“A Nigerian Muslim state said Tuesday it had issued a “fatwa” urging a death sentence for the author of a newspaper story on the Miss World pageant that sparked deadly riots in northern Nigeria.”
“What we are saying is that the Holy Koran has clearly stated that whoever insults the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad, should be killed,” Zamfara State Commissioner for Information Umar Dangaladima Magaji told Reuters."
He’s right - the Quran is very specific on this issue, in several places.
From Travel Sick: “Would I do it? Would I risk a fatwa? Or rather, just a wa since I’m already quite fat.”
It’s true that fundamentalist loonies want to turn every country into a theocracy (including fundamentalist Christians in the US) and that fundamentalists everywhere are capable of terrorist acts (what other word describes the murder of abortion doctors?) However, if the West has/had problems, the Muslim world may have it considerably worse. How are you going to have freedom of speach in a Muslim country with the Koran teaching stuff like this? I haven’t studied the Koran per se (although I studied Central Asian history and Islam in general), but it seems that some aspects of it are a severe stumbling block to attaining those principles that we hold near and dear. Women’s rights. Freedom of the press. It all becomes possible if you first make some kind of separation of Church and State, but from what I’m hearing the Koran even manages to make this more difficult. At least we have Jesus telling us to render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s and unto God that which is His.
