation? In order to preserve the Muslim family, the Prophet Muhammad allowed the husband or wife to lie to one another – but only about matters of the heart, mind you. About what?

Children: Matters of the heart.

Mahmoud Al-Masri: Matters of the heart. If the wife asks her husband: "Do you love me, Abu Muhammad?" He should say: "Of course I love you, honey. How could anyone not love you?" He might not love her at all, but when he says: "I love you," she feels happy and stable, and feels that this is still her home, and that these are still her children and her husband. Right? But if he were to say to her: "The Prophet has forbidden lying, so I cannot tell a lie – I hate you, I want to kill you, and get rid of you..." Can they possibly continue to live together after this? No. That's why the Prophet Muhammad said: "You are allowed to lie to your wife, but only about matters of the heart." He is not allowed to lie to her about money, or about his comings and goings, and so on. No – only about matters of the heart. "Do you love me?" "I'm crazy about you, my life, you are a part of my heart. If you opened my heart, you wouldn't find anybody there but you." You should say such things that will make her happy and fix matters. That, my dears, is the first kind of lies that are permitted. What lies?

Children: Permitted lies.

The cleric is teaching the little children that it is expected that husbands and wives will hate each other -- to the point of wishing each other were dead. These are the expectations he wants them brought up with; this is the kind of marriage he teaches them to expect for themselves. To preach, as a religious teaching, something that is so damaging to a healthy relationship between husbands and wives, is to practice a religion of those who condemn themselves - who damn themselves - to lifelong suffering.

One would like to think that this cleric is some strange anomaly, and that his co-religionists would be outraged by his teachings. But the fact that he was televised demonstrates that his teachings were found acceptable by the TV station that broadcast them.

As taught by this cleric to these unfortunate children, Islam is a religion of the damned.