Various media outlets are reporting the latest outrage from Sharia courts. Iranian authorities have reportedly executed Mohsen Amir-Aslani, 37, for allegedly “insulting” the prophet Jonah and accused him of committing adultery. For that exercise of free speech and freedom of religion, a Sharia court had him hanged.
Amir-Aslani was arrested nine years ago for what is described in the Guardian article as “making innovations in Islam and providing his own interpretations of the Qur’an.” He was later accused of insulting prophet Jonah and having sex outside marriage.
Leila, his wife, said that the court declared his religious views as “spreading corruption on earth” and denounced “innovations in the religion.”
The specific charge regarding Jonah is based on his simple observation that the story of Jonah, which appears in Chapter 10 of the Qur’an, is “symbolic.” The Sharia court viewed that as insulting since Muslims believe that he was swallowed by a fish and imprisoned before he “glorified Allah” and repented for his actions.
The charge of illicit sex with people in his classes was added later and one can only imagine what officials may have done to his students and associates to support such a charge.
Human rights groups have charged that Iran’s ministry of intelligence was behind Amir-Aslani’s arrest. The case was given to a notorious judge, Abolghassem Salavati, who is known for denying basic rights and consistently ordering executions.
It is telling that these “judges” are so fearful of “innovation” or commentary on their religion. Such disgraceful executions only serve leave the impression of men who are insecure about the viability of their faith in the modern world or its ability to withstand commentary. The destructive legacy of these Sharia courts continues to mount as various Muslim countries disguises blind religious Orthodoxy and intolerance as forms of “law.” Salavati is not a judge in any plausible interpretation of that word. Likewise, this is no more of a “court” than was the tribunals of the Spanish inquisition. These atrocities will continue until the Muslim world embraces the concept of separation of mosque and state and rejects such crimes as apostasy.
RIP Mohsen Amir-Aslani
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.
Job, 3. 17
Source: Guardian
Po:
I clearly did not divide Muslims between those I know and everyone else. For example, I specifically said that moderate Muslims come here to escape the extremism of Sharia Law. Or they came after the fall of the Shah, etc.
I have asked how you feel about decapitating gays under Sharia Law, and you have refused, repeatedly, to answer.
How is my criticizing people being decapitated under Sharia Law McCarthyism? Is criticizing radical Islam not allowed, or McCarthyism?
What have I mischaracterized about Professor Turley???
I have said that he’s written about the abuses of Sharia Law, and he has. In fact, I included a quote from the first line of the story above.
If I have said anything untrue please enlighten me . . .
I’m quite surprised that in all of this debate about what is or what isn’t Sharia Law, no one has bothered to ask about its respect for unalienable rights. I direct this with respect to the United States and our rule of law. Do followers of Islam in the United States consider the U.S. Constitution as the highest law of the land?
Dang!! “Link Test” = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_OHaipe9KU
Po…Thank you for the explanation of what a key might be. I do get it. It does reflect my experiences with my neighbors of some 30 odd years. I can find harmony in the strangest places to some among us. It is actually easier than finding cause to fight and kill. I am a less complex man, trained by my life’s experiences, and the Gaelic song and melody An t-Úll, that is in my Blogger Profile, reflects my outlook on life. Be grateful for what you have for it may not stay with you long. Grasp at the stars and you might just rise to a level you never expected. I want to believe in that childish image, but I am also more than willing to fight for my freedom to be as a child. It seems contradictory, even to me. The tune I’ve linked recently, link text, sung by John McDermott, is an expression of faith as much as anything, more about aspiration than war, in my humble opinion the Celts had something we may have lost of the years.
Thank you for your response. Well done responses are fairly rare these days.
Aridog – this reply to Po on your Gaelic dance just came through – The tune I’ve linked recently, link text, sung by John McDermott, is an expression of faith as much as anything, more about aspiration than war, in my humble opinion the Celts had something we may have lost of the years.
That was what I was trying to impart, It was an expression of the Holy Spirit imo —we all get there differently, we all have different journeys I think but ultimately hopefully the destination is universally the same.
Po:
“You are not saying the same thing and not in the same way. He takes great pain (often)to point out that specificity of the behavior to the extremist bent, while you make it sound as if Islam, in general, is the problem.”
That is entirely incorrect. You are well aware that I specifically mention either “radical” or “extremist” and have consistently differentiated that from peaceful moderate Islam. I have spoken of Muslims I have been friends with. The Muslims who moved here to escape radicalism and Sharia Law. If you look at this very thread, you can see multiple references to this.
Ayaan Ali has not called for the obliteration of Islam. In the interview with her that I saw, she said that Islam needs to be reformed. She spoke with pleasure of her Muslim life in her village before the extremists came and ruined it all.
Yes, I have heard and written about the Sharia Councils in England. There were people on this blog who argued with me that they did not exist. They are only allowed to be applied to civil/family law. So, quite obviously, there are no beheadings for criminal behavior.
You have pointed out that not every single Muslim takes to the streets in rage when a cartoon is done of Mohammed.
What I hoped you would say is that it is simply wrong to do so.
When a Catholic priest raped a child, I did not shrug my shoulders and say, well, I didn’t do it. The majority of priests did not do such a thing.
No, I said it was wrong, utterly and completely, and he should go to jail, along with anyone who aided, abetted, or ignored it.
That is what moderate Muslims that I have known have said about the insanity in the Middle East.
Do you feel that the application of Sharia Law to criminal offenses is wrong? Do you agree with or disagree with the beheadings of gays, murder of rape victims, or amputation of children?
Do you feel Sharia Law should be applied to both criminal and civil matters? Do you agree with women having less rights under Sharia Law under civil matters, such as inheriting less?
I know, Annie. Between Paul and Karen, I feel like we are back under McCarthyism.
Karen, read my previous response to Paul, he requested about the same thing from me. If you do not denounce them, you must be condoning it fallacy that characterizes our current public debate.
Karen, you divide Muslims between the moderates you know and everyone else. Seems like most of your posts address shariah law, and most of those make that distinction between the few good Muslims and the larger evil majority, the ones here good, and the ones over there, bad…etc. I’ve heard Pamela Geller debate Muslims, and those are the same questions she throws at them. Maybe there is a template for it.
I do not owe you to answer your questions because I have the suspicion that their aim is less to know and more to back me against the wall. And, I already answered some of it above.
Re Ayaan, she has said, and I heard it, that Islam should be turned into Christianity, that we are war with Islam, that it should be crushed in all forms, including militarily that US constitution should be changed to discriminate against Muslims…etc.
Po, next they’ll be demanding you swear a loyalty oath. I bet the Japanese that were rounded up and interred in WW2 could realte.
For example, the FIRST line of the story above is, “Various media outlets are reporting the latest outrage from Sharia courts.”
Happy:
“From what I have seen, He has only opined about insane crimes.”
No, Happy. Please re-read his posts. He specifically references Sharia Law where that is applicable.
happy:
“Karen – I read your intent to mean it was the Revealed Word of God. It is not. It is the Path that Guides their Life. Not just legal aspects of it. All you know is what you read and the awful stuff that comes back to you.”
I have never personally called Sharia Law either “Revealed Word of God” or “Path.” I’ve only described that it abuses human rights in every single country where it is practiced. I have not based my opinion only on what I have read. Why would you say that when I have repeated referenced my family member witnessing beheadings of gays, a girl I knew getting arrested, etc? It is true that there are written stories in the news and here on JT’s blog. There is no denying that Sharia Law is in the news every day with some new atrocity. I can and do pray for the people suffering under Sharia Law, but that does not prevent me from condemning it.
Could you please clarify for me, Happy, if you are defending Sharia Law? If so, are you doing so because it also contains everyday rules in addition to the beheading of gays? Do you condone killing gays or amputating the arms of children? If not, then what’s your problem with me complaining about it?
Ari
I am not sure what else you want me to say. As I explained before, the scholars agree that there are several layers to the Quran. As a revelation, the Quran speaks to all humanity from its revelation onward, and to each human being, man, woman, age and youth, the powerful and the meek, the rich and the poor. How could it do that but by speaking to each on its level?
One of the lessons of the Prophet to his companions is exactly that, speak to each at his level, for otherwise it does more harm than good.
For example, when the Quran promises rivers of milk and honey in paradise, the child that I was and the unlearned, and the starved, the poor and the hungry would hear just that, milk and honey, because at the level, the promise of milk and honey is sufficient. The older me, along with the sufis and other mystic groups would assign a greater meaning to milk and honey, a metaphysical meaning, a spiritual meaning of divine flux and love. Same for for the houris, the pearls with the lustrous eyes. Hence a young man may be lured with the promise of the houris as virgins, and for a sexually frustrated young man, that hold a certain appeal. For one who works his whole life to free himself from the physical bonds of the flesh, the houri is purity, but more importantly, the divine expression of love and purity personalized for the faithful.
As for everything, there is a key. The key to the constitution is the knowledge of it, its framers and their time, its history and its aims. The wisdom that one derives from it might allow him to deduce inspiration from it that is deeper and richer than the one who reads but isn’t studying it, and doesn’t have the historical and intellectual background to obtain the same benefits. Transfer that to everything else, and you see what I mean by key.
The bottom line is that the surest way to unlock everything is through dedication at the service of seeking knowledge. Wisdom comes from that. Put the same dedication to reading the Bible and researching it and you would have the key to understanding the soul of Jesus, and thereby, of God.
Paul says:
I do know that there is a concerted effort by some in the Muslim community in the United States to muffle criticism of the actions of Muslims both in the United States and worldwide. Would you be part of that group?
Nice try but I won’t bite. What, next you’ll ask me to denounce shariah law publicly and loudly? Either I am with you or I am with them? So now I owe you to disprove any attachment, whether emotional or communitarian to those “some” in the muslim community? I must now prove that I am not part of the group?
Come on, man! Please show some intellectual decency here! If you do know about such concerted effort, please lay it on the table and expose it so we can discuss it. Otherwise it is as if I were to say, I do know there is a concerted effort to undermine Islam here and abroad and to frame Muslims as evil and violent. Would you, Paul, be part of that group?
Po – I don’t go to other blogs, I have enough trouble keeping up with this one. So, if you have a stand on Sharia Law as being used in this case or the other cases we have talked about, lay it on the table so we can discuss it.
I do know that there is a concerted effort by some in the Muslim community in the United States to muffle criticism of the actions of Muslims both in the United States and worldwide. Would you be part of that group?
Aridog, I am going to the funeral of my longtime secretaries husband today. He died in his sleep on Sunday. The man was a Viet Nam vet. A farm boy who married a farm girl. They were neighbors of ours. Their daughter was our best babysitter. He suffered from PTSD. Wi. has no fireworks laws. They have stands set up starting in May and they stay open until August. Plus, there are year round stands. Idiots from neighboring states come to buy Wi. fireworks. So, in Wi., the firework season is literally all summer. This wonderful man and our great Springer Spaniel would shake w/ fear when fireworks went off. We would put Coco in my downstairs office sans windows. We called it her panic room. Every time we would put Coco in that room I would think of this brave soldier, broken by war, and say a short prayer. His hell is over. I pray for the living, believing w/ all my heart the dead are w/ the Good Lord and all their pain is gone.
Let me die on my own mound. That, I can do.
Test 32, another pot, to try to be read ergonomically…or not not. 🙂
Happy-pappies …hey man,I am only trying to emphasis the obvious. We are all puled in to the warrior creed of the Gaelic mindset set. Mine alone is this: The 3 scores of war are the wounds of those of those you survive. Never give up, ever.
Aridog – I believe that I saw something different in the dance, My Husband is Scotch Irish – you saw the name – I am Alsatian Huguenot Blackfoot but that all aside. My Husband took much abuse from his Father for nothing and went to war. He came back and put all Violence aside. He watched me struggle and said nothing. He had this stroke happen to him 11 years ago and watched his Family attack me and try to get me out of the way. He now is in the Veterans Home where he is the most happy. We are together still and he loves his Compatriots. He is a Better Person since he had the stroke.
Idk maybe this will make me more clear. CS Lewis wrote a book called Mere Christianity where he did radio broadcasts during WW11. This is a quote from the Book that reminds me of people that have been maimed either inside or out.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
I Guess what I am trying to say is we let God live in us now, We didn’t “give in”
happypappies – if you like C.S. Lewis you might like Fulton Sheen.
Paul – Thanks – I think I will try the Beatitudes one – I always like a new take on that. To start with —
An observation and question:
How is it the Obama Admin can ignore the nearly 200k killed by Assad’s forces in an attempt to go after a radicalized opposition group of Assad’s that has gone haywire and who’ve managed to overwhelm 40% of Iraq under the nose of the NSA, who claims to only be listening to terrorist groups, have hunted out Kurdish Christians, and beheaded a few prominent people to the ‘West’… ?
Not to downplay the grisly and barbaric acts of ISIS(L), as they are. Our forces are there in the area, yet… I’m still at a loss of words for any reasoning. Now another radicalized opposition group is pinpointed as somehow even more of a threat than ISIS(L) is supposed to be yet today a third radicalized group blew up a school for children killing close to 50.
How the U.S. Concocted a Terror Threat to Justify Syria Strikes, and the Corporate Media Went Along
http://youtu.be/GOUU-c1Kjp4?list=UUzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw
Max 1 oh you mean the Alawite Children and the Christians and wellll
Statistics on Syria
Population: 22,457,336 (July 2013 est.) World rank #54
Life Expectancy at Birth: 75.14 years. World rank #97
Ethnic groups: Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
Religions: Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawite, Druze, and other Muslim sects 16%, Christian (various sects) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
Languages: Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood; French, English somewhat understood
Literacy: 84.1% — Male: 90.3%, Female: 77.7%
School Life Expectancy: 11 years
http://news.yahoo.com/least-200-000-dead-assads-syrian-war-134214270.html
Those statistics are from another link you will have to trust me. I guess it just must be because they are right next to Palestine and Israel. OOOOhhhh look at this. Netanyahu and Obama just had their meeting I knew they were going to have a week ago and lookee here – The harsh words punctured Mr. Netanyahu’s argument, in his first face-to-face meeting with Mr. Obama in six months, that there was at least one silver lining to the Islamic State’s conquest of parts of Syria and Iraq — that it could help Israel overcome old enmities with the Arab world. IIIsn’t thatt specialll I can have 2 links right???
Well, here is the second one
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/middleeast/obama-netanyahu-israel-white-house.html?_r=0
happypappies … Your story is intense, and I agree with it all.
You have said more than enough. I get it. I understand you and your view point…and I cannot disagree. I am very impressed that you put your mouth where your ideas are and did not retreat. Not enough of us do that. No mater, I do get it when it comes to you and your family, just as I do me and my family. Don’t you wonder why after all these years we haven’t yet found a way to impose peace? I fear I will die before we get it totally. If so, so bet it.
In the meantime, here is the Celtic melody of my heart: Scotland the Brave. No matter is isn’t Irish, it is the same Celtic melody none-the-less. Let us die rather than submit.
Aridog I fear I will die before we get it totally. If so, so bet it.
In the meantime, here is the Celtic melody of my heart: Scotland the Brave. No matter is isn’t Irish, it is the same Celtic melody none-the-less. Let us die rather than submit.
If your Soul is Dancing – you are getting it. Share it that way. That’s Love no matter what.
happypappies said…
I am not Po but didn’t you just say you were a reluctant Christian? “Kill them all and let G-d sort them out” So, is that “Gods will”? God loves everyone. God doesn’t kill, Men do. Men have the insane blind lustful rages and you are putting it all on one type of people. Unbelievable. Do you partition your head or what?
I gather, “happy-pappies” that you’ve never fought in a war. Your comments suggest that that at a minimum. When you meet G-d face to face, to face,let me know.
Aridog
I gather, “happy-pappies” that you’ve never fought in a war. Your comments suggest that that at a minimum. When you meet G-d face to face, to face,let me know.
Of course I understand if you are in a war and you have to fight, you must, but you also must pray. You have no earthly idea what I have been through. 20 years of sleeping with the enemy qualifies for war imo. I had to learn to stand up for myself, overcome my bitterness and self hatred and hatred for God and know what it is I am saying to you. I would not say it if I did not live it now.
happypappies said….Aridog – seriously – do you want to know seriously????? You probably won’t like it much.
You are right. As far as what you know of me goes, anyway. But then you have explained nothing. Not a fault, just a observation.
Yes, I want to know seriously because I’ve fought where it mattered, and have not yet found a justification for the bloodshed.
So tell me what I won’t like much?
Aridog – I just told you. I told you about my friends that were raped by their fathers in this country. IN THE USAAA. I won’t describe my personal situation again. Refer to the above as I already told you about it. Oh, of course there was always the boys club of demeaning looks when I had to pick up birth control when I was not married from the Pharmacist. Here in the USA I lived in Ferguson/Florissant and the Police Force was always Corrupt there. We were hassled there from the time I was a young teenager. I was an honor student. I was chased and shaken down by the cops all the time and I was White. So…. It didn’t even matter there. They just wanted you to feel like you were a delinquent from the time you were 14 even if there was no liquor in your house which there wasn’t in ours. If you look in my profile you will see that my Husband of 21 years now is a Vietnam Veteran and was a Navy Seal and is Disabled in the Veterans home. He had a severe stroke in 2003. You want to know what he said.????? He said, “Send them home.” “It’s none of our business.”
I am truly sorry your daughter is over in Greece and I understand your concern but we don’t raise our kids up right to traipse all over the globe the way they do all unconcerned for the consequences for the actions. Now. I don’t know what you want from me. You are going to have to be more specific if this isn’t enough. I am very patient.