Saeed Malekpour, programmer and political prisoner in Iran
github.com
github.com
Essentially he's accused of distributing porn, which is a big no-no in a strict theocracy like Iran. his supporters argue that he built a photo-sharing tool which was used by others to swap porn.
Actually the article from NPR, a station often described as liberal, doesn't seem all that incredulous over it happening when the shoe's on the other foot. Headline: "N.Y. Man Charged with Aiding Hezbollah TV Channel". First sentence: "This past week, the Department of Justice charged a New York City man for aiding a terrorist organization.". Geez, to the average American it starts making it sound like he did something wrong and kind of deserves to be in jail. I guess Iranians feel the same way with their guy.
The charges against him are insane, just like the religion itself.
I base my judgement on what the Muslims say about themselves:
http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/vubyx/only_a_tiny_m...
I base my judgement on what the Christians say about themselves: http://www.godhatesfags.com/
And yeah, Christians do crazy stuff in the name of their religion too all the time. I don't see how that whitewashes Islamic crimes.
> 30% to 90%+
This figure has no basis in reality. Even if you cobbled together this opinion from multiple 'surveys' a range that large is meaningless.
Why not just say that 0% to 100% of Muslims feel this way, and call it a day? That way it would be impossible to be wrong!
I'm no Muslim (just to clarify absence of personal bias), but your statement represents the ideology of a small sample, claiming to represent the ideologies of a collective, larger, possibly different sample (the entire Muslim population), with which it may not even be compatible with. And therein lies the flaw.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119694/how-blonde-tattooe...
>>Non-Muslims sometimes don’t realize how much hatred and negativity gets thrown at Muslims and how utterly soul crushing it can be to have to defend yourself and your beliefs on a daily basis.
That systems of law based on thoughtcrime tend to get violent should not be a surprise to anyone.
The point is, just because there are a few who use their religion, affiliations, or power to drive forward an agenda, does not mean the entire mass thinks or feels the same way.
Systems of law based on thoughtcrime get ugly, since there's no way to prove thoughtcrime except torture, fear, and arbitrary violence. See: the Inquisition, any communist state in the 20th century, anywhere in the world that Sharia law is enforced.
"The scholars are unanimously agreed that a Muslim who insults the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) becomes a kaafir and an apostate who is to be executed. This consensus was narrated by more than one of the scholars, such as Imaam Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Qaadi ‘Iyaad, al-Khattaabi and others. Al-Saarim al-Maslool, 2/13-16"
You just got brainwashed by the Islam's PR department. Every time they do something violent in the name of their religion, they come out in droves and sing their "it's just a tiny minority of extremists" song.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia#Freedom_of_thought.2C_co...
Read his story. He got kidnapped, tortured, and charged with a laundry list of offenses against the religion.
I have never encountered a religion that didn't require a lack of focused logic and a certain suspension of disbelief in order to be a follower.
Half of (some random religious group) followers say something like "Well, it's all symbolism, the stories are not meant to be taken factually but rather metaphorically", and the other half say "Well, it's a historical document and entirely true.".
I'm may be a bigot and jaded with bias, but if I learn that you put a lot of faith into a deity based hocus-pocus religion i'll likely end up putting less faith in your personal reasoning skills as a human.
I've met plenty of at least nominally religious people whom I've been happy to associate with, and whom are the some of the smartest people I've met. I've also met plenty of the Dawkins-type anti-theists whose company I've evacuated post haste.
> I blame Islam.
That is not just 'pointing out religious violence' it's assigning blame.
Edit: It's also debatable that it's actually 'religious violence.' Iran is an oppressive regime that uses religion to legitimize itself. It's no more the 'fault of Islam' than religious justifications for slavery (in pre-Civil War US) are the 'fault of Christianity.'
Please. Just as smaller cults that are considered to be dangerous. The freedom of religions that have something to say about who lives and who dies should be "reconsidered".
You can say that Christians have some extremists too, and that's true. These rules need to apply to them too. However, you don't see the Pope calling for the extermination of the infidels, do you?
Of course the context is entirely different, yet many aspects are similar. To me it appears it is power with no accountability which lead to these abuses. You can find this everywhere, no need to attribute it to one specific religion.
Education and religion were tightly intertwined for centuries and still are in the regions with most the perceived "problems" now. Often the only education you can receive in these countries and regions is at a madras and perspectives outside of the dogma in the curriculum don't exist and are suppressed.
Say what you want about the US and Western education system's failings, but it sure gets this part of the test 100% right. Of course, discounting strange behavior in Texas regarding creationism and disputing evolution. And a few other rural places pushing their locally artisan agendas of ignorance.
The fact of the matter is, humans by and large have been pretty shitty throughout history. Some places in this world are on a different timeline. Some happen to be Muslim countries, others happen to be Christian, and some have no majority religion at all.
Stoning people for adultery, beheading people over drug possession, and a lack of women's rights are all things you could criticize muslim countries for wrt Shariah law. Torturing people over political dissent isn't.
You may disagree, but that is no reason to down vote.