Religion Is Lethal

By Azam Kamguian

Mecca-Saudi Arabia: 15 girls were burnt to death because they were unveiled 
In Friday March 4, 15 pupils burnt to death in a girl's school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Members of Mutawwia'n, the religious police appeared at the main gate of the school and prevented 15 girls escaping the blazing school building without the Islamic dress; black clocks (Abaya) and head coverings that are mandatory for Saudi girls and women. They intentionally obstructed the efforts to evacuate the girls because they were unveiled. The religious police even hindered the firemen and other people to save the victims. This horrifying act is the natural outcome of the misogynist ruling Islamic system in Saudi Arabia. This is yet another indication of the anti human and sexist nature of religions particularly Islam. This is the fruit of God's commandment; oppression and dehumanization of women, and the rule of sexual apartheid.

Sokoto- Nigeria: Amina Lawal Kurami is awaiting death by stoning after Safiya Hussaini's sentence was overturned
Safiya Hussaini, 35, the women sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court in northern Nigeria for having pre-marital sex, was awaiting her sentence by the court of appeal. She was sentenced to death on 9 October and on 5 November filed an appeal on the grounds that the court's decision had been unfair.

Safiya's case became a symbol of savagery and misogyny inherent in the Islamic law and political Islam in Nigeria. Being the first woman who could be sentenced to death for sex out of marriage in that country according to the Shari'a in modern times, the Islamic leaders that have fought vigorously to reintroduce the Islamic law, did not want outside pressure deprive them of this symbolic sentence. They said "this is the law of Allah, by executing anybody that is convicted under Islamic law, we are just complying with the laws of Allah, so we do not have anything to worry about." Now, they have put another woman; Amina Lawal Kurami on the death row of Islam and Shari'a.

Nigerian women organizations were the most active protesting the ruling and organised various protest marches in Lagos. And protests immediately gained international support. Finally, under this pressure, her sentence was overturned.

Meanwhile, Amina finds herself on death row, awaiting her appeal sentence, she lives with her family and her baby in their village. Her baby the evidence in her case is unconscious of the flurry her birth has caused, she might very well grow up as an orphan and be seen as the cause of her mother's brutal and savage murder by Islam and Islamic Shari'a in Nigeria.

Gujarat-India: More religious tension and killings 
Since the last violent religious killings in 1992, when 3000 people were killed after the mosque at Ayodhya was destroyed by Hindu zealots, the recent religious and communal killings in India has led to the death of more than 2000. The dispute comes at a time of smouldering tension between India's Hindu and Muslim communities. The Hindu extremist band has said that it would go ahead with a symbolic ceremony at the disputed site in Ayodhya, a move that could plunge the country into further bloody religious massacre.

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Religion is destructive and divisive, specifically in seeking and grabbing power; it turns to a lethal poison. The horrible past of Christianity and Islam and the recent history of political Islam are all evidence to this fact. In seeking power and holding it, it burns, kills, stones to death, spreads hatred and terrorism and creates bloodbaths. When religion comes to the scene, there will be no mercy. Political Islam has destroyed and continues to destroy the lives, hopes and dreams of three consecutive generations in Iran, Afghanistan and the Sudan in the last twenty plus years. It sheds blood and kills daily all around the world. Religion is indeed one of this era's worst problems. Religion also has deeply wounded the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Central Asia, India, Indonesia and Kashmir.

Religion is lethal. Catholics and Protestants, Hindus and Muslims attack and kill each other, Islamic governments and political Islamic groups and Ayatollahs brutally oppress and dehumanize women, and murder young and old, men and women in God's name. Bloody jihad, torturing, inquisitions, religious massacres and practicing a total system of misogyny are all committed and legitimized in God's name. Religion is lethal and waste of lives, hopes and dreams of human beings and the whole humanity.

Without God and religions, the world will indeed be a better place to live.

Email: azam_kamguian@yahoo.com