A Candle in the Dark

Praying man let his daughter die

A US jury has found a man guilty of killing his sick 11-year-old daughter by praying for her recovery rather than seeking medical care.

The man, Dale Neumann, told a court in the state of Wisconsin he believed God could heal his daughter.

She died of a treatable disease – undiagnosed diabetes – at home in rural Wisconsin in March last year, as people surrounded her and prayed.
…

“If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God,” he said. “I am not believing what he said he would do.”

Indian man ’sacrifices’ five-year-old girl for male child

A rural Indian witch doctor beheaded a five-year-old girl as part of a bizarre ritual to help a villager produce healthy male heirs, police said Thursday.

Vandana Kumari was murdered on Tuesday in Lakhimpur Kheri district, 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow, police officer Ravi Srivastava told AFP by telephone.

Occult practitioner Mewalal Chauhan recommended the “human sacrifice” when the child”s neighbour Ram Niwas came to him for help, Srivastava said.

You should watch this revealing documentary by Dan Reed on the recent Mumbai terror attacks. From the Mirror,

Dan Reed’s exhaustively researched film builds up a chilling, detailed picture, using CCTV footage, survivors’ testimonies and from police on the scene – who, with their outdated rifles, were powerless to stop the gunmen.

As compelling as these accounts are, it’s the phone conversations between the gunmen and their controllers back in Pakistan – recorded by the Indian intelligence services and aired here for the first time – that are the most revealing.

I have a lot of emotions right now, but I’ll try to keep this short. The actual recorded telephone conversations and CCTV images are gruesome to watch, but highlight the complete lack of preparation our security forces had in tackling such an attack. There’s footage of atleast a dozen police officers running away in the train station together, instead of trying to fire at the terrorists.

It’s also almost surreal listening to the recorded conversations between the terrorists and their handlers, as they receive *live* instructions on where to attack and what to set on fire *after* getting into the hotel. Was this information even available during the counter-terrorism response? If this was known, why were live feeds of the security activities allowed to be broadcast by the TV networks? I can only hope that our security forces have learned a lot from this incident.

There’s also a conversation with Kasab which is shown, where the police questioner asks him about his motivations. It’s easy to label the terrorists as inhuman, and devoid of human emotion, but the religious conviction which they’ve been brainwashed with in order to justify their acts is incredibly sad to watch. The recorded telephone conversations show how they are repeatedly reminded by their handlers that they should not get arrested and should die, and that God will reward them. It’s going to be education, rationalism and literacy which can prevent such people from turning into terrorists.

From the BBC,

Pair held for ‘offending Islam’

The editor and publisher of a top English-language Indian daily have been arrested on charges of “hurting the religious feelings” of Muslims.

The Statesman’s editor Ravindra Kumar and publisher Anand Sinha were detained in Calcutta after complaints.

Muslims said they were upset with the Statesman for reproducing an article from the UK’s Independent daily in its 5 February edition.

The article was entitled: “Why should I respect these oppressive religions?”

It concerns the erosion of the right to criticise religions.

Spoing!

The opinion piece by Johann Hari from the Independent is acessible online. It raises some very important issues.

But a free society cannot be structured to soothe the hardcore faithful. It is based on a deal. You have an absolute right to voice your beliefs – but the price is that I too have a right to respond as I wish. Neither of us can set aside the rules and demand to be protected from offence.

Yet this idea – at the heart of the Universal Declaration – is being lost. To the right, it thwacks into apologists for religious censorship; to the left, it dissolves in multiculturalism. The hijacking of the UN Special Rapporteur by religious fanatics should jolt us into rescuing the simple, battered idea disintegrating in the middle: the equal, indivisible human right to speak freely.

How hard is it to understand the concept of freedom of speech? The day that India removes the idiotic rule (Section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code) and allows the free criticism of every religion, is the day we take a step of progress as a democratic nation.

However, going by the explosion of outrage and protests, that day is a very long way away. I don’t think it’s ever going to happen in my life time.

Dear Thai King,

In my opinion, your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

Sincerely,
A citizen who (hopefully) enjoys the freedom of speech

P.S
Context

Terrible events in Bombay today. My heart goes out to the families & people caught in this. A live update of the situation from BBC can be found here.

I am incredibly angry with the completely irresponsible TV coverage from channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and Times Now. You DO NOT show live feed about positions, type or number of combat troops. You don’t tell that the special forces are in floor X and are about to launch an attack at location Y. All the terrorists need is a contact sitting outside watching the telecast with a cell phone. You’d expect better of a Padma Shri award winning journalist like Barkha Dutt.

We definitely need a proper crisis management and response team (as Ratan Tata rightly indicated), which would handle the media, bystanders, etc during such an event.

EDIT:
I’ve lost a lot of respect towards Barkha Dutt. What a colossally insensitive idiot.

Also, helplines and a list of injured and dead

Rape victim, 13, stoned to death

A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped has been stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death on October 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses.

The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.

I really don’t know. Some distant day in the future, I hope that through education and rationality such horrifying acts can be eliminated. But helplessly reading about the terrible injustice committed by raving lunatics is enormously depressing. She was just a child. A thousand spectators in a stadium It makes you lose hope in humanity.

I had posted about how a student was threatened with the death penalty in Afghanistan in the beginning of this year, for the victimless “crime” of blasphemy (actually, he had distributed pamphlets highlighting the lack of women’s rights in Islam).

While the death sentence was overturned, he’s been handed a 20-year jail sentence. It’s very sad that parts of the world are still so backward, where some basic human rights like the freedom of speech are absent, and where people are brainwashed into accepting ideological oppression as a way of life. What kind of democracy is it, where the citizens don’t even have the right to criticize a religion?

I guess it will take plenty of time as “freedom and democracy” grows in Afghanistan, but the transition is very painful to watch. Here’s hoping that this ridiculously unjust sentence to Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh gets overturned soon.

PZ Myers brings attention to a really tragic event which took place in Iraq.

It started when 17 year old Rand Abdel-Qader was murdered by her father. The story is heartbreaking to read.

At that time, her mother Leila Hussein was powerless to stop her husband and sons from murdering her daughter. She had to live for two weeks in that house, suffered beatings and a broken arm when she told she wanted to leave, before she found a chance to escape and join a women’s right group in Iraq. She immediately received death threats there, for speaking out against the murder.

“They cannot accept me leaving him. When I first left I went to a cousin’s home, but every day they were delivering notes to my door saying I was a prostitute and deserved the same death as Rand,” she said.

“She was killed by animals. Every night when I go to bed I remember the face of Rand calling for help while her father and brothers ended her life,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

…

“I miss my two boys,” she said. “But they have sent a message saying that I am wrong for defending Rand and that I should go back home and live like a blessed Muslim woman,” said Leila, who is now volunteering with a local organisation campaigning for better protection for women in Basra.

Tragically, Leila Hussein was killed day before yesterday by gunmen as she was to leave Iraq to campaign for women’s rights from a safer location.

What about her husband who murdered her daughter? He still walks free.

“If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,” he said with no trace of remorse.
…
Abdel-Qader, 46, a Government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done.

“They are men and know what honour is,” he said.

…

“Death was the least she deserved,” said Abdel-Qader. “I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion.”

“I don’t have a daughter now, and I prefer to say that I never had one. That girl humiliated me in front of my family and friends. Speaking with a foreign soldier, she lost what is the most precious thing for any woman.

“People from Western countries might be shocked, but our girls are not like their daughters that can sleep with any man they want and sometimes even get pregnant without marrying. Our girls should respect their religion, their family and their bodies.

“I have only two boys from now on. That girl was a mistake in my life. I know God is blessing me for what I did,” he said, his voice swelling with pride. “My sons are by my side, and they were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who just brought shame to ours.”
.

First, it beggars belief that the murderer walks free. The simple question is,

Why is this monster not in jail?

Also, this is a clear example of when religion kills.

I’m aware some people might think that I’m being very crass and naive. That this is culture, not religion. Just because some fundamentalist misinterpreted the religious text, it doesn’t mean that the religion itself condones misogynistic actions and murder. After all, moderates (or True Believers^TM) would never do such a thing. So aren’t you being stupid when you attribute this to a religion?

No, because one can only comment on a religion based on the action of its adherents. This isn’t a question of ‘misinterpreting a text’. Rather, it’s about interpreting what is written. Recently, the Jamiat-i-Hind issued a fatwa against terrorism, which is a good thing if it’s able to convince religious adherents that terrorism in the name of religion is wrong. But what’s to stop other imams from issuing fatwas, or instructing followers that the religion requires you to kill? After all, the Quran does contain passages which are literally interpreted by muslims to support such barbaric killings.

The courage and bravery that Leila Hussein showed to escape from her husband and to speak out for fundamental rights for women, despite the threats to her life by religious nutjobs, is enormous. It’s an immense tragedy that her life was cut short in such a manner.