Islam+Government=Cruelty

How much can we respect religion? I don't mean religious people, they're people and they deserve respect. But does a belief deserve respect? And what does it mean to respect a belief?

In Pakistan, a nuclear threat to the world frequently referred to as the most dangerous nation on Earth, is a violent Islamic theocracy. Like any nation controlled by dogma, the people, the actual living human beings, come second to the superstition. In America, we are free because our government doesn't (ideally) favor any religion. Of course, more than often it does favor a particular brand of Christianity, but at least the U.S. government has enough checks and balances to keep religion from directly running everything with a iron fist. It's not just that Islam is cruel or Christianity is cruel, they both are viciously cruel, but in America, the people come first. In Pakistan and Iran and Saudi Arabia and other nations where religion rules, superstition comes first. Nonsense comes first. And when something other than the people come first, any cost is justifiable.

Add that misplaced priority to this: If you believe in one religion, you reject all others. So if a Christian lives in a society where Islam rules, that Christian is an insult to the god (what's it's ridiculous name? Oh, right, allahlalalalalalalala). 

So we've got a dangerous nation who puts a silly ancient story above caring for people, plus an individual which threatens the society by having a different religion; it equals this:

Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother-of-five, denies blasphemy and told investigators that she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination.

Christian groups and human rights campaigners condemned the verdict and called for the blasphemy laws to be repealed.

Her supporters say she will now appeal against the sentence handed down in a local court in the town of Sheikhupura, near Lahore, Pakistan.

Ashiq Masih, her husband, said he had not had the heart to break the news to two of their children.

"I haven't told two of my younger daughters about the court's decision," he said. "They asked me many times about their mother but I can't get the courage to tell them that the judge has sentenced their mother to capital punishment for a crime she never committed." Mrs Bibi has been held in prison since June last year.

The court heard she had been working as a farmhand in fields with other women, when she was asked to fetch drinking water.

Some of the other women – all Muslims – refused to drink the water as it had been brought by a Christian and was therefore "unclean", according to Mrs Bibi's evidence, sparking a row.

Not to mention, it's not just Christians that societies oppressed by Islam hate. They'd kill me too for blogging about atheism.

In the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, 26 year-old Walid Husayin was arrested for not believing in God. While the West Bank is predominantly Muslim, the Palestinian Authority which governs the region is known as being one of the most liberal in the Arab world and supports a more secular government and yet now Husayin faces life in prison and possibly the death penalty for being an atheist.

Walid Husayin is a blogger and has created a facebook account under a false name in which he wrote some critical things about Islam and Allah. He even created several facebook groups mocking the dominant religion in his town. In one group, he jokingly claimed to be God and instructed followers to smoke marijuana.

 Keep this in mind the next time someone tries to suggest that government should be influenced by religion.