Reverting to Form

By lex, on February 17th, 2010

In Afghanistan, the Taliban effort to win hearts and minds has run into a bit of trouble:

Gen Ghori, the senior commander for Afghan troops in the area, accused the Taliban of taking civilians hostage in Marjah and putting them in the line of fire.

“Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window,” he is quoted by Associated Press as saying.

“They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians.”

And in Malaysia, standards of punishment differ according to confession:

Three Malaysian women have been caned by the authorities for having extra-marital sex, say officials.

They are the first women to receive such a sentence under Islamic law in the country.

The punishments come as another Malaysian woman waits to hear whether her caning – for drinking beer – is carried out.

Malaysia’s majority Malays are subject to Islamic laws, while the large Chinese and Indian minorities are not…

(Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein) told state media he hoped the punishments would not be “misunderstood so much that it defiles the purity of Islam”.

Heaven forfend.

Sometimes you have to murder or flog a few women or children in the name of the greater good.

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