The Left still not getting Islam

The Immigrant Council of Ireland is not happy. (Nothing new in that, you might think.) The reason is that a member of the judiciary made an ... injudicious remark in court. From the Irish Independent:

A judge has caused outrage after saying he thinks "Muslims feel they can actually beat their wives" during the trial of a Somali man accused of burglary at his former wife's house.

Judge Anthony Halpin’s comments made before a packed courtroom yesterday caused a government minister and the Immigrant Council of Ireland to say he needs to immediately clarify or withdraw the remark made during a criminal case.

[...]

Judge Halpin, who started sitting in the Tallaght court in September 2011, made the comments in relation to Muslims during the case of Khadar Younis (46), of Belfry Hall in Citywest, Dublin, who had denied breaking into his divorced wife's home while she was asleep in bed. He also pleaded not guilty to breaking a protection order and being in the possession of a knife while in the house. 

The court heard that his former wife, Kara Ibrahim, wanted to drop the case, saying Younis was a good father to their four children, but not a good husband to her.

Defence solicitor John O'Leary told the court that his client had been divorced by a Muslim cleric under the Qur'an. 

Judge Halpin responded, saying: "I think Muslims feel they can actually beat their wives".

Which sent the ICI reaching for their smelling salts.

Last night the Immigrant Council of Ireland called on the Judge to withdraw the remark.

“While we have not seen the court record the remarks as reported to us are disappointing, wrong and offensive.

“People in positions of authority in the community have a particular duty not to feed racism or xenophobia, this applies to politicians, local media commentators and members of the judiciary. The remarks should either be withdrawn or clarified as a matter of urgency,” a spokesperson said.

At least one Imam was not pleased either.

Dr Taufiq Al Sattar said the comments were in contradiction to all religious teachings.

“No religion says you should hurt anybody and no religion says you should harm anybody. We all have to be tolerant. We all have to compromise

“No religion says you hurt anybody, not your wife or your neighbour or anyone. This is common sense,” the cleric, who established a prayer centre in west Dublin, said.

No religion says you should hurt anybody? I cannot pretend to be an expert on Koranic exegesis, but the holy book of Islam does contain the following somewhat problematic passage:

“Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great." [Sura 4:34]

See here for more edifying passages on the subject. Don’t worry, it’s  pretty mild compared to what the Koran says about Christians and Jews, to say nothing of pagans.

But what I find interesting in this story is the position of the ICI. They censure Judge Halpin, not for criticising Islam, but for “feeding racism and xenophobia.”

Islam, as Muslims themselves will quickly tell you, is not a race. It is a religion that makes universal claims on mankind. It includes people of all races and Muslims are proud of that fact.

The left doesn’t grasp that. Because leftists do not take religion seriously, and because our society as a whole has come to see religion as more a matter of tribal self-identification than of belief and practice, they prefer to assume that Muslims are exotic dark-skinned foreigners, while Christians are boring white Europeans. Of course, neither generalisation is true.

Based on its statements as quoted above, the ICI is arguing that a particular religion should be above criticism, simply because many of its adherents in Ireland are immigrants. Irish leftists are normally passionately against religion’s being allowed to dictate public policy. But where Islam is concerned, apparently, this does not apply. Judges, and other people, will just have to learn to keep their opinions on some matters to themselves.

Of course, given that Christianity originated abroad (not too far, in fact, from the birthplace of Islam) and given that many Christians in this country come from eastern Europe and the Philippines, perhaps the ICI is going to denounce criticism of Christianity as racist too? Don’t hold your breath, though.