This week, American Muslim women’s health care needs are highlighted, Gulf courts come down hard on a woman and her boyfriend, a British politician makes light of a Muslim journalist’s life, and Daisy Khan is profiled.
USA News Today reports that Muslim women are hesitant to see male doctors and are likely to delay care if they are unable to find a female doctor. The study’s lead author, Aasim Padela, a Muslim emergency medical doctor at the University of Michigan, believes that U.S. doctors must become attuned to the needs of the Muslim community in America in order to better serve them.
The Gulf News reports that a housemaid and her boyfriend will both be punished for their illicit relationship . The Sharjah Sharia Council ordered the lashing of the woman, a Filipina housemaid, and her deportation for unlawful sex. Her boyfriend, a Bangladeshi man, will also be lashed and deported, but also faces an additional sentence of one year for entering the house of his girlfriend’s sponsor without permission.
Reuters reports that British politician Gareth Compton was arrested and suspended from the Conservative Party after suggesting in a twitter message that Muslim journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown ought to be stoned to death. Alibhai-Brown told reporters that she regarded Compton’s tweet as incitement to murder. Compton, who later apologized for what he called “an ill-conceived attempt at humor” said he was responding to Alibhai-Brown’s earlier comments that no politicians had the right to comment on human rights abuses, even the stoning of women in Iran.
The New York Times profiled Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Faisal. Khan is celebrated as a moderate voice of Islam who has spoken with eloquence and poise amidst the controversy surrounding that Park 51 Islamic community center that she and her husband are trying to build in New York City.
