You are a fucking idiot. You hate this country so damn much that you want to compare the death penalty in the United States to this particular case in Iran?
It’s not surprising. Whenever a thread like this is posted, there is always some jackass who has to make the remark, “But don’t forget how fucked up things are here. Don’t be too judgemental. We are backwards ass and barbaric also.”
Nobody justifies murder as just another culture, you fucking dumbasses. That’s used for different customs and other stuff that’s different but excusable. Learn the fucking difference before you get up on the tired old anti-PC high horse. It’ll be a real revelation to those libruls that murder is bad, thanks for bringing it up. You jackasses.
Oh bullshit. Moral relativism doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion of your own.
I am a moral relativist, in that I understand that there are aspects of my culture that I think are benign, that other cultures find barbaric or morally untenable. I merely acknowledge that it how it feels to exist in a different moral framework is unknowable.
This position doesn’t stop me from, for example, having campaigned against the Sharia law in Nigeria that called for Amina Lawal to be stoned to death for having children out of marriage.
By my - and clearly the vast majority of western cultures’ - moral framework, this Iranian practice is heinous and barbaric and sickening.
It’s about how express your revulsion: whether you smugly express it as an extension of fundamental human morals (that just so happen to coincide with your own; what a coincidence!) - and by extension the further a culture strays from these fundamentals, the less valid the culture is - or whether you realise that you cannot have any genuine appreciation of other cultures’ mores, but that in your opinion this is appalling.
Heh, it’s ages since I’ve seen this cliché. Why do you hate America? Why?!!
Yup, this European for one finds your death penalty barbaric and bloodthirsty, especially - but not exclusively - the execution of minors and mentally disabled people. Not on a par with the Iranian situation, but on the edge of the same ballpark. DMark is completely correct.
And those who are calling for the eradication of Iranian culture because of this horrible aspect of it need to examine their moral frameworks.
Yes, because that’s exactly what’s meant by multiculturalism. Accepting as right and proper the execution of a teenaged (apparent) rape victim in Iran is mandated by those in the United States who favor basic non-judgmentalism toward other cultures and traditions.
Perhaps the reason you specifically were told not to judge other cultures is that you lack the critical thinking skills necessary to make the “it’s OK not to support murdering teenagers in the name of cultural respect” distinctions.
The problem is, when we put them on trial for their lives, we often don’t know for sure that they committed the crime; that’s why there’s a trial. And it’s a matter of public record that many capital defendants in the U.S. have gone on trial with appallingly inadequate counsel; that police and prosecutors have frequently hid exculpatory evidence from defense counsel (when they had the brains to seek it) and not been tried or even reprimanded for it; that in one state near the top of the list for executions (my beloved Commonwealth of Virginia, dammitall) closes the door on retrials due to new evidence coming to light a mere three weeks after conviction; that states (notably Virginia again) have blocked investigations into the claims of innocence of those executed, to preserve the thin truth of the claim that “nobody executed in the US since resumption of the death penalty has ever been proven innocent”; and on and on.
Yes, this particular execution in Iran (and Shari’a law in general) is worthy of condemnation regardless of how our system works, but our system has problems too, systemic problems that go far beyond a few mistakes and human errors here and there.
This happened in Nigeria, at least in two cases which were widely reported (the proof of adultery being that the woman was pregnant). But I would need more examples than that to state that it happens “not unfrequently in islamist countries”. “Honor killings” seem to be much more of an issue.
As for this girl, I too wondered what she was tried for. I also read between the lines that she could have been victim of rape, but lacking evidences that under Iranian law, she could be sentenced in such a case, it doesn’t appear obvious to me. One could as well “read between the lines” that she has been sentenced for say, drug consumption. I think the reason why rape comes to mind is that we’re accustomed to associate injustice in some muslim country with behavior or offenses related to sex, or with the conditions of women. But there’s no obvious evidence in this particular case, barring further informations.
(From the article) She told the religious judge, Haji Rezaii, that he should punish the main perpetrators of moral corruption not the victims.
“Moral Corruption” is what they officially call rape there. And her daring to tell the judge that it’s the rapist and not the rapee that should be punished is most likely the “sharp tongue” that titles the thread.
First of all, hold your tongue. And second, there ARE people who nisist that the morality of other cultures is just as valid as our morality, and vice versa. This necessarily means endorsing murders which are committed in keeping with those cultural norms.
Heck, in GD, we have repeatedly seen people argue that there are no moral absolutes, on the grounds that each culture has its own morality. So yes, despite your protestatiosn, there are people who are revulsed by murder, but who believe that it is justified if it is part of one’s cultural norm.
I noticed she mentionned that. But moral corruption could include a lot of things. She could have accused the mullahs, or the judges themselves of being the “moral corrupters”, for instance. Consumming drug is also moral corruption. That’s why I picked this example at random.
I’m sory I’m not going to take your word for “moral corruption” meaning exclusively “rape” in Iran. I would need some article actually explaining what she was tried for.
Yet again you fail to grasp the difference between asserting that there are no moral absolutes - which I do indeed assert, based on the evidence of the whole of human history - and possessing personal and cultural morals - which I also do. Please read my previous post for further clarification.
If your country has a policy of inflicting death for one crime and different country has a policy of inflicting death for a different crime, if you criticise them surely it is just a competition to see whose shit smells worse?
Oh boy, here we go. This is not about Bush, even by now you now my views on that. It is about a kangaroo court that executes victims while letting the real criminal go free. Murder, plain and simple. Saying it is a religious or cultural thing does not work. The Koran does not say to kill the innocent victims. It’s like I alluded to in another Pit thread, cultural diversity and cultural tolerance is too often used as a “They can be total shit scumbags and we have to understand it, but we have to walk on eggshells lest we hurt their feelings.” It has nothing to do with cultures or religions, or even basic justice. Likewise, saying the U.S. has a death penalty does not mean we should “understand” this either. At least, the U.S. tries to only execute the criminal and not the victim - I am completely against death penalties, but again, at least here there is an attempt to Not kill the victim while letting the perpetrator go scot free. At this point, I can understand why my ancestors in Sicily had a vendetta system, even though it was a bad thing (but as moral relativists we can’t say that). In cases where no other justice was possible, they took care of business themselves. It’s a “cultural thing” so it’s perfectly OK(?). First on the hit list would have been the rapist AND the judge.
The line of reasoning being used (cultural/moral relativism) would also say it was OK for Nazis to kill Jews. It’s just those kooky Nazis, but who are we to judge them. It’s a Nazi thing. They are just expresing themselves. Bullshit.
I have to side with Starving Artist, Creative Munster, Spooje, Duffer and JThunder.
It disturbs me that some people in this thread are calling for the extermination of an entire culture because of practices (admittedly disgusting and barbaric) that make up only one aspect of that culture.
You can be against these practices and still recognize where they come from, a different moral framework. Ours may be superior in a lot of ways, but it ain’t perfect.
I don’t think anyone in this thread is arguing that you shouldn’t judge Nazis, and should let them murder jews as an act of expression, and that seems to be quite a strawman.