Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:39pm EST
By Andrew Hammond
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has pardoned the victim of a gang-rape whose sentencing to 200 lashes caused an international outcry, officials said on Monday.
Pardoning a rape victim?
Is there not something inherently wrong in the world view that gave rise to this situation?
A tremendous moral distortion is inherent in Islam.
We saw it also in the recent plight of the British woman in Sudan. Angry mobs had been demanding that she be put to death for having allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear “Mohammed” (h/t TexasFred).
The answer? Confront, challenge, and refute Islam at every turn.
Shari’a law - inherent in the Koran and in Islamic tradition - demands that those who renounce Islam are to be killed. The same penalty applies to those who preach Christianity to Muslims.
Given that reality, I must point out that we can scarcely expect people to abandon Islam unless we offer them a better alternative. Nonetheless, evil must be renounced. Early Christians faced the same penalty in the days of the Roman Empire, and we face it again today in many parts of the world. We must be prepared to explain, both to ourselves and to Muslims, why embracing Christianity is worth the risk.
(H/T: CZ the day)
For comparison:
King James Version: John 8:1-11
1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4 they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: Lev. 20.10 · Deut. 22.22-24 but what sayest thou?
6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Further explanation…
Bishop St. Nikolai Velimirovich shows how Church tradition sheds some more light upon the meaning of this story.
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Remember the Nancy Pelosi hijab flap?
Pelosi had no business going to Syria, undermining Bush Administration foreign policy, and giving an undeserved PR boost to Bashar Assad in the first place. She had to compound that error by wearing the symbol of a religion that she (supposedly) does not believe in, and by embracing a symbol for the oppression of women. But then, tasteless behavior and bad judgment is exactly what one would expect from a liberal Democrat, especially one from California. (See Syrian Reformists: The Damage from Pelosi’s Visit Will Be Felt for Years.)
Covering the cranium to cuddle up to CAIR
Bush officials don the hijab for the rededication ceremony of The Islamic Center in Washington June 27, 2007. They took some heat in the blogosphere for that. Here again, they had no business attending such a gathering at all.
Did Laura Bush get the take-home lesson?
Photo op: Touring the Middle East for breast cancer awareness
Laura Bush plans six-day tour of the Middle East; spokeswoman says she won’t wear abaya
Laura Bush departs Saturday on a six-day tour of the Middle East, with stops planned in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. The White House says the first lady plans to meet with government officials and leaders of medical and women’s groups during her overseas trip.
Given that the first lady wore a headscarf when she visited a Jewish holy site in Jerusalem and a mantilla when she met with Pope Benedict XVI, we asked if Bush will be wearing some sort of abaya while she’s in Saudi Arabia. “No,” Sally McDonough, the first lady’s spokeswoman, tells USA TODAY’s David Jackson, adding: “they do not expect nor encourage it” of Western visitors.
There’s nothing wrong with working for improved detection and cure of breast cancer, or any other type of cancer. I’m all for that, and you may recall that I have blogged about cancer both here and on the 1389 Message Blog. But some have questioned Laura Bush’s priorities in taking that quest to the Muslim world, where there are more severe and immediate threats to females’ health and survival. To put it bluntly, too many girls will not live long enough to be at much risk for a disease that mainly afflicts mature women.
But that’s not all: Laura Bush went back on her word about not wearing the abaya, as you can see from the photo above.
“So she’s wearing an abaya. Why does this matter?”
Why does breast cancer goes untreated in the Middle East?
See Breast cancer often untreated in Mideast, Lifting the Veil From A Deadly Disease, and Cancer in Saudi Arabia.
Evidently, Laura Bush donned the abaya because it was a gift and she felt that it would be appropriate to be photographed in it. Unfortunately, this was a setup that sends exactly the wrong message, on so many levels!
In a nutshell, when women are veiled and kept in seclusion according to Islamic principles, how likely are they to go out and get proper medical care, which would include screening for, and treatment of, breast cancer? In Saudi Arabia, women still aren’t allowed to drive. Many Muslim women are unwilling to be examined by male doctors. Girls are too often discouraged from becoming educated in medicine or anything else.
And don’t forget that the country that is responsible for the bulk of the advances in medical treatment in the Middle East is, of course, Israel. But Israeli physicians are not welcome in the Muslim Middle East.
Poor Longevity for Saudi Women
Stein hoist to mean Gene on LGF for the above link and for these statistics:
I often use the CIA World Fact Book’s stats about demographics.
In regards the “kingdom,” the stats show an incredible drop off in women after age 15….
0-14 years:
male 5,369,285
female 5,162,585
15-64 years:
male 9,316,694
female 7,089,370
What does this picture reveal?
In this picture, Laura herself is unveiled, but she is seated between two veiled breast cancer survivors. If women like these were free to seek whatever medical care they needed, without the necessity of wearing veils, of finding a male relative to drive them, and finding a female doctor to examine them, wouldn’t their chances of early detection and remission be far better?
It’s about CANCER, not photo ops and protocol!
By wearing an abaya to meet with dignitaries, Laura Bush is promoting the anti-woman Islamic ideology that is causing the problem in the first place!
Updated 10/27/07:
Accepting such “gifts” means accepting Islamization!
The handlers for the Bush entourage should have made it clear, before the trip, that gifts of an Islamic nature should not be given and cannot be accepted. The Saudis don’t even allow Christian or Jewish items into the Tragic Kingdom at all!
Update (10/28/07): Laura Bush missed a great opportunity to keep quiet
“They do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women:” Laura Bush defends the hijab.
Note: wearing the abaya in Saudi Arabia is not a “choice.” It’s mandatory for all women when they are in public. If they show even a little bit of ankle, they’re subject to being beaten and arrested by the Saudi religious police (mutaween).
Does Laura Bush really think those women will be honest about their opinions on this misogynistic practice?
More bizarre pix!
Updated 1/1/08:
Lack of sunlight is unhealthy for women, unborn babies, and nursing infants.
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First National Consensus On Ovarian Cancer Symptoms Stresses Education For Earlier Diagnosis
From the article:
Researchers, including Dr. Barbara Goff, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington, have conducted conclusive research that demonstrates that the following symptoms are much more likely to occur in women with ovarian cancer than women in the general population. These symptoms include:
- Bloating
- Pelvic or abdominal pain
- Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
- Urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency)
Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks should see their doctor, preferably a gynecologist. [emphasis mine]
This is an important breakthrough because, up to now, ovarian cancer has been known as the “silent killer.” Without obvious, clear-cut symptoms, it has been difficult to detect ovarian cancer before it has spread too far for successful treatment. But now we know what to look for, and this can offer women stricken with this disease a much better chance for early detection and cure.
Whether or not you yourself happen to be an adult woman at risk for ovarian cancer, please pass this information along to the women in your family. It could save someone’s life!
Technorati tags:
cancer
ovarian cancer
PSA
More about ovarian cancer at Science Daily.
According to this Breitbart article from AFP, more and more physically normal women are demanding plastic surgery to “improve” the appearance of their vulvas. This “designer vagina” surgery (or, rather, butchery) involves cutting away healthy sensitive tissue, with the end result being a vulva resembling that of a prepubescent girl.
1389 declines to speculate on the depth of the mental, emotional, and spiritual sickness that could motivate supposedly modern, civilized people to begin toying with the savage custom of female genital mutilation.
Off-topic tech note for fellow mobile web enthusiasts: 1389’s laptop was down, so this entire blog post was entered via a bare-bones Sanyo SCP-7000 cell phone. This is not the easiest way to go, but it will work. However, the memory limitations of the cellphone itself are a problem, in that this limits the size of the file that can be loaded back into the cellphone for editing with the Blogger editor.
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