Somalian refugee Zakariye Mohammed Hussein, 27, was shot by
Christchurch police after he went berserk stabbing a delivery driver and a city
council worker on March 15. He was sentenced to six and a half years
imprisonment last week.
Via his lawyer Hussein admitted all charges in court, his
only defence being “he felt he was possessed by the devil."
So given Hussein’s pleas to the court and to his psychiatrists
he was enticed, lured by deception into committing the vicious assault - why
didn’t the N.Z Police investigate his claims?
Chase-down and question this Devil character.
It’s not as if The Devil is unfamiliar to The Courts, here
or overseas.
He has been behind thousands if not millions of crimes
around the globe.
Mexican & Columbian drug-lords look up to him as being a
real bad-bastard.
Given the majority of the humans think The Devil is as real
as X-Factor, including our own deputy Prime Minister, the Police are surely
obligated to take Hussein’s defence seriously?
So why don’t Courts, Psychiatrists, Police etc. take seriously
claims that ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’?
Are they false, just a plea to solicit sympathy?
A good indication the party is a loony-tune?
Is it just read that anyone with half a brain-cell knows the
Devil and God are fictitious characters?
If we at all are honest as a society, we’d be open and say theist hypocrisy knows no bounds.
When are ‘we’ , the growing percentage of non-superstitious in New Zealand society, going to start say “enough is enough” and ‘return-fire’ using ironically the same rights Christians (and their allies) oh so conveniently see as theirs alone?
Let’s use these very-same ‘rights’ to bite them in the arse!
Time after time we’ve seen groups of Christians fighting every-step of the way to prevent medical breakthroughs, such as we see currently with stem-cell research and medicine.
As soon as medical/scientific advancements are in conflict with religion, like stem-cell is currently - castigation and obtrusion occurs.Protest is of course every-ones right, but later in the passage of time these evangelical protests are always proven to be self-centred platitudes, shown by history to be primordially laughable.
Inevitably what happens is at some later stage these very same protesters, or their loved-ones, needs to seek the same treatment they and their anointed representatives rallied so hard against.These two-faced, hypocrites have no compulsion seeking such treatment either.
On the other-hand God-fearing luddites are perfectly happy for others to be denied access to medical treatments, even if it means a miserable life or premature death for some other poor unfortunate – but only, if they themselves are not afflicted.
So as before you read my proposal, don’t feel any sort of compassion towards theists, for these very same individuals want to rob you and your closest of one of the basis rudiments of modern life - all to protect their beliefs. Always keep in the back of your mind, theists want their beliefs to over-ride yours – even if it means watching your own child die in a pitiless painful, fashion – when a cure is available, but denied to you because of their ancient superstitions.
Large tracts of so-called ‘loving’ Jesus followers in this country, want to deny childless couples the opportunity to have a family using medical treatments.
Cutting to the chase, what I’m suggesting is where resources are stretched in the health system, care is given to those who will appreciate it & respond. This is the same as an oncologist who opts to treat a non-smoking lung-cancer patient, ahead of one who continues to puff away.Therefore our health-system already rations medical care, so my proposition is not as radical as it first appears.Doctors, make ethical ‘life & death’ choices on daily basis and we don’t raise an eye-brow.
So where resources are stretched, why aren’t Health Boards using the discretionary powers available to them to allocate care to those who want it first?As an example, Catholics would automatically go to the bottom of IVF treatment.
Automatically no free contraception for Catholics either.
After-all their own ethical representatives have fought tooth and nail to get IVF banned. Yet, when it suits them Catholic couples will seek out the very-same treatment that they tried hard to prevent – so it’s hard to feel sorry for them. Besides they can call on their local Priest to assist (no, not in a Biblical sense but a pastoral role if that’s what you thought I was inferring to? Although I guess the first premise isn’t entirely out of the realms and would take some pressure off choir-boys)
Why shouldn’t a grateful, appreciative couple who wants a baby and have no objection to IVF treatment get priority over a couple who aren’t at all enthusiastic about the treatment due to ethical grounds?Further, the outcomes from couples who embrace a treatment such as IVF, are surely going to be more positive overall than those who are skeptical, and acting under duress, facing outside pressure to reject the ungodly procedure.
Based-on experience health-providers have a fair-idea which of the couples in this example are more likely to miss appointments, so precedency is both of benefit to the doctors and nurses but also ultimately the maligned, stretched tax-payer.
Our medical practitioners already respond to religious/cultural beliefs.Hospitals bow to pressure from the superstitious, giving them their own separate areas, actively assisting a policy of sectarianism and supporting a policy of privilege writing-it into law.
Jehovah Witness’s for example, are given the right to die rather than submit to a blood transfusion.
The religious precedent is already in existence – I’m merely taking the same entrenched statutory privileges bestowed on religion to their logical conclusion. Asking for exclusive rights is not a one-way street and should come with barbs.
If you don’t want stem cell treatment – we won’t give it to you.
If you don’t want fertility treatment – we won’t give it to you.
If you don’t want contraception – we won’t give it to you.
If you don’t want an abortion – we won’t give to you.
No exceptions.
Just don’t bother asking retrospectively for any of these things if say you are a Catholic, unless you want to pay or want to wait at the bottom of a long list.
We would then have the foundations of a separate health-system, only you and I wouldn't be funding the religious hospitals where the mortality rates would be on par with Cambodia.
Hypocritical theists can’t have it both ways when it comes to medical treatments that apparently so upset their invisible God ‘Yahweh’ and his emissaries on earth. On one hand theists can’t ask for a separate places to pray and do their thing at hospitals, demand rights that permit 'their own men' on-to the ward at the tax-payers expense, then in the next breath announce “we are the same and demand the same treatment.”
If all these two-faced theists all had true belief in their convictions, like say the witless but gutsy Jehovah Witness’s, there would be plenty of spare hospital beds for us Atheists, and over-flowing cemeteries with crosses on the graves.
So what is wrong with giving priority treatment to someone who wants it, over say someone who wants it stopped full-stop, or objects to it on ethical or religious grounds?
If it is exclusivity through extra rights, they want – let’s give it to them.
Let’s embrace those who abandon reason & science for superstition as it frees more beds for those who appreciate it.
Let the Hospitals and health-providers play their bluff when it comes to modern treatments that upset their sensibilities, let’s give them what they want & fought for.
It’s also high-time for theists to practice what they preach and abdicate themselves from mainstream medicine and get back to basics.
That’s to say: prayer and leeches.
Footnote: this is a re-hash of an earlier article I did.
In February Middleton Grange School in Christchurch, hired a 28 year-old guy to coach their girl's netball team (footnote: a male coaching a female sport like netball was surely a warning sign in itself?)
In case you are not from Christchurch, Middleton Grange is open to Christian children ONLY.
But mind-you - not just any Christian brats qualify - no siree.
Oh no, according to the righteous God-fearing folk who run Middleton Grange - Catholic’s need not apply.
Don’t even ask if your spawn happens to be an Atheist, Hindu or one of the other heathens doomed to ultimately burn in hells flames.
So back to the matter in hand - as it turns-out the part-time Netball Coach happens to be gay, and this touchy-fact gets back to The School Board.
As you would appreciate all Christians hate homos, and New Zealand is no exception to backward bigotry. Nothing gets a Christian zealot more worked-up than man on man sex and people spilling their seed for the fun of it.
The School Board at Middleton Grange was faced with the terrible realisation of having released a real-life sodomite onto its hallowed-grounds.
Their romper-festooned virgins needed protection from this inherently sinful man (not in a Biblical sense of the term of the word ‘man’)
So they simply fired him.
The coach departs to another school and subsequently complains to the Human Rights Department who rightfully demand that the School apologies. Middleton Grange also ended-up paying him reparations.
What is rather ironic in this whole affair is how on one-hand The New Zealand Government sees sexual discrimination as a crime worthy of admonishment, and yet in the next breath it is happy to allow Schools like Middleton Grange to openly discriminate based on a child’s beliefs?
In the past religions have had a free-reign in New Zealand to get away with abuses no other sector of society can claim as part of their innate rights being a citizen of this country.
The right to discriminate based-on gender or sexual orientation are two of the more obvious ones still permitted.
Gradually these historic ‘rights’ Governments have granted to one sector of society over another, are being whittled away.
This week New Zealand took another step towards becoming a truly secular country when it banned the inhumane slaughter of animals under the guise of religious practice.
Overnight the Kosher slaughter of lambs and chickens (a ritual called shechita) came to an end here in New Zealand and attracted the ire of the local Hebrew community both here and in Australia.
The president of The Organisation of Rabbis in Australasia, Moshe Gutnick, put all his cards on the table when he said “The science is wrong, but even if the science wasn’t wrong it infringes on the religious rights of the community.”
Basically Rabbi Gutnick was saying “So what it’s cruel - our religion dictates we treat animals in this primitive fashion and that over-rides the rule of the land.”
Gutnick and the Jewish community of New Zealand can of course import Kosher meat, or if they are still smarting from having to follow the same animal welfare laws as the rest of the country – simply go live some where else.
If you think New Zealand is intolerant - try Iran for size.
Footnote: Before anyone plays the “what about the animals killed in New Zealand slaughterhouses under the halal principals?” card, those animals are stunned first – unlike the Kosher killings where the conscious animal has it’s throat slit and bleed.
Suzette Martin, herself a Christian, has been dismissed from her teaching role at Keikeri’s Westmount school in July 2009 after giving her year 13 class a modern version of Shakespeare’s immortal play ‘King Lear’ she down-loaded from the internet to cut costs.
Westmount is a faith-based school which adheres to the insular and cult-like principals of the Exclusive Brethren Church. Every year New Zealand tax-payers fund 15 Westmount schools to the tune of 2.6 million dollars which goes to subsidise just 1620 enrolled students. Only Brethren children are permitted to enrol and the church bans it's members attending University or seeking similar higher education.
To rub salt into Martin’s wound, her complaint to The Employment Relations Authority for unjustified-dismissal, has just been rejected.
The ERA sided with the cults trustees, that teaching 17 year old teenagers the works of ‘the bard of Avon’ was inappropriate given the Brethrens closeted and narrow-minded indoctrination. The schools protocols allowed only material that “reflected Bible values” like mass-murder, incest, talking snakes etc and rejected outright the secular-evils contained in one of the greatest master-works of the English language.
The term the school committee used to describe King Lear in Martins 'don't come Monday' letter was "corrupting and morally defiling".
Martin was deemed to be in the wrong by not running the play past the schools trustees for their approval – despite the fact it formed part of the national English curriculum and her requests for the school to fund the authorised version of the play were turned down by the very ‘powers that be’ at the same school that fired her!
Once again we get to see the true-essence of faith-based education in this country exposed in all its glory: state-approved bigoted brain-washing of innocent minds.
If ever you are in the shit with the law in this country – just remember the five words which will mitigate the criminal intent.
Say after me.......
“God made me do it.”
This includes systematically beating your own child with an alkathene pipe.
This week Judge Allan Roberts agreed with the defendants claims the punishment meted-out to his young son were merely “administered for biblical reasons.”
Whilst finding the defendant guilty he granted him permanent name-suppression and sentenced him to home detention and some meaningless 'wet bus ticket'courses.
The Police and the New Zealand public as a whole were expecting jail given the savage nature of the abuse outlined in the New Plymouth court.
But the nameless defendant managed to play his ‘Get out of Jail Free Card’ in the form of the teaching of his psychopathic and cruel god Yahweh, who not just permits, but encourages parents to never spare the rod – even when it is made of alkathene and there's a fair chance it'll cause major injury to a defenseless child.
His defence lawyer, Paul Keegan, even quoted sections of Proverbs which encouraged stern treatment of a disobedient child.
Keegan even had the audacity to call his clients assault “traditional values.”
One presume Mr Keegan would take a similar stance were it his own children who were victims of similar assault, oops sorry ‘traditional values’, and an adult to took-to his kids with a length of pipe – like f*ck he would!
Clearly we have one Justice System in New Zealand for those who believe in invisible entities called gods and another for those of us that don’t wear magic god-goggles and don’t happen to think beatings of this nature are normal and can be justified in a civilised modern society - rather than a primitive, ancient sand-dwelling one.
Image for one minute this wasn’t a ‘good-Christian’ following the teachings of his holy book to the letter and rather this was a non-decrepit father who instead claimed “I was reading The Catcher and The Rye and got involved in it’s writings and in a whim I started to beat my son for steeling money.” Would the judge be so lenient then?
No f*cking way!
As part of the wishy-washy liberal sentence the spineless scum-bag was ordered to attend and complete anger management sessions and further parenting classes.
If Judge Roberts really wanted to stop this god-fearing scrotum's chances of re-offending, the logical course of action was not of a parenting nature – it would have been to require him to burn his bible and never attend a church again!
Health Officials in Christchurch, had their pleas, deliberately ignored yesterday.
Rather than stay at home, in isolation, some of the small number of confirmed local carriers, amongst the Samoan community, choose instead, to attend Church.
This utter contempt, for the community as a whole, amongst some religious attendees, also looks to be an on-going issue.
As the Canterbury Medical Officer of Health, Alistair Humphrey, frames it “members of the community had a stronger desire to attend church, when they were feeling unwell”.
With this naive mind-set pervading parishioners, surely it was in the greater communities benefit as a whole, to simply close- down the ‘unnamed’ Church in question, until it was cleared?
Let’s not forget class attendance by a relative of one of these parishioners, resulted in the same authorities closing a class at Burnside High School.
So whilst the Canterbury Health Department feels it is compelled to act in a draconian fashion, when it comes to schools – it is reluctant to tackle exactly the same issue, of mass-contamination, in a religious setting.
Rather than up-set a small number of ignorant carriers of swine flu, who believe in Gods power to heal over that of modern medicine, the local Health Authorities, are happy putting at risk the health and economy of the entire population.
Like the school-class at Burnside High, the Samoan Church currently floating health warnings, should also be closed.
Kim Workman (left) is project leader of the Rethinking Crime and Punishment Project, and director of the Prison Fellowship, a Christian agency which last year claimed to have turned around the life of New Zealand’s youngest convicted murderer Bailey Junior Kurariki.
Workman, in The Hearld article (15th March 2008) made bold claims that Kurariki's church attendance in prison, and baptism in 2007 "has really helped him to mature".
Kurariki was released from prison under strict parole conditions in May 2008, four months before his seven-year sentence was due to end.
The Prison Fellowship claimed to be provided Kurariki support on the outside, and wanted the authorities & the public to believe he was ‘born-again’.
So, how has this ‘natural born Christian’ got on since he left jail?
Just two months after release Kurariki was re-called to prison for allegedly breaching a condition banning him from using or possessing alcohol or illicit drugs. The recall was then overruled by High Court judge Justice Rhys Harrison who, said Kurariki was being unlawfully held in Auckland's Mt Eden Prison. So let’s say he walked free on that one, due to a technicality.
February this year, this poster-boy for Christian prisoner reform, was back in court again on three charges of breaching his strict parole conditions, not to drink alcohol or take drugs.
Apparently the hand signals used by Kurariki in this photo, taken outside the Court, is the way all Christians greet each other.
And to cap this off - only a month or so later he was arrested on a charge of assaulting a woman, believed to be his girlfriend.
Yesterday, he was released on bail, after pleading guilty to that assault charge.
Guess who was there to literally chauffeur him up from outside the Manukau District Court?
It was Bailey Kurariki’s fellow Christian buddies.
These ‘ostrich like’ brothers-in-Christ are seemingly oblivious to why he is in court for the 4th time since his release.
They still hold faith in the rehabilitation abilities of their god, when anyone with half-a –brain-cell, can tell the guy is an unfettered scrot.
Their beliefs have blinded them to the fact, the scum-bag standing in front of them - will never turn his cheek.
Frankly, these Christian do-gooders are a danger to society.
For the safety of others, Bailey Kurariki should remain behind bars.
Sadly, my prediction is, Kurariki will go on to savagely beat, or murder another poor innocent New Zealander.
When the inevitable happens, Workman and his feeble-minded, liberal Christians will have this ‘innocents’ blood, dripping fromtheir very hands.
In July of last year, some of the 200 Indian pilgrims bound for Catholic Youth Day in Sydney, took the opportunity of a stop-over in Auckland to ‘do a runner’.
In total 33 of these Catholic pilgrims took their chances and absconded.
14 of them are still missing, nine odd months on.
At the time, New Zealand Catholic Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer told Radio New Zealand, the mass defection was “shocking” and “there was no reason to believe the missing pilgrims were not genuine”.
Freer may now wish to now change her initial statement, given it is obvious New Zealand Immigration have been taken for a ride by her representatives & the countries tax-payers continue to pay for their lack of vetting, and gross abdication of responsibility for their sponsored charges time, whilst stopping in New Zealand.
This was a large escorted trip, sponsored by N.Z Catholic Church, using local billets – but when the ‘shit hit the fan’ the Church didn’t want a bar of the massive cost trying to find such a large group of absconders.
Imagine the screams of indignation we would have heard if the so-called pilgrims had their applications for temporary visas refused in the first place?
Those cries would have been lead by Freer personally.
All the Kiwi tax-payer got was 'shocked indignation' at the time, and now a deafening silence from the very organistation, entrusted to care for them in the first place!
Not one ounce of moral responsibility to ‘pick-up-the-pieces’.
Reinforcing ‘the bleeding obvious’ a Massey University study of 1,000 students, published last week, shows there has been a sharp rise in the number of New Zealanders with no religious affiliation.
The study revealed 40 percent of students surveyed had no religious affiliation compared to 29 percent 17 years ago.
That’s a 38% fall in those of a religious persuasion in less than two decades, and at this rate of decline it will be sooner rather than later, when non-believers will form the majority of Kiwi’s and religious institutions will crumble.
In-fact only one third of respondents indicated they considered themselves ‘religious’.
When asked if they believed in God, 53 per cent said yes, but in a somewhat contradictory twist to their answers, half of those cast doubts on a ‘real interventionist’ God.
20 percent believed in some form of higher power and about third said they didn't believe or didn't know or care.
Fighting a rear-guard action and trying to put a positive-spin on the survey, Kiwi God-botherers highlighted the fact religion in New Zealand is on the decrease but belief in God has not diminished.
Having read the grim statistics and faced with falling patronage and aging adherents, N.Z Churches need to start facing the distinct prospect of Churches closing their doors.
Belief on God won’t pay for the staff ,it’s money in the Sundays plate. Also organised religion in this country will soon find, that from this increasing pool of atheists, will come larger numbers of the more vocal and militant non-believers, who want to a truly secular country. That’s people like me.
There will be more & more New Zealanders who want to end religious privilege and politicians will be forced to act accordingly.
1.) Say you are Christian and persecuted 2.) Solicit support from some patsy group
Congratulations, to Iranian asylum Ali Panah, who was granted refugee status, yesterday.
The thinking-mans refugee.
Don’t just arrive in godzone, with the same old story of ‘political persecution’ back home. The N.Z Refugee Status Appeals Authority, gets to hear that story, all the time, eh mate?
Authorities could also check your claims, that you’d face political persecution if you returned home.
Why not take a different tact, one that is beyond reproach?
Something that can not even, be tested.
A scheme, that will also attract outside support, ramping-up pressure on the Refugee Status Appeals Authority.
That’s it – say you’ve suddenly converted to Christianity!
How easy is that to do?
A quick swat of The Bible, act all sincere, say God told you to come to New Zealand and not to eat for a prolonged period - you are ‘home and hosed’.
At all times keep-up appearances, by remembering that’s your new God and not the old one.
Christians get a hard-time back at home, don’t they Ali, even Kiwi’s know this - how good is that!
And the more publicity your case gets, the less likely it is you’ll be returned to Iran, so make as many headlines as possible. The plan, just got better.
So to ramp-up that publicity, undertake a 53 day hunger-strike, and then get some high-profile naive & well-meaning Kiwi’s on your side.
Go to google and type-in ‘New Zealand, largest religious denomination’ and see what turns-up.
In Christian circles in New Zealand, they don’t get any bigger, than Archbishop David Moxon from The Anglican Church, so you ‘struck gold’ getting him to back you.
Things worked-out nicely, eh buddy.
PS: You would have been on the first plane back to Tehran, if you had have said you were an Atheist. But a bright guy like you, picked-up on that anomaly early-on, one suspects.
The distinctive look of one, Antonie Dixon greeted readers of today’s Sunday News (Bert from Sesame Street, anyone?)
Prison appears little hindrance to Dixons, psychopathic urges.
In the latest of a long-line of violent acts, he’s pulled a home-made shank on his lawyer, Barry Hart, during a scheduled visit to Auckland Central Remand.
Luckily for Hart, alert prison guards foiled his attack.
Dixon, is in prison awaiting a re-trial, for the 2003 drug fuelled crime spree that saw him shooting a man dead and severing the hands of two female associates ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ – using a samurai sword.
In 2007 Dixon used a fork to try and gouge out the eye of a fellow prisoner.
At his first trial, under Harts examination, Dixon revealed to the Jury……..
- How he was sexually abused as a child by his mother and family friends who were part of the Jehovah’s Witness church. - Said his mother padlocked him to a fence where he developed an ability to speak telepathically with dogs, which was why he always got on with dogs. - That according to his mother, he had inherited a demon from his father - He heard “the voice of god” and said he thought of himself as “the chosen one”. - That he believed his reward would be in the next world - Planes, including a Boeing 747 - were used to follow him, his car and house were bugged and tracking devices had been put into his skin. - On the night of his rampage, he said God appeared to him at The Thames warehouse he shared with the two other victims. - He shot and killed his victim, after he saw horns coming from his head, which he described as “a biblical situation”. - Quote: “I went outside and spoke to God and he said they were Judas’s, to behead them, and to turn the sword and kill myself.”
Many of you reading this, myself included, clearly see Mr Dixon has some significant mental health issues.
But according to the Court and the psychiatrists who examined him, he is sane enough to be tried in an ‘open’ court. Crazed may be, Dixon scored 168 in a recent IQ test undertaken in prison, placing him in the top one percent in the world.
And if Dixon is attempting to feign insanity, he and his lawyer have picked the wrong avenue by using this “God made me do it” line of defence.
Thanks to the ‘special privileges’ bestowed on religious epiphanists, and the politically correct nature of New Zealand society, it is impossible to discredit even samurai-slashing madmen who “speak to God” for it brings into question the very concept of God.
Every day of the week hundreds of thousands of Kiwi’s try talking to an invisible God, all of whom claim God returns their calls.
So what the court is saying is: Dixon is as sane as the next church goer.
Whilst some may receive Gods prophetic word, in a positive form, the New Zealand judicial system has adjudged it’s credible for someone to claim God issued the commands to commit a raft of crimes without being thrown into a padded cell, and perturbing for the neutrality of the system - religious beliefs are exempt full psychiatric examination.
In a nutshell……….
If the religious entity called God instructs you to kill someone and slash off hands with a samurai sword = almost automatically you’ll be adjudged sane (the judicial system not wanting to get bogged down with a protracted arguments for/against Gods/Devils existence)
If an Alien from the moon Titan called ‘Phobos’ instructs you to kill someone, and slash off hands with a samurai sword = you will likely be adjudged insane.
Presumably Dixon will have a new lawyer at his new trial.
Who knows, we may get to hear about the aliens yet?
Nothing like a General Election, to bring nutters & extremists scuttling forth from under their rocks, and into the daylight the rest of society lives in.
When it comes to the nutcase/weirdo brigade, the religious element there-of, rightfully sits on the podium in gold medal position.
Manurewa’s local Member of Parliament, George Hawkins (above) is invited , to what he would have presumed to be, one of many innocuous meetings on the campaign trail, debating ‘the issues’ with other local political candidates.
The community meeting in question, was held last Sunday evening, under the auspice of The Manurewa Baptist Church (on your left)
Fairly ‘ho hum’ fodder, right?
Towards the end of the evening, after the candidates had spoken, the audience were asked to approach the stage, and use the microphone to ask questions.
First-up to tackle to candidates, a well-dressed gentleman.
As he strides to the stage, it is noticed he is carrying a bible, and not just any bible I hasten to add - a 1860’s version.
Nett weight of this monster, a wopping 5 kilograms (the illustrated or cartoon version perhaps?)
The gentleman is heard to mumble something about “the government poisoning food” as he progress’s straight past the microphone, and to the middle of the stage where the candidates from all political persuasions, are seated around a table.
Taking aim at George Hawkins, he slams the bible down on his hand.
A melee ensues, ending-up with the offender being carried bodily from the Church Hall.
George trots off to hospital to see if his fingers are still in one piece.
After the dust settled it comes to light the nut-case is, himself a reverend of some religious persuasion, had made a previous threat again Hawkins, involving the said ‘monster bible’.
Clearly this guy has issues of the head variety and Hawkins, whilst laying a complaint with N.Z Police, intimated as much that he needs treatment not servitude.
Now let’s wind the clock back before the attack, to the time when George came into contact with the good reverend & was subject to his initial physical threats.
In place of the bible let’s use knife & replace a reverend with a gang-member.
Viewed under these circumstance, there would have all been a different outcome.
Hawkins (ironically an ex Minister of Police) has learnt the hard way, that religious nut-cases sometimes ‘bite’, and not to dismiss threats of this nature, even when the provocateur uses the mantle ‘reverend’ and his weapon of choice is a 150 year-old bible.
An Assyrian Christian has been convicted after hitting his 20-year-old daughter.
The reasons behind Ishak Ishak (pictured above) dishing-out his hiding to his daughter was that she was going out with a Muslim.
His daughters choice in suitor would have bought shame on his family and that was sufficient enough for him to act in what would be construed as a 'crime of honour'.
We are all familiar with 'Honour Crimes' from overseas, where male relatives pursue and sometimes kill female members of their family, but in this case, the crime occurred in suburban Wellington.
This wasn't Pakistan.
The Judge in the case told Ishak he had to comply with the laws of New Zealand and that she was concerned at his behaviour. But not apparently concerned enough to actually imprison him, instead sentencing him to come up for sentence if called upon within nine months.
In other words he was allowed to walk free from the court, setting either a dangerous precedent or merely re-enforcing religions status in 'the eyes of the law'?
It appears, at least looking at this case, religious beliefs can be used effectively as a defence against the full force of the law in terms of punishment at least. One's religious/cultural beliefs are evidently mitigating factors and will be taken into account when sentencing.
What other conclusion can be reached?
It was outlined in court Ishak had gone to his daughter's room while she was in bed to confront her about going out with a Muslim. He became angry and abusive and hit out at her several times while she cowered under a blanket.
Now let's see what would happen if we take the religious factor out of the case completely.
1.) Ishak,returns home from works, gets into an argument with his daughter,assaults her. He says in his defence "I was angry" & offers profuse regrets for his actions. It's likely the court would ensure he get's anger management to treat his problem.
2.) Ishak, comes home from the pub intoxicated and assaults his daughter. Doubtless in this example some drug & alcohol rehabilitation would be issued by the court.
Looking at these scenario's it's therefore prudent to ask - why didn't the judge restrict Ishak from practicing his religion?
He was open to the court his 'beliefs' were behind the attack, so the judge was in a position in this case to strike at the issue behind his criminal behaviour, in the same way were his defence team to blame alcohol as the catalyst.
But an individuals rights to practice their faith is sacresent, even when it leads to practices deemed criminal.
Atheists do look for answers to existence itself. They just don't make them up. What am I like? Well, imagine Reginald Perrin, only more neurotic & dependent on beer to function normally in public.
