Why do some Muslims believe that blasphemers should be killed?

[vetuste_ennemi]

I understand that some Islamic countries prescribe the death penalty for blasphemy. Is this because Sharia ordains it? If you are a Muslim do you agree with this?

[pdust]

*There’s no doubt it’s considerably easier for a man to obtain a divorce than it is for a woman*

are you sure about that naomi? in a lot of countries couples have Nikah and a court registration.... in my husbands country im pretty sure (100%) you have to have both.... so while a man can end nikah fairly easily they would still have to have a divorce at court too.....

also as im sure you know, a man can end the nikah twice and reunite with his wife, the 3rd time he cant.... if a woman wants to end nikah she just has to do it once.... no going back.....

[vetuste_ennemi]

Pdust, I see the ambiguity in my question. I should have written Is this because they think Sharia ordains it?

[vetuste_ennemi]

Thanks for your clarification, Keyplus. I'm delighted we are totally agreed on something.

[pdust]

ah okay vestute..... its easy to miss out words or not explain properly, i do it all the time....

anyway to answer your question, i have no idea, ive never heard anyone say blaspheming should have the death penalty but then we dont really sit around discussing sharia law much ......

[jomifl]

To answer the question..simply because although the koran may be a wonderful work of literature is is a very poor instruction manual. As a result of this muslims have spent 1500 years arguing, fighting and killing amongst themselves because each muslim thinks that his/her understanding of the koran is correct.

[naomi24]

Keyplus, I’ll ignore your rudeness. The point is, under our law women are free to become anything they want to become – including judges. In Islam they are not – as your link demonstrates.

Pixi, yes, I’m sure.

[naomi24]

Vetuste, my apologies for my part in taking your thread off course. To answer your question, as we know, some Muslims do advocate the death penalty for what they consider to be blasphemy. You have already mentioned Salman Rushdie, and you will no doubt recall the reaction of many Muslims in Sudan when an English teacher allowed her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed, and of those across the world who objected to the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. Although not all Islamic nations support the death penalty for blasphemy, some do, and punishments range from fines to execution.

[naomi24]

Vetuste, I’ve just realised I have really answered the first part of your question – “Why do some Muslims believe that blasphemers should be killed?”

Why? Good question. I suspect the answer is because they’re nuts!

[naomi24]

*haven't

[jomifl]

To answer the original question...It is simple logic, if you kill everyone that disagrees with you then you must be right.

[keyplus90]

Naomi – Don’t worry about my rudeness as I am sure I haven’t been rude. It’s just because (as usual) you do not like answering questions where if answered it would go against your belief or understanding. Someone ( a person) has written the link I gave and in that he wrote about the intelligence of women and quite innocently you are willing to accept that is Islamic or Quranic stance and not someone’s individual thinking. But to clarify (or to avoid) my questions you have come up with something very unrelated. Still my questions are there that why there aren’t enough women when there is no restriction?

Vetuste - I am just popping out for an hour or so but when I come back I will give you the history of where the idea came from about death penalty for blasphemy in few Muslim countries.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I'm at work at the moment, Keyplus, but still keeping an eye on you all.

[naomi24]

Keyplus, so let me get this right. You want me to spend heaven knows how long finding a list of statistics that prove men, in the main, hold all the top jobs and rule the world – something that everyone already knows – and you think that will prove women aren’t capable? If you had taken the trouble to read and digest Em10’s post at 19:35 Sat 24th March instead of instantly dismissing it with what you call ‘ground realities’ – meaning that women are not fit to hold positions of responsibility – you might have learnt something. And now you claim that the man who wrote the link you provided is not portraying Islam’s stance when actually we know he is. Let’s face it, you said yourself….

//Islam does not forbid to have women in Sharia Court. But it is not advised for certain reason//.

Despite me asking what that reason is, up to yet you have failed to respond. Make your mind up, Keyplus! You’re flailing around all over the place!

//But to clarify (or to avoid) my questions you have come up with something very unrelated.//

Unrelated? How so? We’re talking about a woman’s ability to hold a responsible position, and I said ….

//under our law women are free to become anything they want to become – including judges. In Islam they are not – as your link demonstrates.//

An embarrassing truth for Islam, no doubt, but there’s nothing unrelated to this discussion about it.

If you want to continue this, I suggest you move it to the Sexual Discrimination thread in R&S. Vetuste wants to talk about blasphemy.

[keyplus90]

Naomi – stop making excuses and answer my questions. Give me the reasons and don’t cook stories.

To answer your few more of your points. No Islam does not say that women are unfit. Islam says that women and men are different and have different roles in a healthy society. In certain roles women are better than men and vice versa. But because you are a self-obsessed woman therefore you just can’t digest it.

So shall we finish this by saying what I said before to you,

First of all no one is pleading you to accept Islam or live under Sharia law. If you have that much of problem with Islam then do warn your family people about it just in case tomorrow someone tells you that they have decided to revert to Islam, after all it is happening here and happening very fast, and you can’t deny that. And here is another question for you, have you ever shown your these posts (your real self) to your so called Muslim friends? What about doing it now, specifically to any of your female Muslim friends. You never know you might be able to rescue them, after all they are your friends and you wouldn’t want them to live life under illusions, do you?

[naomi24]

Keyplus, as you are very well aware, I don’t make excuses. I have no reason to. I’ve answered your questions, but if you think I’m going to trawl the internet for pointless statistics, you can think again.

So women aren’t allowed to be judges because the men of Islam have decided that men are better at it? Is that what you’re saying?

[keyplus90]

Vetuste – Blasphemy law was first brought in Spain during Muslim rule there. The main reason was that Christians in Spain started cooking stories about personal life of Muhammad (pbuh). They started chalking aspects of his life (which still is going on to this date in west) long after he had gone and about things where at his even worse of his enemies did not object due to the normalness of it at that time. Later on fictional characters like “Mahound” were created. Because Muhammad (pbuh) was the last ever prophet for any major religion then few Muslim rulers brought in this law to protect his image from propaganda. No Muslim will insult any other prophet including Jesus, Moses (pbuh) therefore they do not want personal insult for any of them. The first person given a death penalty for blasphemy was a monk called Perfectus in Cordova in year 850. It is a long storey but I will try to cut short. He was shopping in the souk of Cordova and few Muslim youngsters asked him that who was greater between Muhammad or Jesus. And he started insulting Muhammad, taken to court and Qadi (Judge) investigated and as it was extremely unusual in Spain at that time where Christian, Jew and Muslims were living in complete harmony, judge freed him because he found out that Perfectus was tricked into it. But as he was released, just outside for no obvious reason he started it again and therefore later was punished to death.

It is all from the book Muhammad (pbuh) by Karen Armstrong.

[naomi24]

^^ I'm reading that book at the moment.

[boxtops]

I certainly remember being told by a scholar that in as Islamic court, the woman's word is worth half a man's word, so the witness of two women is preferable - the reason being that woman 1 is likely to be distracted and not remember properly (because she's a woman) and that woman 2 can remind her.

[NOX]

So Karen Armstrong is okay to write a book? Despite being a woman? you sure she has things right, cos you know those women theyre not to many jobs are they, do you trust her to be factually accurate Keyplus, maybe she got it wrong? lol

[boxtops]

I like Karen's writing.