Iranian Morality Police Paralyze Woman over Hijab

In North America, Muslim women will often be seen wearing a head covering in public. Supporters of the hijab say that it’s an important tradition, and the more liberal factions will claim that it is women who chose to wear them out of respect for their faith, and that there is no inherent pressure to force them to do so.

The rest of the world with their heads screwed on right know that this is just straight-up bullshit. While it’s true that if a Muslim woman wants to wear the restrictive headdress, she is exercising her freedom of choice, but rarely do we witness the real consequences for disobeying their little rules in their private lives. Already there is immense social pressure to wear it in secular countries. In sectarian ones, it is often with the end of a bayonet that these rules are enforced. To say it’s a choice is like saying that a hostage has a choice: to listen or to die.

In Iran, a woman was shot while driving her car, specifically because she was not wearing the hijab in her car. Arezoo Badri was returning home in her vehicle when police attempted to pull her over. She had apparently multiple “violations” for not wearing the restrictive headscarf, and this was enough justification to arrest her. When she failed to comply, they opened fire on her, striking her in the lung and spinal cord.

With the women of Iran already up at arms with the recent beatings and death of a number of women for the “crime” of not wanting to wear the hijab, police have attempted to keep the incident under wraps:

According to the source, her family is allowed only brief visits, during which their mobile phones are confiscated. Authorities have prohibited visitors from taking photos or video of Ms Badri – though some have emerged.

They know they fucked up, and they want to stop the “metaphorical” bleeding. They are fools. If anything, this will only add fuel to the fire. It is time that the inhumane theocratic government be toppled. It will be women who make the major difference in Iran, this I promise you. With the country threatening to attack Israel, it’s only a matter of time before this unstable government goes too far, and finds itself on the execution block. So long as the women there continue to live in terror, the country will never know peace.

The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 360

In this episode (that’s admittedly a little late), we talk about the growing fascist movement in the US called Christian Nationalism, the Mormon church being sued, and why Protestants are walking away from religion. Don’t miss this one!

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Iraq Law Would Legalize Child Marriage

There is a trick that religious institutions like to use to get people to look the other way at their myriad crimes: accuse your enemies of everything you are guilty of in order to throw people off your scent. This is why the LGBT community is often the target of accusations of grooming and child abuse. This is literally what the world’s great monotheistic religions do: they groom kids into their death cult, scar them with threats of damnation for not believing, and force them to be something they are not.

Let’s not forget that a disturbingly high percentage of them will also be sexually abused, something that happens so often that TGA has run out of ways to write “Youth Pastor Abuses Children”. So, despite the fact that children are statistically safer at a drag show than a Sunday sermon, it doesn’t stop religions from using them as their major distraction.

While folks are outraged at the wrong people, they use the opportunity to try and pass laws that make the abuse of kids and women even easier. In Iraq, a draconian new law is being proposed which would make it legal for men to marry children as young as nine (you know, the age that their pedophile prophet married his favorite sex slave). The horrible taste in your mouth is the result of all the bile that’s invading it at the thought that this has a very good chance of passing.

Women and children’s rights campaigners in Iraq have pushed back at proposals that could enshrine sectarianism in family relationships, hand more power in family matters to clerics and open the door for marriage to be legalized for children as young as nine years old.

The amendments to Law No. 188, the Personal Status Law of 1959 have been heavily promoted by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of conservative Shia Islamist parties that form the largest bloc in parliament.

Wow, with that kind of endorsement, who can lose? Only the poor people who have to live in this country! This is the true face of Islam, and when they are in full control of government, it doesn’t take long for their intentions to be known. The Koran is all the justification that these perverts need to rape children that are in the most vulnerable years of their existence.

Is it the religion that attracts these pedophiles, or does it create them? It hardly matters which one. I suspect it’s both, which to me only amplifies what I have been saying for a long time: this religion is a curse on humanity, and only when the last Muslim has awakened from there toxic fever dream, realizing they supported a faith with irredeemable elements, will we ever live in peace. The marrying of child brides is but one of these toxicities that continues to plague this religion. It is but one great evil among countless others. Any rational and caring human being must reject this philosophy of submission and death before the rest of the world pays a heavy price for the fanatics within their ranks.

Mother Arrested in Forced Marriage Tragedy

Domestic abuse is no joke. Every year, roughly 47,000 women and young girls are killed by their partners. That translates to a sobering average of one woman being killed every 11 minutes. One of the worst offenders of DV is Islam. With it’s perpetual fear of women, it’s not enough that they force them to be constantly covered up, lest they tempt their morally repugnant men to lust. Forced marriages are still a common practice, even when these people live in democratic countries.

Ruqia Haidari was a young woman who was forced into a marriage she did not want by her mother, Sakina Muhammad Jan. The family had already been paid a bride-price, and so the mother wasn’t interested in the strong objections of her daughter. The two live in Australia, which has strict laws forbidding the practice. This did little to dissuade Jan, who told her daughter that if she did not marry a man named Mohammad Ali Halimi, she would be kicked out of the house. At only 21, Ruqia had dreams of attending school to pursue a career. Alas, it was not meant to be. Her violent and controlling husband waited only a few weeks before he slit her throat with a knife.

Now, an Australian court has found the mother guilty of breaking forced marriage laws, and was sentenced to 12 months in jail. The conviction was only made possible when members of her own religious community came forward to inform police of the situation. The irony here is that the family had moved to Australia in order to escape persecution from the Taliban. It appears that while you can take people out of religious oppressive places, you sometimes cannot get take oppression out of people. The Taliban only exists because of the willingness of people to follow edicts and rules that are disasterous, specifically to young women.

When the decision was made by the courts, unsurprisingly, Jan said she refused to accept the verdict, presumably because she still thinks she did nothing wrong. She was eventually led away by court officers. So at the end of the day, we have a young woman dead, an older one jailed, and a murderer in prison for life. I wonder if there will ever be a time when the so-called “religion of peace” will no longer cause countless tragedies. My guess is that none of us will ever live to see that day.

The Taliban At War With Happiness

If there’s one thing that fundamentalists hate, it’s joy. They seem positively allergic to it. When all you have in your life is religion, it seems to create in a person a sense of violent superiority, and the sight of anyone enjoying their life outside of the narrow confines of faith drives them to violent madness.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has been in power for nearly 3 years now, and in that time, they have banned things like music and dancing. Worst still, their religious thugs patrol the streets, enforcing this ludicrous ban on the simple joys that humans have.

A man by the name of Jalili Ahmad said that during his wedding, a bunch of enforces showed up to the celebration, beating him and several family members, and arresting his father-in-law for 10 days.

“They humiliated us and destroyed the best day of my life,” he said. “They are at war with happiness.”

Afghan weddings used to be the stuff of legends, with lively music and dancing to celebrate the union of two people. Now, these joyless hypocrites attack anyone that dares to shuffle their feet a little too gracefully. Well, not everyone exactly. You see, so long as you’re part of the “winning team”, you can do whatever yo like. For instance, a number of Taliban officials have been caught on video dancing in celebration after their commander’s son was born.

What a surprise that religious assholes would have different rules for people who are part of their clique. It’s always like this. Religion is just an excuse for tiny minded thugs to control the lives of others, all the while engaging freely in the things they ban. I bet you these jerks secretly drink alcohol, watch porn, and do just about everything they claim to hate. Did you ever see Osama Bin Laden’s porn stash? No? Well, that’s only because it’s never been declassified. Wonder how sick that shit was…

The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 358

This episode, TGA exposes the Southern Baptist Church’s stalling on their promise to expose abusers, the Catholic Church pathetic apology to Natives, and the Taliban murdering a gay man and sending the video to his family. All that and more!

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Terrorists Attack Orthodox Churches, Synagogues in Russian

Russia has a lot of problems. Following their disasterous invasion of Ukraine, the country has faced a number of setbacks. First, the entire western world has essentially put a stranglehold on their economy, which despite their best efforts, is rapidly crumbling.

Russia is also a federation, which means that there are many “provinces” that have a huge variety of ethnic minorities, some of which are not exactly the biggest fans of the Russian Empire. With the army busy getting killed in another country, local militias have begun to make trouble, knowing that given enough time, they might win their independence.

In Dagestan, a territory that has a large Muslim pullulation, Orthodox Christian and Jewish minorities live there under a fragile peace, which was recently broken. A highly coordinated group of terrorists, acting as sleeper cells, launched attacks on several Churches and Synagogues simultaneously. Over a dozen police officers are dead, and the total count of injured is still being calculated.

This incident is similar to the one that happened in March, when Islamic fundamentalists attacked a concert hall, killing a total of 140 people, and burning down the historic building. Despite the fact that a jihadist group had claimed credit for the attack, Russia blamed Ukraine and the West, saying that this attack had been orchestrated to destabilize the country. Experts had predicted that by ignoring the very group that had claimed responsibility for the attack, Russia would only embolden the terrorists more. It seems as though this is a response to this, considering that the vast majority of casualties were police officers. Anxious to not learn any lesson from the past, Russia is again doubling down on its accusation that it was the West that organized it, despite the fact that American spy agencies had already sent warning to Russia about a possible attack. This warning was ignored, and hundreds of people paid the price for their stubbornness.

Anyone interested in reality will quickly see this for what it is: Russia wanting to refocus the population into hating the collective West. Still, for what little these lies galvanize the populous against the western world, it exacerbates the problems they already face at home. Chechnya and Dagestan have always been hotbeds for Islamic insurgency, and with the army occupied attacking another country, an opportunity to create instability in the region is opening up for these terrorists. The fact that Russia again ignores the threats from within their own territory, and tries to frame this as part of their own disasterous invasion of Ukraine only demonstrates how incapable they are of running their own country. The Rubble is tanking, their economy is in shambles, and Russia is even offering territory to China in return for aid. So much for the expansion of the Russia Empire! At this rate, China will own their asses, and the only thing that will be left will be empty vodka bottles and soldiers with PTSD.

Man Set on Fire for Blasphemy in Pakistan

In yet another display of compassion from the religion of peace, a man in Pakistan was burned to death by a mob after being arrested for supposed blasphemy. The man, identified as Mohammad Ismail, who appears to have been a tourist, was ganged up by a group of people at the local market and brought over to police, claiming that he had desecrated the most useless book in history, the Koran. Shortly after, the local mosque decided that this was not enough, and quickly radicalized their followers into deadly action.

According to witnesses, the mob asked police to hand over the suspect to them, and on their refusal, forced their way into the police station. Police officials had to flee to save themselves, while more reinforcements were called in to deal with the tense law and order situation.

So, to recap, we have absolutely no idea what this man’s supposed crime was, or the names of the people who actually incited this violence. In other words, everyone is going to walk away scott free, and an innocent man is dead because the feelings of the world’s most insecure religion were offended.

In Pakistan, blasphemy accusations abound, and while it can carry a death sentence, the government doesn’t actually need to carry out the sentence: their insane citizens will usually do it for them. All one needs to do is make an accusation. This is not unlike the burning of witches in Europe. People used the obsessiveness of the church to easily kill of their hates rivals, using the blunt instrument of faith as their instrument of murder. It seems very little has changed.

Heat Kills Over 500 Visiting Mecca

In ancient times, the city of Mecca was a place in the middle of nowhere, notable only for the fact that a temple existed there, where many different idols of gods resided. People of all different kinds of faith would visit it, if only to show piety to their chosen gods.

When Islam came along, these other idols were destroyed. The only thing that was preserved was a black Onyx rock, and in order to make it fit within this new religion, Islam claimed that the rock had been found by one of their early church fathers: Abraham.

The site became what is now called the Kabba, and ever year, tens of thousands of Muslims make the dangerous trek to this hellhole presumably to impress their creator god. Over the years, there have been many deaths. Some were due to tramplings, and a few were the result of fires. This year, because of an intense heat wave, you can add heat stroke to the list of ways their supposed loving god rewards them for turning around in circles for “his glory”. So, just how hot was it?

Saudi state TV said temperatures rose on Monday as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit) in the shade at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

That’s 51 degrees…in the shade! No wonder people were dropping like flies! Over 500 people are now dead thanks to this useless tradition. Folks, here’s an idea: stay home and pray to your invisible friend in the comfort of your air conditioned homes! No god is worth dying in the middle of nowhere for.

Islamic Scholar Abused Minor, Threatened to Kill Him

TGA has been reporting on a number of Christian abusers recently, which has probably given our audience the mistaken impression that only Jesus lovers are abusing kids on a global scale. Please allow me to dissuade this opinion by bringing up the case of an Imam in India, recently convicted of abusing a young boy.

Unfortunately, the news report fails spectacularly in providing important details, such as the bloody name of the monster. They did release details of the conviction however. It seems that the young boy was assaulted multiple times when he attended religious classes, with the old pervert even threatening him with drowning if he told anyone what happened.

This sick bastard will be spending the next 56 years in prison. Hopefully, he dies there, never to spend any more time with young people. As for the news organization which reported on the assault, it’s pathetic that they couldn’t even be bothered to publish the name of this degenerate Those of us actually interested in keeping religions accountable find that this kind of information is crucial. Was it a simple oversight, or were they showing favoritism? I guess it’s hard to tell with bad journalism.

Taliban Kills Gay Man, Sends Video to Family

The Taliban is perhaps one of the most vile organization on Earth. Although the name is derived from the Pashtun word for “student”, the only thing that these monsters are students of are the worst aspects of humanity: its cruelty and stupidity. While they were at war with the Soviet government, they were trained and armed by America, only to later go to war with them a few decades later. Then, when the US withdrew from Afghanistan, they made a deal with the devil in return for assurances that they would help them fight their greater enemy, Al Qaeda. The results were predictable. The agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

The goals of the group are simple: they want women to stay in the home and be constantly barefoot and preggers, ban all forms of entertainment, and destroy any other religious or ethnic minorities that they dislike. Among those that get their goat are gay people. With such fundamentalists in power, it’s not surprising that people of the LGBT community are in constant danger.

Just a few days ago, a gay man was murdered, and the whole affair was videotaped. With the deed done, the tape was then sent to family members as a chilling reminder that no one is safe:

Hamed Sabouri of Kabul, Afghanistan, died on August 5, activists said. The news of the 22-year-old’s death only became public this week after his former boyfriend informed the media. Graphic video footage of a murder, which Insider has viewed, appears to show a man resembling Sabouri being shot in the neck and head at least 12 times. Days later, the Taliban sent the disturbing execution video to Sabouri’s relatives and friends, who, in turn, forwarded it to the Afghan LGBTQ+ group Roshaniya.

His boyfriend is now in hiding, afraid that he will soon suffer the same fate. The chilling message was received: gays are living in constant fear, with danger lurking at every corner. My heart hurts at the idea of my fellow human beings being hunted simply because of how they feel inside. The Taliban, and all fundamentalist Islam is a bane on mankind, one that I can only hope will someday be in the dustbin of history.

Canadian School Board Cancels ISIS Survivor Talk over Islamophobia Fears

In Iraq, there is a religious minority that is constantly being persecuted. Although they speak Kurdish, there is some disagreement as to whether or not they are distinct subgroup of Kurds. What is clear is that the faith is ancient, predating Zoroastrianism. They are a monotheistic faith that has a strong affinity to nature, believing that the elements should remain free of pollution. Some call them “sun worshippers”, for they face the sun whenever they pray. They only marry within their faith, which is what has kept them separate from others for the last 900 years.

As you might imagine, a non-Islamic religious group is not very welcome in both countries with strong Islamic presence. Its members are regularly attacked, and one of the more popular ways to do so is to sexually assault young women. They are often kidnapped and sold in an endless cycle of sexual slavery whenever their rapists tire of them. In light of these atrocities, the Canadian government began to take in refugees. Among them was a young woman named Nadia Murad, who recently won a (shared) Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

All of this sounds wonderful, until you realize that the same government who allowed these refugees in the country have no interest in them sharing their story. You see, a couple of days ago, a Canadian School Board had invited Murad to speak about her experiences. The event was cancelled, for fear that her talk would cause “hurt feelings” and Islamophobia.

[S]chool board superintendent Helen Fisher pulled the plug on Murad’s visit, saying she would not let students attend because the book would be offensive to Muslims and “foster Islamophobia,” the Telegraph reported.

Let’s recap here: the school was worried that actually learning more about Islam’s crimes against humanity might make some students critical of the religion. What else are we supposed to do with survivors? Ask them to quietly go away so that they stop exposing the evils of this religion? The West continues to bury its head in the sand at its own peril. You cannot ignore the dangers of Islam, wishing to avoid revealing the truth about the faith in order to protect the feelings of a religion that craves world domination.

Truth is often upsetting to people who live in a world of lies. Let’s also not ignore the fact that when Islam feels insulted, people often die. The religion is so insecure that countless adherents are more than willing to hurt, or even kill anyone who dares to insult it. These wackos need to learn that free expression in the price you pay for living in a democracy. If they dislike it, there are plenty of hellhole theocracies they can move to. Catering to these deadly temper tantrums will do nothing but undermine the very values we stand for.

Here’s hoping that this move actually backfires, and Murad is invited to more schools to share her experiences. I can dream, can’t I?

Iranian Filmmaker Flees Country to Avoid Prison

Iran has problems. Following the takeover of the Ayatollah in the end of the 70’s, the country has been ruled by a theocracy ever since, and this has meant that anyone not following their edicts have been victimized by the regime. In the last several years, the killing of women for failing to wear their hijab has caused mass demonstrations, but has failed to yield any political change as of yet.

Recently, a filmmaker by the name of Mohammad Rasoulof has fled to Europe after being handed a bullshit 8 year prison sentence. His crime? Rasoulof makes films that are critical of the government, and this has made him enemy #1 in their eyes.

Last week, Rasoulof’s lawyer told The Associated Press that the director had been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging and confiscation of property by the Islamic Republic. Rasoulof’s attorney, Babak Paknia, said the filmmaker was being punished for making films and signing statements…“Knowing that the news of my new film would be revealed very soon, I knew that without a doubt, a new sentence would be added to these eight years,” said Rasoulof. “I didn’t have much time to make a decision. I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile. The Islamic Republic confiscated my passport in September 2017. Therefore, I had to leave Iran secretly.”

Rasoulof is now in an undisclosed location for his own safety. Even Europe isn’t safe with the amount of fundamentalists living anonymously among the populous. He hopes to be able to show his latest film called “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”, which he describes as “how insidiously the Iranian dictatorship creeps into families”. Considering many of the actors in the film have also fled the country, Rasoulof fears for their safety.

If Iran ever hopes to change, it’s going to need more men like Rasoulof and his peers, bravely taking on their government at the risk of their own lives. That, my friend, is true bravery.

Father’s Pleas to Rescue Daughter in Forced Marriage Ignored

There is a sad and barbaric tradition that still continues to this day. It’s called Forcible Marriage. It’s essentially a form of human trafficking, masquerading as a tradition. Women have few rights in traditional Islam, and are viewed more as property than a human being. It’s why when 15 year old Muskan Salman was kidnapped and forcibly married, the police have done nothing to get her back, despite the desperate pleas of her father.

I can only imagine the heartbreak at the thought of the things she is having to endure under this man’s captivity. He had already taken her out of school because the eventual kidnapper, a 27 year old man named Arsalan Ali, was already harassing her. He then resorted to abducting her, and forging a marriage certificate, claiming the girl was 19 years old. Now there’s a legal battle to prove her age. In none of the reports has anyone bothered to even ask Muskan what the hell happened. She is essentially in the custody of the husband, and that’s considered fine in the eyes of many.

Part of the reason people have turned a blind eye to all of this is because it’s part of a pattern of behavior in the country. You see, Muskan is part of a Christian minority, and these kinds of incidents are so frequent that the U.N. has called on Pakistan to make more changes to their laws to prevent this form of human trafficking.

“The exposure of young women and girls belonging to religious minority communities to such heinous human rights violations, and the impunity of such crimes, can no longer be tolerated or justified,” they said in a statement issued in Geneva.

Now, because this is the U.N. and their calls are left to voicemail, and it’s doubtful anything will come of this. Muskan will be forgotten about, like so many other young girls forced to live with their rapists and bare their children. So long as this tradition and the underlying faith that sustains it continues to rule, these types of tragedies will continue to occur with terrifying frequency.

Taliban To Resume Stoning Women

Most religions have a deep distrust of the vagina. It’s almost as though the authors of their screeds were the very first incels. That’s not that surprising, really. In the history of mankind, bookish nerds tend not to get the girl, and after a few centuries of this, you can imagine their ire at not getting laid. How else can you explain such deep hatred and distrust of women in the Abrahamic faiths?

It would be difficult to find a more sexually frustrated faith than Islam. This particular group of undersexed, and repressed men have decided that the biggest threat to humanity is the vagina, and the tendency for those who have one of trying to live their own lives. The nerve.

Thanks to the Taliban, the practice of stoning is being revived in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced at the weekend that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.

Over the past few years, over 400 people (mostly men) have been punished by either stoning, lashing, or even Crucifixion (no, I am not making this up). The crimes ranged from drinking alcohol to murder, with the sentences being carried out for the general public to witness. Some even took place in local football fields to ensure maximum visibility, although the use of cameras or other recording equipment is forbidden. Luckily, we know of these because of a few brave souls willing to ignore this edict.

Within the Taliban’s justice system, Sharia punishments are often presented as a religious ceremony, which aligns with the Islamic notion that many of these punishments are considered to be forms of divine justice. One observed pattern, which illustrates the significance of these punishments is the frequent attendance of national and local Taliban officials, judicial staff, police commanders, intelligence staff, religious scholars, ethnic leaders, and residents. The attendance of these figures adds legitimacy to the punishments, providing implicit religious, administrative, and social approval.

All of these public displays were carefully calculated to help make these kinds of punishment seem more and more acceptable. Now, it’s practically become mundane. This has emboldened them to begin to target more women in an effort to undo all of that “western” influence they hate so much, such as the belief in human rights, the idea that torture is unacceptable, and other moral progress that contradicts their favorite little book of horrors, the Koran.