Commentary by H.G. Listiak

Thursday 2/5/2004

Welcome to My World, where it's said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Probably the last words of a sword fighter with a pen stuck in his check, but none the less, we have a rash of new authors springing up every day. Books, books, and books, everyone is coming out with a book. In paperback or hard cover, we've got liberals attacking liberals and conservatives, and conservatives attacking conservatives and liberals. TV talking heads and talk show hosts are saving the country in print. We've got books on diet fads, deadbeat dads, college grads, even lads who prefer lads. Here in the U.S. you can put out a book about anything, but that's not the case in other lands. In Spain, a Muslim spiritual leader, Mohammed Kamal Mustafa, the Imam of Fuengirola, will do 15 months in prison for his book, "Women of Islam". In the book, the good Imam gives husbands instructions on the proper ways to beat their wives. He writes, "Do not hit them on sensitive parts or with too much force, hit them with a light rod, on the hands and feet, so that the blows don't leave scars or bruises." This lit the fuse. Angry senoras, both muslim and not, went after the good Imam, who tried to cop a plea, saying he was only plagerizing Islamic writings from the 13th to 19th centuries. It didn't work. He's going behind bars for incitement to violence on the basis of gender, a serious crime in Barcelona, but rarely enforced. The judge ruled that intolerable writings outweighed the guarantee of religious freedom. There was no hiding behind the robes of religion for Imam Mohammed Kamal Mustafa, who learned the hard way that although some say the pen is mightier than the sword, it is no match for the ladies when they've been wronged. Without a doubt, as I see it ... I'm H.G. Listiak.