Egyptian jailed for Facebook Islam insult

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes

Why don't you just marry that survey, Maslo ? You appear to be in love with it.

Give it some time, we have not known each other long enough yet.

Why are those laws ''extremist'' ?

Yeah I know, standard cultural relativist justification for any conceivable atrocity, its their culture, they can do anything if they declare its part of their culture etc.. If our ancestors were such pussy post-modernists, we could now very well live under nazi dictatorship. Who are you to judge nazis, killing "inferior races" is just their culture, right?

They are against basic human rights, as defined by our superior western culture, and are immoral based on in my opinion superior utilitarian morality, that makes them extremist in my book.

The majority of Americans believe in poisoning, gassing, electrocuting or shooting murderers to death.

Are you seriously comparing crime of first degree murder with the victimless "crimes" of adultery or leaving the muslim religion? And relatively humane executions with stoning?
Anyway, you point further supports me. After decades of human-rights civilisation, there are still people in the western world who support some (albeit less extreme) inhumane laws. We have enough of our own problems with extremism as it is, do not need to add another millions of people with viewpoints that are blatantly in conflict with our own, nor to downplay the existence and prevalence of such opinions.

It's only cultural differences which define what a crime is, and how it should be punished.

Yes, another point for me. If its only culture (carried by people) that defines what laws, crimes and punishments are, then there is nothing which guarantees that when people with another, more extremist culture attain majority, the laws will not be changed by them. Or that such practices wont be practiced even without the state approval in areas where local majority of such people live.

If a ''moderate majority and extremist minority is a lie'', then how do you explain that the majority of Muslim countries do not stone adulterers or cut hands off thieves ?

Since when such punishments do not happen in muslim countries?

stop-stoning.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Soraya Manutchehri, 1986, stoned to death in Iran after being falsely accused of adultery
Du’a Khalil Aswad, 2007, a 17-year-old stoned to death in Iraq
Murray Seidman, 2011, a 70 year old senior in Philadelphia, stoned to death by 28 year old John Thomas after allegedly making sexual advances towards the younger man. Thomas' defence is that he did it because The Bible says to stone homosexuals.[44]
Vali Azad,aged 30, in Gilan province, Iran, 2009.
Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow,aged 13 in Kismayo, Somalia, 2008.
Shano and Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhe,in Khwezai - Baezai area, Pakistan, 2008
Mahboubeh M. And Abbas H,at Behest-e Zahra cemetary, southern Teheran, Iran, 2006.The public was not invited to the stoning, and the incident where not reported to the media, howewer it was spread by word to mouth to a journalist and womans rights activist. The activist gathered information, and further exposed the happening to the world. In response to this, several womans rights activists, Lawyers and members of the Networks of Voulenteers went on to form the Stop Stoning Forever campaign to stop stoning in Iran.
Sara Jaffar Nimat, aged 11,in the town of Khanaqin, iraqi Kurdistan, 2007. She had been hit by bricks and stones, and burnt.
Jafar Kiani, in Agche - kand, a small village near Takestan, Iran, 2007.
Kurdistan Aziz, aged 16, iraqi kurdistan, 2008. She had been stoned in an act of "Honour" - killing.

People who were almost stoned:
Amina Lawal, sentenced to death by stoning in Nigeria in 2002, but freed on appeal
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani sentenced to death by stoning in Iran in 2007, but sentence is under review
Safiya Husseini, sentenced to death by stoning in Nigeria but freed on appeal.[45].
Shaheen Abdel Rahman and Unnamed woman, in Fujeirah, United Arab Emirates, 2006

Also, the reason may be simply that they do not have democracy.

Freedom of Speech!
/Sarcasm