We have another story of a Muslim mob murdering a person for offending Islam. A woman named Farkhunda, 32, in Kabul had reportedly burned a copy of the Koran inside a riverside shrine. She was then set upon by a huge mob that burned her alive and then threw her into the Kabul river. This was deemed the moral response to an immoral act by the crowd. [Update: It turns out that the accusations against Farkhunda may be untrue and that she was actually defending what she viewed as the degrading act of selling amulets in a mosque when she was attacked]
Four people have been arrested by the crowd watching and encouraging this despicable act was so large that they broke the railing of the shrine itself in pushing forward for a better look.
The murder occurred in the very capital of Afghanistan at the Shah-Do Shamshira mosque.
Source: La Times
Pogo, The fervor of their atheism varies. I think it has something to do w/ moon phases. The old mespo was more reasonable, and he seems to show signs of recovery recently. The other one, LOL! Just ignore, and never mention the name.
Another victory for the religion of peace.
“Deluded religious beliefs can justify any cruel and inhuman behavior.”
Bingo. This is case-in-point of why I think religion is a cancer on society. Look at the Catholic organization, my opinion is that from the very top down that religious organization has been, and still is, harboring and protecting child rapists and molesters –once moving them from one location to another, allowing them to rack up more victims. If that is not enough of a reason to disassociate yourself from an organization, what is?
A good friend of mine is an unconditional catholic, and I will never forget a conversation with her grandma last year when new allegations arose of abusing children hit the papers. It regarded a 14 year old girl, and she said, “well at least it wasn’t one that was younger.”
I digress.
We’ve all been emphasizing fundamentalism in Islam and outside of Islam, in all religions, as being a major problem, Pogo. I don’t know why you act as if you’re surprised.
Add this, the new economy:
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan opium cultivation again rose to historic levels in 2014, United Nations officials reported.
And in a sign of how deeply entwined drug trafficking and the Afghan political system have become, the officials said the protracted elections were at least part of the cause.
“With the presidential election ongoing, there was a huge demand of funding,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, a senior official with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“And that funding is not available in the licit economy, and that money has to come from somewhere, so they turned to the illicit economy.”
Deluded religious beliefs can justify any cruel and inhuman behavior. After all Americans can ‘fry’ innocent men (the price of justice) under the guise of a biblical eye for an eye.
The initial strikes against Afghanistan seemed reasonable after 9/11, but the endless war that followed reminded me of the Russian attempt to ‘civilize’ Afghanistan in the 80s. It was a waste of much blood and treasure and only benefited US defense contractors who reaped bountiful profits. Outside of Kabul, it appears Afghanistan remains as it was before the US invasion; a tribal society with religious rulers who use cruelty as punishment from straying from the jackbooted order demanded by a twisted interpretation of religious rules.
Pogo:
“The first step toward recovery is acknowledging the problem.
I commend you.”
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That’s been my position since 2001 and in many articles/comments on this blog. I subscribe to the Sam Harris school of criticism of religion.
Don’t be like the rest of the righty crowd around here who assume that because they entered the play in Scene Two, that the play didn’t begin until then.
” The exact problem is Wahhabism or fundamentalist Islam.”
The first step toward recovery is acknowledging the problem.
I commend you.
It’s worth noting that the Communist government came to power in Afghanistan in 1978. They seized power via a coup, and I think they executed Daoud and his family the immediately after the coup.
Afghanistan seemed to have done relatively well under Daoud’s 5 year reign. An insurgency against the Communist government followed, and the Soviet’s 1979 invasion was launched to prop up the teetering Communist regime in Kabul.
I don’t know how many nations recognized the Afghanistan Communist government. It’s important to recognize that Afghanistan did not go in in straight line from a relatively progressive, secular country under Communist rule to one threatened by Islamic extremist.
The secular, progressive era PRECEEDED the 1978 Communist coup, and the uprising against that government was not lead by either the Taliban or Al Queada.
Those groups were formed much later. The initial insurgency involved fighters who later formed those groups, but their were also moderates like Masoud, drugs lords, war lords, etc. in the anti-Communist uprising.
This took place in the context of something called the Cold War. Of course, the ultimate takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 1996 was absolutely foreseeable in 1979. All Monday morning quarterbacks know that.
Sad? Yes. Surprising? No. Don’t insult the nuthouse while you’re standing in their common-room.
I commented a long time ago about the sad state of progression in our efforts to turn this country around. Nothing much has changed, in that we’re trying to wear down a rock (unchanging Afghan culture), with waves off the ocean (ridiculous amounts of money and American lives).
I also despise calling their religion Islam, since 90% of them can’t read their own religious text. They follow the religious leaders, and their interpretations of the religion… not their actual texts per-se. It’s more of a cult than it is actual Islam.
I also recently retired, and can now not worry about every little thing that I write on here. Hooray!
-Tyler
ArmyO, I agree with what you said that it is impossible to change the culture unless one attacks the power of Islam there. The previous communist regime had some success in secularizing the country and should have been left alone. Instead our stupid leaders thought that playing games in global politics rather than the welfare of their country was more important. There are one of two ways this can be done in modernizing Afghanistan. One is for a reformation to arise in that religion such as happened with Martin Luther in western Christianity. Absent that, one must break the power of the Islamic mullahs by either forcefully eradicating them, or establishing a state that will not tolerate any such interference in civil society by religious nuts. Trying to keep Islam alive and well AND modernizing the place are incompatible.
The early Bolsheviks sent women into the Muslim areas to teach the women how to read and write. Those teachers were murdered. The NKVD investigated, but could not find the perps, so they executed about four or five of the most likely suspects. They sent in two more teachers, who were also murdered. The NKVD came back, blew up the mosque, executed the Islamic leaders, and killed every tenth man. The next women teachers had no problem.
Justice:
“So mespo, tell me how successful we were in Afghanistan…”
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Uprooting al Quaeda: A-
Nation Building: Incomplete
Pogo:
“The strain not to say “Islam” causes mespo a cognitive hernia.”
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I don’t say it because it’s the wrong term. “Islam” is a catch all word like the term “fish.” You, as a putative scientist, know that precision is what counts. The exact problem is Wahhabism or fundamentalist Islam. If want to actually know what you’re talking about free from the obvious venon you harbor, you can read the first four parts of my series on the topic. The history of the problem can be found here:
http://flowersforsocrates.com/2015/01/10/is-it-time-to-make-fundamentalism-a-crime-part-2/
I would hope that some thinking folks would look back at our history in Afghanistan and judge what the US did there. From the stupid intervention against the communist regime that had been there for a number of years because they asked for Soviet arms and aid against the CIA sponsored mujahedeen, to our present failed attempt to do the job the Soviets failed to do. That failure of the Soviets was mainly because of US intervention. The communist government while not to my liking, at least was a westernizing, modernizing force which would have in the long run resulted in a democratic country or at the least a secular one with the fall of communism.
I was opposed to Carter’s boycott of the Olympics against the so called “invasion” of Afghanistan since the legitimate government that was recognized by the world and the US had asked for the Soviets to come in. There was no rational or even legal reason to take those actions, other than to whip up war hysteria. Then Reagan compounded the mistake by giving them Stinger missiles which gave the mujahedeen new life and put them in power or at least made them a credible force. The CIA in its wisdom had to try and BUY back all those missiles once the Soviets were gone. Thanks to Ronnie we got one back in TWA 800 out of JFK.
One would think that somebody in the State Dept would have figured out the US was doing wrong when ALL the western embassies pulled out of Kabul when the communist regime fell. They knew that anarchy and disorder would take place, and that westerners were NOT welcome any more. I would think that any policy which results in saying OUR side has won the war, now we have to RUN for our lives, is BAD idea. Maybe it is just my fault for not seeing the bigger picture here, though I rather doubt it.
“No Justice, not in Afghanistan. That’s where al Quaeda was hiding out and it needed to be uprooted.”
That’s a joke, right? Using that Bush-like logic, we should’ve been at war with Pakistan.
Justice Holmes, you are absolutely correct.
“Religious fanatics doing what religious fanatics do.”
It requires endless effort not to see the dreary repetition of one particular form of this fanaticism.
The strain not to say “Islam” causes mespo a cognitive hernia.
So mespo, tell me how successful we were in Afghanistan…. I still say billions down the drain.
Anyone up for a visit to Afghanistan’s Kabul Museum?
“Billions poured down the drain”
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No Justice, not in Afghanistan. That’s where al Quaeda was hiding out and it needed to be uprooted. Bush’s War in Iraq? That’s the waste.
Billions poured down the drain. The Afghans want to live this way and we want what? We live in a fantasy world wherein everyone wants what we want. Nice story but not true. Until we face reality we will never deal with the ME appropriately.
A sad sad story in a brutal and cruel place.
Religious fanatics doing what religious fanatics do. For them, it was a “moral” act in furtherance of their religion and the government and religious leaders obviously agree since the vast majority of the crowd was allowed to go about their business. And some still think morality isn’t a subjective concept. Imagine that.