Recently, a claim has been circulated on the internet that a female islamic scholar said, “Muslims can rape non-Muslim women. It’s allowed in the Quran and Hadiths”.
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Fact-Check
According to Rumor Scanner’s investigation, it is found that Professor Suad Saleh from Al-Azhar University in Egypt did not make any such statements, rather the claim circulated using her name is completely false.
Through a reverse image search, the picture in the claim was found in a report titled “Al-Azhar Professor Suad Saleh: In a Legitimate War, One Can Capture Slavegirls and Have Sex with Them” on a website named Asian Defence.
Further keyword searches from the information obtained on the website led to a report titled “Al-Azhar Professor Suad Saleh: In a Legitimate War, Muslims Can Capture Slavegirls and Have Sex with Them (Archival)” published on September 12, 2014, on the website of Middle East Media Research Institute’s TV segment MEMRI TV. The video of the discussed image was also found on the website.
According to the report, the woman in the discussed picture is Suad Saleh, a professor of Theology at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. She answered a question on the program “Fatwa” on Hayat TV, stating, “Those whom you own’ (slavery) existed before Islam. It existed among all nations and countries, not just among pre-Islam Arabs. Anyone could trade in freeborn men and women. This is called the selling of freeborn people. It’s like the selling of human organs and trafficking in freeborn humans today. But when Islam emerged, it put (slavery) into order, by limiting it to legitimate wars between Muslims and their enemies. If we fought Israel, which is plundering land, and is an aggressor against people and their faith… Obviously, it is impossible that we will fight Israel, even though Surat Al-Isra in the Quran foretells this, and nothing is beyond the power of Allah… The female prisoners of war are ‘those whom you own.’ In order to humiliate them, they become the property of the army commander, or of a Muslim, and he can have sex with them just like he has sex with his wives.”
“Some opportunists and extremists, who only harm Islam, say: ‘I will bring a woman from East Asia, as (a slavegirl) under the status of “those whom you own,” and with the consent of my wife, I will allocate this woman a room in the house, and will have sex with her as a slavegirl.’ This is nonsense. This is not prescribed by Islam at all. Islam says that a woman is either a wife or a slave girl. Legitimately-owned slaves come from among prisoners from a war, which is waged against the Muslims, a war to plunder land, a war against our faith, and so on. What some people are doing now is an aggression against Allah and against Allah’s legal texts in the Quran, and we must not be influenced by this at all.”
Thus, it is evident from the video that Professor Suad Saleh discussed about the practice of having dominance or ownership over female captives in legitimate wars, but there is no mention of any provision allowing Muslim boys to rape girls of other religions, as claimed. Neither did she make any such statements.
Bottom Line
Suad Saleh, a professor of Theology at Al-Azhar University in Egypt, commented on the practice of slaves and having sex with them in response to a question on Hayat TV’s Fatwa program. She said that the slave system existed before Islam. And sexual intercourse with a female slave was considered common at that time. Islam was the first to move away from indiscriminate enslavement of any human being to enslave only legitimate prisoners of war. Suad Saleh, in her speech, also explained the legitimate war, referring to land grabbers, oppressors and infidels. This speech of Suad Saleh is being circulated on the internet under the title “Muslims can rape non-Muslim women. It’s allowed in the Quran and Hadiths” ; What she did not say at the event.
Notably, in previous times, Rumor Scanner Published a fact-check report in Bengali language on the same claim.
So, the information circulated on the internet claiming that Professor Suad Saleh said, “Muslims can rape non-Muslim women. It’s allowed in the Quran and Hadiths” is completely false.
