I have a number of issues to discuss but let me start with one that irks me and should irk everyone.
It is the story of a British teacher in Sudan who was teaching in a private school there. A class project was to name a teddy bear and the class decided to name the toy bear Muhammad after the name of a student in the class. Muhammad is a very, very common name given to boys in Islamic countries.
Anyway, someone complained that the teacher insulted the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in general and should be put to death.
She was arrested and the judge sentenced her to months in jail and 200 lashes which was actually very lenient considering she could have been sentenced to death. Crowds rioted at the reduced sentence demanding death!!!
OK the British government reacted immediately and British parliamentarians who are also Muslims traveled to Sudan to intervene on behalf of the 56 year old teacher. The president of Sudan will probably pardon her and she will probably escape back home being so grateful to be out of that loony bin.
What do we have here besides hopeless absurdity?
Well we have another backward country being kept backward by a religion that has not changed since the Middle Ages. The government is partly responsible because it promotes and encourages this backwardness as a means of total control over the people.
Can’t really blame the people; they don’t know any better and they are programmed from an early age to consider all foreigners as devils trying to hurt them and their religion. The judges are no better since most of them are religious clerics charged with making sure the “religious” laws are obeyed and dishing out severe punishment if they are not; their (clerics) very existence is depended on the continuation of this religious form of law so obviously they are biased and will fight any suggestions to move to a more modern system of justice.
Islamic Law is not as totally absurd as it seems to most of us. Yes it was created by men to favor men but it did have a semblance of basic justice or fairness. In the case of the teacher, a clear intent to actually do harm or make fun of the prophet or Islam would have to be proven before conviction but obviously the judges were swayed by emotion and not really by the letter of THEIR law which means there is no law, only judges controlled by governments.
Some say economic progress will bring enlightenment. I used to think that but I now point to Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the rest and say they are economically progressive and still retarded by religion. Look at the U.S., richest country in the world and we have more religious kooks than anybody so that argument does not work.
In the short run we need to embarrass the hell out of these regimes that foster this backwardness and encourage and foment revolution from within?
It is the story of a British teacher in Sudan who was teaching in a private school there. A class project was to name a teddy bear and the class decided to name the toy bear Muhammad after the name of a student in the class. Muhammad is a very, very common name given to boys in Islamic countries.
Anyway, someone complained that the teacher insulted the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in general and should be put to death.
She was arrested and the judge sentenced her to months in jail and 200 lashes which was actually very lenient considering she could have been sentenced to death. Crowds rioted at the reduced sentence demanding death!!!
OK the British government reacted immediately and British parliamentarians who are also Muslims traveled to Sudan to intervene on behalf of the 56 year old teacher. The president of Sudan will probably pardon her and she will probably escape back home being so grateful to be out of that loony bin.
What do we have here besides hopeless absurdity?
Well we have another backward country being kept backward by a religion that has not changed since the Middle Ages. The government is partly responsible because it promotes and encourages this backwardness as a means of total control over the people.
Can’t really blame the people; they don’t know any better and they are programmed from an early age to consider all foreigners as devils trying to hurt them and their religion. The judges are no better since most of them are religious clerics charged with making sure the “religious” laws are obeyed and dishing out severe punishment if they are not; their (clerics) very existence is depended on the continuation of this religious form of law so obviously they are biased and will fight any suggestions to move to a more modern system of justice.
Islamic Law is not as totally absurd as it seems to most of us. Yes it was created by men to favor men but it did have a semblance of basic justice or fairness. In the case of the teacher, a clear intent to actually do harm or make fun of the prophet or Islam would have to be proven before conviction but obviously the judges were swayed by emotion and not really by the letter of THEIR law which means there is no law, only judges controlled by governments.
Some say economic progress will bring enlightenment. I used to think that but I now point to Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the rest and say they are economically progressive and still retarded by religion. Look at the U.S., richest country in the world and we have more religious kooks than anybody so that argument does not work.
In the short run we need to embarrass the hell out of these regimes that foster this backwardness and encourage and foment revolution from within?
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