i'd just like to add my 2 cents.
first of all the way people have been responding in this forum is offensive to muslim women. with comments saying that muslim women are treated badly by the islam religion. the western world believes that women liberlisation came about in the 70s with women declaring themselves as free and able to be educated and vote and the rest of it. however muslim women were the first liberated women in the world. we are inherently liberated with the fundamentals of our religion and the teachings of the quran and prophet muhammad. all this crap that women were liberated just recently is wrong. islam allowed woman long before the so called "women liberalisation" the right to be educated, to choose her husband, the right to vote, the right to own property etc. for people to say that women in islam are treated the worst is nothing further from the truth. muslim women are the ones that are treated with the uttermost respect and dignity as enforced by our religion.
i think that people should not place rape and treatment of women synonymous with religion. a lot of factors come into play other than religion, such as culture, ethnicity, nationality, family circumstances, the media etc however the most important thing that must be remebered is that the individual must own his or her actions and not use religion or anything else as a mask to hide behind.
islam cops a lot of misunderstanding from people who dont know anything about the religion except what they hear on the news and then make misguided comments and judgements.
islam preaches respect of all religions and most definitely forbids rape, murder and all sorts of harm to others. why is it that when a rape occurs, in the newspapers it is reported as "a muslim man raped a woman yesterday". it must be emphasised that he is not a muslim if he commits such a crime. you dont see the media commenting if a christian commited the crime " a christian man raped a woman yesteday" or you dont see anyone comparing hitlers attempt at genocide of the jews to his religious beliefs (christianity!)
my point is just to keep religion out of it as in the day of judgement everyone will be responsible for his or her own actions. you wont be able to say oh she was wearing a mini skirt so she asked for it, and expect to be forgiven.
