How many of you have heard about this story??? I don't know how to say anything about it without running the risk of being labeled intolerant. Have any of you read Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy? Or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale?
I don't like fundamentalism in any flavor.
htw
4 comments:
Fuck Religion. There, I said it.
He killed his own daughter over a piece of cloth. I know, it was A REALLY SPECIAL PIECE OF CLOTH. Whatever. Religion makes people crazy. But, it's a very useful tool for controlling the masses--or at least keeping them all too angry at one another to ever wake up and see what's being done to them.
But, I digress. I guess that guy's a hero, because it probably says somewhere in the Koran that the proper punishment for little girls who don't wear their SPECIAL PIECE OF CLOTH is violent murder at the hands of their fathers. And, after all, the Koran (like the Bible, and the Torah, and all the others) is the UNERRING WORD OF GOD, isn't it? You have to do EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS or else you end up BURNING IN HELL FOREVER.
Fuck Religion.
Not all religions are bad, just as not all religious people are crazy. There are many devout people who do good works every day (of every religion). This is a case of a religious zealot faced with an "unruly" daughter in a country other than his own. It is a horribly shocking event - unbelieveable to anyone raised in a western culture. And to me, it is so very sad, because clearly, as Kenny puts it in his own way, the adherence to their religious belief is more important than the life of this man's daughter. Crazy! But it points to how difficult it is for us to understand these types of people. And I wonder how the "folks back home" have reacted?
Reminds me of how Americans could not fathom the thinking of the Japanese kamikaze pilots in WWII. We all need more exposure to these cultures before we can judge them based on western standards. (and no, I'm not condoning murder. Murder is murder, no matter what language you speak and what religion you practive. Unacceptable in any civilized culture.)
fundamentalism - yes, bad.
Handmaid's Tale - yes, good.
I have visited Catholic services and the services of various flavors of Protestantism as well and there are things I like about all of them which seem to continually be outweighed by things I don't like about all of them.
Having been born here in Alabama, my primary exposure to religion was of the Baptist variety but I find that many Baptist preachers scream way too much for my tastes. I am a survivor of my parents' very bitter divorce and a raised voice and prominent facial veins will NEVER be the way to my heart. My grandparents were Seven Day Adventist but I never grew to like them much either. Methodists were okay, but a little too reminiscent of Baptism for me. I still have a couple of other flavors to try if I'm ever of a mind.
I don't hate any of them. I don't hate the religion in the news story. I dislike, and am semi-terrified of, of the sort of followings some religions seem to gather near them.
As I said before, I don't like fundamentlism of any flavor.
htw
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