The Golden Rule
"I believe in vigilante justice," a friend told me.
Believing in it and whether she actually has the stones to go through with it --- should the need arise --- is a different story, 'cause really, it's so easy to say, "I'd do this..." in make-believe scenarios when we're not actually standing in front of someone and have that split second to decide, "Yeah, I'm going to do this."
It's sort of like, when you hear people say they could never kill someone --- and usually, we're talking about the death penalty here --- and I always say, "Sure you could. If it was your kid who'd been raped or murdered --- or your parents or maybe a sibling --- you could. You might choose not to, but that's when it gets really easy to hate another human being so much that you'd actually consider snuffing the life right out of them."
I think we're all capable of manslaughter --- it's whether we decide to act on it which is a different story. I think in most cases, we just need to be given a good enough reason.
I guess I'm thinking about this 'cause I found this one piece in the Toronto Star --- as usual, running several weeks behind the breaking news date in the international press --- about Tahir Mirza Hussain, a British citizen who's been in prison for the last 18 years in Pakistan, even though he was aquitted of killing a taxi driver who pulled out a gun and physically and sexually assaulted Hussain when he was 18, visiting relatives in the country. The gun went off, killing the taxi driver.
Good fucking riddance, you know? It would have been better if the gun had gone off and shot the animal's balls, so the perv would have to go through the rest of his miserable existence unable to harm anybody else, but unfortunately, he died.
Hussain was aquitted by Judge Abdul Waheed Siddiqui, who described Hussain as "an innocent, raw youth not knowing the mischief and filth in which the police of this country is engrossed."
Siddiqui said police introduced false witnesses and "fabricated evidence in a shameless manner" against Hussain, who had no criminal record.
But about a week before Hussain was to be released, his case was referred to the sharia court on the basis that the crime he was charged with --- armed robbery --- fell under its jurisdiction.
Now, Hussain faces death by hanging on June 1, his 36th birthday.
Of course, President Pervez Musharaaf could do something about this...but do you think he will?
This is the kind of thing that makes me think the whole notion of karma is just bullshit. You don't get what you give --- not always. This guy is raped and beaten and while he's struggling to save himself, a gun goes off, killing the animal who violated him. And for this, he's imprisoned in the notorious Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where 50 foreign inmates are still languishing in that jail despite having completed their sentences.
In September of last year, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty ruled against a proposal to allow sharia law in our province --- and he was right to do so because I agree with critics against sharia law: allowing for Islamic tribunals could only lead to discrimination.
What's interesting is that Sharia Law seems to misunderstood by a lot of people 'cause most of us, when we hear about it news, we think: amputation, stoning, lashing and rife with unfair social ideas.
The problem seems to be that judges are supposed to be highly educated in Islamic law, but sometimes --- or seemingly, often, because of what gets reported in the international press --- it seems like we have individidual judges who hand down harsh penalties without any real understanding of Sharia.
I mean, if we're looking at things along a similar vein, it's like how you've got people like Osama Bin Laden out there and his various followers who have a warped understanding of the faith that they profess to believe in.
A major basis for all religions is the notion that we should treat others the way we want to be treated. Simple as that.
When I worked at a kids' hospital in the PR department, I remember walking past an office and seeing this poster:
If only more people would understand this.
Believing in it and whether she actually has the stones to go through with it --- should the need arise --- is a different story, 'cause really, it's so easy to say, "I'd do this..." in make-believe scenarios when we're not actually standing in front of someone and have that split second to decide, "Yeah, I'm going to do this."
It's sort of like, when you hear people say they could never kill someone --- and usually, we're talking about the death penalty here --- and I always say, "Sure you could. If it was your kid who'd been raped or murdered --- or your parents or maybe a sibling --- you could. You might choose not to, but that's when it gets really easy to hate another human being so much that you'd actually consider snuffing the life right out of them."
I think we're all capable of manslaughter --- it's whether we decide to act on it which is a different story. I think in most cases, we just need to be given a good enough reason.
I guess I'm thinking about this 'cause I found this one piece in the Toronto Star --- as usual, running several weeks behind the breaking news date in the international press --- about Tahir Mirza Hussain, a British citizen who's been in prison for the last 18 years in Pakistan, even though he was aquitted of killing a taxi driver who pulled out a gun and physically and sexually assaulted Hussain when he was 18, visiting relatives in the country. The gun went off, killing the taxi driver.
Good fucking riddance, you know? It would have been better if the gun had gone off and shot the animal's balls, so the perv would have to go through the rest of his miserable existence unable to harm anybody else, but unfortunately, he died.
Hussain was aquitted by Judge Abdul Waheed Siddiqui, who described Hussain as "an innocent, raw youth not knowing the mischief and filth in which the police of this country is engrossed."
Siddiqui said police introduced false witnesses and "fabricated evidence in a shameless manner" against Hussain, who had no criminal record.
But about a week before Hussain was to be released, his case was referred to the sharia court on the basis that the crime he was charged with --- armed robbery --- fell under its jurisdiction.
Now, Hussain faces death by hanging on June 1, his 36th birthday.
Of course, President Pervez Musharaaf could do something about this...but do you think he will?
This is the kind of thing that makes me think the whole notion of karma is just bullshit. You don't get what you give --- not always. This guy is raped and beaten and while he's struggling to save himself, a gun goes off, killing the animal who violated him. And for this, he's imprisoned in the notorious Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where 50 foreign inmates are still languishing in that jail despite having completed their sentences.
In September of last year, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty ruled against a proposal to allow sharia law in our province --- and he was right to do so because I agree with critics against sharia law: allowing for Islamic tribunals could only lead to discrimination.
What's interesting is that Sharia Law seems to misunderstood by a lot of people 'cause most of us, when we hear about it news, we think: amputation, stoning, lashing and rife with unfair social ideas.
The problem seems to be that judges are supposed to be highly educated in Islamic law, but sometimes --- or seemingly, often, because of what gets reported in the international press --- it seems like we have individidual judges who hand down harsh penalties without any real understanding of Sharia.
I mean, if we're looking at things along a similar vein, it's like how you've got people like Osama Bin Laden out there and his various followers who have a warped understanding of the faith that they profess to believe in.
A major basis for all religions is the notion that we should treat others the way we want to be treated. Simple as that.
When I worked at a kids' hospital in the PR department, I remember walking past an office and seeing this poster:
If only more people would understand this.
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