It is as we had discussed. The Islamic world has a big problem with wife beaters (WaPo via Blue Crab Boulevard):

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. When dealing with a “disobedient wife,” a Muslim man has a number of options. First, he should remind her of “the importance of following the instructions of the husband in Islam.” If that doesn’t work, he can “leave the wife’s bed.” Finally, he may “beat” her, though it must be without “hurting, breaking a bone, leaving blue or black marks on the body and avoiding hitting the face, at any cost.”

Such appalling recommendations, drawn from the book “Woman in the Shade of Islam” by Saudi scholar Abdul Rahman al-Sheha, are inspired by as authoritative a source as any Muslim could hope to find: a literal reading of the 34th verse of the fourth chapter of the Koran, An-Nisa , or Women. “[A]nd (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them,” reads one widely accepted translation.

The notion of using physical punishment as a “disciplinary action,” as Sheha suggests, especially for “controlling or mastering women” or others who “enjoy being beaten,” is common throughout the Muslim world….

Last October, I listened to an online audio sermon by an American Muslim preacher, Sheik Yusuf Estes, who was scheduled to speak at West Virginia University as a guest of the Muslim Student Association. He soon moved to the subject of disobedient wives, and his recommendations mirrored the literal reading of 4:34. First, “tell them.” Second, “leave the bed.” Finally: “Roll up a newspaper and give her a crack. Or take a yardstick, something like this, and you can hit.”

UPDATE

Now a word from somebody who sounds beaten down, if not up, to us, one Yvonne Ridley, who lives in the UK, via WaPo:

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures — until I was captured by the Taliban….Back home in London, I kept my word about studying Islam — and was amazed by what I discovered. I’d been expecting Koran chapters on how to beat your wife and oppress your daughters; instead, I found passages promoting the liberation of women. Two-and-a-half years after my capture, I converted to Islam, provoking a mixture of astonishment, disappointment and encouragement among friends and relatives.

Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch here in Britain as former foreign secretary Jack Straw describes the Muslim nikab — a face veil that reveals only the eyes — as an unwelcome barrier to integration…

Sorry Yvonne, you can do what you like, but if this is not an “unwelcome barrier to integration”, we don’t know what one would look like:

UPDATE

It tuens out that Yvonne Ridley is apparently a nasty piece of work, according to this information — Example: After the Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev (architect of the Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan school hostage crisis), Ridley wrote a column stating that Basayev had become a “shaheed”, that is, a martyr whose place in Paradise is assured. She went on to refer to Basayev as leader of “an admirable struggle to bring independence to Chechnya”. Perhaps she should better be wearing an orange jumpsuit rather than a niqab.

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