Shah Ahmad Shafi, arthritic but still inflammatory

Bangladeshi Islamic scholar/cleric Shah Ahmad Shafi has spent his life trying to ruin the lives of others in the name of Allah. What a good guy! He’s the current head of Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh, a group working to Islamize Bangladesh’s education system. Recent months have seen a rise in Islamic violence in Bangladesh, with riots against secularism spreading like wildfire in the majority-Muslim nation. Shafi and Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh have fanned those flames, and now Shafi has made a bold statement about his ideal society – one that hasn’t advanced beyond the 7th century.

“You women should sit in the house of your husband, take care of his things and raise his children. This is your job. Why should you leave the house?” Wow, based on that, I’d be surprised if this guy isn’t the next Josef Fritzl or Ariel Castro. I have no idea why Muslim men are so threatened by women’s liberation; perhaps it’s because they know that if women were given equal rights, they’d be single – their wives would leave them for men who would treat them better. Shafi’s sexist craziness doesn’t end there: “Why send your daughters to work in textile factories? They leave home at 7am and do not come back before midnight. You do not know what men they are with, you do not know how many zina [fornication] they are involved in.” What’s so bad about a woman getting some on the side, especially if they’re married to a raging douchebag like Shafi? As for the fact that he used the word “daughters” instead of “wives,” it’s no secret that child labor is rampant in Bangladesh, but it also suggests that he thinks underage girls are seeking out sexual partners. This isn’t the case and is probably a sick fantasy of Shafi’s, one he backs up with this next quote.

“You spend thousands of thaka [Bangladeshi currency] to send her to school, high school, college. Allow her to study until the fourth grade. This is all she needs to keep the household accounts after she gets married.” Study until fourth grade… then prevent her from learning further and strip her of all purpose except to serve a much older man? Fourth-graders are 10 years old, barely older than Aisha, one of Muhammad’s wives, when she was first molested by the “prophet.” To deprive someone of their childhood and adolescence like Shafi is suggesting is an unforgivable crime. Many have called for Shafi’s imprisonment after this statement, as well as the massive riots he instigated in May 2013.

On May 5, 500,000 Islamists took to the streets of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Led by Shafi, the rioters behaved similarly to the crazed Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, breaking stuff, screaming, and showing no respect for anyone who disagreed with them. The rioters made several demands of the Bangladeshi government, including the restoration of Islamist language in the nation’s constitution and a ban on men and women publicly free-mixing between genders. Hmm, so a bunch of dudes got together to say they only wanted to be around other dudes… congrats, Bangladesh, on having your first gay pride parade!