You know that argument you’re always having with religionists over whether or not religion is a force for good in the world? It seems like no matter how much misery, pain and suffering is caused in the name of religion, someone is always on hand to tell you that if it wasn’t for Bronze Age tribalism, the world would collapse into chaos (I’m so worried about that, you should see how nervous I am about that possibility…).

Tell that to Ali Sibat, a Lebanese man who made the “mistake” of appearing on television to give general life advice and make predictions about the future. The Saudi government has arrested him on charges of witchcraft, and plan to execute him shortly. Yeah, you read me correctly, and this isn’t the first person to be convicted of the “crime of witchcraft”. Others have also suffered similar fates; one guy brought in a phone book in a different language and was sentenced to 20 months and 300 lashes.

What else can we expect from 6th century platitudes? If you happen to be religious in this modern area, realize your civility and morality is a product of our modern values, not your religious texts. In fact, people who take a literal approach to religion usually act in completely barbaric and stunningly cruel fashion. It’s further proof no human being has a privileged line to the divine. The fact that people are still being prosecuted for witchcraft in the 21st century makes me want to shut myself off from the rest of humanity. When will we stop being so stupid and ignorant?

(Update: As of 2012, there were reports that he was allowed to return to Lebanon, but this has yet to be confirmed as of 2023)

Here’s the deal; if you want to start your own little mosque and preach for the government to be replaced by a caliphate run by a man in prison for life, it’s generally a good idea not to draw attention to yourself by buying and selling stolen weapons, and it’s definitely a bad idea to go around telling people to help overthrow the government. Luqman Ameen Abdullah converted to Islam and began preaching antigovernmental rhetoric in a small apartment in Detroit, urging his members to equip themselves with firearms. The FBI freaked out, thinking they had a home grown terrorist cell on their hands (not altogether an unwarranted fear), and so they raided the place.

Through a 45-page complaint filed in the case alleges Abdullah “calls his followers to an offensive jihad” and preaches that every Muslim should “have a weapon and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed,” charges in the case to not include terrorism or national security crimes.

The only person to actually resist arrest is Abdullah himself, who opened fire (killing one of the dogs) and was later shot dead. Now, members of the Muslim community are upset and shocked over the shooting, and claim that he was an upstanding member of the community.

Here’s the deal; I’m not entirely unsympathetic to people who distrust the government and feel the need to make strong political statements. I draw the line, however, when someone decides that extreme violence is the answer to their problems. There’s already enough fear and paranoia concerning terrorism; it’s not generally a good idea to fan the flames. It’s also a terrible idea to shoot at the FBI when they raid your place. You tend to get shot in the face when that happens.

Imagine a philosophy that regards human life as worthless and cheap, where adherents are told to kill others who do not share their beliefs, and where huge segments of the population are kept ignorant and subservient. Well, you don’t need to use your imagination; this type of philosophy already exists, and it has a colorful name: Islam.

Pakistan was the scene of more violence today as a market in Peshawar was hit with a powerful bomb that killed at least 80 people and injured another 200. It’s one of the worst attacks in the country’s history, and you can guess what bastards were responsible for bombing a market filled with women and children: why it’s the Taliban, of course!

It must be pretty easy to murder innocent women and children when you have the powerful shield of faith. It must be why religion is such a useful tool to enslave the minds of poorly educated idiots; no one has to consider the consequences of their actions when they think God is on their side. Congratulations for murdering so many people for your precious invisible sky-deity; he must be so proud of you!

Also, please fuck off and die. Thanks.

I got some good news and some bad news. I’ll give you the good news first; according to the latest Pew Poll, Pakistani support of the Taliban and al Qaeda has been declining over the past few years, and more and more people are concerned over extremism in the country. They also are beginning to see that educating women is important. All of this sounds pretty encouraging, right?

Ok, now that we’ve covered the good stuff, it’s time for the bad news. It seems that Pakistanis are increasingly supporting severe laws; roughly 83% of the population supports stoning adulterers, while 78% of them want the death penalty to be applied to apostates. An overwhelming majority also support giving judicial power to religious judges, which is essentially the same thing as handing over the keys to your house to a raving fucking lunatic.

The majority of Pakistanis also believe India is a major threat to their security, mainly due to the fucking depressing quagmire that is Kashmir. Considering both of these countries are nuclear powers, the threat of armed conflict should scare the living shit out of everyone. Pakistan is a damn mess, and I have great fears the situation there is not improving. What’s the solution? I’m not sure, but I can tell you one thing; if anyone has any doubts religion isn’t the main source of these problems, kindly jump off a bridge please.

Now I’ve often linked from the newspaper on many occasions, but today is a special honor. In January of last year, a young Afghan journalist was sentenced to death for distributing a report criticizing the treatment of women under Islamic Law. Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was sentenced in a 4 minute trial that was closed to the public, but luckily, the Independent got wind of the story and thanks to their efforts and a lot of international pressure, Sayed has been released.

Of course, not all is well in Afghanistan, and conservative clerics are reacting with anger over what they see as Western interference in their domestic policy. They want him punished for his blasphemy, and only death will appease them.

Luckily, not everyone in the country is out for blood. Many young citizens are happy that the situation has been resolved peacefully, and if there’s any hope for the future of this nation, it lies with the new generation.

So if you aren’t yet a fan of the Independent (I’ll admit that there is a bit too much fucking gossip on this damn site), you should at least give them props for helping to save this man’s life.

Does this cartoon offend you? Personally it’s poorly done, there’s no joke there, and in general it’s insultingly terrible. Still, it’s a fucking cartoon, and should be no big deal, right? Well, not so much. Remember a few years back when a Danish Newspaper published cartoon depicting Mohammed, and the Muslim community basically had a fucking meltdown? Well, it seems as though there was another bit of news going on in the background at the time worth mentioning. The Arab European League published a cartoon during the affair with the intent of offending Jews by denying the Holocaust. Their goal was apparently to show that it’s not only Muslims that get upset over free speech issues, and sure enough it worked; the group is now being prosecuted under Holocaust denial laws.

I’ve always said Holocaust denial laws are both pointless and dangerous; while I am personally repulsed by the notion certain individuals choose to deny the atrocities committed by the Nazis, trying to use the long arm of the law to silence these people has exactly the opposite effect. It demonstrates Europe is incapable of living by the principle of free speech. The truth is when people are allowed to say what they want, occasionally they will say something horrible and offensive; it’s inevitable. How can we blame Muslims for overreacting to simple cartoons when we are prepared to jail people for making a few shitty scribblings?

I received a message to check out a story floating around the blogosphere about a huge wedding involving hundreds of child brides in Gaza (I thought it a bit weird that the mainstream media had missed that big story). Naturally I wanted to know more, but as I dug a little deeper, I realized the real story was the deep distrust of Muslims in general, and powerful Islamophobia that exists on the web.

OK, maybe I’m partly to blame here; after all, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of the religion. I consider Mohammed a morally reprehensible character, but then again I think the same thing of Moses, David, Noah and all the men of old world religions. These guys are normally genocidal maniacs interested only in their own flock, content to murder the world to make their ideologies the only truth. But Mohammed’s 9 year old wife Aisha is not something you can ignore very easily, and child brides are not isolated incidents.

Still, the “webs” had a gigantic freak out, with rumors of hundreds of little girls being wed simultaneously floating around, all from a bunch of pictures that seem, at least in hindsight, to be fairly innocent (although the moms need to go a little easy on the damn makeup). Everyone is so ready to jump on the hate bandwagon that any amount of impropriety invariably leads people to assume the very worst. There was a wedding and little girls were there? They must have been all sex slaves I tell you!

Can we all calm down and take the time to check our facts people? And this is “The Good Atheist” talking here; I don’t exactly have the most stellar reputation when it comes to fact checking (hey, you try recording funny podcasts without going out on a few limbs), but even I can smell a rat that big. Let’s not look like total bigots, shall we?