Stardate 20020829.1318

(On Screen): One of the reasons I am disgusted by a lot of multiculturalist rhetoric is because those mouthing it seem to have abandoned any kind of sense of moral outrage. That's not actually true, of course; they seem to have no difficulty being outraged at the US.

Their mantra is that all cultures are equally valid, and when someone from another culture acts in a way we don't understand, that for us to condemn it is wrong. We have to understand it within the context of their culture, and accept that their ways are just as good as our ways, even if they're different.

That's a fine philosophy stated in the abstract. But as the details of life in the Islamic world have come to light, there's been a deafening silence from such people about the sheer brutality and barbarity of some of their customs, particularly in how they treat their women.

You'd think that those in the Women's Studies departments in the major universities, and activists in the Women's Rights movement, would be in the forefront as supporters of our war against Islamic extremism, based on the kind of hell that strict enforcement of Sharia makes life for anyone with two X chromosomes, but far from condemning their practices, some of their most prominent lights in the movement have come out condemning the war. (A particularly egregious example was when Gloria Steinem was a signatory to the brave condemnation of the US which was published in the Guardian because no American publication dared print such a controversial blah blah blah...)

I think you'd find few subjects more likely to unify the voices on the left than the issue of the use of Capital Punishment by the US for certain crimes. Some states still use older means of execution (particularly the gas chamber and the electric chair) but most states now which execute prisoners do so via lethal injection, where the condemned is injected with three different drugs in quantities such that each alone would be expected to kill. The first one is invariably a barbiturate (sodium thiopental) which knocks the condemned out cold in an instant. It's the same thing that most vets use to mercifully euthanize an animal when it becomes necessary. (Then two additional substances are injected which will also ensure death; one paralyzes breathing, the other stops the heart.)

Whether there should be executions or not is one question, but there can be no doubt that we are using the least painful means of carrying out executions out that is currently available. Such cannot be said of Islamic nations which enforce strict Sharia. Traditional forms of execution range from public decapitation with a sword, to having a wall pushed over onto the condemned, to death by stoning.

That's the punishment meted out to convicted adulterers. It is a violation of Sharia to have sex out of wedlock, and because the usual way that it's detected is by an unfortunate pregnancy, this law is disproportionately enforced against women. After all, if an unmarried woman is pregnant, there's only one way it could have happened. But it's not as simple to prove that a man has been fooling around, especially if you don't take the woman's word for it.

In one high profile case, a Nigerian woman who became pregnant was condemned to death by stoning. The man she accused of being the father of the child was not convicted because of lack of evidence. Her attorneys appealed the case, and now the Sharia equivalent of an appeals court has upheld the sentence. But in their mercy, the courts have stayed the execution until after the baby has been weaned, which will probably be about the time she's three, and old enough to remember her mother after the mother has been killed. Then they'll bury this women in the ground with only her head and neck exposed, and throw large rocks at her until the damage to her skull has reached the point of killing her.

The President of Nigeria says he still hopes the sentence can be overturned, but if it isn't then he will weep for her after she dies. I'm sure that's a great comfort. A Presidential pardon would be an even greater comfort.

And preventing enforcement of Sharia would be the greatest comfort of all. But that would lead to civil war, and Nigeria has enough problems. And in the mean time, the sentences of death-by-stoning for adultery keep on coming. This time it's actually both a man and a woman who have been condemned. It was the fact of the man being condemned that made this newsworthy; most of the women sentenced to this death don't hit the international news.

This is barbarism. The idea of using any kind of corporal punishment (or indeed any kind of legal sanction at all) against adultery is repugnant, and the idea of execution for it is outrageous. To perform such executions in such a cruel manner is beyond any acceptable limits.

This isn't "different", it's worse. They are not different but equal, they are different and inferior. This is not civilization; it's barbarism. The idea of punishing thieves by amputating a hand and a foot is equally cruel and barbaric.

Where are the human rights activists? Where are the l