As a freethinker I believe that religion is a blight on humankind; I long for the day when we no longer need to believe in myths and fables to make sense of the complexity of our universe.

I’m a frequent critic of Christianity, particularly of the excesses of televangelists, because Christianity is the predominant religion in this country.

But the sins of Christianity pales in comparison to the Neanderthal theology and insane practices of radical Islam.

I am not a believer in the crazy notion that religion is a sacred cow and exempt from criticism and ridicule. No institution should be above the law and free from scrutiny. Religion is the first refuge of scoundrels, and we shouldn’t be afraid to expose ecclesiastical wrongdoing.

The following news story brings to light the moral darkness of Islam as it is practiced in some countries: “A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape.

The sentence against the 19-year-old Shia woman from Qatif, in the Eastern Province of the country, was passed because she was in the car of a man who was not a relative at the time of the attack, which contravened strict Saudi laws on segregation.

A court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years but increased the punishment after an appeal, saying the woman had tried to use the media to influence them.

According to the Arab News newspaper, the woman was gang-raped 14 times.

Her offence was in meeting a former boyfriend, whom she had asked to return pictures he had of her because she was about to marry another man.

The couple was sitting in a car when a group of seven Sunni men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told Arab News.” — Quotation from ww4report.com

When I read this story the words and phrases that came to mind were: Barbarism, outrage against humankind, Insanity, Dark Ages.

The US State department issued this mild criticism:

“‘This is a part of a judicial procedure overseas in the court of a sovereign country,’ said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack when asked to comment on the case.

‘That said, most would find this relatively astonishing that something like this happens,’ added McCormack.”

“Relatively Astonishing”? Only a clueless bureaucrat or a pandering politician would find the horrific treatment of the Saudi rape victim “relatively astonishing”. Everybody else finds it a miscarriage of justice and a sin against humanity.

The Bush administration is too cowardly to speak out against this moral outrage because they don’t want to offend our Saudi “friends” who sit on an ocean of oil.

I can’t wait until the immoral and cowardly Bush administration finally leaves the White House. We need to elect someone like Senator Barack Obama, a statesman with a moral compass who won’t be afraid to speak out when are so-called allies commit sins against humankind.

REFERENCES:

1. Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia
2. Iran: The Coming Crisis: Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat
3. Wahhabism: A Critical Essay
4. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America