Muslim cleric get jail for advocating wife-beating

MADRID: An imam was sentenced to prison in Spain on Wednesday for inciting violence against women in a 1997 book that gave detailed instructions to Muslim men on how to beat their wives, judicial officials said.

Mohammed Kamal Mustafa, 44, who has been the imam of Fuengirola in the southern Costa del Sol region for the past 12 years, was convicted of “inciting violence on the basis of gender” by a court in Barcelona.

In a book entitled “Women in Islam”, Mustafa discussed the “restraints imposed” by Islam “concerning the physical punishment” of women.

“The beatings must be administered to specific parts of the body, such as the feet and hands, using a stick that is not too big so as not to leave scars and bruises,” he wrote.

“The beatings must not be too harsh because the goal is to cause psychological suffering and not to humiliate or physically abuse,” he added.

Mustafa was sentenced to one year and three months in prison and fined nine euros (seven dollars) a day for eight days.

His lawyer Jose Luis Bravo said he planned to appeal the conviction, saying it was “unfair” and the result of “media pressure”.

During his trial, Mustafa said he was against wife-beating and that his book was merely a compilation of sacred Muslim texts on women. —AFP

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