sorry Hillary, it's a feature, not a bug

violence is at the core of all Abrahamic religions

The Mindanao Examiner: Speaking in Washington September 13, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Islamic faith “respects the fundamental dignity of human beings,” and that it is “a violation of that fundamental dignity to wage attacks on innocents.”

Four charged over Danish newspaper 'massacre plot' - InterAksyon.com

Four charged over Danish newspaper 'massacre plot' - InterAksyon.com: COPENHAGEN -- Danish prosecutors have charged four men for "attempted terrorism" over plans to kill the staff of a newspaper that carried controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, a judicial statement said Friday.

The four men, all residents of Sweden and arrested on December 29, 2010, had planned to "kill a large number of people" at the Jyllands-Posten daily, it said.

Deadly Nigeria bomb attacks condemned by world leaders

BBC News - Deadly Nigeria bomb attacks condemned by world leaders: The first attack, outside St Theresa's Church in Madalla, near Abuja, killed 35 and wounded more than 50.


The church and surrounding homes were badly damaged.

Father Christopher Barde told AFP news agency the blast occurred as the Christmas morning service was ending.

"It was really terrible," he said. "Some [wounded] people ran towards me [saying] 'Father anoint me'."

Crowds grew angry over the attack and the slow response of the emergency services.

Reuters reports that thousands of youths have erected roadblocks on the road from the capital to the largely Muslim north, and are being tackled by security forces firing tear gas.

In Jos, a blast close to the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church was followed by gunfire that left one officer dead, government spokesman Pam Ayuba told the Associated Press news agency.

Two explosive devices found in a nearby building were disarmed as military were deployed to the site.

Afghan woman being forced to marry her rapist

RAWA News: Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan prosecutors announced Wednesday that a young rape victim, jailed for adultery after reporting the crime and pushed into marrying her attacker, would have her sentence reduced from twelve to three years. The prosecutor said she would, for now, remain in jail -- with her child -- for not reporting her attack fast enough.

Gulnaz is in Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, serving out her sentence with her rapist's child. (Photo: CNN)
In a remarkable case that is all too common in Afghanistan but has drawn international attention, 21-year-old Gulnaz was attacked by a relative two years ago, but sentenced to 12 years in jail for adultery.
She has since given birth to a girl from the attack. Because of the dishonor of sex outside of wedlock, she had been given the choice of marrying her attacker to get out of jail and legitimize her infant daughter in the eyes of Afghanistan's conservative society.
The child is imprisoned with her at Badambagh Prison on the outskirts of Kabul.

barbarism

Is Norway’s Suspected Murderer Anders Breivik a Christian Terrorist?

 Religion Dispatches:

Is this a religious vision, and am I right in calling Breivik a Christian terrorist? It is true that Breivik—and McVeigh, for that matter—were much more concerned about politics, race, and history than about scripture and religious belief; with Breivik even going so far as to write that “It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter)).

But much the same can be said about Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and many other Islamist activists. Bin Laden was a businessman and engineer, and Zawahiri was a medical doctor; neither were theologians or clergy. Their writings show that they were much more interested in Islamic history than theology or scripture, and imagined themselves as re-creating glorious moments in Islamic history in their own imagined wars. Tellingly, Breivik writes of al Qaeda with admiration, as if he would love to create a Christian version of their religious cadre.

If bin Laden is a Muslim terrorist, Breivik and McVeigh are surely Christian ones. Breivik was fascinated with the Crusades and imagined himself to be a member of the Knights Templar, the crusader army of a thousand years ago. But in an imagined cosmic warfare time is suspended, and history is transcended as the activists imagine themselves to be acting out timeless roles in a sacred drama. The tragedy is that these religious fantasies are played out in real time, with real and cruel consequences.

Bangladeshi Rape Victim Receives 101 Lashes for Becoming Pregnant

via Unreasonable Faith:

"Her rape emerged after her pregnancy test and Muslim elders in the village issued a fatwa insisting that the girl be kept in isolation until her family agreed to corporal punishment.

Her rapist was pardoned by the elders. She told the newspaper the rapist had “spoiled” her life.

“I want justice,” she said."

Good luck with that.

Blasphemy law still needed: Indonesian Minister

The Jakarta Post:

"Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said Sunday that Indonesia was still in need of the blasphemy law in order to main harmony among religious followers, especially among Muslims.

Speaking in Medan, Suryadharma said Islam was open for different interpretations to its teachings, but not to its core issues."

Nigerians claim religious massacre

Al Jazeera English:

"Hundreds of people have died in violence between Muslims and Christians in Northern Nigeria.

The clashes began six days ago in the city of Jos, but later spread to the countryside.

Al Jazeera has obtained evidence that suggests the bloodshed from ethnic and religious violence could be greater than feared.

Our news team filmed bodies dumped in wells and saw the corpses of children.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons travelled to the village of Kuru Jantar, just outside of Jos, where locals told him about what they are calling a massacre."

Stop church burning

The Jakarta Post -  editorial:

"We bet most people are not happy about the burning of churches in North Sumatra on Friday night. As a Muslim-majority nation, we are a proud democracy. And we have had enough Christian-Muslim conflicts in the past, notably the Ambon and Poso conflicts. We are also an emerging multicultural nation with a proud legacy of religious pluralism. However, the trajectory of a nation toward its maturity is often difficult to fathom.

Our minds promptly turn to religious leaders and the many interfaith dialogues that have been held.

We are afraid that they might have only churned out sweet talk and exacerbated such conflicts.

We are also concerned that there is a big gap dividing religious leaders and those at the grass roots.

The question is how to close this gap.

Past experience has taught us that religious conflicts often mask the real issues beneath them."

And religion is like gasoline to a spark.  A reason for violence is always at hand.