What Islam Does to Families

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Writing articles for TGA again means having to be exposed to some pretty grim reads. A common type of article I see often is of young muslim women who live in abusive households. Given the fact that honor killings are on the rise, it always makes me sad and nervous to read these. They are usually dripping with red flags, and a part of me wishes that we could wisk these young women away to safety.

The latest letter is from a 17 year old living in Australia. In her letter, she seeks advice on what to do, and there are quite a few passages that stand out to me:

One memory that has stayed with me happened when I was in Year 7. I ran to my dad’s car after school, and he got angry because my chest moved while I was running. I was a child, and that experience has stuck with me ever since.

There is something incideous about the way that Muslim men feel the need to control the bodies of women. My father used to say that it was fear that motivated them: fear of being cheated on, or of ever being manipulated by them. I disagree. I believe that at the heart of the treatment of women in this religion is a sexual repression that drives men into murderous rage. This unhealthy attitude turns into violent lust, and their solution to their lack of impulse control is to try and erase the female body. Because they believe that God is a reflection of their own twisted desire, they assume “He” shares their fucked up views.

The signs of danger are already present, as she makes it clear what expectations her parents have for her.:

The problem is that I don’t think my parents will let me move into student accommodation or move out. They expect me to stay at home until I get married, which I absolutely do not want.Right now, the only freedom I can imagine is secretly taking my hijab off between university classes, but even then I’m scared someone will recognise me and tell my parents.I feel completely trapped. Has anyone else escaped a controlling family like this?

The good news is that the comment section is full of good advice on how to get away, but these recourses are by no means perfect. It isn’t easy to seperate yourself from your loved ones, even when they are a threat to you. Emotions are a complicated thing, and people can pretend to be welcoming or forgiving even when they hide the knives behind their backs.

I hope this young women gets the help she needs to escape. I wonder how many other women are out there, too scared to write strangers for advice. Too many.

Gambian Supreme Court Hears Arguments For Female Mutilation

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If you’ve been a listener for a while, you know that Female Genital Mutilation is something I loath, and try to expose at every opportunity. It’s one of my arguments specifically against Islam, which seems to have taken on the practice with gusto. Those unfamiliar with FGM have no clue that it is rooted in the male fear of female desire. It’s why Islam, so terrified by the opposite sex that they cage them (read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book “The Caged Virgin” if you need context), embracess this disgusting and inhuman practice.

In the Republic of Gambia, where 95.7% of the population is muslim, a debate is currently being held in their Supreme court over the legality of mutilating young girls for religious reasons. On the side of wrong is what you’ve come to expect: powerful men who want even more control over others. Their arguments are enough to turn your stomach:

…one witness, a prominent Muslim leader, attempted to justify the violence against women and girls, saying that “female circumcision” is part of Islam and isn’t harmful. When asked about two babies who died from the procedure, he replied: “We are Muslims and if someone dies, it’s God’s will.” He went on to say that the practice’s benefit is reducing women’s sexual desire, “which could be a problem for men.”

Don’t you love how this is still framed as a “male” problem? “Sorry we cut off your clitoris with a seraded blade and sowed up your vagina, all without anesthesia. Hey, how come you’re not sleeping with your much older husband?”

Essentially these imams want to argue that banning this practice is unconstitutional, because their “religious freedom” is being impinged. Yep, you heard that correctly. Their freedom to ruin the lives of million of young women (estimated globally to be 240 million of them, with 4 million added each year to that list) is paramount. Why? Because one day long ago, an illiterate man claimed that the voices he heard in his head were from a divine entity, and ever since then people have not been able to stop hurting each other over his revelations.

I wish only that one of these ignorant, narcissit pieces of shit humans would experience the pain, humiliation, and life destroying ritual like the ones they force on innocent little girls. Perhaps a little trauma might clue them to the fact that all of this repugnant crap is the product of a deep seeded hatred of sex, and more specifically, female agency.

For those of you listening who are men, are you as tired as I am of being on a “team” that can’t stop hurting the other sex? Will there ever be more of us disgusted by the treatment of women than not? For the sake of boys like my nephews, I certainly hope that day will come.

Anti-Trans Pastor Arrested for Sexual Abuse of Minor

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Did you ever hear of the saying “every accussation is a confession”? There seems to me to be a trend as of late: pastors who are vocal about trans rights are soon caught in scandals involving the sexual abuse of minors. This is usually following some diatribe about how transgender folks are grooming kids. The only grooming that appears to be going on is the very familiar story of a church official abusing their power and harming the ones they are supposed to care for.

The latest case of this style of confession is a man by the name of Marcus Owens, a 42 year old pastor for Prepared Church in Sand Springs. Police were suspicious of his relationship with a child, and when they interrogated Owens, he claimed that there was nothing untowards happening. Not long after, the child confessed to the abuse, and Owens was place in the custody of Sand Springs police department.

He is facing three counts: abusive sexual contact with a minor, sexual abuse of a minor, coercion and enticement. These are all felonies.

Investigators believe Owens may have more victims. If you know someone who has been victimized, or if you have yourself, call your local police department.

Owens had several jobs that all gave him unsupervised access to kids. Where there is smoke, there is often fire, and so while I hope there are no other victims, it’s very likely that there are more. Here’s hoping that the bravery of the child that did come forward will inspire others to do so as well. This way, we can get a little bit of justice in a world that is in desperate need of it.

Justice for Victims of Tallahassee Youth Pastor

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It’s easy to assume that purpotrators of sexual abuse are never getting punished. The Epstien files, and the complete lack of prosecution from the government, has cemented this idea in society that abusers are getting away with their crimes, and no one can do a thing to stop them.

Luckily, not every child abuser is rich and powerful, or benefits from experienced lawyers of their congregation. In the case of Terrance Booker, a jury took only 45 minutes to conclude that he had molested a child from 2010 all the way to 2015. This victim had chosen to come forward only because there were others that reported on it. His lawyer said that upon hearing that Booker had abused others, he became sick, and was able to overcome his shame in the hopes of defending others.

This young man showed more courage and dignity then Terrance will ever know. With this first victory, this child abuser faces 3 more trials, which means that he faces a potential life sentence. This is yet another clear warning that churches are beacons for these types of sickos. Their access to vulnerable children, along with their extreme authority given to them by their roles make these positions ideal for predators. The complicitness of religious organizations only further incentivizes them to join.

It would appear that there will never be enough victims for the faithful to finally open their eyes and see the problem. But perhaps there is still hope, so long as victims continue to fight to save the rest of us from these perverts.

Muslim Man Stabs 3 Women in Paris Knife Attack

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The accusation that religion is a mask for mental illness has never been redressed. It’s little wonder why. Every day, countless people are harmed in the name of religion. Often, the victimizers think they are on some grand higher mission, when in reality their delusion is constantly reinforced by a system of belief that confuses fantasy with reality. Virgin birth, flying horses, talking snakes, all of these idiotic beliefs belies a deeper, and fundamentally more troubling fact: that faith is a refuge for dangerously inflated egos that justify all their terrible actions with a otherworld mandate.

Today’s psycho on the loose is a yet unnamed muslim man in his 20’s. He attacked 3 women in the city of Paris with a pair of kitchen knives. Their wounds were not fatal, as a fast acting nearby witness named Mohamed-Ali Bouhadjar sprung into action, and managed to tackle the perpetrator to the ground after another witness threw their suitcase at him. An off duty police officer then held him down until backup arrived to cart him off.

Mohamed-Ali Bouhadjar, 26, who filmed the video and posted it on Snapchat, told Reuters: “When I saw him stab a woman in the back, I started shouting: ‘Come on, let’s stop him.’ Several people stepped in.

“One person threw a suitcase ‌at him. He dropped the knives. At that moment I grabbed him, swept his legs out from under him, and we pinned him ​to the ground.”

I think this incident is a perfect example of the duality of religious belief. A man stabbed random strangers, convinced that he was being commanded by god to do so. A witness, likely a muslim himself, would no doubt claim the same inspiration behind his brave actions (he could be an atheist, or another denomination, to be fair). It also shows that even when we are defended by the righteous believers, people still inevitably get hurt. Those women could have easily died, and who knows how many more could have been victims.

Providing a shield for dangerous mental illness is inherant in all faiths, and as such, will always remain a threat to human civilization. What if this young man had access to a more deadly arsenal? Would he have hesitated to use it? Can the good believers protect us from the calamity some other, more equiped psycho will inevitably cause? There is a reason why in law enforcement, providing shelter to a criminal makes you complicit in their actions: you allowed this to happen by the nature of the belief, and no amount of “modernization” can purge the faith of it’s rotten core.

Christians Find AI Pastors As Effective as Live Ones

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I always thought that I would make a good preacher. I have a commanding voice, a flair for the dramatic, and I’m a master bullshit artist. Unfortunately, I was also born with a conscience, which means that I don’t have it in me to lie to people for a living. I’ll leave that over to those that have no compunction against telling lies.

I’ve written often about the fact that there is a “priest” crisis in the developed world. Outside of Africa, many places are finding it hard to recruit new pastors, and as a result, religious folks are turning to technology for their spiritual needs.

About 44% of practicing Christians say they use AI “very often” or “often” in their personal lives. This share is 13 percentage points higher than the 31% of U.S. adults overall who fall in the category of AI engagement. Only 29% of non-practicing Christians reported the same engagement.
Most Christians use AI for learning, getting advice or improving their writing much more than for interpreting Scripture or spiritual guidance.

At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before the only entites preaching this stuff will be AI chatbots. No doubt the programmers will be sure to engineer the algorithm so that it’s dispensing advice as much as it is soliciting the faithful for money. After all, despite the claim that they work for free, there is a propensity of outreached hands and baskets demanding a percentage of your wealth, usually right after telling you that their God is less than pleased with you (but his son loves you).

Since AI has a tendancy to invent things outright, and also seems to be giving people serious mental issues, how long before someone claims that God is talking to them through an AI bot, and that it commands them to all manner of attrocities? I’m counting the days at this point.

Lazy News Article Exposes Kansas Pastor

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After posting literally hundreds of articles about the sexual abuse at the hands of priests, I can understand that things can feel a little stale. How many ways are there to descripe the depravity of people who hold positions of power and authority over others, butressed by a set of beliefs that are not grounded in reality? I get that it’s exhausting. However, I can’t excuse the terrible attempt at journalism from ABC affiliate KMBCNews.

This enimic article provides so few details, it’s actually comical. Sure, we have the name of the man accused of sex crimes against a 13 year old child, and we also know that he worked at other parishes. That is, however, an unexceptable amount of digging into the past of a man accused of such crimes. Perhaps this explains why Americans seem so unable, or unwilling to properly go after child abusers. There simply isn’t enough curiosity or research going on in these so-called “news outlets”. It’s always on to the next fresh disaster. No time to really dig and find out if there is a blazing fire behind all that smoke.

For instance, what did the other parishes know? Why was he moved around? Had there been other credible accusations that were buried under the rug by these churches? We already know from the countless other examples of abuse that a victim coming forward usually means that there are those that have not. I have little doubt that other abuses occured. Mentally disturbed individuals like Ryan McCandless do not pop out of nowhere. Abused people often become abusers themselves as a way of coping with trauma. Churches, which are secretive by nature, are perfect breeding grounds for all sorts of horrors. I would very much like to know more. This being the Catholic Church, the hope of having any answers is practically nonexistant.

It should be noted that not all news outlets were completely lazy. Yahoo did also report on the arrest, though it was stonewalled by the church when they attempted to get more answers other than their public statement. They also pointed out that the Church has helped defeat a state bill that would have forced priests to report abuse, or face punishment. Given that the internal policy of the orginazation is to threaten excommunication to anyone that discloses abuse information outside of church authorities, it makes sense that they would do everything in their power to kill such a bill. They succeeded, although another rematch is scheduled sometime in 2027. I’m sure the Church with their near infinite resources will be ready for the fight.

Pete Hegseth’s Pastor Thinks Marital Rape No Big Deal

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If you’ve ever been in a long term relationship, you know that in many cases, the degree of intimacy with your partner rapidly declines. This is a known phenomena. It may be the result of human evolution: since the dangers of pregnancy increase with age, it would make sense that women begin to lose their desire at time goes on. It is not a universal thing, but it’s common enough that many couples struggle with this fact.

There are no easy solutions to this problem, unless of course you are a Christian fundamentalist. You see, some things never change, and lack of marital consumation is not a new problem. It’s so old that the Bible has a solution: if you are a man, you take what you want, and that’s the end of it. Your wife not showing interest, or making excuses? Too bad. God ordained that your penis is law, and any menstruation means that you are the property of their male counterpart.

You would think that such outdated views would be relagated to some far off corner of the world yet to experience the emancipation of women. You would be wrong. These are the thoughts and opinions of Doug Wilson, a man who pastors for one of the most powerful men on earth at this moment in time, Pete Hegseth.

According to Wilson, non‑violent cases of a husband forcing sex on his wife should largely be dealt with inside the church rather than by police. He described these as ‘non‑violent’ rapes that church authorities ought to handle, placing them in what he repeatedly referred to as a ‘gray area.’

Keep in mind that this is the same man that wants to remove the right to vote from women, since they tend to vote for candidates that lean more towards compassion and tolerance, two things that make a Christian man’s balls shrivel up.

If you ever needed another reminder, ladies, as to why conservative religious men are so odious, never forget that their thinly veiled politeness belies a seriously dangerous narcisim, courtesy of a faith that tells them they have dominion over you. You’re better off with a special vibrating device than one of these douchebags, trust me.

Vatican Canonical “Trials” are a Joke

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Have you ever heard the phrase “we investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong”? This phrase usually comes up when corrupt organizations are allowed to self police. How many corrupt cops, officials, and politicians have gotten away with crimes simply because they were allowed to conduct their own “internal” investigation? Too many to count, I’m afraid.

If there’s one group that seems to get away with murder (sometimes literally), it’s the Vatican. The latest scandal involves a priest named Marco Ivan Rupnik who was “investigated” by the canonical branch of the secretive organization over his alleged sexual assault of several women. Unsurprisingly, the court did not find sufficient evidence to convinct, despite the fact that he had previously been briefly excommunicated for the crime of having pardoned one of his own victims in coffession.

If you’re wondering why the police or any prosecutors got involved, you must remember that the Vatican is an independant city state, thanks to a fascist government that allowed them this privalege in the late 1920’s. The statued of limitation on rape, something the catholic church fought vigourously to implement, had passed, so all the victims could hope for was their ridiculous show trial, which was conducted behind closed doors (I mean, they wouldn’t be an effective secret organization if they didn’t do this sort of thing!).

No witnesses were questioned, no real investigation took place. They could have just prayed about it for all we know.

In a letter to the head of the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, Sgro complained that no one from the Vatican had ever responded to her calls or emails seeking information about the case, and that her clients had never even been interviewed.

“How can what is happening be reconciled with the concepts of law, truth, justice, and fairness? With the words that the Holy Father constantly speaks on behalf of the victims of abuse?” Sgro wrote Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s doctrine office.

Any morons out there still think that Pope Leo is on their side? The dude is just the window dressing for one of the most consistenly evil organizations in the world. How many other rapists are hidden in the hallowed halls of the Vatican? Thanks to their secretive way,s, and their consistent pattern of burying any claims of abuse, we’ll never know, will we?!

Trump Turning “Gen Z” off of Religion

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Religious affiliation has been on a steady decline for a few decades now. A combination of access to information (with the internet), and countless exposé of priestly abuse has turned people’s opinion on religion. Where once people thought it was necessary to be a good person, it has become increasingly obvious that faith is a way for bad people to justify their terrible actions.

Speaking of terrible people, because of Donald Trump’s efforts to infuse Christian Nationalism into every aspect of his administration, Gen Z is getting turned off of religion as unprecedented levels. Before, church attendence was already sinking. Now, it’s positively cratering.

About 20% of Gen Z is already going to church on a regular basis. The remaining 80% are evenly split on whether Christian support of Trump has impacted their churchgoing. Said simply: 40% of Gen Z said politics was keeping them away from a local church.

This is the tip of the iceberg. The Trump administration has shown itself to be religiously aligned, and who knows what other diabolical schemes they have cooking to attempt to turn a liberal democracy into a fascist theocracy. The hope is now that the next generation rejects this insanity before it’s too late.

Churches Do Not Protect Kids

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If you’re a veteran of the site, you know that child abusers run rampant in religious communities. Here is yet another example in South Carolina. Pawley’s Island Community Church in Georgetown has come under fire when parents discovered that one of their volunteers was a registered sex offender. The parish had failed to notify parents, who are now livid at the fact that their children were so dangerously close to the predator.

Like most churches, this is not the first time that they were caught in the wrong:

Court records show the church was the subject of a civil lawsuit nearly 20 years ago that alleged leaders ignored warning signs about a former youth director, Kenneth “Tripp” Atkinson, who was later accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

Part of the problem is that religious folks have way too much faith in the power of the Bible and their God. They believe that immoral behavior can be fought using the pointless incantations and benediction that they think is given to them by a higher authority. They believe that a few prayers and church service is enough to stop patterns of abuse that are deeply embedded in disturbed individuals. The need to redeem the unredeemable is considered more important than the safety of children.

So long as people put their trust in these types of institution, these kinds of preventable tragedies will continue to occur.

US Army Wants to Force Soldiers to Take Testosterone

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What do you get when you put a “dude-bro” in charge of the largest army to ever exist in the history of humanity? Why, you get the stupidest timeline ever. Pete Hegseth, a man remarkable only for his hair, continues to try and prove why he is the worst choice for the important role of “Secretary of Defense”, a name they despised so much they illegally tried to change it to “Secretary of War”. The new moniker seems fitting, as Hegseth has already committed several war crimes in his brief tenure.

Now, to make matters worse, he wants to take recruits that have “low testosterone” and force them to risk the potential of becoming not only infertile, but permanently obliged to supplement their natural testosterone with artificial hormones. This sort of procedure can permanently alter your hormonal balance, and make you dependant on the drug for your entire life.

This trend of taking Testosterone is a fundamental dude-bro thing to do. These men will self prescribe themselves as needing hormonal replacement, simply because they cannot stand the idea of aging naturally. They believe that the whole army needs to be comprised of chunky beefcakes, as though armies are dictated by the size of the soldiers biceps, rather than the effectiveness of their training. The move makes no sense, as the added complication of ensuring that soldiers are constantly provided this hormone would prove to be logistically impossible. Worst still, as soon as the meds run out, any army dependent on this stuff would become useless the moment supplies were cut off.

The whole thing reminds me of the Nazi army during WWII, where soldiers were pumped full of Crystal Meth and Cocaine to try and make them more effective soldiers. After a while, the German Army had to stop this practice, as drug addicted soldiers made for a very chaotic and unreliable force.

Who is behind this boneheaded move? Why, it’s the Christian Nationalists, of course. They applaud the move, thinking that injections are just what their lord and savior wanted. Never mind the fact that these are the same assholes that wanted to remove mandatory vaccines for soldiers. Now they want people to take exogenous steroids that permanently alters your body’s chemistry. Wow, these pieces of shit aren’t hypocrites at all, are they?

Atheist Group Tackles Child Marriage

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One of the most annoying things we hear as atheists is that because we have no moral arbiter, it means that because our morality isn’t objectively true, it’s prone to change. What is specifically annoying about this supposed accusation is that it implies that conditional morality is inferior to the objective variety, when it clearly isn’t. When morality is rigid and unchanging, it cannot adapt to the way societies evolve. A few hundred years ago, it was routine for people to be hanged in public, sometimes for minor offenses, like pickpocketing. We have thankfully evolved in our way of thinking.

I don’t need to use the past to prove my point anyways. In the state of California, there are no age limits when it comes to marriage, which is a loophole that the faithful, with their apparently all knowing moral judge, have chosen to continue. The law is nothing more than protection for child predators with legal foresight, and over 8000 kids are married each year to abusers.

So, who is trying to stop this? Why, it’s a group of atheists with their pesky “subjective” morality. These do-gooders are up in arms about the abuse of children, and decided to get involved with an organization called “Unchained at Last“, which has been stonewalled by religious lobbies that have much to lose if child marriages end. If you’re an American, and atheist, and someone with a damn conscience, given them a hand, will ya?

Mormon Church is Being Brought Down by Legos

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When I was a child, Lego was a fun distraction. It was cheap and plentiful; only a few bucks for a bucket full of pieces. These days, however, Lego is big business. So big, in fact, that some people buy it as an investment. A company called “Bricks and Minifigs” was established in 2003, as a way of becoming a middleman in the sale of expensive and rare sets. In 2018, the company was purchased by a group based in Utah, and the franchise grew from only a few stores to over 300.

What we are learning now is that an incident occurred in which a family was selling their collection through the company when the collection was seized. This led to a dispute which began to really become wild once a Youtuber called “Reckless Ben” became involved. It would be difficult to explain everything, so instead I’ve included the video of the incident. What is clear from what happened is that the company is being heavily protected by the Mormon Church, which is using the American Fork Police as it’s own goon squad.

The situation is so bad that Ben has fled to Mexico, as the legal system is clearly under the control of a religious organization that believes it’s above the law. What is interesting is that a 200k situation is now becoming a billion dollar problem for a company that is being exposed as just another branch of the Mormon Church. In the coming weeks, we are no doubt going to see more drama unfold. I wouldn’t be surprised if this case gets national attention, and would be even less surprised if the American Fork police find themselves on the wrong side of not only a lawsuit, but criminal investigations.

Could the Mormon Church and the American Fork Police be brought down by bunch of Legos? A man can dream, can’t he?

Pakistan Court Upholds Child Marriage

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Did you ever wonder why religious institutions are so obsessed with pedophilia? Perhaps it has something to do with the religions themselves, that at the root is a blueprint for the systematic abuse of children. How else can you explain baffling news like this:

Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), presided over by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, has recognized the validity of the marriage between Maria Bibi, a 13-year-old Christian girl, and a Muslim man named Shehryar Ahmad….In its ruling, the Court dismissed the request of Shahbaz Masih, a Christian resident of Lahore, who sought the release of his daughter, arguing that she was a minor and held illegally after contracting an invalid marriage.

In case you were wondering, there’s a common practice among certain sects of Islam of kidnapping young girls from other faiths and forcibly marrying them. It’s then simply a matter of ensuring they convert, and suddenly everything is nice and legal.

Her parents have tried to petition the governments higher courts to end child marriage, and setup legal protection for children forced into these marriages. One has to wonder why they ever would. Pakistan is incredibly religious, and Islam’s inventor had a 9 year old wife, and so, it sits well within their framework of belief. Sure, some sects reject this practice, but they do so because of modern social pressures, not because they disagree with what their “boy” did.

It’s another day of religion getting away with atrocities and abuse, or as we call it in the secular world, just another Tuesday.