Islam: Beating Your Wife is Legal

In his sermon broadcast on Qatar TV, a Muslim cleric claims some wives, due to their nature, must be beaten.

"We must know that [wife] beating is a punishment in Islamic religious law," the cleric stated. "No one should deny this because this was permitted by the Creator of Man, and because when you purchase an electric appliance or a car you get instructions – a catalogue, explaining how to use it. The Creator of Man has sent down this book [the Quran] in order to show man which ways he must choose."

"We shouldn't be ashamed before the nations of the world who are still in their days of ignorance, to admit that these [beatings] are part of our religious law," he said. "We must remind the ignorant from among the Islamic Nation who followed the [West] that those [Westerners] acknowledge the wondrous nature of this verse," he said, noting that there are three types of women "with whom life is impossible without beatings."

He continued: "In America, 6 million women are beaten by their husbands every year. These are their own official statistics. Four-thousand to six-thousand women die as a result of their husbands' beatings. London police, every year, answer 100,000 phone calls and complaints of attacks against wives. In France, their slogan is, 'Beat the wife morning, noon and night, and don't ask her why – she knows the reason.'"

The cleric then defends the practice but qualifies his approval, saying Islam forbids beating anyone, even animals, on the face.

Claiming women naturally want to be controlled by men, the cleric declared, "Allah has created woman, whether Muslim or infidel, so she is happy under a strong man who will protect her and lives with her."

Concluding his message, the preacher explains to his listeners the three types of women who must be beaten:

"[The Koran says:] 'and beat them.' This verse is of a wondrous nature. There are three types of women with whom a man cannot live unless he carries a rod on his shoulder. The first type is a girl who was brought up this way. Her parents ask her to go to school and she doesn't – they beat her. 'Eat' – 'I don't want to' – they beat her. So she became accustomed to beatings; she was brought up that way. We pray Allah will help her husband later. He will only get along with her if he practices wife beating.

"The second type is a woman who is condescending toward her husband and ignores him. With her, too, only a rod will help. The third type is a twisted woman who will not obey her husband unless he oppresses her, beats her, uses force against her, and overpowers her with his voice."

The cleric's Aug. 27 message to the faithful was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, or MEMRI TV. The video of the sermon can be viewed on MEMRI's website