ThePolitically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)The authority for this practice rests upon a variant Shiite reading of
averse of the Qur'an (4:24) , as well as this passag e from the Hadith:
'Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah and Salama bin Al-Akwa: While we
were in anarmy, Allah's Messenger came to us and said, 'You have
been allowed todo theMut' a(mar riage ), sodo it." ' Sunn i Musl ims,
who acco unt for 85 percent of all Muslims, claim that Muhammad
later revoked this provision—but Shiite s disagre e. In any case,
tempor ary wives tend to congregate in Shiite holy cities, where they
can offer companionship to lonelyseminarians.
Rape: Four witnesses needed
Most threatening of all to women may be the Muslim understanding of
rape as it plays out in conjunc tion with Islamic restri ctions on the
validity of a woma n's testi mony. In court , a woma n's testi mony is
wort h halfas much as that of a man. (Qur'an 2:282),
Islam ic legal theor ists have restr icted the valid ity ofa woma n's
testimony eve n fur the r by lim itin g it to, in the wor ds of one
Musl im leg al manual, "cases involving property, or transactions
dealing with property, such as sales."' Otherwise only men cantestify.
And in cases of sexualmisbehavior , four male witnesses are required.
These witnesse s must beable to do more than simply testif y that an
instan ce of fornic ation, adultery, or rape happe ned; they must have
seen the act itsel f. This pecul iarand destructi ve stipulat ion had its
genesis in au incident in Muhammad' slife, when his wife Aisha was
accused of infidelity. The accusation particula rly distre ssed
Muhamm ad, since Aisha was his favori te wife. Butinthis case, as in
many others, Allah came to the aid of his Prophet: He rev eal ed
Ais ha' s inn oce nce and ins tit ute d the sti pul ati on of fou r witnesses
for sexual sins: "Why did they not produce four witness es? Since
the y prod uce not wit ness es, the y ver ily are liar s in the sig ht of
All ah"(Qur'an 24:12),'