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It can be said that women and men freely enter into marriage with its obligations and responsibilities. After a man has procured a woman, it can be said that she is his, but equally men owe woman obligation to support and sustain them provided they remain modest and obedient. Again, by emphasising some aspects that do not appear acceptable to Western eyes, you miss main message of the sura, for it is as much for women as for men that Allah has decried these arrangements. I realise that you do not necessarily agree with Islam at this stage, and it would not be my wish to force Islam on you any more than it would be my wish to impose Sharia on you. My hope is that the House of Islam will one day be the house that all will want to (democratically) elect to reside in, when they fully understand the meaning of the suras, rather than voting for war-mongerers like Howard and Bush, and residing in Dar al-harb. But for the here and now, aim should be to live in harmony, and find what we have in common, instead of seeking to divide and disunify. We are all Australians, and although I have probably journeyed accross the seas to be live in this bountiful land more recently than you, no doubt your ancestors came from another land also, and so in reality you are no less an immigrant that I.
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