I don’t like to talk about Afghanistan, mostly because as a Canadian, my government has armed forces over there being killed for a country that sentences journalists to death for speaking out against the Qur’an. Pervez Kambaksh is a student journalist who wrote an essay condemning some of the more sexist verses of the Qur’an, and was trying to speak on women’s rights. The 23 year old was sentenced to death, and is now rotting in jail while his lawyers try in vain to appeal this decision in what is essentially a corrupt ‘Supreme Court’.

It’s time we got the fuck out of this country. If it is impossible to inculcate our values, than we have no business being there in the first place. If they want to run their country into the ground with their Sharia law, then so be it. There are some places in the world that are not ready to consider women as equals, or religious freedom as paramount.

The truth is the Taliban has never truly left. They are still there, disguised as moderates, secretly bleeding us dry while biding their time before raising the fundamentalist flag again. What can be done in a place like this? I’m not sure. So far we haven’t figured it out. Perhaps there is nothing we can do. One thing I can tell you for sure is our continued presence will do nothing to change the minds of the people in power. Afghanistan is messed up, and it won’t get better anytime soon.

I read an interesting article on the Christian Science Monitor about the percentage of people in Muslim countries who favor bombing civilians, and the numbers reveal far more Americans are willing to commit this act than they are.

If you need this put in perspective, consider the image we have in the West of a terrorist is a Muslim guy wearing a dynamite covered belt bomb, while in Muslim countries a terrorist is simply the guys firing missiles at you from 5000 miles away. Both are caricatures, but they reflect the fact that how we perceive terror is different specifically because we have been conditioned to fear one another.

There aren’t many Americans who would consider themselves terrorists, but that isn’t a label anyone chooses for themselves. Freedom fighter is a far more popular nomenclature, and it’s the other side of the terrorist coin. When the US invaded Iraq and dropped thousands of cruise missiles, were the innocent civilians who died any less terrified than the victims of 9/11?

The problem is we believe terrorism is only the result of fringe groups bombing innocent civilians for no reason other than to scare the shit out of them. The truth is terror is just as likely to come from your own government than from guerrilla warriors. What frightens us is the image of the modern religious fanatic who takes his own life to kill, harm, and injure others, but it is no less frightening than a political nutjob who kills those of a different political creed. The issue here is that of these people are willing to use the innocent as targets in their struggle. That a modern, civilized country like America can have 24% of its population in favor of this type of action chills me to the bone.

We cannot sugar coat the fact a significant portion of Americans would gladly bomb Iran, Saudi Arabia, and any other nation they consider ‘rogue’ without batting an eyelash. Is this form of terror any less real to its victims? When are we going to learn when fighting our enemies we must never become like them?

A lot of you will disagree with me on this one, but the UN is possibly one of the most useless and corrupt organizations in existence today. The ideology behind the UN is nice enough, but in execution, it has shown itself to be inefficient, blind, and often backward. This new resolution to make blasphemy illegal is just another example of how corrupt the UN is.

The law calls making “acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions” illegal . In other words, you can’t talk smack about religion, because apparently some people get a trifle upset. There’s a clear agenda behind this: Islamic countries are tired of people making the link between terrorism and Islamic faith. Newsflash: there is a direct link.

One guy in India was arrested for ‘hurting the feelings of Muslims’. Great. I was worried my own government was slowly becoming a police state. Now I’m going to have to watch what I say as well? I fucking dare them to come to my door and arrest me. I’ll make such a stink they’ll think twice about pulling this kind of shit on anyone. Hey UN, stay out of my house, stay out of my life, and deal with the fact people are allowed to say whatever the hell they want.

Imagine you’re Muslim, and you want to show people that your religion isn’t the violent, backwards faith the mainstream media portrays. Starting your own English TV station centering on your religion is probably a reasonably good start. Bridges TV was such a project. It featured shows such as Democracy Now, a cooking show called Veggie Table, and the saccharine sounding Talking Peace.

In a twisted bit of irony, the founder of the TV station, Muzzammil Hassan, is currently under police investigation for beheading his wife. It appears the TV station will be folding as a result of the news.

I actually thought the idea for a TV station was a good one; clearly, the religion needs a new PR person, and it was refreshing to see Muslims on the boobtube who weren’t reading a terrorist memo, or talking about eradicating the Jews from the earth. But just like Hassan, the Muslim faith has two faces; one of piety, submission, and adherence to religious ritual, and the other a violent, implacable ideology that is glaringly incompatible with modern values.

It would be silly to assume the behavior of Muzzammil Hassan reflects the general attitude of all Muslims, but it would be irresponsible to discount the role his faith had to play in the murder. The problem with Islam is it has struggled to modernize, and there is a large contingent of believers who would rather die than see that happen. Until they all can be brought into the fold of society’s mores, then we will continue to see tragedies of this sort unfold.

More on the War on Christmas, and this time, it’s not coming from us filthy atheists. Anjem Choudary is a Muslim chairman for the Society of Muslim Lawyers, and preaches on the corrupt influence Christmas apparently has on Muslims. Now it’s one thing to dislike a holiday, but it’s another entirely to decree yuletide festivities are a ‘pathway to hellfire’.

You gotta love these brimstone and hellfire guys. They really love to rub hell in everyone’s face. Apparently, having a little bit of turkey on the 25th is something that Allah cannot tolerate. This is a God with an inferiority complex at the thought of anyone celebrating any other deity but him.

The thing that always gets me about the War on Christmas is just how sensitive all these religious people are. If I had a firm belief in the absolute truth of my God, I wouldn’t worry too much about other religions. Surely if I have the truth, my chosen Deity can fully intervene and show these infidels just who they are messing with. A little celebration, be it Christmas, Ramadan, or Yom Kippur certainly wouldn’t give me much pause; after all, I’m one of the chosen people, right?

What’s funny in all of this is Muslims actually believe in the historical Jesus. The only major difference is they believe he was a great prophet and not a God. Seems to me there’s no reason they couldn’t simply make a few of their own alterations to the celebration and not feel completely left out of all the fun. Because you know something; at the end of the day, celebrating the winter solstice with your friends, your neighbors, and your family is a pretty awesome thing. Not being able to participate because some asshole tells you that you’ll burn in hell forever puts a damper on things, doesn’t it?

A young man in Saudi Arabia is less than a month away from being beheaded for his part in a school yard brawl that ended with the death of an 18 year old student. Mohammed Kohail, who is a Canadian citizen, is only a few days from the chopping block, and Canada is seriously dragging its feet, and has refused to demand clemency, or take any diplomatic action.

This is all part of the Conservative Administration’s new policy of no longer seeking clemency for citizens who are sentenced to death in countries with an elected and democratic government. In other words, if you are convicted and sentenced to death in, say, Montana, you’re on your own.

There was a time not so long ago that the Canadian Government actually took a stand behind its commitment against the death penalty. The reversal of this policy is more evidence that the very conservative element of government now in power has no real problem with death sentences. Their failure to condemn this practice is a reigning endorsement, and seriously contradicts the majority’s attitude towards the practice.

This is now exacerbated by the fact Canada has dragged its feet on this issue in order to avoid poor diplomatic conditions with Saudi Arabia, since they would essentially put it in a different category than ‘democratic countries’ according to the new policy.

So disastrous is this new attitude we are now collectively responsible for the deaths of any citizen traveling abroad who is sentenced to death. We are, through proxy, part of the mechanism which will bring the end of this young man’s life. Forget the fact his trial lasted on 90 minutes, or the judge didn’t even allow any testimony on behalf of the defendant. The issue is how this country deals with the protection of its citizens according to our laws and values. The Conservative government, in their growing ambition to usurp the humanitarian values of this nation, have proven once again why they are not proper representatives of this country. Shame on you, Mr. Harper, for making me a part of this mechanism of death.

REVISION: I’d like to start off by saying I was entirely wrong about the intent of this flyer when I originally wrote this article. I first thought this (a flyer which appeared in George Washington University) was just another example of anti-Muslim propaganda, and failed to notice its over the top nature screamed satire. The problem, I have now come to realize, is such a flyer is entirely within the realm of possibility. I have therefore retracted my previous statements.

I would also like to point out the article upon which I based this entry also failed to make the proper fact check. If it had, it would have realized the small lettering near the bottom, which says “Seriously, do a search for the power of Nightmares”, pointed to an article exposing the use of fear propaganda for the purpose of population control.

After careful consideration, and a little bit more research, I have to admit the flyer is a bit of poorly executed satire. It was meant as a way of garnering attention to the fact Conservatives are attempting to vilify Muslims in order to increase their foothold in the political world. But unfortunately for the satirists, it seems more attention was focused on the blatant racism and bigotry of the writing. Still, what are we to think of such a piece? Although the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism is a definite concern, I can’t help but feel both sides have this all wrong. Undoubtedly, there is a significant proportion (although by no means the majority) who dislike Western civilization, but it certainly does not drive anyone to mass murder. The growing trend of suicide bombings is a disturbing trend to be sure, but it still remains a fringe movement in the religion. What most people fail to realize is the majority of targets of sectarian violence is a result of schisms within the Islamic faith, and does not come from without.

At the same time, we have to be fearful of the fact that the growing religious fundamentalist movement will continue to cause violent conflict in the world. Reminding us that we need to be more tolerant, and respectful of other beliefs, eliminates the debate over whether those beliefs are tolerable in the first place. Just what are we to do?

I admire the effort to demonstrate the fear mongering tactics of the right; unfortunately, the impact of this flyer seems to have been entirely lost on everyone, including myself (at first). I was so eager to point out the inanity of it all that I forgot to look beyond the obvious façade. Still, if a studious person as myself can easily jump to a forgone conclusion, it would seem to indicate that at the very least, the satire perhaps isn’t hitting the right cord.