5 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 9 Question 7. What is Islam’s attitude to induced abortion? In Islam the begotten life is inviolable (Vivoda 2019, 31–43), no matter what prenatal stage it is. For a long time, there was a general ban of induced abortion. The cases of the rape of Muslim women in the war, later also under other circumstances without the war, cases of after the birth disabled individuals from incestuous marriages, cases of forced choice between mother’s and child’s life, etc., made Islamic lawyers and doctors improve their teachings on induced abortions and count on some permitted exceptions. Cases of acute threat to mother’s life and rape are those in which Muslim doctors may incline to induced abortion. The principle of the lesser evil is chosen (Atighetchi 2009, 111–119). However, under no circumstances is the financial deficit of future parents justifying their decision to undergo abortion. Quranic text in 17:31 expressly forbids this and at the same time assures, that Allah will take care of subsistence of both descendants and their parents (The Holy Quran 1946). Table 7. Allowance of induced abortion in Islam Answers Number Percentage (a) completely forbidden 385 66,3 % (b) forbidden in the case that a couple yet does not have any descendants 12 2,1 % (c) forbidden in the case that a couple yet does have only daughters 46 7,9 % (d) allowed in the cases of threat to mother’s life and rape 9 1,5 % (e) allowed in the case of financial deficiency of future parents 5 0,9 % (f) allowed in the case of agreeing decision of future parents 124 21,3 % 4 Discussion Absolutely highest rate of answers in our survey was connected to question of the basic requirement for the procreation in Islam, which is marriage. This correct answer was picked by 551 participants, what makes 94,8 %. Also correctly answered question by majority of participants, i.e. 75,6 %, was on the form of the institution of the marriage, which is a contract. The third correctly answered question by majority of participants, i.e. 58,7 %, was the one on the permissibility of female infanticide according to Muhammad’s doctrine. In comparison to results obtained in Slovakia at five public universities among 1000 participants, this is better outcome. Slovak students namely mostly inclined to the answer which claimed that performance of female infanticide is dependent on the decision of the father. It is interesting, that Czech students have reached the same, by majority wrongly answered questions, as it was the case with Slovak students. Total percentage of 74,7 % of Czech participants claimed, that future wife of Muslim has to be of Muslim confession, but only 5,7 % answered correctly, that Muslim’s future wife can be of the one of the three religions of the book, thus Muslim, Jewish or Christian. Answers to questions No. 5–7 have demonstrated, as same as among Slovak students, that participants are not familiar with contemporary Islam, more precisely, the information on current everyday life of Muslim believers, their challenges and struggles, which they try to respond to with all respect to sacred teachings and religious jurisprudence. Participants of our research in the Czech Republic do know the concept of marriage and its necessity for human procreation in Islam. It has been shown, that they know the unconditional exclusivity of heterosexual marriages. These phenomena are related to Christian doctrine and thus to a culture based on Christian values. The striking difference between Islam and Christianity lies in the number of wives of a man, because Christianity recognizes as marriage only the relationship of one man and one woman (Zaviš 2017, 70). In this context it is necessary to point out, that Quranic permission of polygamy has been practically widely misused; videlicet, this permission literally relates just to extraordinary situations, e.g. as taking care of widows and their children bereaved after their husbands died in war (Hassan 2006, 248). Thus, in the area of the theoretical knowledge of marriage and procreation in Islam, as same as Muhammad’s position towards female infanticide, our respondents would be able to communicate inter-religiously. However, on issues related
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