Shariah Law Is Anti-Freedom and Should Be Eliminated:

Shariah Law is against freedom of conscience and the press and has no place in modern society as clearly shown by unjust events in Afghanistan, see world news article below:

<<<"2 Afghans face death over translation of Quran,
By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer - Fri Feb 6, 7:39 am ET, retrieved from  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_translation_on_trial  on 2/06/2009]

KABUL - No one knows who brought the book to the mosque, or at least no one dares say. The pocket-size translation of the Quran has already landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They're accused of modifying the Quran and their fate could be decided Sunday in court.

The trial illustrates what critics call the undue influence of hardline clerics in Afghanistan, a major hurdle as the country tries to establish a lawful society amid war and militant violence.
The book appeared among gifts left for the cleric at a major Kabul mosque after Friday prayers in September 2007. It was a translation of the Quran into one of Afghanistan's languages, with a note giving permission to reprint the text as long as it was distributed for free.

Some of the men of the mosque said the book would be useful to Afghans who didn't know Arabic, so they took up a collection for printing. The mosque's cleric asked Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a longtime friend, to get the books printed.

But as some of the 1,000 copies made their way to conservative Muslim clerics in Kabul, whispers began, then an outcry.  Many clerics rejected the book because it did not include the original Arabic verses alongside the translation. It's a particularly sensitive detail for Muslims, who regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God's word.

The clerics said Zalmai, a stocky 54-year-old spokesman for the attorney general, was trying to anoint himself as a prophet. They said his book was trying to replace the Quran, not offer a simple translation. Translated editions of the Quran abound in Kabul markets, but they include Arabic verses.

The country's powerful Islamic council issued an edict condemning the book.
"In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, 'Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,'" Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge's chambers waiting for a recent hearing.
Zalmai lost friends quickly. He was condemned by colleagues and even by others involved in the book's printing. A mob stoned his house one night, said his brother, Mahmood Ghaws.
Police arrested Zalmai as he was fleeing to Pakistan, along with three other men the government says were trying to help him escape. The publisher and the mosque's cleric, who signed a letter endorsing the book, were also jailed.

There is no law in Afghanistan prohibiting the translation of the Quran. But Zalmai is accused of violating Islamic Shariah law by modifying the Quran. The courts in Afghanistan, an Islamic state, are empowered to apply Shariah law when there are no applicable existing statutes.
And Afghanistan's court system appears to be stacked against those accused of religious crimes. Judges don't want to seem soft on potential heretics and lawyers don't want to be seen defending them, said Afzal Shurmach Nooristani, whose Afghan Legal Aid group is defending Zalmai.
The prosecutor wants the death penalty for Zalmai and the cleric, who have now spent more than a year in prison.
Sentences on religious infractions can be harsh. In January 2008, a court sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for asking questions about women's rights under Islam. An appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison. His lawyers appealed again and the case is pending.
In 2006, an Afghan man was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. He was later ruled insane and was given asylum in Italy. Islamic leaders and the parliament accused President Hamid Karzai of being a puppet for the West for letting him live.
Nooristani, who is also defending the journalism student, said he and his colleagues have received death threats.
"The mullahs in the mosques have said whoever defends an infidel is an infidel," Nooristani said.
The legal aid organization, which usually represents impoverished defendants, is defending Zalmai because no one else would take the case.
"We went to all the lawyers and they said, 'We can't help you because all the mullahs are against you. If we defend you, the mullahs will say that we should be killed.' We went six months without a lawyer," Zalmai said outside the judge's chambers.
The publisher was originally sentenced to five years in prison. Zalmai and the cleric were sentenced to 20, and now the prosecutor is demanding the death penalty for the two as a judge hears appeals.
Nearly everyone in court claims ignorance now.
The mosque's mullah says he never read the book and that he was duped into signing the letter. The print shop owner says neither he nor any of his employees read the book, noting that it's illegal for them to read materials they publish.
Zalmai pleaded for forgiveness before a January hearing, saying he had assumed a stand-alone translation wasn't a problem.
"You can find these types of translations in Turkey, in Russia, in France, in Italy," he said.
When the chief judge later banged his gavel to silence shouting lawyers and nodded at Zalmai to explain himself, the defendant stood and chanted Quranic verses as proof that he was a devout Muslim who should be forgiven.
Shariah law is applied differently in Islamic states. Saudi Arabia claims the Quran as its constitution, while Malaysia has separate religious and secular courts.
But since there is no ultimate arbiter of religious questions in Afghanistan, judges must strike a balance between the country's laws and proclamations by clerics or the Islamic council, called the Ulema council.
Judges are "so nervous about annoying the Ulema council and being criticized that they tend to push the Islamic cases aside and just defer to what others say," said John Dempsey, a legal expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace in Kabul.
Deferring to the council means that edicts issued by the group of clerics can influence rulings more than laws on the books or a judge's own interpretation of Shariah law, he said.
Judges have to be careful about whom they might anger with their rulings. In September, gunmen killed a top judge with Afghanistan's counter-narcotics court. Other judges have been gunned down as well.
Mahmood Ghaws said that even if his brother is found innocent, their family will never be treated the same.
"When I go out in the street, people don't say hello to me in the way they used to," he said. "They don't ask after my family."">>>.

As can clearly be seen, Shariah Law is clearly anti-freedom, and does NOT give freedom of conscience or freedom of the press, and therefore, should be eliminated in the interest of true justice and freedom.   Obviously, Shariah Law is part of the darkness of this world among those who will be perishing as brought out by 2 Corinthians 4:1-5, "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not:  2  but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.  3  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish:  4  in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.  5  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.  6  Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;" (American Standard Version; ASV).

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Unity of People Needed - Not A Cast System Created By Sectarian Education

Some suggest that religious groups should run public-ally funded schools as denominational propaganda institutes.   To justify this society destroying concept, they say that the parents want it, but do NOT mention the negative effects it has on society and a nation in general.

FIRST, Schools should be primarily to instruct students in reading, writing, mathematics, the sciences, and being good citizens - NOT propaganda mills for any denomination what-so-ever.   Students need to learn to think for themselves and NOT be driven into group think by religious propaganda of any denomination.

SECOND, The results of cast systems by religions has in every instance of their existence proved detrimental to society and social integration.   The great American civil rights worker, Martin Luther King, Jr. always stressed, for example, the need to have integrated schools so all can learn to live together and be good neighbors, but cast systems of any type promote dis-harmony within any society where they exist. 

Several good examples of the detrimental effect of cast systems based on religious propaganda are Pakistan and India.   India has worked to reverse the effect of religious cast systems because they realized they were tearing the nation apart and holding it back from progressing.   India's efforts are now starting to pay dividends and the country is starting to move forward and progress in the modern world.   Of course, it has not yet succeeded in reversing all the dis-harmony effects of the cast system, but is making progress.   India's amount of progress is directly related to the degree is has reduced the negative effect of the religious cast system.

Now Pakistan has failed to work to eliminate the religious cast system, and the nation is becoming more violent and progressing toward anarchy - not process.

THIRD, a good example of some advocating institution of religious cast systems through propaganda religious schools was given by one of its advocates as follows,

"Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual
Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. Muslims
have the right to educate their children in an environment that suits their
culture. This notion of "integration", actually means "assimilation", by
which people generally really mean "be more like me". That is not
multiculturalism."

This is a blatant example of negative thinking and an effort to promote dis-unity within a nation.   This type of thinking will divide a nation and make it weaker and work to tear it apart; whereas, what is needed is just the opposite as society definitely does NOT need group think cast and second languages.

To wit, All schools should be denomination NEUTRAl and just teach the truth. Also, they should teach in the language of the country with a view of developing good citizens, not alien cultures.   If some students do not speak the language of the country, the schools should provide a special course to make them proficient in the language of the country - not a foreign language.

FOURTH, My own life provides a good example of why a denominational neutral education is best for all students and prevents negative group think from occurring.

I was brought up in a none English speaking country with a different culture than the English speaking country I now live in, but I went to college in the English speaking country I now live in and took all my courses in English except the foreign language courses. If one moves to another country he/she should adapt to their customs and fit in as I did - to do the opposite is absurd. To NOT do so is NOT good for the new country or the individual, and I speak from experience.

But even before I went to a new country, owing to an excellent basic none denominational education I had learn to think for myself and NOT be influenced by destructive unity destroying religious group think.  Now let's look at my early life and learn:

When I was a very young girl in my native village, I never knew there were individuals so absurd as to believe in and pay adoration to worldly philosophers instead of to Almighty God (YHWH). I did know there were false god(s) and that some people even considered the ruler of their nation was a god such as the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, etc., but I never imagine there were individuals so blind to reality, the truth per John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Authorized King James Bible; AV) that they would pay adoration to egotistical worldly philosophers and quote their absurd nonsense as if they considered it sacred scripture. As one individual, a cult member, I usually strongly disagree with brought out by posting the following scripture, Jeremiah 2:19, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts." (American Standard Version; ASV); ti wit, These individuals that pay adoration to worldly philosophers and treat their egotistical self-centered writings were for me as a young girl just unimaginable. I well knew of false god(s) such as the mythical god, the old middle eastern celestial Moon god, "Allah," who only exist in the imaginations of deceived men, but has no physical existence, and others, but I never thought anyone would be so absurd as to put their faith in worldly philosophers and the egotistical nonsense they write.

As I have said in part before, When I was a very young girl brought up in a religiously divided household I could readily see both cult religions represented were completely wrong. When I was about eight years old, I started a search for the true religion as I well knew neither Catholicism (RCC) nor Islam could be that. I was constantly at the local library in my native village trying to learn more and by the time I was about 10 years old, I had taught myself to read English since most of the books on history and religion were either in English or German. I selected English as I considered it the up and coming language.

My grandfather, when I was a little girl in my native village, taught me early on to never waste anything. I was brought up in a mixed family religious wise, but by the time I was about 8 years old and I had already ascertained that neither Islam or Catholicism held any truth, and had already determined they only contained creedal hogwash dogma and tradition. I did a rigorous search visiting libraries and checking encyclopedias, dictionaries, history books, etc. and in the process improved my reading and comprehension skills to a level far above my peers in school. I even taught myself how to read English, as I said previously, a foreign language for me, as it was NOT one of the two or three languages used in my home or community. My father died when I was only 6 years old, and my grandfather took over the task of raising myself and my sisters and brothers. He taught us to be independent and able to take care of ourselves and to think for ourselves, and that most religion was just plain phony. I learned to cultivate rice and wade in a rice patty, how to grow sugar cane, sweet potatoes, lettuce, etc. And my mother taught us how to cook all of our native dishes - mostly rice and bean dishes with a little bit of chicken. Until I went to New York City I had never heard of or eaten a hamburger or hot dog. But when my aunt took me to Coney Island, she got me both plus a candy corn cone. Subways were a mystery to me at first, as I thought it strange to go down into the earth to catch a train as the sugar cane train in my native village ran above ground.

When I was about 12, I was sent away from my native village to another country because the family thought I needed to learn more and I had exhausted the resources of our small library. They sent me to another country to a city with great library resources, New York City, USA. I loved the main library of that city in Manhattan, it had exceptionally great resources and even had electric lights so you did not have to sit by a window to read. Of course I had a problem the first year in the school there as all classes were in English which I had taught myself to read well, but I could NOT speak English as it was not one of the three languages I heard in my native village. By the age of 13, I saw most religions were totally wrong, but had narrowed my search to about 7 among which was the SDA. But the SDA when I did a comparison check in the big book that listed a 105 doctrines across the top in columns and religions in rows, page after page, I could see they were also in error.

It is imperative for a strong nation to have individuals that are NOT influenced by denominational destructive group think, but can think and reason for themselves.

FIFTH, AND CONCLUSION, Religion is supposed to be a positive force for peace and for love of neighbor, but most religion has been proven NOT to live up to being a positive force.   In fact, for the last 3,000 years many wars have had an underlying religious cause.  We have had our 100 year war of religion in Europe, The Crusades brought on by Islam lighting the proverbial fuse, and even in our modern era religion is behind most of the violence with one religion being responsible for over 90% of the violence in the world today.   One Australian paper reported, <<<"Did you know that 90-95% of the conflicts in the world today are Muslims fighting non-muslims or each other?" [source - The Weekend Australian, November 26-27, 2005 AD]>>>.

So as can definitely be readily seen, most religions are definitely NOT living up to what is expected, namely, their being a positive force for peace and  for love of neighbor.

Now to know the truth, go to:

1)    http://religioustruths.forumsland.com/

2)    http://www.network54.com/Forum/403209/ 

3)     http://religioustruths.lefora.com/

4)    http://religioustruthsbyiris89.free-forums.org/

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth."Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell."   Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today!