There is a Limit
I admire freedom as much as the next person, but we all know there are limits, right? There is such a thing as too much. Liberty does not mean license. There are some things no one can be free to do. Cough at the opera, spit in the soup, wear black in summer, and – one other thing.
A man could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under Afghanistan’s shariah laws, a judge said yesterday…The accused was charged with rejecting Islam…”We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law,” the judge said. “It is an attack on Islam.”
Well of course, and obviously an attack on Islam has to be against the law, and not only that, it has to be a capital crime. Obviously. Because otherwise – well exactly.
Shariah law states that any Muslim who rejects Islam should be sentenced to death, according to Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Repeated attempts to impose a jail sentence were barred.
Well good. Super. None of that panty-waist bleeding-heart Birkenstock-wearing tree-hugging dewey-eyed sympathetic hand-holding poppycock about not killing people for changing their religions. Good for them! How refreshing! They stick to their guns in these Shariah places. Submit to Allah or we’ll kill you. What could be fairer than that?
The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Mr Rahman converted back to Islam, but he refused. “He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a Christian and would always remain one,” Mr Wasi said. “We are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty.”
Of course he must. Because they are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against their laws. QED. Good night and good luck.
When I saw,
I thought you were going to call on the anti-war crowd to put their protests where it might do some good. You know, like “so long as you’re there you might as well do some good!”
But it was funny just the same.
A truly excellent little book came through my door this morning. I’ve read a few pages already and remembered one particular bit of the praise for it I’ve seen, which said, “it’s a good read” or words to that effect. And it is. It is very engaging, easy to read, much like your blog posts. Well, better, really, but that is to be expected, isn’t it?
Nice one, OB! Keep it up! :)
Thanks, Juan!
That was the idea. It was meant to be easy to read without being actually vulgar. There was one bit I did that was actually vulgar; I think co-author went into something like shock. But that was early in the process, before all the beatings.
“Shariah law states that any Muslim who rejects Islam should be sentenced to death, according to Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.”
A small rhetorical question: How can you follow Shariah Law AND have a “Independent Human Rights Commission”? Given that Shariah law violates many human rights, it’s basically a logical contradiction.
I wondered that too. It’s not clear whether Hakim is just reporting the fact of what the law is, or being critical, or endorsing the whole thing.
It strikes me that many muslims simply don’t have any empathy when it comes to other religions. Apostasy is not just seen as despicable within Islam but also within Christianity. The main difference is that Christians don’t burn people at the stake for it any more but rely on God to do it in the afterlife. It is noticeable that Abdul Wasi thought it was necessary to *explain* things to us. It never struck him that we might understand all too well and that we might have good reasons for abolishing the death penalty for Apostates.
Oh, and given the large numbers of Christians currently helping the Afghan government isn’t this just a tiny bit tactless?
My favourite quote is this one – picked up be the BBC and one or two other reports;
“We will ask him if he has changed his mind about being a Christian,” Mawlazezadah says. “If he has, we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance.”
A religion of tolerance!!!!
Maybe in these busy, confusing, tense times, we should all be allowed to beleive differently on different days of the calendar. Can’t the UN organise it ? Atheist Monday. Devout Koptic Tuesday. Shia Wednesday morning. Catholic Teatime. Sunni alternate Sunday. Scientoliogist Spring. That sort of thing.
This just in…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4832072.stm
School wins Muslim dress appeal
“Shabina Begum had wanted to wear a full-length jilbab gown
A school which was told it unlawfully excluded a Muslim pupil for wearing a traditional gown has won its appeal at the House of Lords. “
Good news for a change!
I like the calendar idea. Sikh Thursday aft, Parsi Thursday eve, Branch Davidian midnight to dawn, Jonestownian Friday breakfast, Heaven’s Gate Friday midmorning. And since we’re always being told about all these other idea sets that are ‘really’ religions, we also have to make room for secularism Friday noon, ‘evolutionism’ Friday aft, atheism Friday eve, science Friday night, rationality midnight to dawn, scientism Saturday morning – how busy we will be. Far too busy to draw any cartoons.
Poor old rationality gets the graveyard shift I see along with the Waco team… sounds like the premise for a rather disturbing sci-fi / fantasy story