Showing posts with label corporal punishment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporal punishment. Show all posts

What is the Islamparadox / Islamic Paradox?

The term "Islamparadox" seems to stand for topics that don´t seem to be discussed within Muslim communities, even though they obviously should be discussed.

It first appeared in reviews of V. Rationi´s German book "Das Religionsparadox" (The paradox of religions), where she examined where highly religious countries rank on the "Global Peace Index".

Astonishingly the secular countries rank higher in peacefulness than most of the religious countries.

But there seem to be a lot of other statistical data that raise questions about Islam, eg.: does Islam make people happy (World Happiness Report), does it lead to social progress (Social Progress Index), and why is violence against children so widespread in Islamic countries (and: does it lead to the psychological phenomenon of "authoritarian characters" / "authoritarian personalities")?

Misogyny in Islam

 Is there more misogyny in Islamic countries than in secular countries?

One way to find out is to look at the "Women Peace and Security Index" which ranks countries worldwide according to the rights and the safety of women. Most Islamic countries rank very low on this Index.

But what could be the reason?

Psychology says that whenever there is overprotection by a parent, the adolescent seeks the distance, because he feels locked in or overcontrolled in some ways.

If a religion demands women to stay in their homes, or maybe offering women no other perspective than being a mother or a housewive (whereas the father ist rarely present) Misogyny could be the result of these religious rules.

And it could be enhanced, if a child experiences corporal punishment by the mother (see the wikipedia page "child corporal punishment laws").

A third factor is the different treatment of boys and girls within a religious culture: If boys are treated like kings whereas girls are raised to be servants the boy learns, that women really are or should be the servants of men.

Psychologist Nancy Hartevelt-Kobrin argues in her books, that even terrorism could be the reaction of a man who grew up in a dysfunctional Islamic family. Especially if at the same time the parents are persons of respect, who should never be objects of hatred or revenge (rooted in child abuse).