Stoning: Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?

by Michael Mandaville

And I don’t mean the movie. “The Stoning of Soraya M.” is a remarkable feature film about harsh Sharia law twisted by a husband against his wife. The film is brutal, honest and unflinching. Based upon Freidoune Sahebjam’s 1994 novel, the film straddles the world between fact and fiction, present and future.

“Soraya” epitomizes a woman’s plight in the Islamic world and reaches across the globe into communities which welcomed Muslim immigrants into their secular societies.  But the question left unasked by these societies – face to face – is this:  Will you accept the strictures of our society based upon Freedom and mutual respect?

Some Muslim immigrants (not all) refuse to embrace their adopted country’s mores and behaviors. They choose isolated communities.  In France, a friend told me that many third-generation Algerians still don’t speak French.  News reports about “disaffected youth” riots veil the source of burning cars in Paris – radicalized Islamist youth.  Herein lies the question about enforced societal acceptance of multiculturalism and freedom.

Freedom is a tough concept to sell. You know it when you have it. You can see when it’s absent, i.e., Iran, Zimbabwe, socialist left-wing dictatorships like China, etc.,  But it’s taken for granted in America.   Unfortunately in our ADD, media-centric world of flash, celebrity and shock, the world’s impression of freedom is excessive violence, sexuality and degradation. Freedom is confused with approval. The best definition I ever heard for Freedom was “The right to do what you want and the responsibility to take the right course of action.” (more…)

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Posted Jul 6th 2009 at 5:02 am in Politics, Religion | 49 Comments