Facebook Used to Take Down Middle Eastern Atheist? Oh, Big Brother!
So apparently, authorities used our beloved facebook (or casebook as I so candidly refer to it) to track down yet another of its offenders. The latest, Qalqiliya, a quiet middle eastern barber perpetrating as a Muslim, ans was clearly living a double life. He had been praying with his family, and living his life as a devout Muslim to the masses, but was a radical, cynical, Atheist blogger on his off time. He is even suspected of being the creator of 3 facebook pages in which he made sarcastic proclamations of being God and requested that his followers do things such as: smoke marijuana… Read Here.
My thoughts on this?? OK, I know it can be hurtful and offensive for someone to degrade and talk negatively about your religious ideology. I also understand the free speech, even in the supposed “land of the free” is but a myth; epic proportions though it may be… But should a society really be allowed to punish someone based on what they do or don’t believe?? Think about this for a moment: You are born, your whole family is Christian, they tell you that you must go to church, participate in their religious rituals, in order for you to be right and in favor with your God. Somewhere along the way you grow up, develop your own way of thinking, and decide that the way you’re living perhaps, isn’t the right way. You mention it to a few people, they immediately shun the idea and tell you to never bring it up again. You are now too afraid to tell your family and friends as you will certainly become an outcast, so instead, you turn to the web in order to vent your frustrations about the religion that you feel, you’re being forced to be a part of. Should this scenario end with your life long imprisonment, or worse, your death???? Simply because you decided to think for yourself and no longer agree with the ideology that you were being fed your whole life?? Let me take it a step further and ask: is it not your prerogative to just decide to go to hell if you so choose???
The point I’m trying to make is this: we can’t make anyone believe anything. It doesn’t matter how we right we feel any particular ideology, a person either subscribes to it, or they rejects it, period. If someone doesn’t believe in something, they probably never will, you can either accept them, pressure them in pretending to fit in, or push them out of your life altogether, either way, their views will likely never change. We need to learn to be tolerant of each other’s view points and embrace/ learn from our differences, rather than try and change them. In the end of the day, they will exist either way it goes, and whether we like it or not. Although I don’t agree with blatantly disrespectful towards any one’s way of thinking, sometimes people need to grown and learn things for themselves. If not, we cease to live, and merely, exist. ~M*O*
