My mother hired a hitman to kill me:

[solicitr]

The text message forwarded to me from my younger sister Saira was concise and chilling: ‘Mum’s sent a hit man to kill you,’ it read. ‘Be careful.’

As I read those words, my first instinct wasn’t fear or even shock, but simply survival.

I’d become accustomed to behaviour like this from both my parents — behaviour that anyone else would find abhorrent — and I was emotionally numb to their threats....

Read it all.

There's religion, and then there's Satanism.

[Pearly Di]

Horrendous.

There's religion, and then there's Satanism.

Indeed.

Like the ghastly distortion of Christianity that went on during the Crusades, for example.

Or those priests who were allowed to abuse young boys in the Diocese of Boston.

Or the deeply devout Queen Mary the First, who ordered the execution of 300 Protestants by burning in the 16th century. (And, yes, I fully realise that Catholics themselves became the subjects of persecution later on. )

Or those televangelists who are always banging on about money or getting caught in sex scandals.



Sofia's final words in her article are worth noting:

I blame the fact that Islam has become so distorted and warped. I don't believe that the Muslim religion condones any sort of violence; Islam literally means 'peace'.

The greeting from one Muslim to another - 'aasalamolaykom' - means: 'Peace be with you.' If only people would actually read the Koran for themselves, they would see the love and peace it radiates and the equality among men and women it promotes.

Much the same criticisms could be levelled at my own faith -- Christianity -- and the various interpretations of it thereof, of course.

I admire this young woman greatly for her courage and her lack of bitterness. I find it interesting that she doesn't reject God or Islam outright, but the horrific misogyny this type of fundamentalism tends towards.

Good for her.

[yovargas]

Stories not at all unlike this happen in all sorts of cultures following all sorts of religion. Therefore, I see little reason to point the finger at Islam.

[solicitr]

Stories not at all unlike this happen in all sorts of cultures following all sorts of religion.

No, they don't. Honor killing and FGM are not the province of numerous religions. And, Di, it's pretty glib- sick, really- to try to place filicide on a par with the Jimmy Swaggarts and Jim Bakkers. It's not only a tu quoque, it's a false tu quoque, it's a morally insulting tu quoque.

And while various diocesia engaged in a shameful coverup of priestly paedophilia, nowhere ever, ever, ever has the Church claimed that priests have the right (or even the obligation!) to molest little boys- which would be the only remotely equivalent situation.

Moreover, I would remind you that in many countries, marriage to children as young as 9 or even 6 is completely legal, and common. And, no, these countries do not represent a spectrum of religions.

Like the ghastly distortion of Christianity that went on during the Crusades

You mean the first serious Western counteroffensive against Islamic imperialism, attempting to reclaim formerly Christian Byzantine territory? I am SO tired of the PC meme that the Crusades represented some sort of horrendous crime on a par with the Holocaust. It is the lamest sort of false moral equivalence and revisionist history.

Or perhaps you mean the Holy-War-with-free-tickets-to-paradise? Gee, I wonder where Pope Urban might have picked up that idea......

But, again, it's not the Vatican that STILL pushes that belief now, in the 21st century, is it?

[sauronsfinger]

This is the subheading for this part of the Board

Tol Eressëa

For discussion of philosophy, religion, spirituality, or any topic that posters wish to approach from a spiritual or religious perspective.

It sounds like this discussion is from a political perspective rather than any sort of spiritual or religious perspective. This is particularly noticeable when we begin to assess or debate which crimes of which religion are the most offensive or the most severe.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The only real purpose of this thread is to try to condemn one particular religion. Which is not appropriate here.

*click*