Wife beating and Islam

Stefan Meining gave a fascinating account of Muslims in Germany during his talk, "Between the Crescent and the Swastika: The Emergence of Political Islam in Germany," yesterday at George Washington University, but when I walked away from it, the thing that stuck with me was his mentioning two or three times that Muslims have scholarly debates about a husband's right to beat his wife.
Meining is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, as well as a German television editor.
He's pursued his study of Islam in Germany for some time and has made a documentary showing links between the founding of political Islam in Germany and the Germany Army in World War II.
He showed some interesting film and photos of smiling, Asian Muslims among the native German soldiers -- all in uniform.
Meining said the "mongols" -- as they called them -- included POWs who switched sides.
They wanted to survive, plus liberate their homeland from Russian rule.
A Nazi Party member proposed incorporating these "Untermenschen" (a Nazi term for anyone not Aryan) into the German Army and using the manpower to defeat the Russians.
The Muslims developed loyalty to the Germans, and they ended up staying on in Germany after the war ended.
But Meining kept bringing up this wife beating thing, which made me really curious.
I'm not sure I need to hear what the arguments consist of in favor of wife beating since they're unlikely to sway me. I'm opposed to the practice.
But I was curious enough to get on the Internet to see what I could see.
I found a site, Islamonline.net, that addresses Islam and wife beating in one section.
The site quotes the "Prophet Muhammad" saying, "How does anyone of you beat his wife as he beats the stallion camel and then embrace (sleep with) her?”?
Anyway, the basic gist seems to be that the whole religion is unfairly judged by what some wayward men who happen to be Muslims.
Just from looking at the site, it seems impossible to tell exactly where its funding originates.
The site requests donations be sent to an Al-Balagh Cultural Society's account at Qatar Islamic Bank.
The site says its mission is "To create a unique, global Islamic site on the Internet that provides services to Muslims and non-Muslims in several languages. To become a reference for everything that deals with Islam, its sciences, civilization and nation. To have credibility in content, distinction in design, and a sharp and balanced vision of humanity and current events."