Jamal "It's Okay to Beat Your Wife" Badawi to Speak at Ottawa-Area Muslim Confab for Young'uns

Perusing the roster of conference speakers, the name of one, Dr. Jamal Badawi, leapt out at me. I recalled that, several years ago, Badawi  had some, ahem, interesting thoughts re jihadis who turn themselves into human bombs, the better to off as many infidels as possible:

...In June 2006, he led an Islamonline.net dialogue session called "Martyrdom in Islam: Let's Discuss it." In it, he compared suicide bombers fighting oppression to "freedom fighters" fighting the Nazis or the Japanese kamikazes fighting the Americans. At a 1999 Muslim student conference held at the University of Maryland, Badawi said that "resistance" was really an act of heroism. "So when an act of heroism like that is required to save others it is self-sacrifice you cannot really call it suicide. What Islam condemns is suicide in the negative sense. That's my understanding."

And here's how Badawi "understands" the issue of sacralized wife abuse:

In 2004 Badawi issued a fatwa for Islamonline, outlining six different conditions in which a wife may properly be beaten according to his understanding of “Islamic teaching,” because, he stated, “there are cases … in which a wife persists in bad habits.”

Yes, but as I understand it, the uppity chick is to be struck by a toothbrush, so, really, how bad could it be? (How on earth being struck by a toothbrush, presumably a non-electric one, would be enough to persuade a chick to shape up--isn't she likelier to break out into peals of laughter at her toothbrush-brandishing spouse?--is never explained. And since we're on the subject of repurposing dental hygiene tools, why not recommend, say, flogging her with dental floss?)

You can see, though, why conference organizers would be keen to expose young people to Badawi's ideas.


Great for your dental health, yes. But also ideal for punishing recalcitrant wives.