The thread talking about the Sharia law government of Iran killing anybody deeply involved in the adult film industry reminded me what a friend told me once, that under Muslim law a female virgin on death row should be RAPED by a prison guard before she is executed, lest she go to "paradise". Horrific!

This is not something that only happened in the 7th century...it happens today!

If you can stand the gory details then see:
www.omdurman.org/iran.html

This is one of the best examples of why we should be willing to fight (and die if needed) to resist Islamic law.

Remember, under Sharia law she can be tortured/KILLED (sometimes being brutally stoned to death) for:
1. drawing pictures of Mohammad,
2. having sex outside of her marriage,
3. being gay,
4. criticizing Islam,
5. criticizing Mohammad,
6. being a missionary for a religion other than Islam,
7. or for simply leaving Islam.

Comments?

I have a comment.

How is this different from Christian extremism?

__________________
My Political Blog (Last post Feb 14) - My MySpace Page

Not to mention the difference between opposing sharia law and opposing Islam.

You also have to recognize that the application and interpretation of sharia varies widely. The problem is not necessarily sharia itself (though I oppose religious codes of law), but the regime in charge. Just like the problem with Iraq under Saddam (which also saw the rape and killing of women prisoners) wasn't sharia, it was Saddam.

__________________
Man up.

I'm an atheist, so I'm not trying to defend Christians as such, but what GOVERNMENT of any Christian country actually, TODAY, orders a prisoner raped simply because she's a virgin, before her execution? This barbarity is beyond belief in the modern, 21st century, in which we live.

Christianity has had a reformation, which Islam is in desperate need of. Thanks to Robert Spencer for pointing that out.

One big overall difference between the two is that innocent peoples around the world aren't hearing "JESUS ACKBAR!" before they are blown up in a marketplace, in the name of Jesus....but that happens everyday with a certain OTHER religion.

By the way, I highly recommend everyone read that link to "Why the Muslims Misjudged Us" in your signature....good one!

Raytri: reading the Islamic texts one comes to the conclusion that Mohammad wants Muslims to implement Islamic law, so I don't see much of a difference between Islam and Islamic law, and neither do millions of Muslims.

But I do appreciate the feedback you've given on these threads.

Yes, it can be interpreted differently, but that's not much comfort to, say, the gays in the 13+ Islamic countries where homosexual activity is punishable by torture and/or death ("gee, I hope they'll torture me, instead of killing me, since interpretations of Koran 7:79-82 can vary".)

Comments?

No offense, but YES, the main problem is Sharia (the Islamic texts) because if it did not say things like kill the infidels or kill apostates then the vast majority of the time a government would not kill someone for those "crimes".

If Saddam's regime was acting from a SECULAR point of view when they committed rape, it certainly wasn't for the reason to keep her from going to paradise, it was for OTHER (albeit disgusting) reasons. Whereas Sharia regimes add one more reason to rape than non-Sharia regimes...simply due to what someone said 1400 years ago in barbaric pre-medieval times.

To move into the modern civilized world, first backwards Muslim nations need to overcome rule by Sharia, then they need to overcome rule by totalitarian-thugs.

Comments?

I disagree. People adopt religious and criminal codes that appeal to them, and interpret them in ways that appeal to them. They express them in ways that fit the larger culture. That's why Islam as practiced in, say, Pakistani tribal regions is different from Islam as practiced in the West or even Islamabad.

The problem is radical Islamic fundamentalism as seen through a prism of medieval tribal conservatism.

But only in certain interpretations of Sharia. Raping prisoners isn't a fundamental part of sharia, for example: It's a cynical expedient, a way to get around an Islamic prohibition against executing virgin women. It's easy to envision a "modern" sharia code that doesn't countenance such rape and simply sentences virgins to life in prison in lieu of execution.

I think it's all of a piece. Ditch the totalitarian regimes, be they dictatorships, kleptocracies or theocracies. And separate church from state.

Sharia is more of an expression of existing mores than an imposition of them. Change the mores, and sharia will change or (more likely) wither.

__________________
Man up.

Thank you for that well thought-out reply.

The inquisition was pretty infamous for it's sadism. To try to pin such such brutality on Islam seems a little...myopic to me. What the inquisition did was arguably much worse than rape.

Yep. But you cant pin that on a religion. You can only pin that on the state which has those laws. It is unreasonable to draw the conclusion that all Muslims agree with that view just as it would be unreasonable to assume that all Christians share the views of the KKK.

The Old Testament has pretty graphic depictions of punishments for various crimes as well, up to and including being burned alive. Read through Leviticus some time.

The specific reasons are irrelevant. The fact that Saddam's actions were not based on religion doesnt make them less of an abomination.

If anything, Saddam was worse, because his actions were not based on any ideology, but merely on his own sadistic pleasure.

__________________
My Political Blog (Last post Feb 14) - My MySpace Page

Wow...FreedomSeeker even managed to caps “TODAY” and you still reverted back to the ancient inquisition. That’s fascinating.

Sharia is defined as Islamic Law. If you’re excluded Islam as a legitimate religion, then your argument has some basis. No other government TODAY (made sure to caps it for ya ) has come close to the brutality accepted as “law” than those based on this Islamic law.

Maybe there was a reason the KKK was never strong enough to declare a state in a largely Christian nation. To think that a substantial number of Christians would tolerate anything close to a Christianized Sharia in America is a gross misunderstanding of what American Christians stand for.

And what Jewish and/or Christian based society is embracing those laws TODAY?

__________________
"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."

The Solution for Illegal Immigrants (Gray areas discussed throughout the thread)