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Religion
"I will continue to speak out for justice and human rights"
Some time back I wrote about a fellow Culture Kitchen blogger, Leo Igwe, whose blogging has gotten him and his family beaten up repeatedly. He is a Nigerian who stands up against both Christian and Muslim fundamentalism in Africa and stands up for reason and science. His main crusades have been fighting against child abuse in the name of religion. For his efforts he has been harassed by the police and beaten by mobs. But he keeps fighting even as the attempts to silence him have escalated.
The latest attack was a couple of weeks ago when his mother and father were beaten in their own house. His father lost an eye. I am on vacation now so not blogging so much, but I have to post the latest from Leo: despite these repeated attacks, he has vowed to keep fighting. The latest Culture Kitchen diary by Leo Igwe is reposted below with further background on Leo and his efforts.
The recent attack on my family which led to my father's loss of one eye was an unfortunate development. It was yet another attempt to intimidate us and undermine our campaign for justice.
To any intelligent observer of the trends in Nigeria, this incident would not have come as a surprise. Because Nigeria has practically been taken over by thugs, hoodlums, kidnappers and bandits.
Nigeria is held hostage by forces of dark age and barbarism. Anything that appears to be civil or enlightened about Nigeria is mainly on the surface. Since independence Nigeria has been descending gradually into anomie, anarchy and criminality. Nigeria has derailed and deteriorated due to misrule, bad governance, collective irresponsibility and insensitivity, lack of vision and thoughtfulness, selfishness, greed, ignorance, hypocrisy and self deceit. Nigeria has failed to put in place institutions that treat the people in a fair, just and dignified manner. Nigeria has failed to adopt effective mechanisms to reward those who want to live honest, decent, diligent and dignified lives. Nigeria has failed to cultivate and institutionalize those values that make a nation great, relevant and prosperous.
At best, Nigeria pays lip service to these values. The government is irresponsive and irresponsible. The educational system is in shambles. The justice system is nothing to write home about. The value system has collapsed. The greatest tragedy is that most Nigerians have resigned to this ‘fate’. They think that nothing can be done to change or improve the situation; that no radical or reasonable change can be realized. Most Nigerians have given up hope- hope of realizing a decent and dignified life; hope for justice and fairness for all; hope for recognition and respect for their rights. Fear, despair, gloom, pessimism and cynicism loom throughout the country.
The public institutions are used to oppress and exploit the public. The power of the people is used to abuse, enslave and maltreat the people. read more »
To block the construction of any mosque is to glorify Al-Qeda
Michael Daly nails it with today's op/ed piece. From It's an emotional issue, but blocking the Ground Zero mosque is just what the terrorists want:
Even now, after all our mistakes, after we let Bin Laden slip away in Afghanistan and lost our focus going into Iraq, Al Qaeda is still more a gang than an army.
It is still so small that its new operations chief, Adnan Shukrijumah, met personally with the knuckleheads who planned to bomb the subway last September.
When the previous operations chief, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured, he was not surrounded by a host of terrorists. He had nary a bodyguard when he was rousted from bed in his underwear at the house where he was hiding out like what he was, a murderer on the run.
We have since built him into a figure of such awesome evil that we are afraid to try him in downtown Manhattan like what he is, a murderer who has been caught.
We have glorified Al Qaeda in the same way, but to reach its ultimate goal, it still needs us to convince the majority of Muslims that the war on terror is really a war on Islam.
We are only helping the bad guys if we declare that the religious freedom at the core of our democracy does not apply to a mosque too close to Ground Zero. read more »
Mayor Bloomberg on why Cordoba House and Religious Freedom are important to New York City
You all know that I am not a fan of Michael Bloomberg. That is not going to stop me from applauding him when he is 100% right on an issue such as the building of Córdoba House two blocks Ground Zero.
Thank you Mayor Bloomberg, for voicing your opposition to the Islamophobe bigots with such a loud and clear voice.
From Mayor Bloomberg Stands Up For Mosque »:
Our doors are open to everyone – everyone with a dream and a willingness to work hard and play by the rules. New York City was built by immigrants, and it is sustained by immigrants – by people from more than a hundred different countries speaking more than two hundred different languages and professing every faith. And whether your parents were born here, or you came yesterday, you are a New Yorker.
We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life and it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11.
No one should be asked to leave their neighborhood. This is our neighborhood and we've been part of it for 27 years. Our opponents are not from this neighborhood.
read more »
On Hitler's Birthday in 1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
One of my annual diaries (when I remember to do them) is honoring the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising during WW II, which happened to coincide with Hitler's birthday on April 20th. I happen to feel that it was a particularly good birthday present for Hitler: the defeat of his elite force by a bunch of half starved, barely armed Jews. In 1943, it also coincided with Passover. Passover came earlier this year, but I can think of no better expression of the Passover tradition than the Warsaw uprising against Nazi Germany.
A few years ago, at a Seder we attended, the hostess compiled her own Haggadah for the evening. Within it she included something that seemed out of place and too modern...except that it was perfectly appropriate for a night that in 1943 was the Passover Seder, such as it was, just before the Warsaw uprising. In her photocopied Haggadah she included this (source unknown): read more »
THEY DON’T GET IT; DO THEY?
This is the Easter weekend: the most holy in the in the Christian calendar. Holier than the Christmas celebrations even, because -if research serves me right- what now passes as the Christmas holiday, was originally a pagan holiday co-opted by Christian tradition(s). Research even goes as far as suggesting that December 25th is nowhere close to the day or season of Christ’s birth.
Many believe that Easter celebrates the period when Christ rose from the dead (for reasons nebulous to non-believers of course), and is the most important aspect of the ideology. In Christian theology, it is supposed to be symbolic of a major sacrifice made for the eternal redemption of believers. In a country like this -which claims to laud religious freedom- people are entitled to their religious beliefs. As such, protections of these beliefs are enshrined in the constitution, and have been upheld by the highest court of the land (Supreme Court) many times over, but sometimes you wonder why most people refuse to objectively analyze the things they claim to believe in. read more »
On This Day
