Seven simple questions for Obama, Kerry and Cameron:
- Are "honor killings" Islamic?
- Is the stoning to death of women accused of adultery Islamic?
- Is the hanging of homosexuals Islamic?
- Is the murder of Christians Islamic?
- Is the call to kill all Jews, found in Hamas's charter, Islamic?
- Is the oppression of Kurds and Baha'is Islamic?
- Is the execution of persons who convert to other religions Islamic?
If only one of these gentlemen would deign to answer.
In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "From Pen and Phone to Bombs and Drones," Maureen Dowd questions the morality of the "motley crew" of Arab nations dragged into Obama's war against the Islamic State. Dowd writes:
"THE president was at the United Nations on Wednesday urging young people across the Muslim world to reject benighted values, even as America clambers into bed with a bunch of Middle East potentates who espouse benighted values.
. . . .
As the U.S. woos the Arab coalition, Arab leaders are not speaking out against the atrocities of ISIS against women."
"Arab leaders are not speaking out against the atrocities of ISIS against women"? Why should we be surprised? While visiting Saudi Arabia in March 2010, Dowd reported in a Times opinion piece entitled "Loosey Goosey Saudi":
"The word progressive, of course, is highly relative when it comes to Saudi Arabia. (Wahhabism, anyone?) But after spending 10 days here, I can confirm that, at their own galactically glacial pace, they are chipping away at gender apartheid and cultural repression."
There was no mention by Dowd that in 2009 a Saudi woman was gang-raped and consequently sentenced to one year in prison plus 100 lashes. As reported at the time by the Saudi Gazette :
"A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus.
The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long.
The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks’ pregnant then, the hospital confirmed."
There was also no mention by Dowd of twin honor killings that occurred not long before her visit:
"A Saudi women's group on Friday blamed the country's religious police in the 'honour' killing of two sisters shot dead by their own brother after they were arrested for mixing with unrelated men.
The Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said the religious police had placed the sisters' lives in danger when they arrested them and then placed them in a Riyadh women's shelter.
The two women, identified as Reem, 21, and Nouf, 19, were murdered after they left the shelter on July 5.
The brother shot them in the presence of their father who, according to newspaper reports, quickly forgave the son for defending the family's honour."
But why single out Saudi Arabia? What about Pakistan? As we were informed in a June 29, 2014 CNN article entitled "Pakistani newlyweds decapitated by bride's family in honor killing" by Shelby Lin Erdman:
"A young newlywed couple in northeastern Pakistan died a horrible death at the hands of the bride's family in the latest honor killing in the nation, police in Pakistan said Saturday.
The couple, identified as Sajjad Ahmed, 26, and Muawia Bibi, 18, were married by a Pakistani court on June 18 against the wishes of the Bibi family, Punjab police official Mohammad Ahsanullah told CNN.
On Thursday, the bride's father and uncles lured the couple back to the village of Satrah in Punjab province, where Ahsanullah said the pair were tied up and then decapitated.
. . . .
According to the United Nations, some 5,000 women are murdered by family members in honor killings every year."
Afghanistan? As reported in a July 19, 2014 New York Times article entitled "Struggling to Keep Afghan Girl Safe After a Mullah Is Accused of Rape" by Rod Nordland:
"KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque, and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex.
But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an 'honor killing' in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead.
This past week, the awful matter became even worse. On Tuesday, local policemen removed the girl from the shelter that had given her refuge and returned her to her family, despite complaints from women’s activists that she was likely to be killed."
Turkey? We were told by the BBC in a 2010 article entitled "Turkish girl 'buried alive' in family garden" by Jonathan Head:
"A Turkish teenager found dead in a hole next to her house was probably buried alive, a post-mortem examination has revealed.
Medine Memi, 16, was found in the hole in December. Large amounts of soil were in her lungs and stomach, according to a source who has seen the report.
Her father and grandfather have been arrested, but not charged.
So-called 'honour killings' take place every year in Turkey despite government moves to stamp out the practice."
Gaza and the West Bank? In a Washington Post article entitled "Honor killings rise in Palestinian territories, sparking backlash" by Anne-Marie O'Connor, we learn:
"AQQABA, West Bank — The news spread at dawn, and people in the village made their way to the olive tree where the bruised body of a young mother of six was hanging, her veil torn off. She had been killed in the name of honor.
. . . .
Here in this northern West Bank mountain town of breathtaking views, the relatives of Rasha Abu Arra, 32, who was killed in November after rumors spread that she had committed adultery, are adding their voices to an outcry against honor killings in the Palestinian territories.
. . . .
In recent years, other suspected victims have included a young Gazan mother of five who was bludgeoned to death by her father because he suspected she was using her cellphone to talk to a man. In September, a mentally disabled 21-year-old in the West Bank city of Hebron was allegedly killed by her mother after she was sexually assaulted. Another West Bank woman, who had divorced an abusive husband, allegedly was strangled by her father after being accused of 'disgraceful' acts in a petition that news reports said was signed by a legislator from the Islamist militant movement Hamas, which rules Gaza."
And let us not forget the stoning to death of women throughout the Muslim Middle East. As stated by The Independent in a 2013 article entitled "Special report: The punishment was death by stoning. The crime? Having a mobile phone" by Emma Batha:
"Two months ago, a young mother of two was stoned to death by her relatives on the order of a tribal court in Pakistan. Her crime: possession of a mobile phone.
Arifa Bibi's uncle, cousins and others hurled stones and bricks at her until she died, according to media reports. She was buried in a desert far from her village. It's unlikely anyone was arrested. Her case is not unique. Stoning is legal or practised in at least 15 countries or regions. And campaigners fear this barbaric form of execution may be on the rise, particularly in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq."
Particularly Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq? Why no mention of Iran? Ashley Fantz wrote in a June 2013 CNN article entitled "Iran aims to keep stoning as punishment for adultery, rights group says":
"Stoning remains the way Iranians -- overwhelmingly women -- are punished for committing adultery, Human Rights Watch said Monday. The international group blasted a judicial council in Iraq, made up of 12 religious jurists, for inserting a stoning provision into a draft law where it had been previously removed.
Last November, security agents with the country's judiciary moved the bodies of four women who had been stoned to the Tehran medical examiner's office, according to reports on the Melli-Mazhabi site, which opposed Iran's government, the U.S. State Department says."
You will recall that US Secretary of State John Kerry also sought to bring Iran into Obama's coaltion of the unwilling. This is the same Iran that has sent arms and Revolutionary Guard fighters to support Assad. This is the same Iran (together with Syria and Hezbollah) that was responsible for the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured another 250. This is the same Iran that hangs homosexuals, imprisons journalists and political opponents of the regime, and persecutes Kurds, Baha'is, Sunnis and Christians.
And lest we forget Egypt, 81 percent of the population believes that adulterers should be stoned to death.
Finally, what about Tunisia, the poster child of all that remains of the Arab Spring? Four months ago in a suburb of Tunis, a father burned to death his 13-year-old daughter for walking home with a boy from her school.
Obama would have us know that "No religion condones the killing of innocents." In a word: Bullshit!
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