Once again Islam is breaching very basic human rights by imposing itself by force upon people … it is in Pakistan, a country where the very concept of any human rights simply fails to exist. Remember, these are the same folks who feel that murder is fine as long as the murderer can chant the right belief and claim that the victim was guilty of being un-Islamic.
Here is today’s news (found here) …
The owners of 39 hotels, canteens and eateries in Pakistan’s Punjab province were arrested and sent to jail for violating an ordinance that bars eating and serving food in public during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, officials said on Sunday.
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The raiding officers drew up ‘chalans’ or chargesheets against the 39 people and sent them to jail for 72 hours. Last week, authorities in Faisalabad arrested 25 people for eating and drinking in public.
The Pakistan government has prohibited eating, drinking and smoking in public places during the fasting hours of Ramadan to ‘ensure the sanctity of the month’.
Now don’t misunderstand me here, if folks wish to adhere to an Islamic belief … fine, that is their individual call. However, where this all breaks down is when you turn bat-shit crazy religious belief into law.
It is about this point that some chime in with, “Its their culture, you must respect their culture” argument. Bollocks to that crazy claim, you know full well that while indeed the majority of folks in Pakistan are indeed Muslims, not everybody is. Even if they all were, by any normal decent standard of morality, there is no justification for the imposition of crazy beliefs upon people by law … period. Its called “Freedom of thought”.
As for my criticism of this utter insanity, no it is not Islamaphobia, it is valid criticism and is also a basic human right called “Freedom of speech”. It should come as no surprise to learn that comments such as this would also result in a death sentence being imposed in Pakistan. Anybody being silent about such abuses is implicitly accepting it all – I refuse to be silent.
OK, lets be 100% clear here …
- There are many good decent honorable and moral people in Pakistan – I suspect that is the majority
- There are also many bat-shit insanely crazy extreme Islamic fundamentalists who do not respect human rights, they not only impose their specific form of extreme beliefs upon everybody else, but are quite happy to use whatever means that can including violence. Sadly, many of these folks hold positions of authority.
- It is perfectly OK for folks to believe whatever they wish … fairies, unicorns, mohammad, jesus, etc…
- However, any attempt to impose a belief by force is not only an utterly obnoxious offensive behavior, it is also immoral by any normal standard.
Amen brother.
Great post Dave!