Our religious nuts versus their religious nuts.

I am not an openly religious person, I believe religion is a deeply quiet journey that is the foundation of a moral and ethical system of thought. Nevertheless, I take it as a personal affront when I see "morons" paint people who dare step into a church, regardless of denomination, as some sort of right-wing religious zealot, bent on bombing abortion clinics and garbing everyone in early Quaker fashion. All the while daring to compare these same people to the evil that is Islamic extremism.

For me the statement concerning religious zealotry, "They are all nuts," doesn't fit anymore. One is crazy, while the other is dangerous.

From the OC Reigster,

Police: Ohio man held woman captive, read Bible

OC Reigster-A man held a woman captive in handcuffs and an adult diaper for three days while he read Bible passages to her, police said.

Troy Brisport, 34, was charged with kidnapping and felonious assault. Bail was set Tuesday at $400,000.

He picked up the woman Wednesday night in Detroit after she told him she had nowhere to stay, and brought her to his home in Toledo, about 55 miles away, police said.

The woman told police that after she fell asleep Brisport handcuffed her wrists and ankles, gagged her, undressed her and put her in an adult diaper, then read Bible passages, said police Capt. Ray Carroll. read more...

Glad she is alright, hope he goes to jail for a long time, and gets the full frontal lobotomy he deserves. I know 3 days of Bible versus, while handcuffed, is enough to be considered inhumane.

From the Middle East Quarterly,

Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?

MEQ-On February 12, 2009, Muzzammil Hassan informed police that he had beheaded his wife. Hassan had emigrated to the United States 30 years ago and, after a successful banking career, had founded Bridges TV, a Muslim-interest network which aims, according to its website, "to foster a greater understanding among many cultures and diverse populations." Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III told The Buffalo News that "this is the worst form of domestic violence possible," and Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, told the New York Post that Islam forbids such domestic violence. While Muslim advocacy organizations argue that honor killings are a misnomer stigmatizing Muslims for what is simply domestic violence, a problem that has nothing to do with religion, Phyllis Chesler, who just completed a study of more than 50 instances of North American honor killings, says the evidence suggest otherwise. read more...

I am really not sure how to frame this anymore succinctly. If this comparison is lost on people who obviously don't have the cognitive ability to discern where the malevolence draped in the veil of religion is, I cannot help them. Inevitably, they will be a victim of their own folly.

Here is a prime example of that myopia. All in the name of feeling intellectually superior, while treading in waters with predators who don't give a damn about the intellect of their prey.

From UPI,

Report: War on terror eroded liberties

UPI-An international human rights legal group says harsh anti-terrorism measures have undermined the "cherished values" of Britain and other nations.

The International Commission of Jurists, a 60-nation group of lawyers based in Geneva, Switzerland, says its 3-year study of the war on terror waged by the United States, Britain and other Western countries has caused a "shocking" amount of damage to their civil liberties, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Tuesday.

"Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty responses to terrorism that have undermined cherished values and violated human rights," said Arthur Chaskalson, a former chief justice of South Africa.

The report criticized the administration pf former U.S. President George W. Bush for allegedly equating acts of terror with acts of war -- a "legally and conceptually flawed" stance -- which the jurists said resulted in "immense damage" to the standing of international law, the Post reported. read more...

Before any left leaning pundit or anti-war aficionado jumps on the "blood for oil campaign," or "Bush was a war-monger" diatribe, this is about reality. Not skewed partisan politics which people use to shape their outlooks. Judge when you have been there, tell me when you know, until then admit your opinions are just that, opinions.

Finally, this is not saying that Christianity is better than Islam, it is observing that Islam suffers from a cultural disease that is becoming almost pandemic, and it is a sickness that has been around a lot longer than us. Christianity has its problems, but characterizing or leveling it with extreme Islam is insidious and imbecilic. The only accomplishment garnered is an empowerment of extremist Jihadist movements and a weakening of Western culture. All for what? Because "Right Wing Evangelicals" have been a formidable voting bloc since Nixon? Yeah, that makes it right.