This is why islam is vomitously evil.

[Brakeman]

imam Shabir Ahmad looked up from prayers at his mosque to see a 15-year-old boy approaching with a plate in his outstretched left hand. On it was the boy’s freshly severed right hand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/world/asia/boys-response-to-blasphemy-charge-unnerves-many-in-pakistan.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=3&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

The boy, Anwar Ali, the son of a poor laborer, had been attending an evening prayer gathering at the mosque in the village, Khanqah, when Mr. Ahmad asked for a show of hands of those who did not love the Prophet Muhammad. Thinking the cleric had asked for those who did love the prophet, Anwar’s hand shot up, according to witnesses and the boy’s family.
He realized his mistake when he saw that his was the only hand up, and he quickly put it down. But by then Mr. Ahmad was screaming “Blasphemer!” at him, along with many others in the crowd. “Don’t you love your prophet?” they called, as the boy fled in disgrace.
Anwar went home, found a sharp scythe and chopped off his right hand that same night. When he showed it to the cleric, he made clear it was an offering to absolve his perceived sin.

This is absolutely sick but to make it worse ..

The boy’s family, however, argues that the cleric did nothing wrong and should not be punished.

“We are lucky that we have this son who loves Prophet Muhammad that much,” Muhammad Ghafoor, Anwar’s father, said in a telephone interview. “We will be rewarded by God for this in the eternal world.”

The reality is that a bullshitter made a joke to brainwashed kids and embarrassed one enough to make him cut off his own hand. Over something that is not true..

This is why religion deserves no respect.

[robvalue]

How utterly sickening

[Chad32]

Also can't forget storied about "holy" men raping children, and the parents talking about honor killing.....the child. Pretty much anything that would cause an otherwise loving parent to abandon their child is a bad thing. that's one of the most fundamental things about our species.

[pocaracas]

Thank you for sharing, Brakeman... I was going to kudos your post, but I just can't kudos such a sad example of the results of brainwashing.

[Homeless Nutter]

Muslim kids do the darndest things...

[Brian37]

I must insist that yes Islam currently has in the world, the biggest PR problem when it comes to religiously justified violence and political theocracies. Not all Muslims is a bad argument. There are still just enough of a minority who are still of a theocratic mentality politically that are holding that region's majority hostage. It really is no different than when liberal or moderate Christians say "Those right wing Christians don't represent most Christians". But we still have a big enough minority of those Right wing nutfucks that want to turn the clock back on secular law.

But again, ALL holy books have to be treated as poison, like a volcano. Most 7 billion humans are inherently good at heart. But the human invented construct of religion poisons how we interact and for all the good any religious person may claim it can do, it causes divisions to the point of oppression and violence.

Hitchens is right, religion gets otherwise what could be a reasonable human to take bad ideas and justify really bad acts to their fellow humans.

Islam, sorry, you have a problem. We really don't, or most should not want, to force you out of existence. But the west, which is not perfect by any stretch, does have better management between different religions, and really all the west wants is for the East to catch up with modern pluralism.

[Brakeman]

Feeling mighty PC Brian? We DO know the difference between the person and the belief. The "belief" is an evil con game spurred on over the centuries. It is evil on it's own accord and does not need to be compared to other similar evil lies such as christianity or hinduism. We describe the one's that puff their religion out to atrocities as "extremists" but without the base, the extremism has no seed to grow from.

Would this kid be an extremist? From what islamic party could you exclude him?

[Faith No More]

What a lovely story. I can't believe the parents are defending that guy.

[Brian37]

Feeling mighty PC Brian? We DO know the difference between the person and the belief. The "belief" is an evil con game spurred on over the centuries. It is evil on it's own accord and does not need to be compared to other similar evil lies such as christianity or hinduism. We describe the one's that puff their religion out to atrocities as "extremists" but without the base, the extremism has no seed to grow from.

Would this kid be an extremist?   From what islamic party could you exclude him?

Hardly PC. Just saying while ridicule and blasphemy are absolutely vital in keeping religion in check, Islam still is not the only religion on this planet. All three religions of Abraham stem from the same line. Even Ayaan Hirsi Ali who is a huge critic of her former religion, and rightfully so, says the west has it's own religious baggage as well, and we do.

I cannot stress enough the importance of taking a long term evolutionary view as why humans invent religions and gap fill with god claims. You should criticize Islam and even ridicule it, but the evolutionary bigger picture, is that even if Islam suddenly scrapped the idea of theocracy and world dominion, humans are quite capable of creating a new religion in the future with the same global mentality.

YES YES YES, blaspheme all you want. But the fact is, even with atheists, if you forget the mistakes of the past and don't learn from them, you can go on in the future to become the abuser yourself.

Dawkins God Delusion is the evolutionary explanation as to why god claims happen and why religions are invented. They are a result of our species false perceptions. And Victor Stenger's "The New Atheism" explains where our species morality is really coming from, our evolution, not our labels. 

Islam does need a verbal kick in the pants, all I was adding was ok, but lets not take our eyes off any religion.

[Aoi Magi]

And here's an example why anything resembling a religion is bad: http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru...512644.cms

In short, a guy chopped off his finger to show gratitude to god for helping some politician stay out of jail.

Sometimes I have to wonder why religion isn't being treated as a mental illness yet, despite all these cases of self-harm being directly caused by religion.