Manchester jihad bomber Salman Abedi was aggressive and violent toward women who in his view were dressed immodestly, i.e., in ways forbidden by Islamic law. He punched a young Libyan Muslim woman in the face for wearing a short skirt “and then delivered further punches as she lay on the ground.” Red flags should have been raised, according to an inquiry.
Women who do not follow the Islamic dress code in areas where Sharia is strictly enforced face prison, violence and even death. Despite insistence that these restrictions are cultural and not religious, it is written in the Qur’an that women must be dressed as required; otherwise she may be abused:
(Quran 24:31) And tell the believing women to reduce of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.
If a woman does not cover, she is fair game to be assaulted, so Abedi was acting within what he viewed to be accordance with the highest law: Sharia.
(Quran 33:59) O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.
“Salman Abedi punching female student in row about her wearing short skirt at college was ‘red flag’ to his radicalisation, Manchester Arena terror attack inquiry hears,” by James Gant, MailOnline, December 13, 2021:
Salman Abedi punching a female student following a row about her wearing a short skirt could have been a ‘red flag’ to his radicalisation, a public inquiry has heard.
An expert in Islamist extremism told the hearing into the May 2017 Manchester Arena attack that one of the factors in the 22-year-old’s motivation to carry out the suicide bombing was religious-inspired misogyny.
Dr Matthew Wilkinson said there was a pattern of those convicted of Islamist extremist offences also having a history of violence towards women, while the so-called Islamic State group – said to have inspired the bomber – was widely known for its denigration of women.
During his studies at Manchester College in 2012 and 2013, Abedi punched a student, also from the city’s Libyan community, after she slapped him following comments he made about her appearance.
Abedi retaliated by striking her on the face and then delivered further punches as she lay on the ground, the inquiry was told.
Dr Wilkinson agreed with Nicholas de la Poer QC, counsel to the inquiry, that the incident could be interpreted as being driven by misogyny.
He said: ‘Yes, very much so, and we have other reports from fellow students saying he had related disrespectfully to female members of staff and teachers. One fellow student said he had real problems with women.
‘There is this profile of someone who had a very bad attitude towards women.’
Abedi was suspended by the college but no charges were brought after police said a ‘mediation’ had taken place at the request of the female student. Police told the college it was safe for him to return after the restorative justice process, the inquiry heard.
Mr de la Poer asked: ‘Do you consider this particular incident should have been raising a red flag for the authorities about whether Salman Abedi had at that stage potentially developed a ‘them and us worldview’ which required some sort of intervention?’
Dr Wilkinson replied: ‘I think if that event had been investigated properly it might have done. It might have flagged up the issues of dress code being abhorrent to Salman.
‘I certainly think if it had been flagged up together with a consistent portrait of Salman Abedi that had come from the various educational institutions where he had attended, then it really might have been a red flag.’….
