By their deeds

Someone please tell me why I should spend one second being tolerant of Islam or give a shit about Africa?

From the November 21, 2008 edition of The Week “The World At A Glance…International” :

Kismayu, Somalia
Rape victim stoned to death: Islamic fundamentalists brutally executed a 13-year-old girl who was convicted of adultery for being raped by three men, the United Nations confirmed last week. Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was visiting her grandmother when she sought out the rebel militia that controls the city of Kismayu to report that she’d been raped; that amounted to a confession in the eyes of the sharia court. “The evidence came from her side and she officially confirmed her guilt,” said the presiding cleric, Sheikh Hayakalah. Duhulow was reportedly dragged screaming into a soccer stadium in front of crowd of 1,000 people, buried up to her neck, and stoned for more than 10 minutes by 50 executioners. Militia members fired on a few people who tried to intervene, killing an 8-year-old boy. The rapists were not arrested.

Yes, I know Christianity’s history is not unblemished with similar crimes. This just encourages my belief that organized religion is the least beneficial thing human beings have ever invented.

And yes, I understand academically that the only way to make change is to make change, to try to educate people, to try to help those whom others would hold down, but what’s the point at which it’s OK to just throw up your hands and abandon people to their own greed, stupidity, and well, evil? At what point to people just become beyond reform?

Today is one of those days when I agree with Ellen Ripley: Let’s take off a nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.