The Global Sociology Blog

First, this item from Jonathan Turley,

“A couple was the latest to be put to face Rajam (stoning to death) for the crime of adultery after a sentencing by Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal agency. The couple was found guilty by a “qazi court” in Fata in a case reportedly over-seen by the Taliban.

The woman named Shano had reportedly eloped with Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhel of Bara on March 15 despite her marriage to another man.

Her family had filed a police report that she might have been abducted, but when the police found evidence of adultery, it became a death penalty case. The actual stoning took place in Khwaezai-Baezai, about 40 kms west of the Mohmand Agency’s headquarters Ghalanai.”

Yes, the very same Taliban that were supposed to be on the run from US bombing. They have found a safe heaven in some provinces of Pakistan where they can administer regions in their own brand of reactionary theocracy. Very reassuring.

The second item comes from Saudi Arabia where a Sheikh has issued a fatwa against two writers demanding their execution (via The Guardian):

“Arab human rights activists have condemned a Saudi religious edict calling for the execution of two writers for apostasy – giving a rare glimpse of tensions over Islam inside the conservative kingdom. (…) Writing in al-Riyadh newspaper, Yousef Aba Al-Khail and Abdullah bin Bejad had questioned the Sunni Muslim view standard in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.”

Well that does it, I guess, these guys have to die. We can’t have this kind of blasphemy rampant in such a moral country! Actually, the Sheikh is kind enough to offer the writers the opportunity to recant. Otherwise, off with their heads! And lest we think this is an isolated case, we have this (in addition to the fatwas against Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen):

“Fatwas by radical Muslim clerics led to the assassination in 1992 of the Egyptian writer Farag Foda and to an attempt in 1994 in Cairo to murder the Egyptian Nobel prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz. Last month Saudi Arabia’s Shura council threw out a proposal for a law promoting respect for other religions and religious symbols, apparently for fear it might lead to the building of churches.”

File that under “Islam is a religious of peace”.