The blasphemy of violence in the name of religion

Quran 9.5: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”

With the world focusing (but not acting) over the growth of ISIS in Syria and Iraq atrocities in the name of the "religion of peace" are being overlooked in other parts of the world. It's not just in these countries that Christians are facing violence and murder.

Take Pakistan, a country with an infamous and much abuse so-called "Blasphemy Law". The New York Times reports:

An enraged mob tortured a Pakistani Christian couple and incinerated their bodies in a brick kiln in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday after they were accused of burning a Quran, police officials said.

The killings, which happened in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab Province, were the latest violent outbreak of religious intolerance in Pakistan, where members of minorities are frequently accused of blasphemy.

The two victims, Shahzad Masih and Shama Masih, who had four children and were believed to be in their mid-20s, both worked as laborers at a local brick kiln. The accusations against them began after burned pages of the Quran were said to have been found in their trash.

Now it just so happens:

On Tuesday, as word spread, the couple were locked up in a room adjacent to the brick kiln by their employer, Yousaf Gujjar, who also had a running dispute with the couple over money. Some accounts in local news media suggested that Mr. Gujjar accused them of blasphemy after they refused to repay money he had lent them.

Meanwhile, local clerics made incendiary announcements and urged people to gather. Hundreds of people converged on the couple’s home, and witnesses said some in the crowd broke down the door and dragged the couple out. The police said they were tortured and then burned in the kiln.

Words fail me on the barbarity carried out in the name of this so-called religion.

Meanwhile back in the UK, The Times tells us that Prince Charles has called on Muslim leaders and their religious colleagues to "break their silence" about the suffering of minorities in the Middle east.

What does the Muslim Council of Britain have to say about this? The Times reports their statement:

"We must not conflate what some Muslims do with what Islam teaches. They are poles apart."

Really?

Tolerance isn't exactly a virtue in most Muslim countries from the evidence I have seen. It's not just ISIS carrying out slavery and genocide in the name of Islam. In Egypt the Coptic Christians have been treated as second class citizens with their daughters being kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam and married off.

Shades of Boko Harem?

And of course these "god-fearing" types think nothing of kidnapping girls to take as their "wives" after they have been forcibly converted to Islam.

You can't even practise Christianity in Saudi Arabia, or own a bible without putting yourself at great risk.

Then there's apostasy, the penalty for which in Islam is err... death.

Any one who, after accepting faith in Allah, utters Unbelief, except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in Faith - but such as open their breast to Unbelief, on them is Wrath from Allah, and theirs will be a dreadful Penalty. (16:106)

They really wish that you should also become disbelievers, as they themselves are so that both may become alike. So you should not take friends from among them unless they migrate in the way of Allah; and if they do not migrate, then seize them wherever you find them and slay them and do not take any of them as friends and helpers. (4:18)

This despite the Koran stating there "shall be no compulsion in religion" (2:256).

Then there's this:

Koran (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"

Perhaps the MCB would like to explain this? Seems to be the basis of what the extremists they say does not represent Islam but is found in the religious texts themselves!

It seems to me the real blasphemy against humanity itself is the religion of violence that the Koran itself promotes.

Now to be fair the Bible contains some pretty hoary passages, Islam is not alone in it's intolerance, but for the most part Christianity has come a long way from the dark days of the Inquisition.

If the MCB wants to persuade us non-believers that what they say is true then it is indeed time for them to put their "money where their mouths are" so to speak and move the religion of "peace forward at least 1400 years.

Or become atheists.

After all there is no god.