Iranian Woman Stoned to Death after being raped for "Luring" her Attackers:
This isn't "sorta" wrong.
Well.
Today we learn that Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's Christian minorities minister, was assassinated outside his home in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Mr. Bhatti was killed because he sought to change a law which made it a capital offense, punishable by death, to question the Prophet Mohammad.
And the killing of Mr. Bhatti follows the cowardly murder a month earlier of Punjabi Governor Salman Taseer, who was also killed because he sought reform of that same law against "blasphemy".
And as I read the news on this sickening, cowardly, crime, something struck me.
As I read a few different reports, in the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, and the New York Times articles on the assassination, it struck me that, yet again, we ascribe these crimes to Muslim "extremists" or "militant extremists".
But that really isn't true at all.
Because the murders of Bhatti and Taseer are, really, condoned implicitly and explicitly by huge numbers of the general population in Pakistan. This is not simply the act of a relatively small group of crazed fanatics at all.. we just like to say that because it avoids the more serious discussion of just how mainstream these thoughts and intentions really are.
To begin with, the law of the land - of the so-called Pakistani democracy - is that "the State" will kill people if they dare to deny the perfection of Muhammad.
That isn't some crazed Al Quaeda group hiding in caves along the Afghan border - that is the considered decision of the government of Pakistan.
And the current government has made it clear that it has no intentions of modifying that backwards, ignorant law, with Prime Minister Gilani stating, unequivocally, in Parliament this year that the government had no intention of pursuing the reform agenda on the blasphemy laws.
We can't ascribe that position to Muslim "extremists" can we?
It was also noted that when the killer of Taseer first appeared in court, he was showered with praise and flower petals by lawyers as he walked into court.
The Washingon Post in fact has reported that the narrow-minded and violent belief in the right to kill those who question Islam is in fact NOT an extremist view, but is in fact shared by mainstream, so-called "peaceful" Muslims in Pakistan.
So, mull that over for a moment.
And consider that perhaps, just perhaps, the politically correct description of violent acts committed in the name of Islam as being committed by "extremists" is perhaps slightly inaccurate if it is intended to suggest that it is the act of a minority of believers in Islam - at least in that part of the world.
And, for the benefit of ensuring the continued respect for freedom of speech and freedom of religion, we need to be, perhaps, more direct and less tolerant of this sort of thing.
And instead of perhaps worrying so much about offending those who seek to build a mosque near ground zero, we should be expecting clear and direct condemnation of this sort of thing from our leaders, and, in particular, from those members of the Muslim religion in our own communities - as, sadly, it is unlikely that the words of some southern Alberta Christian will mean much to a member of a mosque in Toronto or Calgary.
We need to put Islamic community leaders on the spot every time one of these cowardly and senseless crimes are committed, and put to them the question, front and centre, "Do you oppose this interpretation of Islam?" The only religious leader, so far, to comment has been the Pope. Where are the questions being put to the leaders of the Islam religion.
Violence and oppression committed in the name of Islam is a virus than cannot be permitted to spread - and while it may not seem fair to direct attention at those in our own communities who have had no complicity or involvement in this sort of misguided belief system, they nonetheless hold a particular responsibility to assure that their members do not get equivocal or uncertain messages that their religion and their Prophet as beyond being questioned in our society.
And think about THAT for just a moment.
Just how secure is your belief in your Prophet anyway if you need laws and threats of death to prevent anyone from questioning him.
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