I just clicked on a short video on a skeptics website. The footage was labeled something like “A Sunni Day in Syria,” so, not being overly naive, I figured it would feature something ugly done in the name of Sunni Islam in that war-ravaged country. And I wasn’t wrong. But I also wasn’t prepared for what I saw: a sword-wielding jihadist thwacking at a bound man’s neck. Three or four blows and the beheading was done; the murderer proudly raised the severed head, like a trophy. He appeared to be in ecstasy. The killing happened so fast it was already over by the time I managed to unfreeze myself and click stop.

I can watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and crack questionable jokes. I can watch Saw 1 through 7 while eating popcorn, no sweat. But this stomach-churning video got to me because, despite its low-res crappy quality, (a) it wasn’t make-believe, and (b) I hadn’t even been given a chance to brace myself.

In a way, the graphic evil of Islamist beheading-porn is perfect fodder for Moral Compass, but I can’t bring myself to post it. And even if I did, it would be preceded by multiple warnings regarding what you’re about to see.

I can’t say I understand why this isn’t common courtesy all around the ‘Net.

Anyway, Western governments, in their wisdom, are helping the Syrian rebels with money and weapons, just as America helped the Afghanistan mujahideen fight Russian forces in the 1980s — while the State Department and others stayed wilfully clueless about how that aid would someday be turned against the givers.

Why do we not learn from our mistakes?

It’s undeniable that Syrian citizens who we imagine to be brave freedom fighters, and who we want to help break free from the oppression of Bashar Assad’s brutal government, are often violent fundamentalist sociopaths, no better than the non-fundie goons we are itching for them to replace.

Sometimes, the decent thing to do is nothing. We should achieve what we can through diplomacy, but not spend one more dollar on establishing a future theocratic state that is different from a thugocracy like Iran in name only.

[image D. Kennedy via Body of Truth]

Original news article here.

Cool shindig, I’m sure. Except maybe for the part where they’re indiscriminately spraying thousands of lethal bullets into the air.

We all know — I think — that what goes up must come down. People are frequently killed by so-called celebratory gunfire.

Not that these guys care. Some kid accidentally getting shot in the head — clearly not their problem. In fact, they’d surely never even question God’s will. Allahu akbar!

Think of them next time you fill up your tank.

Egypt’s Prosecutor-General, the highest law-enforcement official in the land, wants to allow citizens to arrest anyone — tourists included — for religious “crimes” like blasphemy.

Moderates warn that this will do incalculable damage to Egypt’s tourism industry.

Foreign visitors, whether or not they did anything wrong, should reckon with the possibility that they’ll be mistreated or blackmailed by any Egyptian citizen with a bone to pick over anything at all.

Promise?

Some warn of even more dire consequences: that an open season on people deemed insufficiently pious could lead to civil war.

Egypt has fallen to the lowest rank out of 140 nations in terms of safety and security — behind Pakistan, Chad and Yemen — in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s most recent Travel and Tourism (T&T) competitiveness index.

[image via Arabian Business]

Different religion, same bull:

Abdullah Abdel Hamid, a professor at Al-Azhar University and Salafist preacher, described Egyptian government officials as “enemies of God,” following their statements about eradicating millions of locusts who infested several of Egypt’s governates in the last few weeks, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday

“Locusts embody a gift from God to humans living on Earth; how dare they say such things?” Abdel Hamid said at a Friday sermon in the Egyptian canal city of Suez. Abdel Hamid argued that no “police or military troops” could stop the locusts, as “God’s will” cannot be challenged.

[image via Ahram Online]