What continues to amaze me ...
What continues to amaze me is the argument for Shia and other "spiritual laws" based on the alleged evils of temptation and how they are supposed to prevent men from taking advantage of women against their will. But the reality is that the laws and spirit are utterly reversed, used to give the men the right to physically and sexually abuse the women, in utter disregard for the original spirit. It does not surprise me that some of the most Shia-centric and Islamic-centric nations are some of the biggest abusers of women, and it's commonly related linearly to their levels of education as well.
It's the same non-sense when it comes to the characterizations of Muhammad. Muhammad did not want to be idolized and symbolized in his physical form because he saw what it had done to other prophets in other religions, especially Christianity. He felt it only put himself before the message, so he forbid his followers from doing so. But today when people exercise their "free speech" by making jests by characterizing Muhammad with pictures of objects totally unrelated to even a human form, a great number of citizens in Islamic-Shia centric nations go nuts, complain about intolerance and utterly show they do not understand their own, spiritual basis.
I see a lot of Christians being hypocrites. But one thing that saves the United States, even given the fact that the Anglo-American judicial system and basis may have some foundations in Judaic law, there is an entire rule that faith and spiritual believe cannot take precedence over individual freedom and the protection against the violation of others. We've managed to take our history, our ancestry and other, strongly tied beliefs and put them aside to ensure in no case anyone's rights are violated, regardless of creed, culture or religion. Now we've been far from perfect, and have painted ranges of "exclusion" over the centuries (e.g., blacks, women, etc...), but we have come to the foundation, although it is still being tuned, that this is an universal reality.
We still argue over fiscal and other inequality, educational opportunities and the bias of generations that have set some demographics at a clear disadvantage. But we have realized that the spiritual guidance and beliefs of one individual should remain with that one individual, and those who join the individual in the same beliefs of their own, free will. Even the most radical Christianity text speaks of the need for men to earn the respect and trust of women, that it is gained and chosen by and of the woman, and not that women are submissive to men by law.
Although Islam has not had a monopoly on such, not even in the 20th Century. I'm still amazed at all of the horror and shame people throw at the United States for dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan, forgetting the gross transgressions of the male, Japanese soldier who claimed superiority over cultures and women they bombed or invaded. Indeed, when challenged by a fair opponent, even when they had a grossly superior number, the Japanese chose to pry on the weak, than deal with American air and other units fighting in China.
If there is one thing I do love about my home nation, it is freedom and independence of its press to continually conflict and criticize my government -- including challenging the notion of our history as always just, always right or otherwise without question. I still no of no other nation where its own media -- often because the US media is not driven by public funding (unlike every other nation, let alone publicly controlled) -- where this is the reality. It prevents many things from starting, because things are questioned. I wish this on every other nation in the world, for how many injustices are rarely exposed elsewhere?
