Reply #70: Again, that is tribal culture, not religion.

[RaleighNCDUer]

The Koran does, in fact, require respect for the rights of women. There is no scriptural basis for the burkha or even for veiling. Those are tribal customs that long pre-date Islam. When Alexander the Great was kicking ass in the same area, the women there were segregated and veiled, never seen by outsiders - 800 years BEFORE Islam. However, just like the Baptists, ANY asshole can call himself a 'religious scholar' and issue fatwas. There is no higher clerical authority to say 'that is a bullshit reading - THIS is what is meant by the Book'.

It is cultural misogyny and authoritarianism, not Islam, that is at fault.

Look at Bin Laden - a younger son of a businessman who ran a construction company. What about that makes him a 'religious scholar'? But his pronouncements are treated as fatwas, because he claimed that right for himself.