In a recent YouTube video, a man by the name of ‘Isma’eel Abu Adam’ proclaims that he is no longer a Muslim. His stated rationale for leaving Islam is his belief that the Qur’an and the Prophet (saws) permitted the “rape” of “married” women captured during times of war. He bases his conclusion on the Qur’an 4:24 which states, “And all married women (are forbidden to you) except those your right hands possess.” Isma’eel further states,
“As shocking as it may seem both the Qur’an and Muhammad teach that it is halal, permissible, to capture and rape female war captives”
The video has gone viral and has gotten more than 100,000 views in a very short amount of time. This raises the question of how Muslims are to defend our faith when we approach complicated issues like the status of female war captives in Islam? How do we respond to accusations which call into question the morality of our Prophet (saws)? Shaykh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali of the Lamppost Education Initiative provides a brief, yet powerful response to Isma’eel’s video:
Part II
A special online course with Dr. Khalid Yahya Blankinship.
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Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali
He holds a Ph.D. in Cultural and Historical Studies in Religion (2016) and an M.A. in Ethics and Social Theory (2012) from the Graduate Theological Union. He obtained his B.A. (ijaza ‘ulya) in Islamic Law 
(Shariah) from the prestigious Al-Qarawiyin University of Fes, Morocco in 2001. He served as full time Islamic chaplain at the State Correctional Institute of Chester, PA from 2002-2007, and is the founding director of the Lamppost Education Initiative. He currently serves as an Associate Professor of Islamic law and Prophetic Tradition at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California. His research interests include the interconnection between law and identity formation, comparative Islamic law, and Islam’s role in the modern world.
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