A new DCM series about people, groups, or nations, that should be launched right off the planet.
This week: Somali Islamists
Over the past several days more information regarding the stoning death of a thirteen year old Somali girl has highlighted the extraordinary impact of Islamist presence in Somalia. The girl was stoned to death in an arena setting with over 1000 purported witnesses, and her crime? She was raped. Islamist militants handed down and administered the
supposed religious verdict accusing the child of adultery and subjecting her to a public and painful death sentence by stoning. These so-called religious men forced the child into a hole, covered her to her neck and then tens of them threw stones at her until she died, screaming, alone, not only a victim of rape, but now a victim of torture as well. There’s a saying in American culture: people in glass houses should not throw stones. Perhaps the Somali Islamists are unfamiliar with this idiom of American culture, but there is no excuse, explanation, or justification for the execution of a child, by this or any means, let alone a victim of a crime. For clarification’s sake I’d like to note for religious zealots of all creed and creation, if you stick your penis in an unwilling participant’s vagina, that’s not adultery, that’s rape, so dig yourselves another hole, and lay down in it so I can kick you in the skull; you should all be ashamed, and then launched directly off the planet to meet whatever creator you believe would reward such heinous and inexplicable acts.
Side note: those who bore witness to this act, get on the bus, because you’re getting launched too.
Up next: Burma
22 responses so far ↓
Posted: Nov 11th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I don’t usually favor such a radical mentality toward a large group of people, but it’s hard to argue for the ICU or al-Shabaab or whatever the militant groups in southern Somalia are called now. The sad part is that after ICU was taken down (thanks to a US backed counterinsurgency) kids in the movement reorganized with the same ferocity. They’re like cockroaches. At the end of the day we’re going to end up gunning down (or “launching”) a bunch of 15 year olds with state of the art weapons who don’t have any idea what they’re fighting for. And the worst part is, if you read about this crap everyday, we don’t even know where they’re coming from… it seems from different reporting that these groups send “troops” back and forth from different parts of the world with increasing regularity. Those regional “troops”/terrorists don’t even have the same Islamic beliefs, but as long as they’re willing to die for their elders, so be it, they send them bombing and stoning and such. It’s like 7th Day Adventists and Catholics teaming up to crucify a 13 year old, even though the two religions look at the cross in completely different ways, with a bunch of crazy poured on top.
Posted: Nov 11th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Again Ali, I think you are overlooking a number of issues, most importantly that if said penis is stuck in the aforementioned unwilling vagina it is BOTH rape AND adultery.
Posted: Nov 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I don’t usually support radical mentality toward a large group of people, but that’s exactly the point, these people, like future launched parties, are directly infringing on the rights of others. Though there are very divergent forms of Islamic extremists, there is one thing that ties them together, absolute hatred of an entire segment of their own populations, the women. Islamists have for years now used manipulated and fundamentalists beliefs to coerce entire groups of young men and brainwash them to believe in their own superiority and the inferiority of their fairer counterparts. I would agree they are young, and misinformed, but they human, and if something inside you isn’t sounding an alarm when they bury a thirteen year old girl, stone her, lift her out of that hole only to discover she’s still alive and then replace her to this same torture, then something’s very wrong, and I’m not sure any God, real or imagined, can save you from that.
Posted: Nov 11th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Also, thanks Tim, you’re right, adultery is very common among thirteen year old virgins.
Posted: Nov 11th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I’m not sure semantics are important here, but I haven’t read that she was a virgin, or that she wasn’t married - regardless of her age. Of course, I’m also pretty sure rape shouldn’t be considered adultery.
Posted: Nov 11th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
From what I understand from my own research and amnesty international, the girl was living at home with her parents, unmarried, her father reported the rape (which was committed by three men) to the authorities who then determined the girl had committed a crime by being “intimate” with someone that was not her husband, however, it should be noted that actual Islamic law prohibits any conviction of girls for the charge of adultery, therefore semantics aside, rape aside, this 13 year old did not violate Islamic law, just Sharia law as dictated by the Islamist militias in control of parts of Somalia.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 11:02 am
According to the American Psychological Association, Adultery is the “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her lawful spouse.” Call me crazy, but I neither think she was willing, nor should she have been charged with adultery. While she was a participant, shouldn’t the male who incidited this act have been the person stoned to death. Because of the ferocity and quickness with which this sentence was carried out, semantics won’t do this girl a bit of good.
There are a few points that haven’t been touched on. In our society, aka the uninhibitited and sex-symbol-filled-western-cult-of-rap society, a 13 year old could very well have been convicted of adultery and statutory rape. However, in the Islamic culture, where something so severe as stoning to death is considered a viable and humane sentence, I doubt very much that this was of the girl’s engineering. Furthermore, the reason the charge was thrust upon her?
Who holds more value in the Sharia culture? Thirteen year old woman, or officer in an army? Clearly, this is a case of Extremist infultration of the Islamic culture. What bothers me so much about this is not the fact that it happened to a 13 year old innocent of any crime. It’s the fact that this is being portrayed as more evidence that Islam is a violent and dangerous culture. Great. More ammo.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 11:57 am
First of all the APA is not a good source for what is or is not considered adultery, adultery is not a psychological problem, and furthermore the interpretation of adultery differs DRAMATICALLY from nation to nation, and in varying religions. That aside, what happen to this child was rape, not adultery, by Islamic law and APA standards she was guilty of nothing. Also, in our “sex-symbol-filled-western-cult-of-rap society” a 13 cannot consent to sex, in any state and therefore it is extraordinarily difficult to convict anyone under consenting ages of rape, let alone adultery, which for the record is not punishable by law in this (United States) society. Semantics are not important here, what is important is that it happen and it is NOT an isolated incident. And though this is a case of extremism infiltrating Islamic culture there is something to be said about the number of cases and circumstances in which women are victimized by variations of Radical Islam. Perhaps if the authorities of the sponsored forms of Islam denounced these acts and attempted to educate their followers as to the real teaching of the Koran, these things would be less common. The facts however are that violence against women in Islamic and radically Islamic states is mind-blowing and Ayatollahs in the middle east not only ignore these problems but in some cases contribute to them. I’m not saying that Islamic culture is the same everywhere, or that it is inherently sexists, but I do think that the religious authorities who do hold power in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic nations are misusing the teachings of the Koran to victimize fifty percent of their populations, I’m sorry, nowhere in the Koran does it say “thou shall not ride in cars with boys.” I’m all about the Koran, it makes sense to me because aside from a slight name change it’s pretty much identical to the Judeo-Christian bible, so the message here is as followed: read the Koran and don’t misinterpret it to suit your radical ideology, all men, and women are created equal, they’re just not treated that way.
Just FYI - some fifteen girls were sprayed in the face with Acid while trying to get to school in Kandahar, that’s not Sharia, or army, that’s radical Islam, again.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Interesting aside. I was looking up ages of consent, because I had heard of 15 year old males being tried for statutory rape, where there was considerable enough age difference to be considered a crime when the two had sex…but wanted to see whether legally, in the middle east the ages of consent for such acts, or the age at which people are considered to be “adults” in the eyes of the law differs. Interestingly enough, in terms of being sexist, Germany considers males to be adults in the case of statutory rape at thirteen, whereas females are not considered to be adults until they’re 16. Other similar countries are Argentina and Cyprus. Tell me why it’s okay for men to have sex at 13? Are they somehow more mature? Or is their prick more developed and that’s the criteria…..
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
There are many underlying issues with ages of consent nationally and internationally, for instance the ages of consent for homosexual sex is often much older than the ages of consent for heterosexual sex. However, your point I think is misleading, the reason for higher ages of consent for women than men, though understandably alarming, is not because of maturity but is actually often because women are so much more likely to be victimized and this is a global fact. With that said, differing ages for consent sends the wrong message on two levels, though it sometimes intends to protect girls from exploitation it also prevents them from having ownership over their bodies until a later age than their male counterparts and is inherently sexists.
Oddly, some feminists would argue that as a result of the significant sexism present both currently and historically, no woman can fully consent to sex ever. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but I do think it’s an interesting point.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Really, Meh? You’re more worried about public perception of a RELIGION (Islam is a religion, not a culture) than a little girl getting stoned to death?
What is your argument for a better perception of Islam? Their people live in parts of the world that are either radically impoverished or swept up in violent chaos, or both. So then I ask, Who cares if a textualist interpretation of the Koran reveals something positive? If a majority of the people following a religion are not helped, but held down, by it, then what good is a proper academic acknowledgment of its teachings? We don’t need to understand something to know whether it’s good or bad; and the stoning to death of a 13 year old girl without repercussion is tantamount to that.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Amen to that Vigga. Don’t hold me down, that’s the principle here, perception aside, point of view be damned, radical interpretation or not, shit ain’t good. You can’t justify it, you can’t explain it, and it’s unacceptable but yet overwhelmingly common.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Maybe we have reached the point where calling it “radical islam” is not appropriate. Radical implies that the offensive, stone-a-victim-to-death interpretation of the Koran is a departure from the norm. But it seems more and more that what would be truly radical is an interpretation of Islam that actually follows the teachings of the Koran. I dunno…semantics I guess, and maybe I just hear about the bad stuff, I do work with some followers of islam who are quite conventional, they don’t throw shit at me
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Don’t hate the game, hate the player? I think so. Conventional Islam is debatable because the real question is: do they throw shit at your female co-workers? That’s the test. The Koran doesn’t scare me, vaginas do.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Vigga,
I am not MORE worried about the perception of a religion (and as an anthropologist, I’d argue that it’s not one to the exclusion of another, but in addition TO the other). I NEVER disagreed with the initial point rhetoricali made. I think if it were up to me, I’d hold the fuckers down and rip their testicles off in public, and then I’d personally chain down the supporters and torture them in kind. I think that any kind of tolerence for the act itself is irresponsible and awful. Rhetoricali said it. She said it eloquently.
I think that she also said that the Koran is a peaceful book. I don’t think that using this to fuel a fire of hate and misunderstanding does anything positive. I don’t honestly know whether I think that Islam followers are more prone to conflict and radicalism because they have been mistaught…or whether the book says anything any more sexist than the old testament does….
I know that I have relatives who lived through the Holocaust. They have prison tatoos on their arms, and they have clothes that are imbued with a gold star. Politically, I agree that dealing with sexism is awful. I went to a church that preached that feminism was bad…a church filled with 200 people taking notes about how it’s wrong to respect women as equal to men because according to the pasteur, “they’re different. Men don’t screech at spiders. And although women can have a career in addition to staying at home, they are more likely to fret when they’re away from their babies.”
I think it’s sick. Is it just as sick as stoning a thirteen year old girl to death? Hell no. Do I have issues with women in a group together? (how many god damned women does it take to pull your pants down and use the restroom?)
Do I still think it’s awful this this is going to be used as ammunition in a fight frought with ignorance? Yeah. Unlike the majority, the people on here think. You’re actually inclined to think and take a gander at all of the mitigating circumstances before condeming an entire people, an entire society…most people aren’t. I think that’s sad. I think it’s atrocious.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
oh…and rhetoricali…it makes a lot more sense. I hadn’t ever really looked at ages of consent before…and was shocked that in every country across the board, it was younger for men than women. To be the devil’s advocate though, I wonder how many cases of rape purpotrated against younger males go unreported in a year…
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
First, and foremost, I think there’s a lot of rape committed against younger males that goes unreported, however, the number of unreported female rapes, statutory and otherwise is still higher.
Second, what’s with the bathroom comment, I don’t really get the whole men get aggravated by women going to the bathroom together, why is it so bothersome, is it because you know we’re talking about you in the bathroom, is it that you’re jealous that we get to go into the ladies room and you don’t? Not sure, all I know is women pee and often in large numbers but it’s not as mysterious as guys tend to imply, and the root of it often stems from the fact that women, from birth, are educated to understand that they should never go to unfamiliar places alone. This gets us back to our original point, men rape women, all the time. Do I hate men? No. Do I hate rapists? Yes. Do I had people to misinterpret religious texts to marginalize women? Also, yes.
The moral of this story is question everything, if you see someone being thrown into a hole and stoned, think to yourself: does this seem right? If you answer yes, perhaps you need some counseling or a kick to the head. If you answered no, then leave the country, unless you’re in Iran, and female, cause they wont let you leave, which super sucks.
Posted: Nov 12th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I think men are jealous of the standards of the ladies room. I know that in my places of work, there are reports of couches and plants in the ladies room while the mens room just has piss on the floor.
Posted: Nov 13th, 2008 at 10:22 am
“What bothers me so much about this is not the fact that it happened to a 13 year old innocent of any crime. It’s the fact that this is being portrayed as more evidence that Islam is a violent and dangerous culture. Great. More ammo.”
Meh, this is the quote I took exception to.
And speaking by definition religions are part of cultures. So taking Islam as an example, the only thing that this population of people spread across Indonesia, India, the Middle East, northern Africa, and Dearborn, Michigan (seriously) have in common culturally-speaking, is religion. Which is why I made the statement that it seems completely arbitrary for people from, say, Indonesia to be fighting alongside people from Somalia. They have nothing in common outside of the religion of Islam, and they don’t even look at that religion through the same lens. They’re just being taken advantage of by leaders who tell them that they’re fighting for the same thing, and now what we’ve ended up with is a war on Islam/terrorism with the two being inextricably linked.
Posted: Nov 14th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Touche, vigga. Btw, rhetoricali, I’m a girl. I could follow you in if I wanted. I choose not to take an entourage to the bathrooms.
Posted: Nov 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Girl or not the bathroom thing is played out and also inherently sexist, I’d prefer you didn’t follow me in though, that’s a little creepy. It’s interesting that we’re talking about girls going to the bathroom together in a post about global sexism and religious misinterpretation, especially since most radically islamic societies don’t permit women to go anywhere, without the escort of a male relative…
Posted: Nov 14th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Also, I don’t think people who are buying people-killing weapons are really the target audience for change and education on racial injustice.
Leave a Reply