Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big_Bird]

[gang ah jee]

I'd like it on the record that I oppose sharia law, and that I hope my daughter does not have to wear a burqa. I also oppose Chinese support of criminal regimes in Africa and elsewhere.

[Sincinnatislink]

This needs deletion.

Seriously, I can't imagine this leading anywhere worthwhile.

[gang ah jee]

[Sincinnatislink]

Exactly.

I'd like to add that I dislike FGM very much.

[gang ah jee]

[Rteacher]

If people agree to live under a particular system, based on their particular faith, what legitimate right do we as outsiders have to try to disrupt it? Of course, when transplanted to non-Muslim countries it would need to adapt, conform -or defer - to established local laws (and some basic social and political norms...)

[twg]

[Rteacher]

Yeah... - well except in places like Waco, Texas ...

[twg]

[jinju]

[Rteacher]

My understanding of the Waco incident is that the government agencies - acting on bad information given them by a disgruntled former member - provoked the attacks and basically killed a lot of relatively peaceful folks (including women and kids...) unnecessarily. The Branch Dravidians were a splinter group from the Seventh Day Adventists (who run a lot of vegetarian restaurants and hospitals...) Reportedly, they were strictly vegetarian, and they believed (like other Christian sects...) that the Bible sanctions corporal punishment of children (and sometimes wives...)

I doubt that their use of corporal punishment went much beyond what goes on regularly at my Korean technical high school ... At any rate, they posed no imminent threat that required the extreme measures that the feds resorted to. There was a massive PR campaign to to portray the group in the worst possible light, comparing it to the Jim Jone's suicide cult, etc,, but I don't think that it was really warranted. The government agents basically wanted to give the dog a bad name and hang it ...

Most people, influenced by media coverage and FBI statements, assumed that the "dangerous cult" initiated the violence and killed its own members. Only at a later date - and with much less publicity - was the FBI forced to admit that it had lied about critical details of their attack...

Here's a Wikipedia article for more detailed information - and a middle-of-the road perspective - on the Waco seige:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Davidian
And here's the most significant part relating to overstepping Constitutional authority:

The government conducted an investigation of itself, launching a special inquiry before the Danforth Committee, and during official testimony the FBI denied the use of, or even access to, pyrotechnic devices of any kind. The Danforth Committee issued a report concluding that the fire was started on the inside by Davidians. However, in 1999 the FBI was forced to admit that the testimony they gave before the Danforth Committee was false. The FBI now admits to using Flite-Rite pyrotechnic grenades on the day of the fire; the timing of their use remains in dispute. The FBI's admission of false testimony before the Danforth Committee brings into question the validity of the committee's conclusions, and no new government inquiries have been conducted...

The government put some of the survivors on trial. All were acquitted of conspiring to murder federal agents but some were convicted of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Davidian

[caniff]

[quote="Rteacher"]They basically killed a lot of relatively peaceful folks (including women and kids...) unnecessarily...the Bible sanctions corporal punishment of children (and sometimes wives...)

A child abuse and wife-beating cult. How charming.

[Milwaukiedave]

I'll second the motion to delete the thread. I think posting threads directed at one person is in bad taste.

[Rteacher]

What "caniff" is implying is that the Bible should be banned (what to speak of the Koran ...) My understanding is that the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.

Everyone born in America (I'd prefer that it be extended to all living beings...) has a natural right not to be killed or harmed by others. Children also have those rights - as do parents. Parents have traditionally played the primary roles in the socialization of their children, and I think that they should not unnecessarily be denied the authority to inculcate discipline through controlled application of force - especially to protect those types of children who are slow to develop self-discipline from seriously harming themselves ...

To get more directly back on topic, I think that Sharia law is a combining of injunctions found in Muslim revealed scriptures - mainly the Qur'an and Sunnah - with principles established by Islamic judges and lawyers. There are some basic differences between Shi'a and Sunni factions in their approach and application of Sharia law (eg: the Shi'a think that logic plays a greater role in their approach...)

Basically, I have no problem with a religious community of Muslims enacting some form Sharia law among themselves if they all voluntarily agree to live by it. Especially in western countries, however, there obviously needs to be strong checks (supported by the local Muslim community as a whole...) on fanatical militants who seek to impose their brand of Sharia law on others by force, and who may pose a real security threat if not vigilantly guarded against...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia