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assumption that Muslim marriages, independent of geographic location or social strata, were more likely to be violent than the marriages of non-Muslims. In consideration of the problems associated with the available statistics it was necessary to adopt some benchmark from which to compare figures collected by different methods. The one crime that is most difficult to conceal and will only be reported once according to any collecting criteria is murder. "Homicide is of interest not only because of its severity but also because it is a fairly reliable barometer of all violent crime. At a national level, no other crime is measured as accurately and precisely." 1 This allows the number of spousal murders in a given population to be expressed as a ratio per 1,000,000 by which the figures for deaths from various countries can be directly compared. This ratio can then be compared with the ratio of the number of complaints of marital assault per 1,000,000 of population in societies where reporting is believed to be encouraged, acceptable and frequent. It is this ratio of deaths to reported assaults that was used to gauge whether or not reports from countries or communities where the accepted belief is that there is underreporting of marital violence do in fact exhibit any significant statistical trends to support such beliefs.

Due Process

There are apologists for Islām who will quickly say when questioned about a husband beating his wife that it is not permitted or that it is only allowed with a slipper or mishwāk.2 In saying these things they are not lying but neither are they telling the full story. Islām condemns all gratuitous, sadistic and unjust forms of violence whether it is a harsh word or the use of a nuclear weapon. Islām also upholds the use of corporal punishment when lawfully prescribed and administered for specific offences and when it is deemed to be proportionate to them.

All Muslims are subject to the possibility that their religious and social duty may require them to enforce a law or punishment. This is true for people of all faiths and of all societies. One of the most famous advocates of non-violence and Buddhism in the United Kingdom was also a Judge, Kings and Queens Counsel who prosecuted many wrong doers. As a prosecutor, Christmas Humphreys obtained a sentence of death upon Timothy Evans and others. 3

All Muslims, male or female, are also subject to the possibility that if they commit a crime they will be subjected to physical punishment. Narrated ‛Aisha:

The Quraysh people became very worried about the Makhzumiya lady who had committed theft. They said, "Nobody can speak (in favour of the lady) to Allah's Apostle and nobody dares do that except Usama who is the favourite of Allah's Apostle. " When Usama spoke to Allah's Apostle about that matter, Allah's Apostle said, "Do you intercede (with me) to violate one of the legal punishment of Allah?" Then he got up and addressed the people, saying, "O people! The nations before you went astray because if a noble person committed theft, they used to leave him, but if a weak person among them committed theft, they used to inflict the legal punishment on him. By Allah, if Fātimah, the daughter of Muhammad committed theft, Muhammad would cut off her hand."4

The verse of the Qur'an that recognises that a husband may use corporal punishment does not sanction wholesale and unlimited wife beating. It is in fact a limitation upon the behaviour of men who had been born and grown in an aggressive male dominated society. If some men and women did not see violence as a course of convenience, an easy option in achieving selfish desires then neither the Qur'an nor the Prophet (saw) would have needed to comment upon it. The Qur'an is a book filled with guidance for real life. It