Clinton: Muhammad would let ladies drive
Former president challenges traditionalists in Saudi Arabia speech

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Posted: January 19, 2004
5:00 p.m. Eastern



© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Speaking at a conference in Saudi Arabia, former President Bill Clinton told a
Muslim audience Islam's founder Muhammad would have let women drive if cars had
been around 1,400 years ago.

Former President Bill Clinton

Clinton urged the Muslim kingdom, which follows the strict Wahhabi
interpretation of Islam, to not resist the "tide of change" in the world and
seek ways of broadening political participation "without compromising your
faith and culture," Reuters reported.

Saudi Arabia bars women from driving and being seen in public with men other
than family members.

A fatwa, or edict, issued by the head of the country's Department of Religious
Research, Missionary Activities and Guidance in 1990 declared women should not
be allowed to drive because Islam supports women's dignity.

Clinton said, however, Muhammad would have let his wife get behind the wheel.

"He probably would have made Saudi Arabia the first automobile producing nation
on earth and put her in charge of the business," he said, according to Reuters.


The former president was speaking at a conference in the Red Sea port of
Jeddah, where women delegates, covered in black robes, were separated in the
meeting hall from the men by a screen.

In 1990, 47 Saudi women defied the fatwa and staged a "drive-in" in Riyadh,
cruising around the capital for about 15 minutes. The women apparently were
inspired by American female soldiers among the troops in the country during the
1991 Gulf War. As punishment, the Saudis lost their jobs and passports for two
years, and religious groups distributed flyers denouncing them as "fallen
women."

Clinton said Saudi policy "cannot be based in the long run on fighting change
because you cannot fight the tide of change," Reuters reported.

Acknowledging a "tug-of-war" between "an old order and a new world" in Saudi
Arabia, he called for education "which does not exclude religion but includes
science, technology and political science."

The desert kingdom is facing a new wave of terrorist attacks by the al-Qaida
network led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.

Clinton suggested Saudi Arabia could redirect aid channeled through religious
charities tied to terrorism and use it for humanitarian projects such as
providing drinking water in poor Islamic nations.

Clinton: Muhammad would let ladies drive
Former president challenges traditionalists in Saudi Arabia speech

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Posted: January 19, 2004
5:00 p.m. Eastern



© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Speaking at a conference in Saudi Arabia, former President Bill Clinton told a
Muslim audience Islam's founder Muhammad would have let women drive if cars had
been around 1,400 years ago.