If you’re like me, you use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and find people you haven’t talked to in years. But in restrictive, religious countries, the site has a reputation for being a ‘lustful hotbed of activity’. That’s why a young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father, who caught her having a conversation with an unknown man. He beat and then shot his own daughter, presumably an honor killing, simply for having innocent conversations over the Internet.

Firstly, I’m not sure about you, but I’ve never had a ‘hot and lustful’ conversation on Facebook, much to my dismay. I normally just wish people a happy birthday, and occasionally try and organize a house party. The clerics who claim that Facebook is a place of debauchery have more than likely never visited it.

Secondly, even if it was a place where young people were sharing naughty messages, what is the harm in that? Sexy notes shared between two forbidden lovers makes for great story telling. We can all identify with a love that was never meant to be, and sometimes, fantasizing about what could be is the only thing that makes our dreary lives bearable.

I’m always personally outraged every time an ignorant and highly religious man kills his own flesh and blood for some mistaken ideal. Although I have no children of my own, it blows me away that a person’s own protective instincts towards his children could so easily be ignored over the delusion an invisible cloud deity would seriously care that one’s daughter is on Facebook.

There is something terribly wrong with a religion that places outdated and dangerous concepts, such as ‘family honor’ over the lives of others. My disappointment is always furthered by the non existent protestations of moderate Muslims, who seem to regard such matters as being private, rather than symptomatic of the deeply violent nature of their faith.