Islam, A Religion Of Peace?

Sorry folks, I ain't buying it. Oh, not because of the existence of Islamic fundamentalism (there are nutjobs everywhere), but because of stories, like this one, concerning "main stream" Islam: Why is this 'Conservative' News?

It appears that the following story is “conservative” news or, even worse, “Christian” news.

I cannot figure out why this is the case. Readers, perhaps you can enlighten me.

It seems, to me, that this is a story that combines elements of women’s rights and freedom of religion, both of which are strong themes in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Old-fashioned liberals used to have strong feelings about these kinds of human-rights issues.

Here is a short report from a Christian news source. Notice, however, that the report originated with mainstream-media sources in the region:

Reports are coming in of increasing persecution of Christian believers in the Saudi Arabia. A Saudi man recently cut the tongue of his daughter and burned her to death for converting to Christianity, according to a report by the United Arab Emirates-based Gulf News. The victim frequently wrote on various Web site blogs about her conversion from Islam. It is believed that she converted to Christianity after learning about the faith on the Internet and through Christian media.

The girl’s father is an employee of Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the arm of the government that enforces the nation’s prohibition of Christianity and conversion to Christianity. Sources close to the victim said that the father was being investigated for “honour killing” rather than murder, Gulf News reported. Shariah-ruled Saudi Arabia, where all Christian worship is forbidden, is ranked No. 2 on Open Doors’ 2007 World Watch List of nations where Christians are persecuted for their faith.

Under the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, apostasy is punishable by death if the accused does not recant.

The answer of course is ideological. The media would rather not cover human rights abuses done by Muslims against Jew or, especially, Christians because they have a world view that requires their myopia. For some reason, for these people, standing silent while human beings are butchered because of their faith is counted as tolerance.

Of course it isn't "tolerance." In fact, the silence of the media is so damning they are close to being accomplices.

Large segments of Islam are fundamentally at war with the Human Rights Conventions embraced by most of the rest of the world. This is happening not only in the villages and caves of Afghanistan, but also in the spiritual heartland of Mecca, and the cities and towns of Europe and North America, where the murdering of children is held up as something "honorable" instead of being recognized as the barbarism it very clearly is.

Real "peace" is a matter of deeds not words.