Comments on: Afghanistan Schools Empty of Girls After Acid Attacks by Taliban

By: Sally

Sally — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:35:31 +0000

That is horrible.

We are fortunate enough to live in a country where we do not have to fear such acts.

I know I can send my daughters to school without the fear of someone trying to harm or kill them simply because they’re female.

I hope that things change in Afghanistan sooner than later

By: Afghanistan - Plus Ca Change… | The Global Sociology Blog

Afghanistan - Plus Ca Change… | The Global Sociology Blog — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:37:41 +0000

[...] Patriarchy, Religious Fundamentalism, Sexism, Social Stigma, Surveillance, Terrorism [Update: Jonathan Turley reminds us that Muslim fundamentalists are not the ones throwing acids in the faces of the women [...]

By: Palindrome

Palindrome — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:11:49 +0000

I agree that these crazies are a lot more like each other than they are about the rest of us. Bob Altemeyer has a great book called “The Authoritarians” free (!!) online. Check it out.

By: Mike Spindell

Mike Spindell — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:47:42 +0000

Religious Fundamentalists, choose any faith you want, are always about power and never about God. The Deity is used as their stick to beat non-adherents up with. Fundamentalists represent the 25 to 40% of the human race that long for a leader/father to lead them and to make it easy for them not to think, but follow. They are in general people who are frightened by the vagaries and terrors of life and want to be told exactly what to do. This makes them sheep for sociopathic wolves to shear and eat. Those wolves are of course the pretend religious leaders, whose true agenda is personal gratification. The companion situation related in this post of the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel acting similarly serves to bolster my contention.

This is not a screed against religion or piety. I have known truly spiritual people, who while walking different spiritual paths, nevertheless represented the commonality of the “Do unto others..” formulation. The unmitigated horror of throwing acid on innocent females to preclude their education represents something close to a nadir of human behavior. The authors of this heinous, cruelty and their mentors deserve to suffer whatever the worst horrors of life may be. I apologize for being hyperbolic, but these stories affect me deeply and force me to tamp down my emotions of despair that doubt the possibility of a better humanity.