Sinning with a Mouse Click

My mom sent me an e-mail forward today and asked if it was true. She does this often. On one hand, I think it's kind of cute that she thinks I'm the expert on everything. On the other hand, I wish she'd spend a few minutes on Google and figure out that a handful of her friends are mildly retarded and shouldn't be allowed within 15 feet of a computer.

Below is the forward she sent me, followed by my response. The original forward was drafted in multiple colors, multiple font sizes, random CAPITAL letters, and--of course--in that dreadful curvy font that you'd use on your five year-old's birthday invitation. You know--the same way scholarly journals are drafted, right? :-/ I won't attempt to recreate the crappy font choices, as I do not want to assault your senses.

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Joys of Muslim Women by Nonie Darwish

In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child. Consummating the marriage by 9.

The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy.

Even though a woman is abused she can not obtain a divorce.

To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses.

Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family.

Husbands can beat their wives 'at will' and he does not have to say why he has beaten her.

The husband is permitted to have (4 wives) and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.

The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.

In the West World ( America ) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Law so the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law.

By passing this on, enlightened American women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law.

--Snip--

In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. to elect the President by themselves!

I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way
this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on! This is your chance to make a difference...!

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My response to mom:

Mom,

Admittedly I don't know enough about Sharia law to answer this completely definitively, but whenever someone makes such sweeping accusations, it should cause you to raise an eyebrow. Here is a website purporting to debunk most of that forward's claims: http://hatesermons.blogspot.com/2009/08/nonie-darwish-hate-monger.html.

If you Google the author, the first hit you receive is the Wikipedia page about her. (Remember, Wikipedia has been shown to be more accurate than encyclopedias in print form because it is edited by the world and then fact-checked by the rest of the world.) Here is the Wikipedia page on Nonie Darwish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonie_Darwish. You can see that Nonie used to be a Muslim and converted to Christianity. She also founded "Arabs for Israel." She is not a religious scholar. She clearly has a bit of an axe to grind, which doesn't discredit her outright, but let's just keep that in mind.

So let's pick apart the email a bit, shall we?

1. First, forwards that are drafted in curvy fonts, different colors, different text sizes, which conclude in CAPS, and which issue a warning about the ACLU repressing your speech are never true. Never. Such forwards are about as useless as tits on a nun.

2. Islam is not uniform... nor is Christianity. There are radicals in every group. That's not to say that some sects of Islam don't have some serious, serious problems. A sizable chunk of Muslim men in places like Saudi Arabia still beat the crap out of their wives. But on the flip side, you wouldn't want your church associated with the lunatics who bomb abortion clinics, would you? It's fair to criticize another's religion--and we should be pointing out human rights abuses and never excusing them under the guise of religion--but it's always important to separate what really is "the religion" from what is some radical sect that is using a religious text to do things that rational people would never consider holy.

3. The ACLU is the American Civil Liberties Union. They protect people from religion just as they protect people's right to practice religion. When a town tries to put a cross on public land--such as the courthouse lawn--the ACLU sues because that's a government endorsement of religion. (I know some people won't like that, but that's what living in a country that respects the separation of Church and State is all about: it doesn't mean we suppress your Christianity, it just means you don't get to force your Christianity upon anyone else. Live and let live.) But the ACLU also sticks up for people when their religious rights are trampled. Check out this long list of pro-religious court cases the ACLU has recently brought on behalf of religious people and groups: http://www.aclu.org/aclu-defense-religious-practice-and-expression.

Recall that Rush Limbaugh hates the ACLU. But when Rush got in trouble for illegally "doctor shopping" and getting multiple prescriptions for pain killers, who came to his defense? The ACLU. Why? Because the prosecutor was trying to illegally publish parts of Limbaugh's medical records, and the ACLU knew this violated his right to medical privacy.

4. The number of U.S. Muslims is impossible to pin down, but reputable organizations put the estimates between 2.5 million and 7 million. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_States). The current U.S. population is over 307 million people. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html). Assuming that different groups of people vote in roughly the same percentages, we'll even take the high number and divide: so 7 million Muslims divided by 307 million people in America is 2.28% of the population.

Will someone please, please explain to me how in just twenty years' time, 2.28% of the population (and that's using the high estimate) will produce enough children to elect a president that will impose Sharia law upon the U.S.? Are all Muslim women going to start having 100 babies a piece starting today? Because, remember, the kids can't vote until they're 18, and it takes 9 months for a baby to gestate, so that's almost 19 years right there. Are all non-Muslim women in the U.S. going to stop having children? The whole thing idea that Muslims will be a majority soon and will be able to elect a president is retarded--even with immigration and converts. Not gonna happen. Period.

Furthermore, the idea that a Muslim president who wanted to impose Sharia law could even do so without overturning the constitution we've had for over 200 years is even more retarded and shows a complete lack of knowledge regarding how our government really works. (Are two-thirds of Congress going to go along with this? Are three-fourths of all the state legislatures, as is required for amendments? Would the Supreme Court even allow the First Amendment to be stricken, as would have to happen for Sharia law to replace freedom of religion? Is the author of this forward smoking crack, and, if so, where can I get some?) Anyone who forwards such numerical nonsense should be ashamed of their math skills, their U.S. history skills, and their inability to spend two minutes on Google.

5. Finally, remember that your son worked at Target in college. There is an old e-mail forward that still circulates asking people to protest Target because it's allegedly anti-veteran and French-owned. Aunt Jackie even forwarded it to you, as I recall. In truth, Target is neither anti-veteran nor foreign-owned. The truth may be found here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/target.asp.

Think about the consequences of sending the Target forward. I only got to work when Target needed me. Target needed me when the store sold enough merchandise to justify giving me more hours. So for each idiot that sends that forward and stops coming to Target, Target loses business, and I don't work. My life is therefore harmed not by anything bad that Target actually did, but by the harmful, childish, unintelligent lies that some half-wit has spread from the comfort of his or her computer chair.

And make no mistake about it: it's a lie. A lie is something that is not the truth; we all know this, but somehow when it's just something we shuffle along with a few mouse clicks it seems less offensive. But it isn't less of a lie because you sent the e-mail along not knowing if it was true or not. Gossiping--if untrue--is still lying.

If your religion holds that all sins are equal (or at least all sins besides blaspheming God), then lying is as bad as rape. If lying is as bad as rape, then the person who sent you this ridiculous e-mail is as bad as the Muslim man who just brutally raped his wife. Think about that: by clicking "send," your friend just committed the sinful equivalent of rape. Gee, all the sudden sending this crap over the Internet doesn't seem so Christian, does it?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, your friend should think of whom she is hurting when she sends out lies. Think of the poor, peaceful Muslim immigrant who moves into her neighborhood. If all her other neighbors got this e-mail, how do you think they would treat that immigrant? (Again, this isn't to say that some Muslims aren't violent. That's a national conversation we need to have: how to allow religious freedom while at the same time protecting against terrorists and extremists. But there is a difference between Islamic terrorists and the little old lady named Fatima who moved here so she and her family could have a better life.) Better yet, turn the tables: if you suddenly had to relocate to Indonesia and were the only Christian in the neighborhood, how would you feel about someone who was spreading lies about Christianity in your new village?

Sending forwards like this without fact checking is cruel, it's immature, and it's woefully un-Christian.

But if you remember nothing else, remember this: whenever you see forwards written in crazy colors, different sized fonts, and with the word "ACLU" thrown in... it's gonna be bullshit. Every time.

Love - your liberally educated devil child,

Paul