Doing god’s will by murdering other people

There has been some ghastly religious violence going on in Nigeria.

A Muslim group known as Boko Haram has committed massacres of Christians, sometimes with bombings and at other times with automatic weapons, in order to drive them out of the Muslim-dominated north of the country to the Christian-dominated south. One attack on a Catholic church on Christmas day killed 37 people. An explosives attack on a Muslim school is suspected of being a retaliation.

Boko Haram is one of those groups that takes their religious texts seriously.

Its followers are said to be influenced by the Koranic phrase which says: “Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors”.

Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it “haram”, or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society.

This includes voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education.

I am sure that these murderous thugs fervently believe that they are good people doing god’s will, as can be seen by the group’s official name which is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”.

Stephen Colbert says that he is the true religious conservative

Stephen Colbert says that evangelical leaders who met recently to decide on one conservative candidate to endorse made a mistake in picking Rick Santorum as their standard bearer. They should have endorsed him instead because, among other things, he is much more homophobic than Santorum.

Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over the legality of the NDAA

Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over legality of the NDAA

I wrote before that one of the consequences of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed quickly and with little or no debate during the Christmas holiday season was the gutting of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that sought to prevent the use of the military in law enforcement activities within the country.

Now Chris Hedges, former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, has challenged in court the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the NDAA. Hedges explains why he took that action, drawing upon [Read more…]

Still not coordinating!

I think that what Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are doing is one of the most brilliant pieces of political satire, directly exposing the sham that is the current campaign financing restrictions and the highly porous wall between campaigns and Super PACs.

Here is the latest Colbert ad running in South Carolina.

More fun with the Jesus people

My office in the university is in a central location, at the intersection of two main streets that cut through the campus. If I look outside my window, I have a good chance of seeing most of the university community passing by during any given day. As a result, the street corner outside my office is a popular place for people who want to hand out religious tracts.

In days gone by, when approached by such people I would politely decline their offers and walk away. But now, if I am not in a hurry to go somewhere, I take the opportunity to question them about their beliefs. I take the Socratic approach of asking questions and then build on their responses by asking more questions, which I find leads to far more interesting discussions than trying to simply prove to them that they are wrong. (For my previous encounters with Jesus people, see here, here, and here. It’s all good clean fun.)

This happened again a few weeks ago, when a genial man about my age approached me at the intersection and asked me [Read more…]

The Republican debate crowds run amuck again

In an earlier post, I noted that in the first three of the interminable series of Republican debates, the main story was the response by the crowds, cheering wildly at the most extreme policies while booing anything that seemed tempered and reasonable and humane. One suspected that the crowds in subsequent debates were told to tone it down to prevent the impression being given that Republican voters were nuts.

But in Monday’s Republican debate, the crowds seem to have slipped their leash and were back in full baying frenzy. The Daily Show captured the moments.