Indian couple electrocuted for daring to marry outside caste

[BishopM 114]

The Bhagawad Gita is a single text. No plural form required. Perhaps you're thinking of the Vedas? Of course, if you were then no singular form would be required as there are many Vedas. Sooooo.... Bishop ji () one wonders what you may have been thinking of?

Ya, perhaps you're right, I got my vedas and Gita(s) crossed. I've read the Bhagavad Gita several times...including when I read the Mahabharata...I really love that Holy book, but for some reason I thought there were other 'insertnamehere - Gita(s)' as well. I get confused ya know

B-ji

[BishopM 114]

Although the caste system is primarily a feature of Hindu culture, it can be found among followers of other religions in India, including Muslims. More common among Muslims is a cultural system called ka'fah, or the law of equality, where, women, in particular, are to marry at or above their social status. However, this concept predates Islam and is really a throwback that some have tried to incorporate into the faith.

I agree, but my remark was provoked by how articles about honor killings have repeatedly targeted Islam as condoning the practice of honor killing, when it does not. It is cultural and is found among most social and religious groups thoughout the globe.

+1...Assalam Alaikom

[^_^ 5,021]

I've read the Bhagavad Gita several times...including when I read the Mahabharata...I really love that Holy book

I enjoy it too. It's unfortunate that I do not understand Sanskrit (although I can read it) and my knowledge of other Indian languages is subpar at best, so I'm forced to make do with English translations.

[BishopM 114]

I enjoy it too. It's unfortunate that I do not understand Sanskrit (although I can read it) and my knowledge of other Indian languages is subpar at best, so I'm forced to make do with English translations.

Ya, I suspect alot of the beauty and grace of the text/meaning is diminished through the translation, which is unfortunate. However, this might be a blessing in disquise, for our own benefit. Imagine if we were able to accept the full meaning...we might explode! I honestly doubt that we could take it! I mean, look at how the mighty Arjuna struggled while Lord Krishna sung the text to him...in his own perfectly understandable language!

...and I'm sure that I am considerably weaker than Arjuna...

Blessing, B-ji

Edited June 17, 2010 by BishopM

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Sofiyya makes a fair point.

"Most" social and religious groups around the globe don't electrocute their own children, and person's whom they don't wish their children to marry. Nor do "most" participate in honor killings of any sort. The only 'point' is deflecting focus from one backward religion/culture on to another cruel, and backwards religion/culture to say "See, they do it too!"

I hope this father and uncle get all of the justice they have coming.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

"Most" social and religious groups around the globe don't electrocute their own children, and person's whom they don't wish their children to marry. Nor do "most" participate in honor killings of any sort. The only 'point' is deflecting focus from one backward religion/culture on to another cruel, and backwards religion/culture to say "See, they do it too!"

I hope this father and uncle get all of the justice they have coming.

Take it easy. Hatred, obsession and willful ignorance are taxing your credibility and reasoning, what's left of them.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Take it easy. Hatred, obsession and willful ignorance are taxing your credibility and reasoning, what's left of them.

You said "most" and that is both incredible and unreasonable. My statement was hardly "filled with hatred." Kindly don't project your feelings of persecution on me.

Most Muslim's don't practice honor killings either, if they aren't backward in their thinking.

Edited June 17, 2010 by ready4ONE

[Sofiyya 1,687]

You said "most" and that is both incredible and unreasonable. My statement was hardly "filled with hatred." Kindly don't project your feelings of persecution on me.

Most Muslim's don't practice honor killings either, if they aren't backward in their thinking.

you make a point of judging and insulting, so you have no standing upon which to demand that no one correct you. I doubt you know much about other cultures, good or bad, since your xenophobia is one of the first things someone would notice about you.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Soffiya has very little muslim friends.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Soffiya has very little muslim friends.

Some of my Muslim friends (and family) are little, but a lot of them are big and tall. I'm a medium size Muslim, myself.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Sofiyya

[Ban Hammer 14,801]

Soffiya has very little muslim friends.

marked for the next edition of "consolemaster's greatest hits part III"

[HeatDeath 431]

Executing your children (and why is it always daughters?) isn't a Muslim problem, and it isn't a Hindu problem. There are billions of civilized Hindus, and billions of civilized Muslims, who would and do find these cases horrific.

This is not a religion problem, this is a BARBARIAN problem.

There are many civilized Muslims, but there is a non-trivial population of Muslim barbarians. It is the responsibility of civilized Muslims to speak out against the barbarian Muslims. This is made difficult by the fact that the barbarians hold positions of authority in some Muslim communities and manage to effectively silence the civilized Muslims.

There are many civilized Hindus, but there is a non-trivial population of Hindu barbarians. It is the responsibility of civilized Hindus to speak out against the barbarian Hindus. This happens significantly more often than civilized Muslims speaking out against Muslim barbarians, as the Hindu barbarians do not nearly as often hold positions of power and authority within their communities.

There are many civilized Christians, but there is a population of Christian barbarians. It is the responsibility of civilized Christians to speak out against the barbarian Christians. This actually happens fairly often. Along with militant atheists (who criticize both civilized and barbarian Christians), civilized Christians are among the most vocal opponents of Christian barbarians like the Westboro Baptist Church, the KKK, and the medieval Roman Catholic Church.

There are many civilized atheists, but there are populations of atheist barbarians (Mao's followers, Stalin's followers, etc.) It is the responsibility of civilized atheists to speak out against the barbarian atheists. This actually happens fairly often nowadays, though it hasn't always (American academia for decades openly denied Solzhenitsyn's descriptions of the Soviet Gulags).

I can't seem to think of any incidents in modern times implying the existence of a barbarous population of religious Jews, but if there is, the exact same moral responsibility holds. It is the duty of civilized Jews to speak out against Jewish barbarians.

Civilized people, whether of faith or not, have no problems living with each other. Indeed, this may define what it means to be civilized. We all of us share the responsibility to speak out clearly and unambiguously against the barbarians of our own creed, and we all of us share the responsibility to call a spade a spade when speaking of the evil barbarians of other creeds.

The fight here is civilization vs. barbarism, and it affects everybody. The barbarians are at the gates, at every gate.

Killing one's child, furtively, in an alley, contrary to any recognized principle of community enforced justice, outside of all rules of law and decency, is evil barbarism. It is not civilized tolerance to pretend that any legitimate cultural institution can justify such an act.

This is not even a issue of the morality of capital punishment and differing laws mandating capital punishment. It may very well be that a community of a particular faith may choose to recognize cross-caste or out-of-faith marriage as a capital crime, and legislate and enforce laws accordingly. That is not what has happened here. Honor killings without public trials, such as these, are not the at-least-partially-legitimate public actions of a community enforcing it's own legitimately derived (however much we may disagree with them) capital punishment laws. These are the acts of evil, barbarous individuals who do their so-called "justice" in the dark because they know that not even the strictest possible public voice of their community would justify their evil murderous impulses.

Civilized people may disagree on what constitutes a capital crime, or on whether such a thing exists at all, but all civilized people can agree that capital punishment cannot be legitimately or justly applied, or even legitimately or justly adjudicated by one or even a small group of people, even the family or the accused, skulking about in the shadows on the fringes of their own culture. Justice, especially capital justice, MUST be done in public, in the light, and by the entire community.

A murder in an alley can never hold the same moral status as a legitimate public execution following a legitimate public trial, and only an evil barbarian could ever confuse the two.

THAT is what separates civilization from barbarism.

Edited June 17, 2010 by HeatDeath

[ready4ONE 5,400]

you make a point of judging and insulting, so you have no standing upon which to demand that no one correct you. I doubt you know much about other cultures, good or bad, since your xenophobia is one of the first things someone would notice about you.

And yet if I had a dollar for every time you were judgmental and/or insulting of Christianity or the Catholic Church in particular, oh never mind!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Damn the savages.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

And yet if I had a dollar for every time you were judgmental and/or insulting of Christianity or the Catholic Church in particular, oh never mind!

I'm not judgmental or insulting of Christianity. I've explained that many times, but you enjoy playing victim after being crass. One thing you have going for you is low brow consistancy. We can always count on that.

Edited June 18, 2010 by Sofiyya