I am the first to admit that when it comes to current world affairs, I am particularly dense.
I don't watch the news as I find it too depressing, and I hardly ever read a newspaper except to do the crosswords and look at expensive real estate.
I have no particular political views, and wouldn't know one politician from another.
I tend to keep my head in the sand, happy in my uninformed state.
I guess in some ways this is irresponsible - to be informed means to make wise decisions - but I received an email last night which reminded me why I prefer to be so giddily uninformed.
This particular email, shocked and horrified me. It reinforced for me that this world is going to pot, and ignorance can in fact, be bliss.
My sister (the infamous Naughty Nanna) pointed out to me this morning, that (a) I must be feeling quite cranky as this is my second rant in two days, and (b) the pen is mightier than the sword, so I should write about this. (Thankyou NN - you are so wise. Take $50 out of the till and go home!)
So anyway, apparently in Gaza, Muslim leaders prepared a wedding ceremony for 450 couples. The men were aged between 20-25 and the girls were all under 10!!!!
(Take a moment to think about this. My daughter is 8 and all of her friends are around the same age - and the more I thought about this, the more I literally wanted to be sick.)
As I looked at these sweet, innocent little girls, all done up in white dresses and wearing makeup (to make them look older????!!!) my heart nearly caved in on itself.
Where were these little girls' mothers??
They certainly were not holding on for dear life to their precious daughters screaming "not my child" or looking to beat the crap out of the first person responsible for such an atrocity!
Was it possible that these mothers were in fact, agreeing to it all in the name of their religion?
How on earth did a religion get it so wrong that it was not only allowing this ridiculous and heartbreaking situation to happen, but encouraging it. And how on earth does this religion have such a grip on it's followers as to stop them thinking for themselves??!!
I know a lot of religions are responsible for a lot of atrocities throughout the ages and I guess as humans we will constantly stuff up this beautiful world.
But when, oh when are we going to stop being completely stupid?
Rant over.
4 comments:
I know, I saw this too! It was so sad!
Stupid religion, stupid mothers, stupid men........
wow....i cant even think of anything to say to that....i'm stunned, and you're allowed to be cranky - i will be too, when it hits home
Wicked!
Hi Helen,
I absolutely felt your anger when I read this. I sat in my chair and wondered at how vile human kind can be in the name of religion.
I grasped hold of the the phrase 'received in an email' and desperately wanted this atrocity to be a falsehood and terribly wrong, something designed to incite hatred and malice.
I had to google longer than usual to find the below, which is very sad, it should have appeared immediately but this aside, a reporter, Tim Marshall for Sky News was there for the ceremony and he had this to say on his blog later....
"The men and women are sitting, Most ignore the speeches, some even ignore the prayers. Then the fireworks explode, the cheering begins, and in march the Hamas scouts, bashing drums, looking every inch the future Hamas fighters many will be. Then the grooms, aged about 18 to about 28. They are holding hands with their young nieces and cousins, little girls aged from about 3 to 8, made up to the nines, wearing white wedding dresses.
Up they all go to the stage, the cheering and music grows ever louder. The girls were having the time of their lives, but, getting a little bored after a while, came down off the stage to dance with each other and play games.
Our report on this put it into context saying that it took place just a mile from the Israeli border and was a message from Hamas about its strength confidence and future fighters. Oh and that the brides were elsewhere. Pretty straightforward. It never struck me for a moment that the little girls might later be described in the bloggersphere as the brides! How naive I am."
http://blogs.news.sky.com/foreignmatters/Post:dcc9d723-8046-4857-b618-5c1135ba6417
Some of the discussion on this topic at the bottom of his blog is interesting and still scary but I am not familiar with Islamic marriage rites and from what others are saying, children under our legal age are married under Sharai law, but in this particular case a mistake appears to have been made.
The original report can be found here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Gaza-Hamas-Firmly-In-Control/Video/200908115353754
and this is the link to hoax slayer:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/mass-muslim-marriage.shtml
I'm sorry to be the one to bring this to you but I had too so that we can have all the information (as far as we can find it and also try not to get caught up in 'he said, she said' as someone else put it) and not a snippet.
We can never know for sure, and we will still wonder if what we're seeing is the truth but I like to remember that other cultures don't understand us either.
Forgive me Helen :) Still love you, and I enjoy reading your passionate blog.
JM
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