As with many things, I’m no expert on Islam. Nonetheless, within the limitations of my language skills, I’ve done the reading.
One of the things which seems clear from the life of the Prophet, is that he made things better for women and slaves. Zakat is meant to be used, among other things to free slaves.
Mohammed’s first followers were mostly women and poorer men.
Mohammed made things better for them.
But the strength of scripture is also its weakness: what was written is always there. Absent interpretation from the spirit of what was written, absent living script, it can be used to ossify change. God’s law in any good teaching, is love. When we use scripture, and this is true of secular scripture like the US constitution, against love, against kindness, we do a disservice to the scripture and to the intentions of those who originally preached it.
Interpretation can be used for good or evil. It can be used to make religious social beliefs not intrinsic to the religion, like female genital mutilation or the divine right of kings. But it can also be used in the spirit of God’s law of love, to nurture kinder people, and kinder societies.
While intention doesn’t always work out, it is best to start from good intentions and in dealing with religious and spiritual traditions it is best to interpret in line with intention. For America, this might be a further movement towards freedom and the pursuit of happiness. For Islam, submission to God, and good works aiding those who need it most.