Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Gee, What a Monstrous Surprise - NOT!

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, ten of the top fifteen most repressive countries when it come to religious liberty are Muslim countries; Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Tajikistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan (they're all petty damned anti-women and gay, too).....Hm, perhaps they've taken it to heart what the Koran overtly teaches; "Slay the People of the Book wherever you find them....Slay the polytheists wherever you find them." Expanding on it even.

14 comments:

dmarks said...

Shariah law demands brutal and harsh treatment of anyone who does not worship the Muslim god. The victims of this include "people of the book" also, and it was true in the Middle Ages also.

Lisa G. said...

We have our own Christofacists which are anti women and gay. (See Repubs trying to legislate abortions and gay marriage - enough with that shit already.) We really don't have a lot of room to talk.

Also the Westboro Church that protests at soldiers' funerals. I'm not going to pick on Islam for their 1% when we have our own to deal with.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Lisa, are you really comparing the religious right in this country (which I also have little use for) to the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Saudi royal family, etc.? The latter engages in honor killings and gives women and gays zero rights. And are you also doubting the findings of this bipartisan commission (a Baptist church in the West Bank has been bombed 14 times and the pastor shot)?

Les Carpenter said...

The religous right in the USA has rekindled my interest on the Gods of Ancient Greece. :-)

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I agree, Les, but get a load of these results from the latest Pew research study; 72% of Muslims in Indonesia support Sharia law, 74% in Egypt support it, 89% in the Palestinian territories support it, and 99% in Afghanistan support it.......In Iraq, 92% of the Muslims there say that a woman must always obey her husband (92% in Morocco, 93% in Tunesia, 94% in Afghanistan, and 96% in Malaysia). This is hardly a 1% situation over there.

dmarks said...

Abortions harm children. Legislating them is no more anti-woman than banning slavery in the 1860's was anti-white.

And sorry, Lisa, you really have no idea what you are talking about by bringing up Westboro Baptist. You are equating them being rude at funerals to terrorists in other countries murdering and raping thousands for having the wrong religion.

Lisa G. said...

Again, I'm sticking with my original premise that fundies of any stripe are bad for human and civil rights. If the Christofacists had there way, we'd be living in a theocracy too. Maybe Islam is a portent of the future - telling us this is what you're country will look like. Again, Islam seems to have more than their fair share. Literal interpretation of any Holy Book is wrong and doesn't apply to the modern world. Look what we did to the Jews.

If men got pregnant, there would be drive thru abortion clinics and they'd serve beer. :)

dmarks said...

Will. Terrorist law (shariah) demands that people who make basic decisions of conscience (such as turning from Islam to Christianity, or Islam to atheism) be murdered. So, if what you are saying is true, it is not 1% that is the problem in these countries, it is at least 72% in them who support such brutality.

There's no comparison in the US. Very very few even among the Religious Right support murdering people for choosing a gay lifestyle.

BB-Idaho said...

"Slay the polytheists wherever you find them". Gosh, I'd have no idea where to look for a polytheist. "Slay them all, God
knows his own" on the other hand
is definitely Christian, arising
from the Albigensian Crusade-no
polytheists, Jews or even Muslims
in that holy affair....

Les Carpenter said...

Yeah, and soon it will be entrenched over here as well. Like a growing cancer that sooner or later consumes it's hosts life.

But let's not let on we know cause you know, we'll be called bigots by many.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I agree with Lisa's basic premise that all religions have their nut cases. I just think that there are more of those folks living in the Middle East (American muslims for the most part being not a problem).

dmarks said...

True, Will. Consider that the majority of the Palestinian electorate voted in favor of the "wipe out all Jews" political party just a few years ago.

And Iran regularly has massive rallies where tens of thousands of people turn out to chant demands for the murder of 300 million Americans and all Jewish Israelis in the name of their extreme branch of their faith.

While the Westboro bapstards are completely awful, there is simply no equating them with the legions of genocidal maniacs that are in large numbers in some countries over there.

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Lisa said: "We have our own Christofacists which are anti women and gay. (See Repubs trying to legislate abortions and gay marriage - enough with that shit already.) We really don't have a lot of room to talk...

On the gay thing, American liberals don't have a lot of room to talk either. Obama was one of those who opposed gay marriage (and campaigned on supporting a ban) until just a couple of years ago. African-Americans in California, an overwhelmingly liberal/left voting bloc, voted overwhelmingly for California Prop. 8 a few years ago.

So, you can't bash Republicans too harshly for being where Obama was a mere two years ago on this issue, and for being in conformance with the views of one of the largest most loyal leftist voting blocs in America.

I think Libertarians have a more consistent view on this issue.

dmarks said...

Will: Surely some of the nations where Atheism is the official faith are on that list too. Religious liberty in North Korea and China...

dmarks said...

Also, four of those on the list of 15 have Atheism as the official faith. Extremist Atheists have proven quite deadly, with many tens of millions of murdered victims when it really took off in the 20th century. Atheists (at their worst) have a poor track record when it comes to tolerance of other faiths, and the worst and most oppressive of the countries on the list, North Korea, is Atheist. They are unlike the Jainists and and Buddhists to say the least.

Conspicuously lacking from the list is Israel. While it is officially Jewish, it allows the most freedom for Muslims than probably any other country in the world, and Atheists, Christians, and others enjoy tolerance there.