Imagine getting jailed for blogging.
Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan is a blogger that is currently in jail in Saudi Arabia. His crime? he criticized religious extremism. Nice! Say something against this religious zealots and you loose your freedom. You get a jail time for disagreeing with the politics of the ruling party. Well, for a place like Saudi Arabia, this incident will not be the first time. people get jail time for a lesser reason than blogging about religious extremism and about people close to the saudi Royal family for supporting it. With that said. let me just say; Saudi Arabia is no different to other countries that tolerates religious extremism, they never left the dark ages when it comes to matters of governance. In these countries, human rights is screwed in all sides.
Sometimes I wonder; Is religion a breeding pool for hate? people kill people because of Religion. How many times have we heard the word Jihad or Holy War in our lifetime? Too many that I loose count. It makes me want to puke everytime I hear these words. Using the name of God for terror is a disgusting.
I am a catholic by virtue of my birth and baptism. I was made to believe that Jesus Christ is God before I heard the name of Allah. I was trained to go to church every sunday. I learned the 10 commandments in school way before I heard the name of Islam as religion. I was in the 5th grade when I learned about the prophet Muhammad in our social studies. But is it my fault that i was born in a catholic community? That i never heard other religion until I was old enough to understand? No. Never.
Right now, somewhere on the other side of the world. A child named Abdullah is learning the Pillars of Islam. He is listening to someone teaching him the words of the prophet Muhammad. He will listen with all his heart and mind. He never heard of Jesus or Christianity yet but it doesnt matter. It will not make him a lesser man. Its not his fault. We christians doesn’t have the right to criticize his religious upbringing. the same way that our Muslim brothers never had the right to criticize us with ours.
A lot of Muslims, like Fouad knew how to respect religion. They understand that bloods needs not to be spilled to show faith. They openly criticize religios zealots and those that supports it to show that they are willing to cleanse that smudge on their religion that these zealots have shamelessly distorted. I salute them.
Its time to stop this savagery. Religion should not be used to breed such hatred. Enough blood has been spilled because God was called by another name. Enough!
Free Fouad!
12 comments
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January 4, 2008 at 3:38 am
YouAreYou
“Its time to stop this savagery. Religion should not be used to breed such hatred. Enough blood has been spilled because God was called by another name. Enough!”
Amen to that!
January 4, 2008 at 5:59 am
taroogs
true… organized religion has been founded on the blood of millions of people. it will probably take an appearance by the almighty him/her/itself to put a stop to all these religion-inspired violence
January 4, 2008 at 6:25 am
xienahgirl
actually
kamuntik na rin ako makulong
dahil sa mga nasasabi ko sa blog ko
pero keri lang.
January 4, 2008 at 8:10 am
gasti
potek ngyayari pala yan? akala ko si boybastos lang ang hinuhuli ng batas..potek mukhang delikading yung bago kong post ah! lalaban ako! potek!
January 4, 2008 at 10:29 am
kengkay
hmm, what’s the world going to? ako katoliko, si kengkoy protestante. nagsisimba kami sa parehong simbahan, member kami ng dalawang simbahan. nung asa thailand ako nakiki dalaw din ako sa mga templo ng buddhism kasi masarap yung meditation nila. pero katoliko pa rin ako. yun nga lang, bukas ang isip ko at ang puso ko sa ibang relihiyon. sana mapalaya na sya!
January 4, 2008 at 11:19 am
Maldito
I myself is not fond of pushing one’s religion to someone who have his/her own faith. I am not in the proper position to say this, but I hate being in a religion. I have my own faith. my own beliefs, my own God. I dont know whats inside their religions that sometimes sheeding a BLOOD means exalting Him. Tsk tsk tsk. There’s no true religion, I am beginning to believe this. I dont know with them, but I’ll stand firm on what i am believing.
May he meet freedom soon.
January 4, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Kiko Matsing
Naku! Grabeng higpit talaga diyan sa Saudi pagdating sa relihiyon. Yung mga kasamahan ko sa inaattend-an kong church diyan sa atin nakulong din dun at muntik nang mapugutan ng ulo. Buti na lang nadaan sa pakiusap ni former pres. ramos noon yun.
Sana nga mapalaya rin si Fouad.
January 4, 2008 at 7:20 pm
lilmiz
scary naman nyan. i agree, religion should not matter. pare-pareho lang tayo lahat, walang nakakalamang. hindi ko rin gets ang pag-gamit ng religion para makipag-away. kawawa naman si fouad, sana mapalaya na nga sya
January 5, 2008 at 1:24 am
witchyboop
Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan- I admired his faith. Rare yun. Though the world is beautiful, our souls are prisoners of the terror of death kung ang paniniwala is to kill for religion. It’s not always that God’s plan agrees with what we are or what we feel but be assured that He has a reason for all of this. I just finished reading Paulo’s book: the fifth mountain…. ganda, para syang si Elijah…
January 5, 2008 at 3:45 am
wei vines
should I thank my parents dahil pilipino ako?! tae… kung nagkataon pala, malamang, napugutan na ko ng ulo sa pinagagawa ko… sana mapalaya na nga siya..deym!
January 5, 2008 at 5:55 am
alphasensei
ano kaya kung makukulong ang isang blogger for answering too many tag posts? hehehe
January 18, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Holy Kamote
when people start to voice out their moral opinions, which can also hurt other’s beliefs, they are often told to shut up their mouths or just acquire the so called “RESPECT TO OTHERS”.
but for me, GIVING RESPECT TO OTHER’S BELIEFS, that may contradict our own opinion, does not only mean we should completely ignore and tolerate it.
this free market of opposing ideas make us choose and formulate our own SENSE OF MORALITY. and from that, we can learn of what really is RIGHT, and what really is WRONG, and not just be plain gullible until death, believing in things because someone older than us told us that it is right/wrong. therefore, leaving us no option to question even the most illogical things that their dogmas say.