Daily Ramblings:
I Can't Even Touch The Books You've Read
...05/17/2005 04:15:14 pm
Following up on the question of why so few in the
media seem interested in and/or horrified by the
notion that people should be killed in the event a
book gets flushed down a toilet, Paul Marshall in NRO Online has a neat round-up of
the prevailing penalties for Koran desecration in
various parts of the world. However, his remarks are
more aimed at questioning why no one at Newsweek
realized with what kind of dynamite they were
playing:
There seems to
have been nobody there that knew that death is
the penalty for desecrating a Koran in Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Egypt
is milder, there one would be sentenced to
several years in prison under Article 161 of the
penal code for “publicly insulting Islam,”
or perhaps Article 98, “inciting sectarian
strife”; similar patterns are followed in
more moderate Muslim countries.
In Pakistan,
Article 295-B of the penal code calls for life
imprisonment for desecrating the Koran or any
extract from it. Last September, mentally
handicapped Shahbaz Masih was sentenced to 25
years imprisonment, convicted of tearing up some
leaflets that contained verses from the Koran. In
2003, the same judge sentenced Ranjha Masih (no
relation) to life in prison for allegedly
throwing a stone at a Muslim signboard with a
Koranic verse on it during a bishop's funeral
procession. Dozens of other Pakistanis have met
similar fates.
In all of these
countries, the greatest danger is not from the
courts, but from vigilantes and mobs. In Pakistan
in 1997, Shantinagar, a Christian town of some
10,000 people, was burned to the ground after a
man there was accused of tearing pages from a
Koran. In the Netherlands last fall, the
documentary producer Theo Van Gogh was butchered
after he produced a documentary Submission
featuring Koranic verses on women’s bodies.
And just for a wee bit of perspective, as this
helpful tourist guide warns: if you should
bring a Bible with you when visiting Saudi Arabia,
the customs officials will confiscate it and put it
through a shredder.
I have as yet failed to ascertain the number of
Saudi customs officials who have been injured or
killed by enraged Christians.
You are viewing an individual
item from RightWingBob.com - click here to view the
main page.
Original text copyright ©
2005 by RightWingBob.com
Quotes from the works of others are linked to their
source or are as otherwise attributed, and are used
in accordance with Fair Use guidelines. Contact:
rightwingbob(at)gmail.com