Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was a 13-year-old Somali girl who committed the 'unforgivable crime' of being gang-raped by three men and then reporting it to the local authorities in the Kiyasmu region, the al-Shabab militia. Under certain interpretations of Islam, letting oneself be raped is akin to adultery, and the punishment for adultery in Kiyasmu is death by stoning.
On October 27, 2008, Aisha was dragged before a crowd of over 1,000 spectators in a stadium at the southern port of Kiyasmu where she would be buried up to her neck in a hole in the ground while 50 men threw stones at her head until she died.
The full story came from this link if you want to read further, but I strongly urge you not to; you will get the same point by reading the paragraph above, but it will turn your stomach and your head into a spin for the degree of the senseless brutality. .
http://open.salon.com/blog/kemstone/2010/10/26/aisha_and_humanity
These are my comments:
"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. " - Voltaire
"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities." - Voltaire
While Islam is part of the problem, the root cause is ourselves for allowing, believing and buying Snake Oil Salesmen's products, without imposing due diligence and responsibility to first double check their statements with sound, reasonable thoughts, and/or verified by impartial/neutral scientifically repeatable tests or by at least repeatable personal experience.
It is even worse when most of us give up completely our autonomy and power of thought to someone else or other groups even when we clearly see the absence of proof, but worse even when we see the proof of their lies. That prolonged event of having given our power, that prolonged ability to NOT think reasonably and allow others to do the thinking for us, that unrealistic, blind obedience to an imaginary being (who somehow need men to write their laws for HIM) is exactly what allows the kind of atrocities we experience and also prevents us from acting to stop it.
And if you think that it is only a problem with "certain" Religions, ie, we Christians don't believe in "that", think again. Not all Muslims believe in "that" either. But both your books are full of atrocities committed in the name of God or by God himself, an imaginary entity conveniently invisible, yet somehow able to create other visible things. A complete contradiction. A Loving God, but also a genocidal maniac. And yet, there you all are, following along like sheep, your wolfs dressed like shepherds, stoning Aishas in one form or another, in many different degrees of cruelty, but still, stoning. When was the last time you degraded (stoned) a Homosexual for looking like one, acting like one, being like one, denying the facts that they are born like that, denying them to have the same rights you have, under our Constitution, and allowing old books written by men more than 2000 years ago to tell you how to think about it now. When was the last time you stared down (stoned) a Muslim entering your store, cafe, restaurant, just for being a Muslim? Before that it was other Americans but according to you, of less denomination, like Black people, Hispanics, Chinese and Japanese origins, etc, before that it was Native Americans, women, and so one.
Every time you allow someone else to command you how and what to think, and/or believe, in the absence of reasonable evidence and thought, you will become slowly but surely an Aisha's stoner directly or indirectly. You too can get to a point where you no longer will have the ability to distinguish Reality from Imaginary.
Rise above sheep status. Fight ignorance. It is your responsibility to learn all you can learn and act accordingly. It is your human responsibility to make informed decisions. The information is available, you have no excuses.
Most people in the World would have tried to protect Aisha, or anyone in a similar situation of less or more severity, although I fear they would have retreated as well, in the presence of bullets and fear of losing their own lives, or much less severe consequences like just "looking bad" in their own religious congregations when they see wrong doing, remaining silent when priests were sexual abusing boys, etc, etc. Let's hope those that thought what happened to Aisha was wrong, chose to remain alive in order to fight the Religion and sub Regimes that they allowed to control their actions and thoughts for so long. I hope they still have the necessary tools to think for themselves and retake their brain and thoughts as their own.
If you want to help the other thousands of the Aisha's of the World, the most effective way is to start with your own Religion, or Congregation, within your own city, friends, and family. Their disapproval for you acting on what you already know is wrong with the Religion you were born with is nothing compared to bullets and stoning. Have courage. People can and will change. Start in your own backyard. Eventually, it will reach Aisha.
There is an indirect correlation between your actions or lack thereof and what happens in the rest of the World, just like a stone dropped in a tranquil lake produces emanating waves far reaching beyond the spot the stone was dropped. Your words of disapproval or Reasoning today, or questions to long held beliefs that don't make sense to you anymore in your Religion may make others shake the foundations of their Religion clear across the Globe. Start with yourself, move on to your spouse, your children, brothers and sisters, parents, and friends, your Church [Extra Bonus if you don't have one! :-)]. They will do the same in turn. We must each do our part. Start with your turf.
Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, you sweet precious little girl, it wasn't your fault at all honey. It was ultimately our fault. I hope you are in a safe and loving place now, and if your soul returns to Earth, I hope we will have made it a better place for you by then.
For the rest of you, it hardly matters if you believe in reincarnation or the above as a metaphor, because there will surely be many more Aishas coming to this World. Could you please make sure that at least your world is ready for her?
Is it? Does your world still believe that Gays are an abomination just because some book said so? Do they think most American Muslims are terrorists, and do they treat them as such? Do you allow that? Do you remain silent when you hear your own friends or family talk crap like that? Are you afraid for your life if you stood up to them or just lack the courage to do the right thing? Are you afraid or ready to leave your religious congregation that no longer speaks for you? Are you actively seeking a new one or actively on your own brave path? Well, if you answered NO to courage to any of these questions, can you see that if you can't even do these simple actions when you have Rights and Protection from the Law AND have a vast amount of unbiased information at your disposal, what do you expect of people born in Somalia? How can THEY change or have the courage to change their well established beliefs, when they have no rights, no protection, and any other information but the one being provided by their "God" ? Do you think that our American Rights, Law and Information we now have came from the Religions around us, or despite their existence? Why do you think our Founding Fathers sought to separate Church from Government? For your own good, fight ignorance, question belief systems, do not give up your Reasoning, your mind, your thoughts to anyone person or group, or sooner or later we won't only be able to help the Somalias of the World, but we will certainly become one.
