Islam - what is it all about?

Can someone please reconcile these two stories. I know that neither is necessarily indicative of what Islam is all about but when you put them side by side you do wonder WTF this religion is really all about.


Rape victim, 13, stoned to death in stadium
November 4, 2008





AN ISLAMIST rebel administration in Somalia ordered that a girl, 13, be stoned to death for adultery after the child's father reported that she was raped by three men.
Amnesty International said the al-Shabab militia, which controls the city of Kismayo, arranged for 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow in front of about 1000 spectators. A truck laden with stones was brought to the stadium for the killing. Amnesty said the girl struggled with her captors and had to be forcibly carried into the stadium. Amnesty said: "Inside the stadium, militia members opened fire when some of the witnesses to the killing attempted to save her life, and shot dead a boy who was a bystander."
The girl's father told Amnesty that when he tried to report her rape to the militia the child was accused by the administration of adultery and detained.
None of the men accused of the rape was arrested. The girl was earlier reported by witnesses as being 23 years old.
Guardian News & Media






Fanatics' fury over executions

Tom Allard in East Java
November 4, 2008







FAMILY and supporters of the Bali bombers are using the time before their executions to peddle anti-Australian conspiracy theories and praise the condemned men as holy warriors as they complained bitterly yesterday about being locked out of the prison where Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are being held.
An Indonesian judge insisted yesterday that an appeal by the bombers would not delay their executions, meaning they could go ahead as early as today.
Extra security was in place in the port town of Cilacap, a short distance from the prison island of Nusakambangan, with barbed wire being rolled out around the docks to prevent access by supporters and journalists.
A large team of lawyers and family members are in Cilacap, spending much of their time holed up in a mosque. They have brought food and letters of support for the condemned men but have so far been denied access by the Jakarta office of the Attorney-General.
They arrived at the docks in a minivan yesterday with a huge media entourage in tow but were blocked by police. They vowed to stay in the town until they were allowed to visit the prisoners and threatened protests if they continued to be denied access.
Already, the family and lawyers in Cilacap have been holding court with the media as authorities decide when they are going to put the killers in front of a firing squad.
Lulu Jamaludin, a younger brother of Imam Samudra, said that members of the Bali nine - the Australians convicted of heroin smuggling - should be killed before the bombers, adding that Australia had been paying for the executions of his brother and his co-conspirators.
"Obviously, Australia is funding it," he said
Islamist websites in Indonesia were promoting the same conspiracy theory, saying Australia had donated 3 billion rupiah (about $420,000) to pay for the execution.
The charge is absurd but is indicative of the kind of rhetoric that is getting play in Indonesia in the rarefied atmosphere as the executions approach.
Agus Sentiana, a lawyer who acts for Imam Samudra, said a group of supporters wanted to set up a foundation in his honour and build a militant Islamic boarding school in his home town of Serang in West Java.
"We want to immortalise his spirit," he said.
Another part of the public relations strategy employed by advocates for the bombers is to launch legal challenges such as an appeal made yesterday to the Denpasar District Court.

But Indonesia's Supreme Court said last night that the bombers had exhausted all their legal options. The latest appeal "will not change or delay the execution," Supreme Court judge Djoko Sarwoko said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General's office, Jasman Panjaitan, said the executions could take place any time between now and November 15.
The Indonesian newspaper Suara Merdeka reported that the three bombers spent yesterday reading the Koran and fasting.
A prison source said the bombers were locked in the main part of their isolation cells and denied access to exercise areas.
The prison chief, Bambang Winahyo, said the bombers appeared calm and ready to die, in line with their repeated assertions that they were looking forward to becoming "martyrs".
In Sydney, Pauline Whitton who lost her 29-year-old daughter, Charmaine, in the bombings, said the killers should not be executed but left to "rot in prison" for the rest of their lives.
"I'm as happy as everybody will be to see them gone from the face of the earth but there are families who are still suffering and there are people in Bali who are still suffering and a lot of people who are still suffering with burns and injuries.
"I'm not a violent person but they should suffer."
- Three Islamic groups have been re-listed as terrorist organisations by the Attorney-General Robert McClelland. The decision means it remains illegal to deal with Abu Sayyaf, Jamiat ul-Ansar and al-Qaeda in Iraq.
with Georgina Robinson and agencies

Disgusting indeed! In fact one of the WORST crimes possible!

Regarding rape here is what Quran says
"If one is forced, without wilful disobedience nor transgressing due limits, then he is guiltless, For God is Oft-Forgiving Most-Merciful'. (2:173)

following any religion 'by the book' is going to lead to its followers being terribly out of sync with the rest of the world. its not very far off from what was christianity in the middle ages

Except we're not in the middle ages.

thank god for that

TO using the middle ages defence.

taipan talking crap as usual

The One wrote:taipan talking crap as usual

Just responding in kind.

They're probably about where Christianity was in the middle ages and Christianity had a 700 year head start.

Mind you the Klan was only brought to heel (legally at least) within the last thirty or forty years.

Can you still be a martyr if you're dragged kicking and screaming to the wooden post after exhausting all avenues avaailable to you under the infidel's law?

Bradman wrote:They're probably about where Christianity was in the middle ages and Christianity had a 700 year head start.

Maybe if their colonial masters had more time with them.

Hehehehe! Can't say that aloud unfortunately.

JGK wrote:Can someone please reconcile these two stories. I know that neither is necessarily indicative of what Islam is all about but when you put them side by side you do wonder WTF this religion is really all about.


Rape victim, 13, stoned to death in stadium


November 4, 2008







AN ISLAMIST rebel administration in Somalia ordered that a girl, 13, be stoned to death for adultery after the child's father reported that she was raped by three men.
Amnesty International said the al-Shabab militia, which controls the city of Kismayo, arranged for 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow in front of about 1000 spectators. A truck laden with stones was brought to the stadium for the killing. Amnesty said the girl struggled with her captors and had to be forcibly carried into the stadium. Amnesty said: "Inside the stadium, militia members opened fire when some of the witnesses to the killing attempted to save her life, and shot dead a boy who was a bystander."
The girl's father told Amnesty that when he tried to report her rape to the militia the child was accused by the administration of adultery and detained.
None of the men accused of the rape was arrested. The girl was earlier reported by witnesses as being 23 years old.
Guardian News & Media







Fanatics' fury over executions



Tom Allard in East Java
November 4, 2008








FAMILY and supporters of the Bali bombers are using the time before their executions to peddle anti-Australian conspiracy theories and praise the condemned men as holy warriors as they complained bitterly yesterday about being locked out of the prison where Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are being held.
An Indonesian judge insisted yesterday that an appeal by the bombers would not delay their executions, meaning they could go ahead as early as today.
Extra security was in place in the port town of Cilacap, a short distance from the prison island of Nusakambangan, with barbed wire being rolled out around the docks to prevent access by supporters and journalists.
A large team of lawyers and family members are in Cilacap, spending much of their time holed up in a mosque. They have brought food and letters of support for the condemned men but have so far been denied access by the Jakarta office of the Attorney-General.
They arrived at the docks in a minivan yesterday with a huge media entourage in tow but were blocked by police. They vowed to stay in the town until they were allowed to visit the prisoners and threatened protests if they continued to be denied access.
Already, the family and lawyers in Cilacap have been holding court with the media as authorities decide when they are going to put the killers in front of a firing squad.
Lulu Jamaludin, a younger brother of Imam Samudra, said that members of the Bali nine - the Australians convicted of heroin smuggling - should be killed before the bombers, adding that Australia had been paying for the executions of his brother and his co-conspirators.
"Obviously, Australia is funding it," he said
Islamist websites in Indonesia were promoting the same conspiracy theory, saying Australia had donated 3 billion rupiah (about $420,000) to pay for the execution.
The charge is absurd but is indicative of the kind of rhetoric that is getting play in Indonesia in the rarefied atmosphere as the executions approach.
Agus Sentiana, a lawyer who acts for Imam Samudra, said a group of supporters wanted to set up a foundation in his honour and build a militant Islamic boarding school in his home town of Serang in West Java.
"We want to immortalise his spirit," he said.
Another part of the public relations strategy employed by advocates for the bombers is to launch legal challenges such as an appeal made yesterday to the Denpasar District Court.


But Indonesia's Supreme Court said last night that the bombers had exhausted all their legal options. The latest appeal "will not change or delay the execution," Supreme Court judge Djoko Sarwoko said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General's office, Jasman Panjaitan, said the executions could take place any time between now and November 15.
The Indonesian newspaper Suara Merdeka reported that the three bombers spent yesterday reading the Koran and fasting.
A prison source said the bombers were locked in the main part of their isolation cells and denied access to exercise areas.
The prison chief, Bambang Winahyo, said the bombers appeared calm and ready to die, in line with their repeated assertions that they were looking forward to becoming "martyrs".
In Sydney, Pauline Whitton who lost her 29-year-old daughter, Charmaine, in the bombings, said the killers should not be executed but left to "rot in prison" for the rest of their lives.
"I'm as happy as everybody will be to see them gone from the face of the earth but there are families who are still suffering and there are people in Bali who are still suffering and a lot of people who are still suffering with burns and injuries.
"I'm not a violent person but they should suffer."
- Three Islamic groups have been re-listed as terrorist organisations by the Attorney-General Robert McClelland. The decision means it remains illegal to deal with Abu Sayyaf, Jamiat ul-Ansar and al-Qaeda in Iraq.
with Georgina Robinson and agencies

I reckon its unfair to judge a religion by some fanatics.

Islam is not what it is being portrayed to be by the minority. The media is also definitely playing its part in sensationalizing what really goes on.

This is not the appropriate forum to discuss the religion, but if you PM me, i would gladly discuss further.

Naeem wrote:This is not the appropriate forum to discuss the religion,

True, try PakPassion

Agreed with Naeem . . . you can't judge a religion by the actions of the looney fringe. Any type of social organization will attract people with an extreme agenda . . . their actions cannot be held as representative of the body as a whole.

Just read news last week about how a village administration ordered a girl to be raped and lynched by a few members of a family with a 'just cause' who had a tiff with her family over something as a measure of 'honourable revenge' in some Jingoistic part of Pakistan. It's a sad world where God's name is used to bomb and kill innocents in the name of his 'holy will' and 'just fight'.

I think even more ridiculous was reading somewhere how young jehadis in the Middle East were brainwashed and promised 72 virgins in heaven on commiting a suicide bombing for the 'holy cause'.....

Like any God of any religion is a pimp, arms dealer, drug peddler and what not?

phurt. nothing to do with islam per se. some shocking incidents by hindus in orissa and karnataka as well, not to forget gujarat

religion, due to its demands of blind faith, seems to attract lunatics better than any other organisation or belief. esp lunatics who are willing to kill in its name

why does faith need to be blind? Seems an odd thing to say.

The One wrote:phurt. nothing to do with islam per se. some shocking incidents by hindus in orissa and karnataka as well, not to forget gujarat

religion, due to its demands of blind faith, seems to attract lunatics better than any other organisation or belief. esp lunatics who are willing to kill in its name

I did say 'any gods in any religion'. So my comment wasn't specific either.

All religion is mind control of the weak based on fear...

Me - i'll live my life respecting others and doing nobody harm and if thats not good enough to get me someplace if it exists, then it can't be that good in the first place.

tac wrote:Agreed with Naeem . . . you can't judge a religion by the actions of the looney fringe. Any type of social organization will attract people with an extreme agenda . . . their actions cannot be held as representative of the body as a whole.

aye to that.

JKLever wrote:All religion is mind control of the weak based on fear...

Me - i'll live my life respecting others and doing nobody harm and if thats not good enough to get me someplace if it exists, then it can't be that good in the first place.

and aye to that too.

Horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. What a sham some parts of the world are.

Mick Sawyer wrote:

tac wrote:Agreed with Naeem . . . you can't judge a religion by the actions of the looney fringe. Any type of social organization will attract people with an extreme agenda . . . their actions cannot be held as representative of the body as a whole.

aye to that.

That's why I said in my first post that clearly these may not be represetative of the true meaning of religion but when you hear stories like that poor poor girl you do wonder how ANYTHING can be so distorted.

Twisted, psycopathic, brainwashed, dickheads who misinterpret the laws of a 500 year old book of opinions.

We might as well as divine a set of guidelines to modern life from the Ilyiad. Who's up for a bit of ankle stabbing to please Apollo?

What's "the Ilyiad"?
And the fact is many people do still pray to Apollo et al . . . in the guise of saints. Who is St Christopher, FFS, but Hermes Psychpompous in christian garb?