Blogger Sentenced to 1000 blows and Snowmen to be banned?

NY Times: Saudis Begin Public Caning to Punish a Blogger

TheGuardian: Global outrage at Saudi Arabia as jailed blogger receives public flogging

Saudi fatwa banning snowmen triggers heated debate

Saudis condemned the Charlie Hebro attack, because they would've preferred a proper Sharia execution of the cartoonists and everyone reading their paper instead.

Time to stop downplaying the problem. Time to stop pretending that it's less than 1% of Islam being a problem even though all the polling results show the opposite, even though there's entire nations killing for homosexuality, apostasy, atheism, blasphemy. etc. Time to stop labeling everyone who speaks about the problem "racists" or "fundamentalist atheists" like the western PR guy of Islam, Reza Aslan has been doing.

From a rational perspective, time to stop all that, but time to start, what? Should we just make a disease that specifically targets Muslims and the only cure is to eat pork so they have to choose between their god or their life?

You're fighting an ideology, a very loud, barbaric, misrepresented ideology, there is no solution you and I could make that wouldn't condemn the entire, not even religion, but culture. I understand your frustration, believe me I do, but the USA has been in war(foolishly) regarding just this, look what it's accomplished.

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Originally Posted by KhainiWest

From a rational perspective, time to stop all that, but time to start, what? Should we just make a disease that specifically targets Muslims and the only cure is to eat pork so they have to choose between their god or their life?

You're fighting an ideology, a very loud, barbaric, misrepresented ideology, there is no solution you and I could make that wouldn't condemn the entire, not even religion, but culture. I understand your frustration, believe me I do, but the USA has been in war(foolishly) regarding just this, look what it's accomplished.

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Sure there are solutions, but none that we in the more "civilized" world are willing to use. You think they would keep going if they knew that every single one of their captured members would be tortured by getting their skin cut off and salt mixed with pig's blood was poured into the wounds? Their whole reason for doing this is they think it will get them into a good afterlife, if we had the intent, we could pineapple them up in ways like that.

The biggest mistake is exactly that-> people think that criticism against ideology is hate against the people. Liberals are so scared of being put on the same side with the far right politicians, that they're defending ideologies and ideas that are everything but liberal.

I'm not saying that the majority of muslims are islamists, many are victims of islamists. Those kids killed in their school in Pakistan were muslim. Most in the town that Boko Haram attacked were muslim. Many people also confuse islamism with terrorism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCM2rU7mFKk

I'm not suggesting military action, I'm as anti-war as you can be. Answering violence with violence creates even more violence (Iraq War). Islamism is like a Hydra, you kill one head and you get two more. Stuff that US and Israel have done have effectively just fueled terrorist ideology against the western world.

What could we do then? In this case, west should start with US and UK cutting their ties to Saudi government. Unfortunately I doubt this will ever happen as long as oil is as valuable as it is nowadays.

As for Charlie Hebro case, every paper should publish mohammed cartoons. You can be sure that if you submit to one of their demands, there's a lot more to follow. That's the message of an ex-muslim whose friend was killed for much same reasons as the cartoonists at Charlie Hebro:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...bdo-alive.html

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Originally Posted by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

In Holland, when my friend Theo Van Gogh was killed just over 10 years ago, what followed—after the initial shock—was that a lot of people started saying that he was a provocateur, and that he had offended Muslims. For me, it was morally very clear. You were morally very confused if you thought that somebody who uses speech, who uses words, who uses the pen, should be killed for that; if you thought that the only way to have a dialogue is for one side to use words while the other side uses violence to make their point. Everyone out there who says, “Charlie Hebdo provoked,” is making the same fundamental error.

We do need to wake up to the fact that there is a movement—a very lethal movement, very cruel—that has a political vision about how the world should be organized and how society should live. And in order for them to realize their vision, they are willing to use any means. They are willing to use violence. They are willing to use terror.

Is this some kind of cult? Or are the principles of this cult embedded in Islam? I happen to think they are embedded in Islam. The only way peace-loving Muslims can get rid of this is by reforming their religion so that, for example, it can no longer provide justifications for murdering people deemed to be blasphemers. And while they go about reforming their religion, which will take some time, we who do not adhere to that religion need to defend our own values. Freedom of speech. Freedom of publication. And the rule of law.

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The reason why I wanted to make this thread was because all this is hitting kind of close home for me. I love to draw and want to do that for a living, growing up I wanted to be a cartoonist. I'm also an atheist and I've been very critical of organized religions. Charlie could've been me.

Even if oil wasn't a factor, the US would not be able to cut ties with the Saudis.

I truly wonder what the world would look like if religion didn't exist.

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Originally Posted by Spadow

I truly wonder what the world would look like if religion didn't exist.

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I'm willing to think, no different at all, probably kill each other over the next important thing.

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Originally Posted by Spadow

I truly wonder what the world would look like if religion didn't exist.

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We'd find plenty of other reasons to hate and kill each other. We're really good at it.

I think Khaini said it really well this time. Trying to fight an idea is ineffectual at best and incendiary at worst. The only really constructive thing we can do lead by example and fight the various forms of intolerance where we can.

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Originally Posted by Spadow

I truly wonder what the world would look like if religion didn't exist.

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Answering from a sociology point of view, if you mean like formal religion with gods and all we would probably just have a stronger social religion in place(like worship of the group/country)

And to comment on @Arrol depending on what kind of sociologist you are they would agree with you. Marx believed religion was used as an oppressing device if not religion it be something else to keep people with their heads low to just obey the people with the means of production while others see religion as a pro social glue that helps keep community and interactions alive in society and it benefits them.

Tbh to answer the question bluntly as a species from the earliest they could reason if religion didn't exist in any form I don't think we would of survived. It's done it's job I think it's time we let it go now though. This was typed on an iPod so mercy please for spelling and or grammar errors q.q

I'm just passing by... Money is a religion to some too...

Hadriel

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Originally Posted by Satellite

The biggest mistake is exactly that-> people think that criticism against ideology is hate against the people. Liberals are so scared of being put on the same side with the far right politicians, that they're defending ideologies and ideas that are everything but liberal.

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http://i.imgur.com/Fke6wcw.png