Mideast Ground War Begins

We agree with Mary Kenny (“Mothers of Babies, Not Battles,” Commentary, Feb. 20) that caring for their babies takes top priority in women’s duties. Her allusion to an inferior regard given women by Islam is, however, far from the truth.

Islam declared men and women as equal, assigned them equal duties and responsibilities, and gave women the right of individual, independent ownership unhampered by husband, father, brother or son, and that was 14 centuries before the writer’s own country--England--did. The medical corps of prophet Muhammad’s army was an all-woman corps, and when the military situation in some battles turned critical, some of them took up sword and shield and actively participated in the fighting. Early Islam saw women in business, teaching, politics and the judiciary.

Please do not blame Islam for what goes on in certain backward societies where Islam is nominally claimed but is far from applied. It is not only women who are subdued in those societies but also men, as evidenced by excluding the people from participating in their own government. Islam is the first victim of dictatorships that bear its name.

HASSAN HATHOUT, Islamic Center of Southern California, Los Angeles