On April 20th 2017 CNN reported that news anchor Bill O’Reilly would be receiving a payout of tens of millions of dollars after he was removed from Fox News’s most popular news program after numerous allegations of harassment were brought forward by many women during the numerous years of his career. Sources say the amount due to be received could be as much as 25 million dollars. Fox News justifies this payout as follows;
“O’Reilly commanded a higher sum for obvious reasons: he dominated the ratings and helped Fox News deliver record profits for its parent company.”
Comment:
There can be no sense of justice being served with O’Reilly’s removal from his post as the reasons motivating this action have nothing to do with safe guarding social morals or protecting future women. As Fox News’s own quote clearly shows, the Capitalistic ideals to protect profit over people is at the heart of the decision-making process as over 50 different sponsors have withdrawn advertising contracts costing the Murdoch Media network millions of dollars in revenues. Fox News is experienced in rewarding those that abuse women as the founding CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes also left his post due to harassment charges against him and was richly rewarded a 40-million-dollar payout (he has since purchased a 36-million-dollar beach home in Florida). 5 of the women who have accused O’Reilly of abuse have reportedly received 10 million each in ‘hush’ money. It seems the silence of women can be bought and the lesson for others females is your complaints will only be recognized if there is enough money or power to be lost by the elite. We should not be surprised by such examples when the USA’s own president was rewarded with the highest political office even though he himself was caught on camera expressing the most vulgar and misogynistic comments about women. The actions of these few high-profile figures are merely the tip of a giant cold iceberg of dangerous values that western culture promotes in its own nations, as well as others. Objectification of women, insulting slanderous references, the degradation of the female role and normalization of violence are all daily struggle of both girls and women alike. A June 2014 Gallup Survey found that in the USA 65% of all women had experienced street harassment and 1 in 3 women have been harassed at work (Huffington Post 19th February 2015). In the USA, one in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape at some point in their lifetime.
From these three facts alone we can see that age, career opportunity, education and economic status does nothing to protect women from the hazards of the liberal values the selfish motives it nurtures in males.
The Islamic values are often targeted for justifying the abuse of women when in reality it is western democratic values that actively support and condone the exploitation of women. In Islam using women’s bodies to attract attention in order to advertise goods is unacceptable in a future Islamic State under the policies of the economic system. Segregated zones for men and women in education, medical facilities and other areas are standard making the movement of women safe and stress free. Those that used Language that refer to women in animalist or inhumane terms would be taken to court and tried under the laws of slander as discussed in Quran in Surah An-Nur verse 4:
وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاء فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَانِينَ جَلْدَةً وَلَا تَقْبَلُوا لَهُمْ شَهَادَةً أَبَدًا وَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
“And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses – lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient.”
Also in Surah Al Hujuraat verse 11:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا يَسْخَرْ قَومٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ عَسَى أَن يَكُونُوا خَيْرًا مِّنْهُمْ وَلَا نِسَاء مِّن نِّسَاء عَسَى أَن يَكُنَّ خَيْرًا مِّنْهُنَّ وَلَا تَلْمِزُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَلَا تَنَابَزُوا بِالْأَلْقَابِ بِئْسَ الاِسْمُ الْفُسُوقُ بَعْدَ الْإِيمَانِ وَمَن لَّمْ يَتُبْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
“O ye who believe! Let not some men among you laugh at others: It may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): Nor let some women laugh at others: It may be that the (latter are better than the (former): Nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other, nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames: Ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness, (to be used of one) after he has believed: And those who do not desist are (indeed) doing wrong.”
Muslim men and women are well aware of these laws in their personal lives and account each other if there are failures to follow these noble high values.
It is only with the influence of western media and the worst role models that the Islamic values may be eroded. Muslims globally must see the urgency to revive these high values of the Prophet ﷺ as the best example for human behavior and this can only be secured and taught in the best manner under the Khilafah’s political system. In the past Khilafah there was no such concept of widespread normalized harassment of women and it is in only with the return of this system can women truly benefit from real progress with out the fear of mistreatment and physical harm.
Imrana Mohammad
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir