Time to stand up for reason

In most western societies if someone came up to you and claimed they had seen God you'd probably giggle nervously and make your excuses as you walked or ran to saner pastures. The streets are often full of crazed religious types (and their Marxist equivalents) preaching various superstitious doctrines or so called "scientific socialism. Such is the nature of the free world we (at least) still live in.

Not so under Sharia law. Its' punishable by death (what isn't I have to ask these days) and The Freethinker tells us the story:

RIAZ Ahmed, 34, and Ijaz Ahmed, 38, residents of Haroonabad in the Gujrat district of Pakistan claimed in 2011 that they had “seen God”.

The devotees of Chaman Sarkar, of whom we know nothing, offended one Qari Muhammad Ahmed, 27, who reported the pair to the authorities, and accused them of encouraging others to join them in “a union with God” through Chaman Sarkar.

Anywhere else, this sort of behaviour would be regarded as merely silly or eccentric; one cannot see things that don’t exist.

But this being Pakistan, a hotbed of Islamic lunacy, the two were arrested and brought before Additional Sessions Judge Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal on Saturday, who convicted them of blasphemy and handed down death sentences. He also fined them 100,000 rupees (about £1,000) each.

Of course the author this article would also be guilty of blasphemy in Pakistan as would all of us who deny the existence of any supreme being whatsoever. I just hope that someone starts a campaign to release them as although they are clearly misguided they do not deserve to die under the barbaric laws of Sharia any more than anyone else.

Yet the Liberal and Left establishment remains quiet on this as they do over so many issues involving Sharia and Human Rights when problems arise. Worse as we have seen this year in our Universities they capitulate to these medieval ideologues and pander to Gender Apartheid as both this blog and others reported last year.

At the same time Christan Evangelists appear to continue their unsavoury campaign against Gay Rights in Africa whilst the Catholic Church continues to put peoples lives at risk with their nonsense over condoms. Even now the Pope is slagging off Gay Adoption in Malta as The Independent reports today:

The Pope is “shocked” by gay adoption, according to the Bishop of Malta. Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta defended his Christmas sermon in which he condemned adoption between same-sex couples by claiming that Pope Francis gave the anti-gay sentiments of the address his blessing.

The Bishop told the congregation that God’s own son was raised by a man and a woman, and not by two men or two women.

In an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta, Bishop Scicluna said he met with Pope Francis on 12 December, and the pair discussed “many aspects” of the Bishop’s sermon.

Bishop Scicluna said The Pope was “shocked” by the Maltese Civil Unions Bill that aims to legalise gay adoption.

This rather discredits the Popes New Year message as reported:

“We are all children of one heavenly father, we belong to the same human family and we share a common destiny,” Francis said, speaking from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, jammed with tens of thousands of faithful, tourists and Romans.

“This brings a responsibility for each to work so that the world becomes a community of brothers who respect each other, accept each other in one’s diversity, and takes care of one another,” the pope said.

Unless you are gay, use a condom or a woman who wants to control her own body.

The Independent also carries a piece bemoaning the influence of Christianity at the United Nations:

The report Religious NGOs and The United Nations found that Christian NGOs are overrepresented at the UN in comparison to other religious groups.

Overall, more than 70 per cent of religious NGOs at the UN are Christian, where the Vatican enjoys a special observer status, as a state and religion, according to research undertaken by Professor Jeremy Carrette from the University of Kent's Department of Religious Studies.

The paper then goes on to helpfully tell us that:

The study highlighted that Muslim NGOs are often represented through the collective of states in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, rather than civil society NGOs, which are mostly Catholic.

That would be the OIC that says on the one hand it wants to:

to preserve and promote the lofty Islamic values of peace, compassion, tolerance, equality, justice and human dignity;

but here's the rub:

The OIC ..signaled ... that it will revive long-standing attempts to make insults against religions an international criminal offence. (Alarabia)

This as the website reports was a response to the publication of a few cartoons in a small Danish Newspaper. And lets not forget the nonsense we saw over the Satanic Verses, or the fact that two, probably very deranged men are going to be executed for simply saying they "saw God" or the other numerous victims of Pakistan's repressive "Blasphemy Law ".

I'd like to say they can go hell, except there isn't one unless you count the barbarous Sharia Law system.

When Pakistan's critics say the law is abused they really are not kidding. It's used to prevent even reasonable discussion of religion.

The Mullahs, the Priests like the Witch Doctors that preceded them in history are frightened. Afraid that with the spread of knowledge and the ideas of both science and democracy their theocratic nonsense won't stand up to scrutiny.

If they have to threaten death, one has to wonder how much of a tenuous hold these wizened old men really have on their followers. Would Islam or any other religion survive genuine academic freedom? Actually it probably would, but what would gradually disappear would be their power to cower the masses before some false god or gods.

Whatever the case we need to remain vigilant at the ever increasing threat of religion into our lives.

The fight for reason continues.