I am normally a very tolerant human being. It is my way, through education and experience, to accept other peoples' cultures, religions and beliefs. I want this freedom for myself and the logic to our free system is clear.
My tolerance and understanding goes right out the window when I read stories in the news about 23 year old student reporters in Afghanistan who are sentenced to death because they had the audacity to ask a question about their religion; when young women who have been gang raped are held responsible for the actions of those men, and punished severely for it.
What the hell kind of religion is this? Is this my background of Christian upbringing in a free culture talking? Do I have the right to be outraged that this Islamic government sees fit to deal out cruelty and punishment; as if Christiandom never has? And another question I have to ask..are these stories being used to manipulate my emotions into hating a major world religion so that I won't balk when we blow them up?
All I know is that any religion that would treat it's followers with such brutality does not qualify as religion to me! I don't subscribe to violence in any form...not political, not cultural, not religious. Course, that's just me. I guess I am a little odd in that I don't find bodies crushing together and droplets of blood flying in diverse directions either exciting or in anyway gratifying. I find it extremely upsetting that anyone would define this as entertaining or a "career" path. My discomfort however, does not define a free culture. Therefore, if willing adult human beings wish to throttle each other, then far be it from me to stop them. And that's the real difference between our culture and cultures like Afghanistan's I guess. There seems to be little choice in the religious states of Islam, who gets throttled and who does the throttling.
It would appear through media coverage, although Pye's suspicions in this area run in the 99% range; that some Islamic extremists would have done with our nation of excess, corruption and lack of disciplined maturity. However; if ruling people with an iron hand is the answer, beating them senseless and forbidding their God given minds to explore their own creation - I'll take our crazy system of ups and downs, backwards and forwards and inbetweens ANY FREAKIN DAY OF THE WEEK. We might be flawed, but at least we are figuring it out for ourselves! We have the courage to go forward and try and if we fail, we try something else.
The extremist may think we are a nation lost but I'll tell ya what, any priest or president or imam or pope who tries to hang a veil on me will have to lay it on my dead body because that's what kind of fight I will put up.
I am not a woman so afraid that I would not be willing to stand up and tell God himself the same thing I told my last husband: If you want a willing partner to walk through life and share that with you, I'm there; but if you're looking for a slave or a servant girl, just watch the door swingin, cause I'm already gone.
It's not that I don't believe there are Islamic terrorists; I'm just not quite sure who is backing them. In the past our own CIA has been found to be at the bottom of various nefarious activities and Georgie Boy too, is not above doing whatever must be done to manipulate the mass consciousness. His own dad has plenty of "the company's" training.
If however, there is some kind of conspiracy to bring America down; to destroy our economic system and lead the people into chaos, I have some disturbing news for these extremists. You don't know us. We have strengths and virtues you have no idea of. We have a set of core beliefs that goes so far beyond that of Islam...if you give us a reason to unify and stop effing around; you will regret it. This is not meant to be a threat.
I just know from knowing Pye as I do that a person can be pushed just so far and if you threaten the safety of the ones that person holds dear; you will unlock an indominable force; because it's not the power of an ideology, it's the power of the heart.
Ok..that's my rant for the day...thanks for reading! I know I sound mad..and I am, for the young people of Afghanistan, and any other country or place where they can't ask a reasonable question without fear of death and punishment.
Here is an excerpt from "Light of Life" that might be or interest to you:
The legal basis of Islam is the Sharia, Islamic law, that controls and orders all areas of life. It is not a moral law for the sensitizing of conscience but is a penal law, requiring the punishment of violators through an instrument of the state. Islam demands a religious state as an executor to enforce the law.
A Muslim is not free to believe or do what he wishes. He is under Islamic law, which was derived and assimilated from the QurŽan, the example of Muhammad (sunna), the final analogy (qijas) and consensus (idjmaa).
Islam describes Muslims as worshipers and slaves of Allah (ibaad Allah). They have submitted themselves to him and are therefore his possession. The word Islam means, "surrender, devotion and submission".
Whoever falls away from faith in Islam commits -- from an Islamic perspective -- an unforgivable sin. He takes himself away from Allah, his owner -- which is theft -- and weakens the Islamic state, an action branded as revolt or insurrection. He who falls away from Islam must, according to the Sharia, be prosecuted, taken into custody by force, and called on to repent. If necessary, his return is to be "helped" along with torture. He who does not embrace Islam again has, according to the Sharia, forfeited his life and is to be put to death by the state. According to the daily paper, Al Alam, King Hassan II of Morocco, who is also the imam of his country, presented the following state of affairs before a human rights commission on May 15, 1990:
"If a Muslim says, 'I have embraced another religion instead of Islam,' he -- before he is called to repentance -- will be brought before a group of medical specialists, so that they can examine him to see if he is still in his right mind.
After he has then been called to repentance, but decides to hold fast to the testimony of another religion not coming from Allah -- that is, not Islam -- he will be judged."
Such thinking abounded in Christian churches during the Middle Ages, too. The Inquisition took on violent proportions and carried out the governmental functions of punishment. However, this madness in Church history was in direct opposition to the law and spirit of Christ. Indeed, the New Testament upholds the teaching of eternal punishment for the godless and for those who fall from living faith in Christ; but with the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-24), Jesus teaches that the father waited for the rebellious son until he returned, and then he rushed out to meet him. The father did not have him searched for, kept under surveillance, followed, locked up, tortured, starved or killed. The spirit of Christ grants freedom and does not kill. But the revelations of Allah in the QurŽan require the death of all apostates. The grace and love of Christ are greater than the hate and law of Islam; this grace and love oppose the efforts of all inquisitors. Whoever follows Christ loves apostates and does not condemn them.
Islamic states are presently renewing their legislation, replacing it with earlier Islamic structures, and are trying to rid themselves of the influence of colonial powers. In most of the Islamic countries, endeavors are underway to make the QurŽan and the Sunna the basis of modern legislation.
Not all Muslims agree with this retreat into the Islamic Middle Ages of earlier times. Our world has become smaller through modern travel and telecommunication. The influences of humanism, rationalism, technology and modern living have left their mark on many Muslims. One-third to one-half of the Muslim population in Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia resists the introduction of the Sharia. They do not wish to come under the yoke of oppression again -- one which would demand that thieves have their hands and feet amputated, adulterers be whipped, and converts be killed.
Thinking now about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as much as I detest the idea of military conflict; perhaps our American people just being there and showing these oppressed and blindfolded Muslims what it is to be able to think with your own mind and decide for yourself is what is really important.
Thanks again for explaining all this.
Pye