 But the Christian right, especially these neocon ideologues, they mention a lot of things about Islam with relation to women. I want to mention a few things by comparison, with not a lot of commentary because we don't have a lot of time, but Islam gave women the right to vote in inherent and own property and businesses, initiate divorces, choose and refuse husbands, equal status with men in the eyes of Allah SWT. So many of these practices like FGM, mutilation of women and things like that, honor killings, preventing women to be educated. These things are cultural practices that have nothing to do with the Islamic tradition. These are things that are perpetrated by Muslims and Muslim majority societies. There was a brother one time who was in a habit of beating his wife and kids, not in this community. And we approached the brother and we said, Why are you doing this? He said, That's part of my culture. That's how I was raised. My father did it to us, right? So I said, You know brother, this part of your culture is complete garbage. We have to be frank with people. If it contradicts the religion, lam yadrib Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, biyadihi shay'an qat, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not strike anything with his hand, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, illa an yujahirah fi sabilillah, except if he was engaged in jihad fi sabilillah, wala imraatan, wala khulaman, wala waladan, did not strike a woman, not one time, nor a child nor a servant, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So we might have to make these things clear to people. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he says in the final pilgrimage, Hajjatul Wada'a, and you can imagine one of his central themes of his final pilgrimage sermon, because he knows there's hundreds of thousands of people there. And this is what's going to be remembered and transmitted. The last words of a person are what's going to be transmitted. One of the central themes of the farewell pilgrimage sermon, the khutbah was women. And he said, istausu bin nisa'i khayra, treat women well, treat women well. Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. He said, there are three things from the dunya, three things from the world that I like, a good smell, the prayer and women. And he's not talking about anything, licentious or anything like that, like the Orientalists have said. He's talking about the feminine qualities that he himself, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he embodied these gemali qualities. When the father of Zaid ibn Haritha came to claim him, Zaid, who is the indentured servant, slave, whatever you want to call him, the adopted son of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he wanted to stay with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the father of Zaid said, you choose slavery over freedom, I'm your father. I'm your father. And Zaid said, he is my father and my mother about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, because he was nurturing, because he did not raise his voice. Fabimah rahmatin minallahi lintallahum, it is part of the mercy of Allah SWT that you have lean, that you have gentleness, sallallahu alayhi alayhi wa sallam, that he has rifq, he has gentleness sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he has these feminine qualities, he has mercy, wa ma ar-sallanak illa rahmatan, rahmatan is a feminine noun. He is mercy. Allah SWT didn't say, wa ma ar-sallanak illa an tarham al-alameen or something like that. He didn't say, we have not raised you except that you might show mercy and use a fi'l, use a verb. He says, you are mercy. You are rahmatan, thatuhu rahma, his very essence is rahma, sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. So this is very interesting because if we read the Tawra for example, the book of Genesis, the book of Bari Sheeth Chapter 3, the fall of man is very clearly blamed on the woman. It's very, very clear. So what does it say? When Adam is confronted by God, this is what he says to God in the Hebrew language. He says, isha asher natata imadi, this is because of the woman that you gave me. Right? This is because of the woman and there's an emphasis on you, atah, anta. This is because of you. He's actually blaming God. This is the narrative in the Tawra. It's very interesting. And then God goes to the woman and says, ma azot asit, what did you do? What did you do? So then God punishes the woman with painful childbirth. And then he punishes the man. Why? He says, because you heeded the voice of your wife, the lesson, don't listen to your wife, according to the Tawra. It's not the Quran. This is the book of Genesis. This is in the Tawra, the book of Bari Sheeth. Because you heeded the voice of your wife, cursed is the ground for your sake. Very interesting. What does the Quran say? فَدَلَّهُ مَا بِخُرُورُ That shaitan, this is muthanna. This is an object pronoun. Right? It's dual. That shaitan, he deluded both of them. Both of them. Not one of them. Both of them. And they made Tawbah. When they made Tawbah, they made it in the plural. رَبَّنَا فَلَمْنَا اَنْفُسَنَا وَإِنَّمْ تَغْفِلَّنَا لَنَ كُنَّنَ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ This is in the plural. Both of them are making this Tawbah. And of course we don't believe that Adam alaihi salam because he's a prophet willfully disobeyed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is impossible for a prophet. The prophets are ma'asum. They're incapable of consciously disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They were tricked. They were deceived. They were made to forget about the shaitan. That's how we understand the story. I want to quote something interesting. This is from Tertelian of Carthage. A second century Christian polemicist and heresiologist. This is what he says in his commentary on Genesis. He says, You speaking to women directly. You are the devil's gateway. You are the first deserter of the divine law. You are she who persuaded him Adam whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image man. On account of your dessert, that is death, even the son of God had to die. Astaghfirullah. In other words, women are guilty of deicide. You understand deicide? God had to die because of woman. This is a exegesis of a pre-Nicene major Christian scholar looking at Genesis chapter 3. Very, very interesting. We'll look in the New Testament though. Because that's Old Testament. Let's look in the Christian scriptures because Christians believe in the Old Testament. But everything's been abrogated. The Ahkam, all of the Ahkam in the Old Testament is Mansukh according to Christian theology. So first Timothy chapter 2. This is Paul writing now. He says, A woman must learn in silence and in all subjugation. She cannot teach men. It's a usurpation of authority for Adam was made before Eve. Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived was in transgression. Very interesting. Women cannot teach men anything. Of course in our tradition, one of the foundations of the Dean of Islam, especially Ahlul Sunnah wa Al-Jama'ah is on mother Aisha, radiya Allah ta'ala anha. Who's one of the six Sahaba who related over 1,000 hadith. Our Dean is built upon her. Radiya Allah ta'ala anha. She's one of the seven Muftis. There are seven Muftis at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Who gave fatwa, the only seven of them, not all of them. There were seven Muftis. Six men and one woman. And she used to give fatwa behind the hijab to male Sahaba that are twice her age. Radiya Allah ta'ala anha. This was an amazing intellect. And then Paul says, this is the Greek. He says, So they said to I De Dea taste Technogoniahs. Very interesting. Not translated well in the vast majority of English translations. He says, She can become saved. She can go to heaven. If she bears children. According to Paul, how does a woman go to paradise? You stay silent and pregnant. 1st Corinthians chapter 11. The head of the woman is the man. The woman was created for the man. She must cover her head in church. If not, it should be shaved. Speaking in church is shameful. I'll tell you this interesting true story. I was in a church one time called Saint Paul Methodist Church. Now I was on stage with the pastor and we were talking about prophecy, Old Testament prophecy. I think it was something Deuteronomy 18 or something. Is it the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? We're having a very congenial, friendly academic debate. This woman in the back stands up and starts shouting at me. Shouting in the back of the church. And this is interesting because she's interrupting the entire event. And so she was shouting out at the top of her lungs and I couldn't really make out what she was saying. When she had finished, I said, Do you know what the namesake of this church is? What is the namesake of this church? She says, Saint Paul. And I found out later she was actually a physician. This is a highly educated woman. Saint Paul Methodist. I said, Do you know what Paul says? What does Paul say? What you just did is shameful. You need to sit down. And if we catch you praying without your head covered, I'm going to order one of the presbyters to come shave your head. Because we're following Saint Paul. That's what Paul says to do. And she was saying something and all I heard was the name of the prophecy a few times. And I didn't think God I didn't hear what she was saying. Very, very interesting.