Story from the Washington Post here. While the Post does acknowledge the special pressures facing women in Islam, they do make a mistake in trying to separate Islam and culture on this issue. In the Quran women are regarded as male property, and wife beating is advocated. And, in Islam interpretation is considered to be now closed: in other words, new intepretations of the Quran are disallowed.

While the Post states that spouse-abuse is found in other cultures, which is true, nowhere in the Bible is wife-beating advocated. And, while the Bible is patriarchal, women are not lowered to the level of property.