Misconceptions about Islam are widespread across the world. Whether it's about Islam oppressing women or Muslims being anti-Semitic, Muslims are no strangers to such charges. With media coverage about Islam growing daily, it is important to address some of the misconceptions head on. Who better to do this than Muslim women themselves? Here are some facts about Islam written by Muslims sisters.

1. Those called the Ummah

The word ‘Ummah’ is an Arabic one that refers to a community or nation. In Islam, the word Ummah is used in reference to all Muslims collectively around the world, and so the Ummah is the worldwide community of Muslims, or the Islamic nation. This ideal brotherhood and sisterhood creates a link that brings together a people by their religious identity, regardless of race, class, geographic borders or sect. Islam is less divided than Christianity and Judaism, although Muslims still have a long way to go in being united and integrated into one harmonious working system and unit.

The Ummah is a tolerant arrangement that unites Muslims everywhere around the world as brothers and sisters, and this arrangement also includes those that are non-Muslim in the Islamic nation, whether they are Christian, Jew or of any other faith and happen to reside in the surroundings of a Muslim community; they are also considered part of the Ummah. Used in a much broader sense, the Ummah can also include all humans on the earth, but does not imply all those humans are Muslim. This system teaches all Muslims to accept each other regardless of colour, race, class or country.

There is no room for discrimination, sexism or ageism within the Ummah - there is no Muslim country superior than the other. Saudi Arabia is commonly known as the centre for all Muslims. The biggest Muslim population is in Indonesia and Muslims here and from everywhere else in the world unite once a year in Saudi Arabia for Hajj (the holy pilgrimage), where they are united as one brotherhood and sisterhood, one Ummah, regardless of colour, nationality or sect.


2. Islam does not oppress, it liberates

Just over a hundred years ago in England in 1850, women were finally allowed the right to own property. In 1857, divorce became accessible by the formation of the court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. Muslim women have had these rights for fourteen hundred years.

Anyone wishing to understand Islam must first separate the religion from the cultural norms and style of a society. A woman who is forbidden to drive in Riyadh will happily drive abroad, knowing her country’s law has no relation to Islam. There are girls who are prohibited from gaining an education in Afghanistan but this has nothing to do with Islam either.

Muslim Women may not be equal in the manner defined by Western feminists, but we have had rights a long time before they had theirs. We did not need to protest for our rights, they were given to us freely. Islam does not oppress me, it liberates me.

3. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with Islam

Anti-Semitism is incompatible with Islam. After all, the last and most revered Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a Semite. All people of all races are considered equal and must be treated with justice, regardless of their religion. Unlike Judaism which is a religion, Zionism is just a political ideology that wields oppression and injustice - Islam opposes such tyranny, but that does not make Muslims anti-Semitic.

Prior to the creation of Israel, Jews and Muslims generally lived together in harmony, with Arab lands being a source of refuge for Jewish people against Christian oppression. Uri Avnery in his article 'Muhammad’s Sword’ writes: "As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age."

"When the Catholics reconquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust. Why? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the “People of the Book”. In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times “by the sword” to get them to abandon their faith."

4. Imagine a Nun with Hijab

Just because I wear the Hijab, which includes my scarf and my modest dress, it does not imply I am oppressed or that I have no voice. Similarly because I do not wear a Hijab, does not mean I'm not a modest Muslim woman or that I do not have an ounce of faith.

As is commonly thought amongst people, even amongst Muslims themselves, Hijab does not merely comprise of a piece of cloth - it goes deeper than that. It is about preserving your modesty from within your character and covering your beauty. Many Muslim women are able to be modest without wearing the Hijab.

Modesty is interpreted differently by different schools of thoughts in Islam. One school of thought would state that modesty requires the covering from head to toe, including ones hands and face. Others would state that only the hair is required to be covered, whilst some Muslims, regard modesty to refer to behaviour, as safeguarding your chastity and preserving good faith. However all in all, the bottom line is that Muslims must maintain their dignity. Furthermore modesty isn’t just limited to women; it is also aimed towards men. All Muslim men and women should be wary of their appearance.

Hijab is not a symbol of oppression; it is a symbol of one’s religion and identity. Imagine nuns, as the title states, wearing the Hijab, but yet they are never illustrated as oppressed. Why would Muslim women who decide to cover up be seen as oppressed? This is in spite of the fact that Muslim women, unlike nuns, are still able to marry and have children.

And yes, for all those of you who wondered, there is hair under the Hijab!

5. On the Topic of Muslim Marriages

You may think that Islam condones the marriage of women to men that are not of their choosing. This is in fact a total misconception. This phenomenon of forced marriages goes directly against the teachings of Islam.

An Islamic marriage is a social contract that requires the consent of both parties. Shariah law is perfectly clear insomuch that forced marriages are forbidden. They are considered null and void and can be dissolved immediately. In fact sex in a forced marriage is considered as rape and is dealt within the Shariah law as such.

Many Muslims from the Asian culture may find themselves in a position where parents dictate who they will marry. This is totally down to CULTURAL norms and is also prevalent amongst Sikhs, Hindus and many other cultures around the world that treat women as less superior to men.

As Muslims we are aware of the rights that Allah has granted us and amongst them is the right to marry the person of our choosing, without being coerced by parents or anyone else, either emotionally or psychologically.

This fact is clearly stated by the beloved Prophet Mohammad (PBUH):
"A woman without a husband (or divorced or a widow) must not be married until she is consulted, and a virgin must not be married until her permission is sought. They asked the Prophet of Allah (May peace be upon him): How can her (virgin's) consent can be solicited? He (the Holy Prophet) said: That she keeps her silence. (Translation of Sahih Muslim, The Book of Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikah), Book 008, Number 3303)"

With Allah behind us, whatever the reason, Muslims have the power to say NO!

This is just a small start to addressing how the world perceives Islam and its believers. Be sure to understand the distinction of Islam as a religion and that of a set of cultural traditions. Don’t believe everything you hear about Muslims - take our word for it instead. After all, we are Muslims.