"Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he found a People: We said: “O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness." - Quran 18:86 (read more)

"So the Quraish and the Ansar became angry and said, "He (i.e. the Prophet, ) gives the chief of Najd and does not give us." The Prophet said, "I give them) so as to attract their hearts (to Islam)." - Sahih Bukhari 4:55:558 (read more)

"We must know that [wife] beating is a punishment in Islamic religious law,....No one should deny this because this was permitted by the Creator of Man, and because when you purchase an electric appliance or a car you get instructions – a catalogue, explaining how to use it. The Creator of Man has sent down this book [the Quran] in order to show man which ways he must choose....We shouldn't be ashamed before the nations of the world who are still in their days of ignorance, to admit that these [beatings] are part of our religious law..." - Muslim cleric on Qatar TV