Anti-Education Attack Poisons 150 Afghan Schoolgirls

An anonymous reader writes "The water at a high school in Afghanistan was contaminated today, poisoning roughly 150 girls in attendance. Afghan officials say this was a deliberate attack: 'We are 100 percent sure that the water they drunk inside their classes was poisoned. This is either the work of those who are against girls' education or irresponsible armed individuals.' From the article: 'Some of the 150 girls, who suffered from headaches and vomiting, were in critical condition, while others were able to go home after treatment in hospital, the officials said. They said they knew the water had been poisoned because a larger tank used to fill the affected water jugs was not contaminated. ... None of the officials blamed any particular group for the attack, fearing retribution from anyone named.'"

Re:This is not Islam

[robot_love]

And yet it is religion which justifies these actions. Please consider reading Sam Harris' "The End of Faith", which outlines in detail why the continued survival of our species can no longer tolerate attitudes such as your own.

Re:Why is this moderated down?

[Khashishi]

Last sentence: "Education for women was outlawed by the Taliban government from 1996-2001 as un-Islamic."

Re:RoP

[slapout]

Republican's don't want to outlaw birth control. They just don't think the government should pay for it.

Re:RoP

[Quiet_Desperation]

They got zero from India, and the Babylonians had a placeholder for it back before 1000 B.C.

Re:Why is this moderated down?

[darrellm]

How about because the article mentions no religion?

I believe you are acting deliberately dense in order to be politically correct. The Taliban and those with similar Islamist leanings have done scores of events like this in the past (bombing girls schools, poisonings, throwing acid in girls faces) and there is no reason not to have a high certainty that this was done by an Islamist. They feel that women should be in the home, married and not allowed out without a male relative. They are doing this because this is their interpretation of Islam. Saying that this is done by an Islamist does not mean that all Muslims feel this way. Probably most of the girls at the school were Muslim and the staff was probably Muslim. But there is a LARGE number of Muslims in Afghanistan who do feel this way - although is would only be a small but very powerful minority who would go to this violent extreme. But just trying to dodge this and say that this has no relationship to Islam or those who are just saying this is some aspect of Afghan culture are just ignoring reality. The perpetrators of these actions say they are doing this BECAUSE of their Islamic beliefs. So if someone says they are doing this because of Islam I see no reason not to take their reasons at face value.

Re:RoP

[b4dc0d3r]

Sarcasm detected. Yes, Republicans are a cultural movement, not religious. They cater to both moral and fiscal conservatives despite obvious inconsistencies, such as Jesus helping the poor and budget cutting anything that helps poor people.

They use religion to back up their opinions where it is supported, and any other useful tidbit when it doesn't. Do you think Jesus would have supported the NRA? Cutting school budgets to get the latest F-35 bombers that the military doesn't even want?

Yes, it is cultural, yes religion is used as an excuse. Same as Taliban extremists - they have their views, including outlawing education for women for a few years, and they use religion to back it up.

Many Christian groups treat women as second class citizens because they are to remain silent in church, and obey their husbands. Most Christians understand that contextually, but a few take it literally and frequently out of context. Every culture, every religion has people who do this, and it is not tied to the religion. It is an interpretation used as a convenient excuse to impose what some people believe on others.

Re:Why is this moderated down?

[Xiver]

Under the Taliban regime, Sharia law was interpreted to forbid a wide variety of previously lawful activities in Afghanistan. One Taliban list of prohibitions included: pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards. They also got rid of employment, education, and sports for all women, dancing, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and characterizations of living things, no matter if they were drawings, paintings, photographs, stuffed animals, or dolls. Men had to have a fist size beard at the bottom of their chin. Conversely, they had to wear their head hair short. Men had to wear a head covering.

from -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban [wikipedia.org]

Re:RoP

[nedlohs]

You're either uninformed or plain old lying.

Here's the bill in virginia that makes the pill illegal: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?121+ful+HB1 [state.va.us]

passed the republican controlled house and senate with ease.

And all the current candidates bar Romney have gone on record agreeing with it explicitely for religious reasons: http://www.personhoodusa.com/blog/personhood-republican-presidential-candidate-pledge [personhoodusa.com]

Of course Romney flip-flops back and forth but here he is saing he "absolutely" agrees too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkrOt9Qposg#t=5m25s [youtube.com]

Part if the mechanism of the pill is to prevent fertilized eggs from impanting - that's after conception has occured. It's not the only mechanism, but it's part of the package. So all those republicans are trying to outlaw the pill. Not just not pay for it.

Re:Why is this moderated down?

[Barsteward]

"this isn't a religious issue" - of course it bloody is the problem.

these "books" are the excuse for all this type of shit, if you believe in your god of that book, you have to do what he says. you obviously haven't read them. e.g. the God of the bible expects your to sacrifice your child for him, he'll only let you win wars if you kill every man, woman and child etc etc The religious and apologists for religion always skip those parts out.

Re:RoP

[JoshuaZ]

I'm not aware of any philosophy that claimed that. The most common philosophy that is blamed for wrecking the Muslim's worlds scientific progress was that espoused by Al-Ghazali in his highly influential book "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incoherence_of_the_Philosophers [wikipedia.org]. The most damaging thing in that philosophy was the idea that there were no actual laws of the universe, only things occurring the way Allah decided to. So for example if one lit a piece of cloth with a candle, the cloth catches fire not from any property of the cloth but because Allah has decided in this particular instance for the cloth to catch fire. And according to Al-Ghazali, asserting otherwise was essentially heresy. This sort of view of things is extremely inimical to discovering or codifying laws of the universe. There were other problems that happened about the same time such governments becoming more intertwined with religion in much of the Muslim world. But I suspect that is the philosophy that Neil deGrasse Tyson was talking about.

Islam is Quran + Hadith

[Quila]

Quran-only Muslims are a small minority, and their rejection of Hadith is heavily criticized by mainstream Muslims. So saying "The Quran does not state" really has no weight for the vast majority of Muslims. If it's in Hadith, it's part of the religion.

Re:Why is this on Slashdot?

[isorox]

Who said that Slashdot was only about technology news? "News for nerds. Stuff that matters." This matters.

Under islam there wouldn't be any female nerds. Therefore slashdot would be full of 72,000 male virgins with nothing better to do.

Re:Why is this moderated down?

[jimmifett]

Doctrine set by self-serving radical fundamentalists is the problem.

By "radical", you mean "traditional". We westerners only consider them radical by our standards. That's perfectly normal to their standards.

"Islamic Radicals" according to eastern Islamic societies are the blasphemers and infidels that dare to practice a western "liberalized" Islam, hence why they have fatwas and such issued against them by religious mainstays calling for their deaths.