Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.The saddest part of this story is that it is not an aberration.
Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared.
Police have opened a murder investigation and are looking into claims that three Muslim youths killed her, claiming her death was justified under Islam.
One of the three - named as 16-year-old Bihal Gaziev - is under arrest and told police that Katya had 'violated the laws of Sharia'. Gaziev has said he has no regrets about her death.
Defenders of islam will often say that acts like these are committed only by muslim extremists; that moderates oppose them. There may be a grain of truth in that. After all, the wackos of the Westboro Baptist Church claim to be Christians, yet perform acts that are opposed by mainstream Christians. There are, however, a couple of critical differences.
The Westboro jackasses and others like them do not routinely maim and kill people. And they are actively opposed by many other Christians. There are counter-protests and other actions taken to contain, minimize, or eliminate the extremists' behavior. Those two elements are conspicuously absent in 'moderate' islam.
Until I see signs of the same in the islamic community I will continue to harbor doubts regarding the ability of islam to co-exist with other religions.
2 comments:
Islamic families seem to go out of their way to avoid any discussion of their religion. While I would like to believe they are humble or embarrassed, it comes across as passivism.
Good point. Maybe it's because they're scared to death to oppose the islamic orthodoxy, which IMO is much more militant and non-compromising than we are led to believe.
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