Abdel-Hakim Ourghi cannot believe his eyes as he browses through this book in the Cologne Central Mosque: “Basic Knowledge for Women – According to the Hanaftian Madhab (predominant Sunni school of law, note)” explains to Muslim women on 527 pages what Islam-compliant living is. For example, that she may only be treated by a male doctor “if it is really necessary”, that “the mixed life of women and men (has) always led to the decay of societies” and that veiling protects against skin cancer.
According to the work published by Astec in Bochum, it is also life-threatening when man and woman are alone in a room. Because then “Zina” is in the air. Zina is the Arabic word for fornication and adultery.
What happens to Muslims who “do zina” is described on pages 467/468: single people receive 100 strokes of the cane, while adulterers are threatened with worse: “Islam introduced stoning to death as a punishment for married men and women as well as for widows and widowers. Elsewhere there is talk of 100 strokes of the cane before stoning. Islamic scholars are “in complete agreement” on this. This is followed by a description of relevant episodes from the time of Muhammad, each of which ends with the stoning ordered by the Prophet.
The book, translated from Turkish, devotes a long chapter to jihad. The author Raul Pehlivan sums up what this is all about: “Jihad means to devote one’s life, possessions and tongue to the utmost for the rule of Islam in the world. Jihad, he said, is obligatory for all Muslims. On dealing with a government of kuffar (infidels, note), page 334 says: “The obligation and attitude towards such a government … consists of trying to change that government and end its (sic) existence.” The goal of world domination is reiterated elsewhere: Jihad is waged “to establish the rule of truth on the face of the entire earth.”
The book is available in numerous Turkish bookshops in Austria and Germany. Also on Amazon. The Viennese Aziziye bookshop took it out of stock after a VOLKSBLATT enquiry.
The sale at the Central Mosque in Cologne is politically explosive. It belongs to the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (Ditib), which is subordinate to the Turkish Office for Religious Affairs (Diyanet). The Diyanet in turn reports directly to the President of the Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A look at the online library of Diyanet shows the Turkish edition of “Basic Knowledge for Women” (“Büyük Kadin Ilmihali”) as part of the reference library there – registered with location number 297.411 PEH on the first floor. This means that in Erdogan’s immediate area of responsibility, literature is distributed – also in German by Ditib – that propagates cruel corporal punishment and jihad against non-Muslims.
The liberal Islamic scholar Ourghi is appalled. “This inflammatory pamphlet,” says the Freiburg religious educator, “serves a main goal of Islamic radicalised conservatism, namely to spread a latent ‘Western phobia'”. In the eyes of the Islamists, Western ways of thinking, living and governing are “not compatible with the teachings of Islam”. According to Ourghi, the culture of the West is presented as sick for the purpose of creating an Islamic identity. He said that healing and protection against this can only be found in Islam as the “only true religion”. Ourghi told VOLKSBLATT: “Islamic-radicalised conservatism wants to build up stereotypes against the achievements of Western culture and circulate them in the Muslim communities.”
Ditib claims – at least on its homepage – to be pro-Western: “We are committed to the free democratic basic order.” The “Basic Knowledge for Women” elabo sold in the mosque, however, does not quite fit into this order.