Musleh Khan, a newly-appointed chaplain for Toronto police, claims that views he expressed about women in a seminar in 2013 were ‘misunderstood’.
Khan, according to this report, was responding to criticism over his appointment by the Toronto Police Associations and others.
In the online seminar, or webinar – entitled The Heart of the Home: the Rights and Responsibilities of a Wife – Khan states that a woman must be “obedient” to her husband.
In the almost hour-long seminar, he is heard saying that a woman must make herself available and “not withhold this right from her husband without a valid excuse,” such as sickness or obligatory fasting.
Said Khan:
Upon deliberating on the definition of ‘obedience’ as being ‘to yield to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure’, I agree that the term was inappropriate if used out of context.
He explained that the Arabic word often translated as “obedience” in fact denotes loyalty, devotion and love.
I realise how someone unfamiliar with this nuance can misunderstand my imprecise translation to mean something different to my intended meaning, and the meaning that I know my audience at the time understood clearly.
In the webinar, Khan breaks down five duties of a wife and then goes on to describe the different rights of a wife.
This list and the explanations behind it have the Toronto Police Association, the union that represents the city’s police officers and the Canadian Council of Muslim Women worried.
On Monday, the association raised questions about how the police service vets its chaplains.
Mike McCormack, President of the association, said he’s taken a look at the webinar and has received many calls and emails from concerned members.
About 20 minutes into a video made of the webinar, Khan says that a woman should ask her husband’s permission before leaving the home because the man is:
The main decision maker of the home.
Alia Hogben, the Executive Director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women said:
I think it’s appalling. We’ve been fighting for Muslim women’s rights and something like this really sets us back.
If his personal opinions are going to interfere with the work he does as a chaplain, that’s pretty damaging for not only the police in Toronto but for the women he might counsel.
What’s more, Hogben says, Khan’s comments reinforce a stereotype that anti-female views are intrinsic to Islam.
It is not the Muslim view. Some people, as in any other religion or any other religious communities, think women should be quiet and all the rest of it but that is not the general view within Islam.
McCormack agrees, saying comments like these aren’t appropriate for the police service to be associated with.
We’re dealing with victims of domestic violence, where it is very traumatic for those victims and asking those victims to come forward.
It’s difficult enough having these comments out there in 2016 in a country and in a city that doesn’t support this type of position.
In an email to CBC News, Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said Khan, like other civilian members:
Went through a thorough background check that includes reference checks with family and friends and a review of social media footprint.
Khan said in a statement yesterday:
I appreciate the criticism of the choice of my words and will be more mindful in clarifying my steadfast support of women’s equality. I remain ready to serve my community as the Muslim Chaplain of the Toronto Police Force.
Hat tip: Andy