Are you being tolerant if watch someone being treated badly just because you want to be tolerant towards religion?One of the best indicators that something should be criticized is when you risk being beaten or killed by doing so. This usually means that there is something fundamentally wrong. We have seen countless incidences of this nature throughout history and in recent times. It is easier to look back and at other countries and criticize them than to see what is happening right before our noses. Most people chose the easy way out and keep quiet while few brave people stick their head up and take the fight we all should be taking part of.

Kadra Yusuf is one of those brave people that we all should be supporting. Last week she went out into the media and asked for a re-interpretation on the Qur'an's view on women. The reaction from various Muslim organizations here in Norway were rather bland and pretty much summed up to being that it was none of her business and that there wasn't a problem. One went as low as saying "that she was probably good looking with a nice body but that they couldn't change the Qur'an based on what a woman meant".

The general reaction discussing this with people was that they believed she was in danger. That proved to be true and Thursday night she was beaten up by a gang of Somalians shouting that it was in the name of Allah.

Friday's reaction by the Muslim leaders and community wasn't too comforting; at least one of them doubting this attack was true. There were even sexists statements made about what a young woman was doing out this late.

We consider ourselves to live in an advanced society with freedom of speech but for some reason religious groups are exempt from any kind of criticism. This now going as far as being passed as UN resolution. There are laws in place guaranteeing equality but for some odd reason religious groups are exempt from that law. Thanks to the naive left-wing which shouts racism every time somebody dares to point out that maybe something isn't right, people don't dare to say anything. People generally want to be good people and treat everyone well and hearing that you are a racist doesn't feel good. The result of this is that we turn a blind eye to the fact that there are women that aren't treated as equal to men, that small girls are being mutilated by circumcision, and that people risk their life speaking freely about certain things. Please keep in mind that I do not want to remove religion but rather that some parts are reformed to fit today’s society.

There is this big misconception that you are being tolerant by never criticizing religion. What about the people that are being mistreated in the name of religion? Are you being tolerant against them? I think Kadra is doing a very important job and I really wish that there was something I could do to help her. Since I am just a nobody I can only hope this little entry of mine opens a least one person's eyes.

You aren't being tolerant by tolerating discrimination in the name of religion!

I caught myself doing it again... This time I was wondering if I could practice some kind of voodoo to make the people at Kiss feel the pain I felt today when trying to use their player. What piece of shit!



I rarely actually wonder if I can get voodoo magic to work but lately I have been noticing how horribly superstitious I am. So I pride myself of not believing in God, but I still blindly believe in various other things that make even less sense. I have started tracking myself a little bit in the hope I will be able to drop this silliness. Few of the things that I do or feel superstitious about:

• I make a wish upon all eyelashes that fall off.
• I knock on wood and say 7, 9, 13 every time I state that something bad has never happened to me. This is supposed to prevent it from happening right after you say something like that.
• I feel bad if I open an umbrella inside.
• I don't start a new job on a Monday (I actually asked to start the job at Opera on a Tuesday instead of a Monday).
• I feel uneasy on Friday the 13th.
• I feel uneasy if a black cat runs in front of me.
• I get upset every time I dream about water (always been told it is bad and means death or sickness).

Then I own two sets of Tarot cards... and the other day I just _had_ to rotate one of my coffee cups three times over my head, blow into with a cross like movement, and put it upside down on my heater. Why? Well of course, to read the future from the pictures formed by the dried coffee...



The question is how dangerous are these? I have lectured myself that blind faith is dangerous but can I excuse these weirdnesses of mine as being harmless? I am hoping that by exposing my superstitious behavior that I will be ashamed enough of myself to I stop doing these things. So now flog me, make me embarrassed:-)!

The world is a bleak place these days with all kinds of conflicts and wars. While I think most people wish to make the world a better place and that we all got along, others seem to want to stir up things and cause problems. These are probably the biggest threat we have against living in some kind of harmony right now.



The story about target="_blank">Muslims being upset by the new Apple building in New York has been circling the online newspapers. Apparently they were furious that the building bore some resemblance to the sacred Ka'ba in Mecca and though it was an insult to Islam.



I blew my anger fuse when I read that. Thought it was idiotic and way out of line to get offended by a building that had nothing to do with them.



Luckily I started researching a bit more and found out that this story wasn't based on a very strong foundation. It was reported by an organization called the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which translates Arab speaking web sites and online newspapers. In short, it seems like they found a statement on a web site (they do not say which web site) urging people to react against this insult to Islam. This has since been blown out of proportion.



Reading a bit more and you find that this organization has been accused of trying to stir up things to cause trouble in the past. So now Muslims have been wrongly colored because maybe one idiot wrote something on their web site. Hey, they should be allowed their fair share of insignificant idiots like any other religion without anyone assuming their words are the beliefs of the majority.



So that blew my second fuse and I got angry and irritated at this MEMRI organization. I have been blowing more fuses all day just thinking about this.



This strengthens my suspicion that the media cannot be trusted and that you need to do some checking before getting upset or starting to judge people. The problem is that we cannot use all out time double checking every story we read. Shouldn't the media have some kind of obligations to check their sources? I can promise you that not many will print an update to this story admitting they were wrong since that isn't as juicy as the original story.



Maybe the solution is to only start reading "quality" Norwegian journalism which only put idiotic stories on their front page such as about a dog loosing 30 kilos...

I am not sure what is worse. The Popes idiot statement that only evil has come from Islam or the fact that some Muslims are using violence to show their disapproval for his statement by for example attacking churches. How can the Pope which is the head representative of a religion that has done so many horrendous things in the past make such statement about another religion? How in the world does anyone think it is the correct way to respond to an utterly ignorant statement with attacking churches? Both sides are being major hypocrites!



Arg! Civilized countries are uniting and trying to agree on common ground when it comes to laws and human rights. Why aren't religions heading in the same direction?

For some unexplained reason I started talking about the fact that I was a member of the Icelandic church on my way back from the post office yesterday. Since I am quite obviously an atheist that conversation ended in me claiming that I need to resign as a member.



When I came home I found something in my mail box that I have never received before and that gave me a slightly creepy feeling. A invitation to masses of the Icelandic congregation here in Oslo I couldn't stop my silly head from wondering whether this was some kind of sign.



This morning I managed to sleep through the church bells that have woken me up every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock since I moved here. I happily ceased the opportunity to decide that this was a sign that yesterdays letter meant nothing.



I have freed my head from believing in things like religion. Next on list has to be superstition!

I wrote about Jennifer Smith last week. A girl that was kidnapped at the age of 14, kept hostage in a brothel for six years or until a man she later marries saves her.

I got one good comment to my blog entry which said many interesting and intelligent things. Not surprisingly it said pretty much what I had expected. The comment brings out the important fact that there would be a lot of emotions involved so it is difficult to predict the exact outcome but the general theme in the comment was compassion for the girl.

My simple prediction doesn't involve too many emotional details. I would think that if I were Jennifer's parents I would be overjoyed and try to do everything in my power to help her get back on track with her life and to help her heal her wounds. In addition, I would make sure that the police made sure the people responsible were punished. If I were the police I would do anything in my power to make sure they get the punishment they deserve. In the shoes of John Wilson's family, I might be a bit more skeptical. I would probably worry that she has gone through too many difficult things to be able to give my beloved son a happy life. At the same time I think I would think it was romantic (after I got over the shock that my son had been in a brothel that is). So some skepticism, lots of relief and happiness and enormous anger towards the criminals.

Now what if I told you that Jennifer couldn't go back to her family and even had to hide from them because they want kill her? What if I would tell you that the police is trying to send Jennifer back to the brothel since the brothel owner pretends that he was married to Jennifer? And that John Wilson's family isn't much more helpful and that his brother-in-law is threatening to divorce his sister just because of this. Sounds like bullshit doesn't it?

Unfortunately, the girl I have been calling Jennifer is really Aisha Parveen and John Wilson is Akram. They are live in Pakistan where traditions are drastically different from what we know.

The worst is to read about this and know that there is nothing that you can do to help her. Such cruelty towards a young girl which has been kidnapped and abused is incomprehensible. The entire story is sad and cruel but the biggest monster in my minds are her family. How is it possible to want to kill your child which has done nothing but be at the wrong place at the wrong time?

I just couldn't resist after seeing one of the quiz in Tiram's latest blog entry. Anyone surprised?

Which religion is the right one for you?
created with QuizFarm.com

My new/old family member...

Rijk pointed me towards an interesting documentary “The Root of All Evil” by Richard Dawkins. After having watched both episodes I would like to recommend it to anyone interested in religion. Dawkins pointed out some interesting things that I had not thought much about before. Such as why do we inherit the religion of our parents? Is it really right to lock your child into your views, and for example replace their science education with theology education?



You can watch a fragment of the series in which a frightening person with self confidence at the size of a whale discusses how he is great and how evolution cannot be true. This is the leader of America's National Association of Evangelicals. It is extremely frustrating to watch somebody be this ignorant of their own ignorance. There are more equally narrow minded people interviewed in the two episodes.



The only complaints I had about this series was that it was a bit too one sided and that he had too little understanding for the reason why people believe. It is important to remember that not everyone is as fortunate as we are and faith can help people to keep on going. In other words it doesn't have to be a bad thing as long as it isn't blind faith.



To find more info about the show follow this link. Then if you are even more interested you could try visiting *cough*, *cough*. »

• mediumgeek's blog
• 12 comments

My feeling that the world is in reverse gear is intensifying every day. After seeing few cartoons causing a major uproar in the world I am becoming more and more aware how we are moving backward. It is scaring me!



Few cases I have picked up or been told about in the last two days.



Higher Ground Academy (kindergarten) in Minnesota has been forced into banning drawings of living creatures. So no more stick figure drawings of the family on the refrigerator?



South Dakota has passed law which bans abortion (also including in the cases of incest and rape).



40% of UK Muslims' want Sharia Law laws.



Added to this is the entire controversy surrounding the cartoons and how we are being pressed into making laws against criticizing or mocking Islam (or religion in general). We have the whole conflict in USA schools where people don't want evolution to be thought but rather something that fits better with the Bible. We have seen the Catholic church go out and lie that condoms have holes and that is why they shouldn't be used to protect against AIDS.



These few cases are obviously just the tip of the iceberg. What I do have a hard time understanding is how can we be this ignorant in a world that is getting increasingly more open and educated? Especially because these cases are all from the supposedly educated Western world. This is not the same as the Malawi widow cleansing practice where the people simply don't know any better since they live in a harsh world with limited opportunities.