Religion of Peace

[Mohammed]

I believe Islam destroys the feminine human spirit. Islam deprives girls an education and treats them as "less than" a man. If a girl is raped it's her fault because she provoked the men's sexual desires. Even though she did no such thing, it's assumed she is guilty.

That's their culture, that's the way it's always been & while I don't agree with it, I don't have to and neither does anyone else because it's theirs and not ours.

That is actually one of the great misconceptions we have about Islam, that what we see right now, has always been the way. That is actually, and to most, surprisingly, not true at all.

Just very recently most Muslims, if not all, would look at todays practices regarding females, Burkha's and their submission, and shake their heads about it. I have friends here my age who tell me that just a few years back there was no such thing here in the country and they travelled to Hudeidha, a city at the Red Sea and close to Saudi Arabia, as the girls local dress code was pretty much Bikini.

So what happened?

Am not sure about the exact dates, but it goes somewhat like this. About 150 years ago there was a chap who came up with all these radical ideas and Islam. Everybody laughed about him that time, apart from a tribe in Saudi Arabia, who took on his very conservative theologies.

Now all of a sudden all that oil got discovered in Saudi, and the tribe, or house, of Saud, came to an agreement with that tribe just to keep peace and let business bloom. Hence those manic strict rules over in Saudi, with all that religious police, etc.

Go to Aden, Bangkok or Jakarta, and you find the Saudis covering themselves in Chevas and hookers like boys in a toy shop. No need to go that far, they do that in their own houses back home. Everybody knows that. But! Their own women got all covered up, etc, back home.



And then the French did something they regret until today. They gave exile to a chap called Khomeini. The Shah, being placed into power by one of the CIA's dirtiest but smartest affairs, became more and more unpopular, and together with him, since everybody knew who put him there, the "Western" ways.

So the Shah got toppled and in came that big, dark cloud called Khomeini. And with that the Burkha and submission of women became highly fashionable. Why? Because it also takes care of half the population and keeps them in check, so you now only have to worry about the other half. It's a brilliant political move.

Here in Yemen another factor came in handy to take care of the other half, the male population. Q'at. The opium of Yemen. The government covered all the women and told them their place is at home, so that was it for them, the male population happily obliged, and then made the habit of sitting down on a daily basis from 2pm until evening to get your daily buzz highly popular.

The Q'at farmers were happy, the men were happy, and it is also the reason why "The Revolution" here in Yemen was the most peaceful one compared with the other countries. They were all busy sitting and chewing in their corners instead of kicking the shit out of each other.

It's always those nasty politicians!