By Liz Burke, Senior Reporter, news.com.au
President of the
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Keysar Trad described beating women
as “step three” in a process of dealing with issues in relationships, after
counselling and buying chocolates or “taking her out on a dinner”.
The outspoken
author and commentator made the remarks on conservative commentator Andrew
Bolt’s Sky News program.
Asking how Islam
could be considered a “feminist religion”, Mr Bolt quoted a modern
interpretation of the Koran.
“It is
permissible for him to beat her lightly with his hands, avoiding her face and
other sensitive areas,” he read.
“Which is better
than nothing, but mate, that’s a modern interpretation.”
Mr Trad
responded saying he had studied the verse in detail, and said it was all about
“human psychology”.
“What that verse is
really putting as a scenario is if you come home and you’re really, really
angry — we’ve seen many men act violently towards their women — what this verse
is saying really is playing on the psychology of the man saying violence is a
last resort,” he said.
“The first thing
you must do is counselling ... Before you even consider using your hand, before
you consider an act of violence, have you checked box number one, which is
counselling, have you checked boxed number two?
“So what does counselling entail? Maybe next time you should bring her a bunch
of flowers, maybe next time you should bring her a box of chocolates, maybe
next time you should take her out to dinner.”
Mr Bolt
interjected: “And then beat her. If you still don’t see sense, beat her. That’s
what that says. I’m reading the Koran.”
Mr Trad argued that what
the text was saying was that “a good person would never get to that step
because the first step would eliminate the problem”.
“When you sit down
and talk about it and say I’ve become angry about something, I go to my wife
and say what happens, I say I’m sorry I was wrong, I made the wrong assumption,
so you never get to step three,” he said.
“This is the
psychology.”
Mr Bolt said he
hoped his guest’s interpretation of the verse “catches on”.
The televised discussion
was following on from the stance taken by ABC identity Yassmin during her
recent controversial Q&A appearance,
claiming Islam was the “most feminist religion” citing the fact that Muslim
women do not take their husband’s last names.
The
Sudanese-Australian engineer, author, and television presenter’s comments have
led to calls for her sacking, which the ABC has said it will disregard.
Mr Trad has
previously come under scrutiny for advocating polygamy, saying he would like to
have a second wife, permissible under sharia law, and that his current wife
would be OK with it.
He has
previously advocated for the legal recognition of aspects of sharia in
Australia.
Getting Lost in Karijini
