Bearded Savage of the Day – Number 57 – Syrian religious tolerance edition

Bearded savage panel

If you look behind the words of peace that come from the mouths of Islamic apologists and examine human rights in the nations where Islam holds poltiical and cultural sway, you can begin to judge Islam by its actions rather than its words.

To see Islam in action especially in relation to the position of those who follow minority religions within Islamic societies, one need only look to the situation in Syria, which threatens to become a charnal house for religious minorities in that country. Syria is seeing the rebels opposed to the Government of Bashar Al Assad, morphing from ‘freedom fighters’ to ‘mentalist violent jihadist’s ‘ very quickly indeed.

All the Islamic masks of false moderation are starting to slip and under the rifle barrels of the Syrian rebels, shrines belonging to the Syrian Shite minority and Christian churches are learning, as so many other minorities have learned, that the Qu’ranic verse: ‘There shall be no compulsion in religion’, is nothing more than lies.

The Gulf News website says:

“Beirut: Rebels in Syria have burned and looted the religious sites of minorities, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, as the longest and deadliest of the Arab Spring revolts becomes increasingly sectarian.

In the northern Idlib province, where rebels have taken swathes of territory from government forces, the New York-based rights group said opposition fighters destroyed a Shiite “hussainiya” — a religious site devoted to Hussain, a martyr in Shiite tradition.

A video published online showed rebels hoisting assault rifles in the air and cheering as the site in the village of Zarzour, taken by rebels in December, burned in the background. In the video, which Reuters cannot independently verify, one man announces the “destruction of the dens of the Shiites and Rafida,” a derogatory term used against Shiites.

Human Rights Watch said local rebel fighters had blamed Syria’s government for the damage but residents said the insurgents had started the fire when they took control of the village. In the western Latakia province, Human Rights Watch quoted residents as saying gunmen working “in the name of the opposition” had broken into and stolen from Christian churches in two villages.A resident in Jdeideh, one of the villages, reported that gunmen had broken into the local church, stolen and fired shots inside, after government troops had fled, the rights group said. Local rebels denied they attacked the church, it added.“While the motivation for the church break-ins may have been theft rather than a religious attack, opposition fighters have a responsibility to protect religious sites in areas under their control from willful damage and theft,” Human Rights Watch said.”

Is this another example of Islamic ‘tolerance’ and ‘morals’ that has given us the Pakistani Christian bashing, the ongoing murder of Christians in Nigeria, the oppression of Sufi’s in Mali, the genocidal anti-Semitism of the Saudis, the Maldevian banning of bibles and the mass rapes of British young women and girls. If someone who supported an ideology that has done all that, then I would be very wary of calling them friend or taking their words at face value. To make an analogy: If someone was very keen to promote Stalinism or had a belief that North Korea was a paradise on earth, you would probably compare their words with the evidence, you would notice that there was a disconnect between their words and reality. We also need to notice the disconnect between the words of Islam and the stinking oppressive reality.

Lets face it, apologists for Islam lie to promote the cause of Islam. Lets look at the actions of violence perpetrated by the followers of Islam and give less weight in our hearts and in our minds to the honeyed words of peace emenating from the excusers and promoters of Islam. We should treat assurances of peace and civility from Islamic groups with more caution than we have in the past.

I’ve been very seriously lied to by representatives of a Mosque (oh no we don’t host ‘hate preachers’ here, sort of thing) in the past over a community politics issue, I don’t intend to fall for such lies again. I hope you don’t either.

Link

Gulf News website article on sectarianism in Syria

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/syria/rebels-accused-of-attacking-religious-sites-1.1136685