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The Webster dictionary defines feminism as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. During my years in college, I often heard Muslim students claiming that one of the superiorities of Islam was the fact that it had elevated women from a subservient position. This statement seems preposterous considering the condition of women in much of the Muslim world.

Islam sees women as chattel, and despite attempts by "moderate Islam" to portray actions such as honor killings as an aberration, it is obvious that the treatment of women as inferior beings is fully condoned in the Koran and Hadiths. The Muslims with whom I have spoken claimed that the Judeo Christian tradition had, in fact, enslaved women to their base desires, and had created the decadent western values, which caused every woman to be seen as little more than a prostitute. Leaving us with the question, is this truly the position of women in Christianity, and is the Muslim position "superior"?

In the book of Genesis we are introduced to the concept of woman. God has determined that Adam needed a helper and he formed woman out of man’s rib. The relationship that evolved between the two entities is instantly one of caring and mutual respect.

      The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man." For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24)

Immediately it is understood that to achieve the sacred union of man and woman in marriage, man will be willing to give up everything he has known. Even after the fall, it is evident that Adam still values Eve, for when he names her, he names her after the greatest gift God has given us, life.

      Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (Genesis 3:20)

The picture that is formed is not that of complete subservient submission, but rather one of two beings who are to work together with honor and respect for each other. This picture is brought into greater focus with the exhortations given us in the Messianic scriptures:

      Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— (Ephesians 5:25-29)

Even when the exhortation is to obey, it is cloaked in love:

      Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. (Colossians 3:18-19)

Let us now compare this with the Koran’s image of women. The Koran clearly places women as inferior creatures:

      "And it is for the women to act as they (the husbands) act by them, in all fairness; but the men are a step above them." (Sura 2:228)

      "Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other." (Sura 4:34)

In the Koran women are considered intellectually inferior and therefore their witness is considered unreliable and half that of a man.

      "And call in to witness two witnesses, men; or if the two be not men, then one man and two women, such witness as you approve of, that if one woman errs the other will remind her." (Sura 2:282)

Where the Judeo Christian tradition has valued women as contributors to the redemptive plan of God, leaders and warriors throughout it’s scriptures and religious history as in the case of Deborah (Judges 4), Jael (Judges 4:21), Rahab (Joshua 2). In addition, in the Messianic scriptures we are treated to the beauty of Mary's faith, the loyalty of Mary Magdalene and the financial savvy and support of Lydia (Acts 16). Islam sees women as vapid, empty creatures with little value, which, if considered disobedient, are to be beaten.

      "Righteous women are therefore obedient ... And those you fear may be rebellious (nushuz) admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them." (Sura 4:34)

      "If you fear you can not treat orphans (girls) with fairness, then you may marry other women who seem good to you: two, three or four of them. But if you fear that you can not maintain equality among them, marry only one or any slave girls you may own. This will make it easier for you to avoid injustice." (Sura 4:3)

Even the gifts of paradise are given in terms of only those things which men would enjoy leaving one to wonder what has the God of Islam in store for women in the afterlife and does he even care for their existence are or they merely a necessary inconvenience for man’s happiness. One also needs to note that where the Bible describes the afterlife as an essentially sexless existence the Koran describes the pleasures of the afterlife as primarily sexual.

Here is what the Bible says:

      "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." (Matthew 22:30)

Here what the Koran says:

      "Lo! those [men] who kept their duty will be in a place secure amid gardens and water springs, attired in silk and silk embroidery, facing one another. Even so (it will be). And We shall wed them unto [huris] fair ones with wide, lovely eyes." (Sura 44:51-54)

      "Therein maidens restraining their glances, untouched before them by any man or jinn ... lovely as rubies, beautiful as coral" (Sura 55:56-58)

      "The fair, the beautiful ones [huris]... With large dark eyeballs, kept close in their pavilions" (Sura 55:72)

As I travel throughout the United States, I am struck by the number of Christian women who are converting to Islam. It is amazing that while women in Moslem countries are fighting for a few basic rights [which we in the west take for granted], their American counterparts are rushing and embracing such Islamic extremes as wearing the Burka and the Abaya (black robe worn by Muslim women, covering the body from head to toe and worn with a headscarf and veil). One wonders if these misguided western women truly understand what they are embracing. Do they understand that they are virtually throwing away their humanity? Do they understand that they are turning away from a faith that, from its inception, has treated women as the completion of man; a "half" to be honored and treasured, and where women are treated as equals as they work side-by-side with man toward the establishment of the kingdom of God? Do they understand that their choice is now for a religion that relegates them to a less than second-class citizen? One can only surmise that they do not know what they are giving up.

Each year, in Islamic countries, women are murdered in "honor killings," an abhorrent practice where women usually pay for a man's sins. An Arab woman in "Palestine", Rofayda Qaoud, was raped and impregnated by her brother. In turn, her mother suffocated her and slit her wrists because she had not had the decency to commit suicide. In Germany, Ayhan Surucu was so angry that his sister was westernizing, that he killed her by firing three bullets into her brain at a local bus stop. Her sins included wearing make-up and dating German men.Why are western women embracing Islam and leaving behind their Judeo-Christian roots? The fault can be placed on two factors. The first is a Church that has failed to teach biblical truth. The resulting development is a religion that is "all about me," and failing to see that human beings were designed to strive for higher purpose. It is not, and never has been about us, but about God and serving His will. Deep down, every human being knows this. So, fault can also be placed on the women side, who have failed to grasp and execute their real position in life. If women are searching for meaning and purpose, there could be no greater meaning in life than to be actively working for the establishment of God's kingdom on the Earth.