Facebook Postings Lead To Arrest for Heresy In the West Bank 496
forand writes "Using screen shots of a customer's Facebook profile, owners of a West Bank internet cafe helped Palestinian intelligence forces capture a man accused of heresy." According to sources quoted in the story, residents of both Gaza and the West Bank face ongoing scrutiny of their online activities; in Gaza, "Internet cafe owners are forced to monitor customers' online activity and alert intelligence officials if they see anything critical of the militant group or that violates Hamas' stern interpretation of Islam."
It's not just in the Palestinian territories (Score:4, Informative)
This is not an issue specific to PA territories: in any islamic country you would be screwed if you logged in to Facebook as God and criticized islam. The same would have happened in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey etc. Sadly, the problem is with islamism (and maybe with islam).
Re:Isn't freedom great? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Isn't freedom great? (Score:5, Informative)
As an Israeli I have no goddamned fucking idea what you're talking about.
Re:Oh hey... (Score:5, Informative)
Supporting terrorists as our government might have been a bad idea after all... who could have known?
Bad idea? The locals seem to be quite rejoiced at the thought of this little witch hunt. From TFA:
Many in this conservative Muslim town say that isn't enough, and suggested he should be killed for renouncing Islam. Even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.
"He should be burned to death," said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqiliya resident. The execution should take place in public "to be an example to others," he added.
When these folks elected Hamas, they knew full well what they were getting into. Keep that in mind next time Israeli steamrolls over the place after a bunch more missiles launched from there land in Israeli towns.
Re:Isn't freedom great? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, exactly, If you go around saying judaism is fake, absolutely nothing is going to happen to you. Well, some people may be pissed off, but that's it. Nobody is going to arrest you, send Mossad after you, have black helicopters take you to secret prison. Some people may yell at you, that's about it.
Yes, I am Israeli and lived in Israel for 13 years, and I know what I am talking about. Looks like you do not.
Re:It's not just in the Palestinian territories (Score:5, Informative)
You know that Islam doesn't recognize the separation of church and state, don't you? In the early years, the entire domain of Islam was ruled by a caliphate, which is essentially the pope and king rolled into one. I'm afraid that Islamic areas are always going to run into this problem because of the bad precedent set early in Islam's history - when church and state were one entity, and presumably, that's the way "God wanted it". The only hope is that people become so modernized that they stop caring about trying to recreate the imaginary golden-age of Islam.
In any case... (Score:2, Informative)
So let's not claim that Islam has a monopoly on repression.
Re:Isn't freedom great? (Score:3, Informative)
haha.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2009
Israel trails Kuwait (ranked 60th), Lebanon (ranked 61st) and UAE (ranked 86th) in its region. Overall Israel was ranked one behind Guinea-Bissau and right before Qatar.
Recently they made a law requiring non-Jewish citizens to take loyalty oath to "Jewish state of Israel"
http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bomb
Both groups have their share of religious fantics, the difference is the Palestenians were the indigenous people who were violently pushed out of their homes to make way for this new group of religious fanatics. And if you say...but it was theirs according to the bible, I'm afraid that makes you a religious fanatic.
Re:Isn't freedom great? (Score:1, Informative)
Article 170: PENAL LAW 5737-1977 - SIXTH EDITION
Article Seven: Offenses against Religious Sentiment and Tradition
Insult to religion
170. If a person destroys, damages or desecrates a place of worship or any object which is held sacred by a group of persons, with the intention of to reviling their religion, or in the knowledge that they are liable to deem that act an insult to their religion, then he is liable to three years imprisonment.
Injury to religious sentiment
173. If a person does any of the following, then he is liable to one year imprisonment:
(1) he publishes a publication that is liable crudely to offend the religious faith or sentiment of others;
(2) he voices in a public place and in the hearing of another person any word or sound that is liable crudely to offend the religious faith or sentiment of others.
Penal Law 5737-1977 [oecd.org].
So, it looks like blasphemy IS illegal, but not really enforced. Which is fine. The US has a lot of ridiculous laws from the 18th and 19th centuries that have never really been repealed.
Re:Not like cowardly Westerners (Score:3, Informative)
I'm afraid I can't take you seriously if you think that Hamas is thing restricting freedom from the Palestenians.
Besides a 60 year occupation...2 million people in Gaza have been living in virtual open air prison for the past 4 years. Israel controls every product that enters gaza to the extent that they recieve just enough food not to starve, but too much so they reproduce.
The fact that we're reading an article about Hamas restricting freedom and not this, if you know the area, is absurd.
Here is article about kindly Israeli/Harvard professor calling for the restriction of pre-natel subsidizes (food) to prevent Palestenians from breeding too much.
If this was any other country doing this, we'd all be up in arms, but because its us and they're muslims...its eh...whatever
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/harvard-prof-urges-popula_b_472191.html
Penal Code 170 & 173 (Score:4, Informative)
The Israeli penal code does make blasphemy illegal (output from Google Translate):
170. Destroying, damaging, or desecrating a place of worship, or any object held sacred crowd of people, deliberately degrade their religion, or knowingly that they may see this act an insult to their religion, Dino - three years imprisonment.
173. Makes one of the following countries - one year's imprisonment; (1) Publishes advertising that injure blatantly religious beliefs or their feelings of others; (2) Makes a public place and in the hearing of a certain word or sound that may harm the faith or gross violation of religious feelings. (3) Harm our sons public tombstones
Not as severe as Islamic blasphemy laws, but they still make blasphemy illegal.
Re:In the West Bank and not Gaza. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Not like cowardly Westerners (Score:3, Informative)
s/in accordance with their religion//
I agree that this a violation of freedom, but this is a case of religion being subverted for political reasons, not a problem with the religion. Almost every religious group has had its fanatics at one time or another.
Admittedly I don't know a large fraction of the worlds Muslim population (something like 18.5% [wolframalpha.com]) but the Muslim folks that I know don't interpret their religion that way.
Re:Barbarians... (Score:2, Informative)
Islam contributed nothing, just as Christianity contributed nothing. It was Muslim mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, and architects in the early centuries CE who contributed to civilization. These people of knowledge and ingenuity made their contributions IN SPITE of the superstitious beliefs of their times not as a result of them. And furthermore, regarding your comparison of the US to Muslim countries, I reject your assertion that we are headed in the same direction to a dark age of religious rule mainly on the grounds that in the US we have so many people like myself who have experienced secularism and will fight tooth and nail to never go back to an era of rule by superstition. Citizens in most muslim countries have never tasted such secularism and they are far less likely to fight for it.
Re:Not like cowardly Westerners (Score:3, Informative)
Liberties like being able to steal land (Americans were very pissed off at King George for wanting to treat the natives the same as everyone else), not have Roman Catholics in the government (Americans were very pissed off after Quebec joined the British Empire and the oath to the King was changed to allow Catholics in the government) and the liberty to undemocratically force the majority to go along with them.
You guys were just lucky that between independence and the writing of the constitution that a bunch of liberals were in power. There was a large push for your own King.