[Dean's World] Dean: An Obvious Point

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Posted by Dean:
An Obvious Point
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1143296764.shtml


   Eugene Volokh notes that [1]some Afghan Muslims are claiming it's an
   'assault on Islam' to try to stop the murder of a Christian who
   converted from Islam.

   His retort is the perfect retort: no, it's defending a person who's
   about to be murdered.

   The Christian Bible clearly calls for the execution of witches (Exodus
   22:18) and homosexuals (Leviticus 20:13). 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 and
   Revelation 2:9 have been used countless times over the last 2,000
   years to justify Christian mass-murder or forced conversions of Jews
   (it doesn't actually say you can force them to convert, but it's been
   used to justify killing Jews, with the presumption that if they'd
   foreswear Judaism and embrace Jesus then they'd be blameless).

   Deuteronomy 22:13-28 makes it clear that a woman who's not a virgin
   when she gets married should be stoned to death. It also says that as
   long as she's not engaged to be married any man can rape her and his
   only penalty is paying her father some money--she'll be forced to
   marry him. On the other hand, if she's betrothed to someone, and gets
   raped inside a city, both she and her rapist are to be killed.

   Christians have learned better and more reasonable ways to interpret
   their scriptures. So have many Muslims. There's nothing wrong with
   reminding Muslims in places like Afghanistan of that.

   Having said that, we knew it was a medieval country before we went in.
   The best we can probably hope for at the moment is to help get this
   poor Christian dude out of the country. It's going take time to push
   toward more thorough reforms. But this is the reasoning we should be
   pursuing.

References

   1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_03_19-2006_03_25.shtml#1143245672