The Oxymoron of Religious Morality
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THE Taliban publicly flogged and then executed a pregnant Afghan widow by shooting her three times in the head for alleged adultery, police said.
Bibi Sanubar, 35, was kept in captivity for three days before she was shot dead in a public trial on Sunday by a local Taliban commander in the Qadis district of the rural western province Badghis.
The Taliban accused Sanubar of having an "illicit affair" that left her pregnant.
She was first punished with 200 lashes in public before being shot, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi told AFP.
"She was shot in the head in public while she was still pregnant," Mr Sayeedi said.
The execution is a grim reminder of the Taliban's harsh six-year rule from 1996 to 2001 in Afghanistan.
The radical Islamists staged public stonings or lashings of those found to have committed adultery or sex outside marriage.
The then-Taliban government would also chop off the hands and feet of those accused of theft and robbery.Local Taliban commander Mohammad Yousuf carried out the execution, Mr Sayeedi said, before the woman's body was dumped in an area under government control.
The man who allegedly had an affair with Sanubar has not been punished.
Head of Badghis provincial council Mohammad Nasir Nazaari confirmed the execution and said the Qadis district is entirely under Taliban control.
The deputy head of the religious council for western Afghanistan, Mohammad Kabaabiani, said the execution ran counter to Islamic principles.
Head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan, Abdul Qadir Rahimi, condemned the killing.
"Any such trial is unacceptable and is a violation of human rights. All trials must take place in an authorised court observing every single measure of justice," Mr Rahimi said.
Since their ouster in 2001, the hardline Taliban militants have executed many people they accused of spying for foreign forces, including at least one woman who was shot dead in Kandahar.
The insurgents last year publicly executed a young couple accused of eloping in Nimroz province with a firing squad in front of a mosque.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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the lord will do their dirty work. Better hope you're not pregnant on judgment day.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
The Lord's Resistance Army do their share of dirty work.
Tough places to live.
I noticed that the US government considers the LRA a terrorist organization.
Are we assisting them like we've been helping the Taliban?
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
the guy got off scot free...I guess this sort of behaviour in this region highlights the mental attitude that spawned the curse of eve and all the gender bias inherent in the OT. Nice work, boys.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
A few RRS'ers didn't get the picture back in late January/Feb, but "Army of God" isn't a reference to Skydaddy's angelic hordes, or any such nonsense. They're a kooky, McVeigh-esque bunch hq'd around the southwest, iirc.
You can read more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_God_(USA)
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
"We declare the justice of taking all Godly action necessary...including...whatever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child".
This includes killing other born children.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
I'll add those kooks to my mental list.
Also see these kooks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRA via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Spirit_Movement
I'm still probing them, but they seem to be yet another interesting case study into the evolution of religions/denominations/cults.
I’m no expert, but I can find no support for the idea that the USA has funded the LRA. There are accusations that the US interventions in the region have exacerbated matters, but that is another matter. This isn’t too surprising as the US supports the LRA’s opponents.
The US support of the Taliban differs because they were seen by the US as a potentially stable puppet government. The LRA show no signs of this.
More information:
http://freethoughtmanifesto.blogspot.com/2009/09/christian-extremist-lra-still-threat.html
(warning: contains image of fundamentalist mutilation)
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,469f2f892,469f3ade1e,0.html
(good background)
Extract:
Under Museveni, the Acholi were not directly targeted for abuse or retaliation. A few rebel groups did continue to exist in the north in the late 1980s, but none were a great threat to the state. The UPDM (Uganda People's Democratic Movement) had given up their fight in 1990, leaving the UDCA (Uganda Democratic Christian Army) as the main opposition group in the region. The UDCA was an off-shoot of the Holy Spirit Movement, a fanatical Christian group that launched a failed attack against Museveni in 1987. Alice Lakwena, the UDCA leader fled Uganda, and her cousin Joseph Kony assumed the leadership position. The UDCA, later known as the LRA (Lord's Resistance army), came to terrorize Acholi villagers in the north.
http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/if-uganda-it-has-oil-it-must-need-the-pentagons-democracy/
(a look at the oil angle)
The helping the Taliban I was speaking of was the fact that our presence in Afghanistan is a hell of a recruitment tool.
I'm sure we'd do the same for these nutters.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin