Throwing Stones in Indonesia from Planck's Constant

In my article 13 Beautiful Arab Women, I made the assumption that because of their profession and manner of dress none of the women depicted were Muslim or they would have been stoned by their family. It appears that two of the thirteen women were born to Shia Muslim families.

What I should have written is that it is unlikely that they are "devout" Muslim women. Many Muslims are Muslims simply because they are stuck being Muslims by the rules of the game in Muslim-majority countries; which is to say, if you are born Muslim you must stay Muslim or be killed.

If these women had had any devout Muslims in their family, I have no doubt they would have been stoned.

Kawkab, a reader from Australia, took exception to my stoning remark and left a comment that "throwing stones is so 100 years ago."

Oh, really?

So just for Kawkab I am starting a new category called Muslim Glass Houses to catalog those countries where stoning people is not so 100 years ago.

At the top right is a photo of an Ahmadi Muslim in Indonesia who was stoned and hacked to death. Not 1400 years ago, not a century ago - but a few days ago. Here is the story from an online Australian news site:

News.com.au, 7 Feb 2011, Footage of deadly mob attack emerges
DISTURBING video has emerged of a bloody religious mob attack in Indonesia that killed three members of a minority Muslim sect, showing extremists beating and stoning their victims to death.
The incident, involving more than 1000 Muslims who stormed a house in West Java yesterday to stop the minority Ahmadiyah Islamic sect from holding worship, has been condemned by the government and rights activists.

Footage of the attack - which came at the start of "interfaith harmony week" in the mainly Muslim country - shows police doing nothing as scores of Islamic fanatics go berserk with stones, knives and sticks.

Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and "kafir" (infidel), the mob brush aside a lone police officer and launch a sustained attack on the house, as a small group of Ahmadis try briefly to defend the property.

Defenceless and half-naked Ahmadi men are then shown being beaten and stoned to death in the mud outside the house. Their bodies are pelted with stones and desecrated as members of the mob laugh and take pictures.

...

The violence comes less than three months after US President Barack Obama visited Indonesia and praised its "spirit of religious tolerance" as an "example to the world".

For some of my readers who may not know, most Muslims do not consider Ahmadis as true Muslims.

Before the Internet came along, your friendly, moderate, seemingly honest Muslim neighbor could get away with lies and misinformation. Sorry Kawkab, sell your story to Obama and his fellow Liberals - stonings are alive and well in Islam.

Caption to photo (courtesy of the Religion of Peace):

A delighted crowd of Indonesian Sunnis shout praises to Allah as an Ahmadi religious minority gets schooled on Islamic tolerance in what has been called the “world’s most moderate Muslim country”