Religion of peace 17, singers and dancers, nil

There is some terrible news from Afghanistan, where followers of the ‘religion of peace’ have murdered seventeen people by beheading them for the horrendous anti Koranic crime of singing and dancing. Such nefarious activities violate the principles of Islam because, it is claimed that partying distracts people from that which really matters in society, devotion to the appropriate sky fairy.

Most religions tend to concentrate on the concept of virtue and are in the main a reasonable guide to living a good life by those precepts. The downside is that if people concentrate too much on faith, and not enough on their own personal judgment, just about anything can be justified with a clear conscience. In this case, the result was brutal murder:

The Taliban beheaded 17 people, including two women, for attending a mixed-gender party where there was music and dancing, Afghan officials reported today. The decapitated bodies were abandoned at a roadside in southern Afghanistan, according to Mullah Sharafuddin, the governor of Kajaki district in Helmand province.

All 17 bodies, including those of two women, were decapitated, but it was not clear if they had been shot first. Afghan President Hamid Karzai denounced that killings as an "inhuman act and against all Islamic principals.”

During Taliban rule, most types of music were made illegal, and anyone caught attending a mixed-gender party faced stiff punishment, including death in the most extreme cases. …

One of the grave dangers of allowing the teachings of religion into a nation’s legal system is the removal of rational thinking from the process of law making. A truly just system of laws is based on principles of preventing coercive actions against law-abiding citizens, tempered by the mores of society. In this way, the responsibility for the laws of the land rests squarely in the hands of the legislators alone.

The introduction of a ‘higher’ authority negates personal responsibility from the process. Those enacting laws can then use the schizophrenic’s defense of, “God made me do it,” or alternatively, “it is written in the (insert appropriate holy book here.)”

There have been efforts among Islamic zealots in Australia for the introduction of Sharia law. Notable among these is Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon with his Sharia4australia campaign. Such a system of law is completely against any concept of law recognized in this country, and has no place in a free society.

Law should be consensual, not based on the prejudices of the local religious zealot.