The Negative Effects of Religion
Christophobia in Islamic Countries
"We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West.... but in fact... Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm", wrote Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a recent article titled, The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World, published in Newsweek Magazine on the 6th of February 2012.
Most of this anti-Christian violence is a major and under-reported problem. I hope that by providing a list of examples Ayaan Hirsi Ali cited to make her point below, many of you will take enough interest to help raise awareness to this development.
Here is a list of attrocities against Christians in the Middle East, Africa and in Asia in recent years.
- Boko Haram aims to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To do this, it has stated it will kill all Christians in the country. During 2011, the group has killed 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states.
- In Sudan, the UN reports between 53,000 to 75,000 innocent civilians have been displaced after their their houses have been looted and destroyed.
- In Egypt, more than 900 Iraqi Christians have been killed, 70 churches have been burned.
- Pakistan has draconian blasphemy laws forcing the Christian minority live in perpetual fear of being killed on charges of blasphemy, without any hope of proper legal defense. A militant Muslim group of 10 gunmen attacked World Vision with grenades and killed 6 people and wounded 4, because they accused World Vision of subverting Islam even though World Vision was there to help the survivors of a major earthquake.
- In Indonesia, the number of violent incidents committed against religious minorities increased by 40 percent from 198 to 275 between 2010 to 2011.
- In Iran, dozens of Christians have been jailed for worshipping.
- In Saudi Arabia, religious police raid the homes of Christians to bring them up on charges of blasphemy.
- In Ethiopia, where the Muslims are in the minority, Church-burnings have become a problem.
This has to stop. What can we do? At the very least, we can start discussing the problem. Share Ayaan's article or this blog post on Facebook, Twitter, email and so on. And when someone mentions Islamophobia in your conversations, bring up the Christophobia that is going on today.
The Tyranny Of God
Paperback Edition
Is there a God? Where do the animals, plants and human beings come from? Are scriptures the words of gods? Does religion teach us to live moral lives? Why do so many people kill and are killed over it? How should we live our lives if God exists? How should we live it if God does NOT exist?
This book explores the truth behind our beliefs in God and the propensity of human beings to be religious. In an honest attempt to seek the answers to life's deepest questions, I probe into how life began. I then progress to investigate the true nature of religions and their impact on our lives and the rest of humanity.
The main purpose of this book is not to argue against religion. Rather, it tells our story and how we have come to oppress ourselves with the tyranny of our own beliefs. I wrote this book to include everything I discovered to be relevant in my search for the truth, not just the truth behind God and morality, but also behind us and our existence. Instead of reading this book with the expectation that it is trying to prove the tyranny of God, I would like to recommend you read it as a story book: as a book that tells the story of humanity from the Big Bang.
REVIEW
"While Comelab's writing is always moderate in tone, its message clearly undermines current distractions with accommodationist arguments towards presumed religious "moderates". It is written with the fresh confidence of a young man who has had early success in his adopted country and only recently come to realise the truth of atheism. For those like me whose only worry about Atheism has long been its faultering progress, Comelab reminds us that much of the energy must continue to come from those who have more recently learned the truth. He seems more than bright enough to soon progress to seeing atheism not as an end but as a starting point to the kind of understanding that should enable us to work towards a future incomparably better than any heaven the faithful can imagine."
- TONY SMITH (AUSTRALIA)