Monday 19 December 2011

A Christian nation

I suppose that if your infant son had been born disabled and died very young, in pain and incomprehension, without having experienced any of the few joys that human experience makes possible, you'd find it hard not to agree with the officially sanctioned priests that God moves in mysterious ways. Not having had this experience, I can only marvel at David Cameron's faith and his determination to impose it on those of us less blessed in the suffering department. To the extent that the BBC website's comments, as edited, are a barometer of British public opinion, I suppose that this, from a Muslim, is representative or at least reflective of what Muslims in Britain think.

“It’s very seldom I get excited by what our prime minister has to say and this is one of those times. As Muslims we also believe in the Bible. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. Not only that, but in the teachings of all the biblical prophets, including Moses in the Torah. So this is something that we feel is absolutely in tune with the Muslim thinking. We have to base our behaviour according to scripture, God’s revealed message.

Would that be the same Moses who insisted his troops return to the scene of their recent victory against the Midianites, kill the married women and enslave the girls in order to rape them? Or is that just an allegory? If so, what's the message, chaps? Assuming that there is only one Moses in the Bible and that the Bible is 'God's revealed message', the only appropriate question to pose the author of this unctuous comment is presumably: 'are you an insane pederast or are you just a Muslim?'

Some of my friends wonder whether I get too worked up about religion. My challenge to them is to defend the right of Sheik___ to express the opinions published on the BBC website and teach them to my kids. No doubt there is a legal defense, but do you really believe there is a moral one?

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