Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Sharia Would Not Work Well for Us

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One of the things many people living in the West ask when they are told about the Muslim vision of a global Sharia governance is why would they care about it, they wrongly assume that Muslims will set their own law and live with it happily, while letting non Muslims carry on with their normal lives as usual, the truth is not as tolerant and nice going as that unfortunately.

Non Muslims will need to follow Sharia just the same as Muslims, they will also need to pay a tribute to the Muslims and declare Islams superiority over them, and what makes this such a confusing thing to westerners is that it seems very technical to them. “So I will pay a little extra tax for the Muslims and live my life, that is not the end of the world, right?” or “OK, I will say that Islam is better and stronger, and will go on with things as usual” will not do, it is not a technical thing at all.

Imagine you are under Sharia, you’re a non Muslim, you are already used to paying 50% of your earnings to the Muslim government, and do that annual ceremony where you kneel and kiss the feet of Muslim clerics, your daughter is married to a Muslim and had converted, better for her – you think.

One day she knocks on your door, her husband had hit her again, only this time he had broken her hand. You remember the last time you went to report this to the police, and the beating you suffered from them, so you will not go this time, she can stay with you until her husband calms down, her baby girl is with her as well.

A few days pass and your son-in-law knocks on your door, he demands your daughter comes back home to clean and cook for him. She leaves and cries, after a few hours he beats her again and she runs away, she does not want to involve you, so she hides in a park, he finds her, and kills her. It’s his right, there is nothing you can do about it, you have seen this happen many times, its come a long way from the “technical” sharia you submitted to.

*Note – honor killings are not in Islam but they are now deeply rooted in Islamic-Arab culture, you will find many Arab courts defending women killers and beaters with the claim that this is very clearly allowed and advised by God.

 

Honor Killing in Egypt

Ten Year Old Mistakes

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Ten years ago, after the 9/11 attacks, many of the world leaders went out of their way to explain to their people that the actions did not reflect the religion of Islam and everything it stands for, like many obedient citizens around the world I too listened and nodded as they talked about “the religion of peace”, as if out of the three monotheistic religions Islam was the most peaceful one.

If it was not religion what was it? was it something personal all these hijackers had against the city of New York and Washington? of course not. Was it something racial? probably not, ah, there is it – it was a misunderstanding of the holy books of Islam, so not really the religion but the interpretation of it by some religious extremists. I bought it, seems to make sense.

But even with this misunderstanding there must have been something that moved these people into action, and it seemed that the only things that could really do that would be the treatment of Muslim countries by the West and, of course, Israel. The Israeli Arab war and the fact that Israel was so close to the west in its identity and philosophy added a lot of fuel to this fire, with the American weapons support it only made it worst.

So all the pieces fell in together, it all made sense, some radical Islamist had some twisted idea of Islam and decided to punish the US for its arrogant behavior towards the Arab world and Israel. And that worked for a while, but then we started getting the footage from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and Saudi Arabia, it looked like a lot of people were real happy with this, it looked like thousands actually celebrated 9/11.

So it was not just a few deranged crazy guys, it was much more, it was a culture of anti American sentiments and hatred of the U.S., and only a few years later I finally got a satisfying answer.

This was not a new fight, it was not a new battle and it was not a new sort of feeling that grow in the hearts and minds of many Muslims around the world, in fact it was very old, older then the American nation, much older then the idea of Zionism, it had nothing to do with the U.S. and nothing to do with Israel, September 11th 1683 Islam was stopped at the gates of Vienna and Europe was saved from the Ottoman empire.

The terrorists singnaled a very clear message to us in the west, the war for world domination is up once again, it was stopped for 318 years, and on Septmber 11th, 2001 they have resumed their fight for the world Islamic caliphate. This is a war which is hundreds of years old, it will not end if Israel falls, and it will not end if the U.S. will fall, it will end when the whole world falls and we all submit to Islam, giving away democracy, free speech and many other of the great things the western civilization accomplished.

Battle of Vienna Septmber 11th, 1683

How’s the Weather? Godless Weather Forecasts

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In the old days there were no weather forecasts, no weathermen on TV (no TV either) and no daily breakdown of weather and other meteorological issues on every newspaper and web site. I’m sure it does not shock you to learn that in the year 1,400 there were no web sites, no TV and no daily papers. However in parts of Europe there was this thing called the inquisition, which is nothing like weather forecasts.

People who believed (and everyone was forced to believe) had a very strong conviction that it was god who controlled the sky and the seas, it was god who decided if it will rain and therefore if it will be a good harvest year, or there will be storms, floods and heavy snow in winter. That was all god, and it had a very close link to human behavior, simply meaning that if you were good the weather would have turned out nicely for you, and if you were bad you should have prepared for a rough time.

Of course monotheistic religions borrowed the idea of weather and god from the pagans before them, they only thought that the idea of different gods taking care of different elements was ridiculous and somehow it was clear to them that’s its just one god who does everything.

See, in ancient times humans were afraid most of the time, from almost anything, because it meant trouble, disease and death. They did not have any way of telling if and when the sun would rise the next day, if it will snow in August and if night would not fall unexpectedly in the middle of the day for a few minutes. So there was some sense in developing an idea of naughty gods playing around with the weather, but today? when any 12 year old can see what the weather would be like? (well, not exactly how it will be like, but most of the time).

And somehow this not only escapes the minds of believers everywhere, it is so natural for them that today, using science, we can easily predict the weather, that believers have just shifted from the god who controls rains to something a little more dramatic, the god who controls earthquakes and hurricanes, and if one day science will discover a way to predict those they will probably move to another thing.

Weather Forecast - in the 1,400s it would have been a capital crime

A Bunch of Religious Issues in the Mid East

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It is not even worth trying covering all of it, but in what might seem like a serious regression the whole area moves back to its religious fights, and it is not exclusively Muslim-Jewish thing, its only the continuous riots in Syria (yes, still going on, no one cares really) the suffocation of the liberal democratic revolution in Egypt by the Muslim brotherhood and much more, so here is just a taste of what is going on in that part of the world –

Title – Turkey Detains 40 Jews at Istanbul Airport, forced to strip, passports confiscated

No Apology on that Terror Flotilla? Public Humiliation for Israelis

(here is the link to the article) On the escalating situation between Turkey and Israel, now the Israeli diplomats have been expelled from Istanbul, and officials in the airport have harassed Israelis coming into Turkey (which is almost nuts, to bother tourists coming in to your country).

Title – Israeli Settlers Burn Mosque Near Nablus

Jews Can Get Crazy Too, in the West Bank

(link to the story) The West Bank Jewish Settlers take advantage of the situation in the south of the country and the political system inability to deal with extreme Jews harassing the Arab-Palestinian population and torch a local mosque, adding graffiti in Hebrew on the walls, just to make sure everyone knows its a Jewish thing.

From Africa – Title – Youth Kill Family of 8 in restive central Nigeria (which should actually read “Christian Family of 8 Slaughtered in Nigeria”, link here)

Killings on Both Sides in Nigeria

The bloody history of Muslims and Christians in this part of Africa does not let go, and it is becoming a bloodier present. This evergreen hatred between the two religions is now at a boiling point, with killings on both sides going on daily.