Afghanistan: a nation where converts to Buddhism and Christianity face death
Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and a host of other nations, keep on sending economic support to Afghanistan and how do the leaders of this nation respond? Yes, they still support an ongoing Islamic inquisition whereby every Muslim convert to Buddhism, Hindusim or Christianity faces the death penalty.
In truth, the policies of Karzai and the Taliban are not so different because both sides support killing apostates from Islam, the prevention of non-Muslim places of worship, continuing discrimination against women and rigid stratification of Afghanistan. Therefore, any positive images of Kabul being shown in the media, is just “a hidden disguise of reality” and corruption is endemic alongside the heroin trade.
Afghan converts to Christianity and other faiths also face persecution outside of Afghanistan and if de-Islamization of culture isn’t installed into the younger generation via the education system, then what is the point?
Therefore, the mosque and Islamic Sharia law needs to be kept out of all major institutions and reformist Muslim organizations should be supported. After all, how can commerce, pluralism, religious freedom, female emancipation, the rights of homosexuals, and so forth, happen under the prevailing conditions of modern day Afghanistan?
Secularism, credit unions to help business initiatives, a growing liberal media network, a judiciary which is free from religious dogma and an educational system based on liberal values is needed. Of course, other important areas need changing and this applies to restrictions on dress and challenging the power base of traditional rulers who care little about modernity.
This Sunni Islamic version of Islam in Afghanistan is mainly ultra-conservative and based on preserving inequality and the subjugation of non-Muslims, women, and maintaining stratification. The Islamic enlightenment in this country is a million miles away. Therefore, the current Western policy appears to be based on the status quo and allowing another generation of girls to be chained by an oppressive society.
If the option is the Taliban who recently stoned a woman to death for so-called immorality, yes, Mohammed married a child of 6 years of age and consummated the marriage with Aisha when she was 9 years old, and by this time Mohammed was over 50 (Obviously morality is conditional on individuals and not their own prophet); or the Karzai government which is corrupt and supports killing apostates via the state; then what option is this?
Trillions of dollars have been spent on Afghanistan and the return on all this money is you have schools which teach basic education to girls. However, this educational system is uneven and in more conservative areas it is still disliked.
Therefore, what are NATO forces and American troops dying for? Why are the sons and daughters of democrats being thrown to “the jaws of radical Sunni Islam” and the complete corruption and hypocrisy of the Karzai regime?
Once Buddhism and Hinduism nurtured the land of Afghanistan but the Islamic inquisition after countless invasions changed everything and one day all Buddhists would disappear because of many factors. These factors apply to dhimmitude, massacres, pogroms, and once the power shift became dominated by Islamic forces then Buddhism was doomed to just being a shell.
However, the Taliban didn’t even like a shell, therefore, the forces of conservative Sunni Islam turned against all Buddhist images. At the same time, the forces of radical Sunni Islam then turned against the Shia and slaughtered them in the thousands but of course Osama Bin Laden believed that this policy was both Islamic and a jihad.
This madness, and it is madness, which desires to kill apostates to Buddhism, apostates to Christianity, kill homosexuals, stone women to death for adultery, and so forth; isn’t being challenged by “the light of democracy;” on the contrary it is being challenged by appeasement and the corruption of the Karzai regime which also supports killing all apostates and not allowing any other religion in Afghanistan.
If Western political leaders just desire the status quo then surely they should stop wasting the lives of military people who are dying for nothing. Also, tax-payers money shouldn’t be thrown at a county which is undemocratic and corrupt.
America likes to rebuke North Korea but women at least have a million times more freedom in this nation than Afghan women. The same also applies to Saudi Arabia where women can’t drive cars and shop freely with men and so forth.
Indeed, you have more Christian churches in North Korea than in both Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. What does this tell us about Western policy and the nature of conservative Sunni Islam? Also, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia are deemed to be allies but from the point of view of democracy, religious freedom, equality of the sexes, and so forth, it certainly doesn’t look like it.
It is time to stop coddling up to despotism and for greater accountability.
http://www.aina.org/news/20111116185325.htm (Recent article about apostates in Afghanistan)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060380/Afghan-mother-daughter-stoned-shot-dead-Taliban-accused-moral-deviation-adultery.html (Woman and daughter stoned to death)
Muslim fanatics murder innocents in Afghanistan
Muslim fanatics murder innocents in Afghanistan
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Afghanistan is beset with so many problems and this applies to a major Islamic insurgency which desires to rule by fear and keep women in chains. The Taliban supports killing apostates, denying equality of education for women, killing homosexuals, persecuting Shia Muslims, stoning people to death for adultery, and other draconian ways and they base all of this on Islamic Sharia law.
The recent Muslim rampage against innocents in Afghanistan was distanced by the Taliban and this may be factual because this massacre did not have their hallmark. This in itself compounds the problem and shows that hatred is embedded within elements of the “Sunni Muslim mindset” in Afghanistan.
The United Nations have helped to develop the infrastructure of Afghanistan and alongside other humanitarian agencies and national governments, trillions of dollars have been spent in order to create a better health care system, foster an education system which includes females, water sanitation projects, and countless other positive measures.
At no time does the United Nations or other agencies discriminate on the grounds of religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and so forth. Instead, nations and international agencies are trying to help Afghanistan but alas it appears to be a dead end because they are deemed to be infidels or collective infidels.
Therefore, when an unimportant individual decides to burn a Koran in America it is an excuse for “the followers of hate” to do what they are good at; therefore, they killed innocents and like usual several people were beheaded and the fear and hatred of this event can only be imagined.
The American Christian pastor who burnt the Koran is also a coward and a person of ignorance because converts to Christianity face the death penalty in Afghanistan and for Christians on the frontline in Pakistan then this will create more flames and hatred.
He fully understood the outcome of what he did but he felt brave from “thousands of miles away.” Therefore, Reverend Wayne Sapp who burnt the Koran alongside Reverend Terry Jones who started the ball rolling last year despite not burning the Koran himself; are no friends of Christians on the frontline.
Apparently they believe that the words of the Christian New Testament are not good enough therefore they turn to the lowest common denominator and this applies to burning a religious book.
Despite their actions it is clear that the “hatred in their hearts” is a million times below that of the Sunni Muslim fanatics who beheaded and killed in the name of Allah.
Reverend Wayne Sapp and Reverend Terry Jones belong to a small and unimportant Christian church but burning a book can’t be compared with killing people and beheading innocents.
They started the excuse but it is factual that the Sunni Muslim extremists were waiting for the spark in order to demonstrate their power and to strike fear into the hearts of moderate Muslims and secularists in Afghanistan.
It is strange that the same Sunni Muslim religious leaders who desire to rule by fear do virtually nothing to stop the rampant heroin trade in Afghanistan and of course when did they support religious equality, freedom for women, and so forth?
After all, all vestiges of Buddhism were destroyed by the Taliban and like the beheadings and brutal murders which just took place; both events witnessed the usual shouts of joy of “Allah Akbar” during the destruction of a culture and the murder of innocents.
Indeed, it is not just Sunni Islamic radicals in Afghanistan which desire to rule by fear because the government of Afghanistan supports killing apostates from Islam and this is the problem.
You have Sunni Islamic extremists who want to indoctrinate and keep women downtrodden and at the same time you have institutional discrimination and hatred within the laws of Afghanistan which support killing apostates.
Progressive Muslims, women, secularists, and non-Muslims in Afghanistan, face enormous obstacles and this applies to Sunni Islamic religious zealots, the government of Afghanistan which supports draconian laws and at the same time you have major cronyism and heroin is an ongoing nightmare.
Farhad Peikar who is based in Kabul wrote an article called UN officials beheaded in rampage over Koran building and he comments that “Eight United Nation workers have been killed, and as many as 13 other people are feared dead after a violent rampage in northern Afghanistan by demonstrators protesting over the burning of a Koran at a church in Florida in the US.”
Farhad Peikar continues by stating that “The victims of the worst-ever attack on UN personnel in Afghanistan– two of whom were beheaded — included four guards from Nepal, and civilian staff from Norway, Sweden and Romania. It was also confirmed that five residents were killed.”
In the article it highlights that Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, described the burning of the Koran as a “crime against religion.” This comment by Hamid Karzai is galling because Muslims who convert to Christianity face the death penalty in Afghanistan and they are put in prison and intimidated and persecuted.
The crime against religion was done by the killers and President Obama stated “The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry,” he said. “However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.”
“No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act.”
I agree with most of what President Obama stated but it is factual that converts from Islam in nations like Saudi Arabia face the death penalty and this is based on Islamic Sharia law – therefore, religious freedom and killing is often sanctioned by some mainly Muslim nations and this reality needs to be tackled and recognized to be a clear violation of all notions of human rights.
http://www.moderntokyotimes.com (please visit)
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