Quote:
Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
A couple of things:
1. I brought it up because, weeks ago, we were discussing whether or not the propensity to commit serious violence in the name of Islam was accepted by a large number of Muslims such that there was a lack of outspoken resistance by Muslims to violent acts committed in the name of Islam (or worse outright support of such violent acts). This would seem to demonstrate that both of our points in that the such violence is viewed as acceptable by many and, that there are those who are speaking out against such violence.*
2. It is not at all clear to me that the strong reaction is due to the public, violent mob-killing of a person or whether is was due to the public, violent killing of a person who was innocent of burning the pages of the Koran. It would seem to me that if it was the latter, and that is a strong possibility given the coverage I've seen and read, then what kind of change has been ignited? A move towards only instantly killing those who actually blaspheme?
TM
*And yes, I do recall being encouraged by the many examples we went over here of Muslims speaking out against religious violence.
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I tried to answer in the context of some of that discussion.
Would it help you to know that now, a few days after this event, they have identified and arrested 18 people in that mob and that they have suspended 30 police officers and are holding 17 of those police officers for questioning? I would have liked to have seen Holder do that here. That's a lot of outspoken resistance. Likewise, Farkhunda's funeral was a lot of outspoken resistance. This in a country where there are armed religious fundamentalists a couple hours drive away or closer ready to punish such resistance with violence in the dead of night.
A lot of the facts in the times article may not be accurate. A lot of other press has indicated that initial reports that she was mentally troubled are not accurate, for example. What precisely is the movement for change and how might it be coopted? I think that's a hard question to answer contemporaneously from a half world away relying only on reporting in English. But it is clearly a BFD in Afghanistan right now. Probably a Bigger More Fucking Deal than Ferguson ever was here.
If you want to look at propensity to commit violence across large groups of people, I would warn you that most statistical surveys will show the US is the one of the most violent countries in the world outside of active war zones. Our murder rate last year was higher than Afghanistan's. If you look at deaths in custody, we're competing with some of the most repressive dictatorships in the world. If you look at death sentences by courts, we're once again in the company of notorious police states. We should be careful about throwing stones.
