One of the things I love and value about being an American is freedom of religion. Freedom of religion is considered by many people and nations to be a fundamental human right…as important to some as breathing.
Of course, while many countries have accepted some form of religious freedom, this has also often been limited in practice through punitive taxation, repressive social legislation, and political disenfranchisement. Clearly its not a global freedom..yet. And sorry to say, but in some rare
instances it appears, in my opinion, to be warranted.
Violence, murder, rape and many other atrocities have historically been committed in the name
of religious freedom or in the name of (fill in the blank) religion. Some headlines showcasing this have been ‘Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs Massacre Each Other in India”Protestant Gunmen Kill Catholics in Belfast, and Vice Versa’³Man kills Abortion Doctor in the Name of Christianity²’Shi’ites in Iran Hang Baha’i Teens Who Won’t Convert”Christian Snipers Pin Down Muslim Machine-Gunners in Beirut”Hands and Feet Chopped Off Under Islamic Law in Sudan’ Heck, Christians murdered millions of Jews during Europe’s centuries of religious persecution, before somebody named Adolph Hitler secularized the practice.
I respect the vital importance of religious freedom…to a point. Personally, I don¹t care what adults do in their churches, mosques, synagogues, or before their alters in their own homes so long as it harms none, which is actually the Wiccan Rede. And we all know that witches, or people accused of being such, know a lot about violence and religion…anybody remember the Salem Witch trials? We all have read news articles or been touched in some way by ethnic cleansing and genocide- particularly in Darfur, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and other places around the world. It’s a known fact that women are under attack by Islamic supremacism that supports and approves of oppression, mutilation, and murder of females .
Criminals can justify anything if their selfish, narcissistic lust for control and dominance isn’t checked and knocked down by not just the laws of their government but by a much greater law- the law of humanity. In so many ways, we have made little progress in the world to protect humans from oppressors and murderers who have no tolerance for those that are different from them or choose to worship in a way that goes against the majority norm of that particular area. Just last month it was headline news when in Somalia Islamic supremacists murdered a Christian woman for refusing to wear a veil for heavens sake.
It’s impossible for us to wrap our heads around such barbaric actions. Undoubtedly, humans are still, even in this day and age, capable of unholy things in the name of what is supposed to be the most holy of things: religion. So, maybe I shouldn’t be as shocked (but certainly I should be as horrified) as I was when I read the news of today .Today’s news involves animals, the most vulnerable of this planet’s inhabitants.
Today in Nepal, in the name of religious freedom, 300,000 animals will be sacrificed.
Sacrificed as in MURDERED, brutally, killed in order to earn favor with Gadhimai, the Hindu goddess of power. Way to use your power people! Outraged? Well, you should be. However, the killing of these hundreds of thousands of innocent beings isn’t on the front page, it isn’t on the second page, its buried somewhere in the news that says its newsworthy yes, but slightly insignificant in the big picture. Why? because its animals and not humans who are being murdered. Animals don’t have rights. All these murderers have to do is hide their cowardly, disgusting thirst for blood behind a custom that says its their religious right and they are getting a f
