Before I begin this article I have to point out that the infamous Shaze is the one who brought this story to my attention. It was also his birthday this past weekend so everyone please wish him a very Religious Freaks birthday :) Now let’s get on with the story!
If you aren’t familiar with the Druze than do yourself a favor and go here. Don’t be ashamed; I never heard of them either till now.
Let us take a trip to the peaceful land of Israel. Here I will introduce to you a lovely girl named Doaa Fares… she is the girl pictured here. She was raised in a deeply conservative Druze village where women are born into a traditional conservative role.
But Fares was ahead of her time and looking to break the mold. She changed her name to Angelina and entered the Miss Israel beauty pageant with delusions of grandeur… a cash prize, a car, and a modeling career.
Unfortunately for Angelina, she was amongst the land of the religious freaks. She was the first Druze to compete in such a competition and was thus targeted faster for extermination than Sara Connor. Even more troubling is the fact that it wasn’t the Terminator trying to silence her… it was her own flesh and blood. Her family was evoking the age-old tradition of Honour Killing to protect their own honor.
I know in the past I have labeled this phenomenon as an Islamic one. Many wrote to suggest otherwise and this may be evidence. If anyone has knowledge on the Druze I would appreciate your insight.
The reason I labeled this story under Islam is because the roots of the Druze appear to stem from there. I must emphasize that the Muslim community does not recognize the Druze.
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Evidently the druze have very small penises given their need to intimidate their women in order to feel adequate.
Hmmm.
This disturbs me.
If anyone bothered to look at the actual article, some also perfom this “honour-killing” on the victims of rape, assuming that somehow that the victim of rape intentionally brought shame to the family.
What is with western religion and its irrational fear of sex? It leads to all sorts of twisted morality.
- ‘Honor’ killing
- Prophylactic bans (even in over-populated, poor countries)
- Missionary position only attitudes
- Masturbation stigmas
- No sex till marriage (95% still do anyway)
- Emergency contraceptive bans (even non-abortive)
- Priest celibacy
- Covering women’s bodies from head to toe
- Genital mutilation of girls
- Considering women/wives as subservient to men/husbands
- Male-only religious leadership
- A refusal to educate children on sex (as if ignorance of sex will prevent them from having it)
This sort of attitude is what can lead to a belief that murder is a lesser sin than expressing sexuality.
I think this anti-sexuality attitude ultimately stems from the wretched Garden of Eden myth and the imagined ‘Original Sin’. It is yet another example of the sort of problems that can be created when a large number of people rely on faith to believe in irrational things.
Wanted to note that Druze are only marginally related to Islam- they are not Muslim by any stretch of the imagination, even if they did begin as an offshoot. They are to Islam as Christianity is to Judaism- and offshoot who believe their leader was/is an incarnation of God who ascended bodily into heaven.
Either way, this further strengthens my thoughts that the internet is far more than just a tool, it is the beggining of a revolution.
Imagine the minds we’ll wake up?! Doctors and Scientists, Athletes, Artists and (fap) Models, all currently stagnating under oppression in some form. Tough not to love your family though, even when they beat, rape, humilate and even try to kill you. I know people even North America who had shitty childhood’s, and think it’s the norm.
Point is, even though no one wished me a happy birthday; I’ll still keep posting. :P “One of us, One of us…”
@sidfaiwu “What is with western religion and its irrational fear of sex? It leads to all sorts of twisted morality.”
I think Sam Harris said it best in his “letter to a Christian Nation” – get out of people’s bedrooms, if they’re not doing any harm it’s not your business…(that’s paraphrasing, not a direct quote).
Honor killings are just killings, there’s no honor. Someone else has decided to nuke us just because we didn’t fit their rigid mold that they inherited from someone else…..
I was going to ask what sid asked until I saw he did it himself…what the hell? It seems like the great bond among many religions is how much they seems to hate women and their “evil bodies”. Where the hell did this start, and how did it get so big? Perhaps it kind of “hit it big” with Eden but still, how big was it before that to become a major point of a religion? Even the ancient Greeks with Athena and whatnot held women as lower. Seriously, where did this come from?
What Misogyny?
Well, here’s the thing most women don’t know, and most guys’ won’t admit. Men NEED sex. And not just once in a while, a lot. A guy who hasn’t got laid in a while goes crazy; pure batshit nuts even. Women on the other hand, are not afflicted by this hereditary need.
Thus creating a natural shift in power, being that women could “control” the sanity/balance in men. So I imagine, in the way man created recent labour unions; that Religion (and in some places government) decided to try and shift or conceal this “natural” role/power that had been given to women.
That’s why so many people object to porn and sex, not because it’s immoral; but because it so clearly illustrates the cultural changes in sexual dominance.
… over man.
Wou I have never thought about that. Now my mind won’t let me sleep tonight. Thanks a lot Shaze
Happy Birthday Shaze!! (belated, but I plead timezone :)
Hooyeah – and just wait until later this year, when MIT starts dropping millions of google-and-wikipedia enabled laptops into some of these stone-age enclaves….
Actually it kind of saddens me to think that such a noble and productive venture is going to run headlong into this kind of mindless intollerance too.
P.S., from TFA:
The tenets of the [Druze] religion are kept secret not just from outsiders but also from the majority of the Druze, who are known as juhal (ignorant ones) and must accept the faith on trust
Pure comedy gold!!
WTF? So the druze are a bit like scientologists? They don’t get the ridiculous tenents of their faith revealed to them until they are brainwashed enough not to reject it for that batshit that it is?
Gotta love religion. Crazy, just crazy.
In that case, Shaze, my right hand shall continue the fight against tyranny and opression, not just for me…FOR MANKIND!!!
And Happy Birthday :)
The above was in reference to post 8, just so we’re clear…wouldn’t want that message to be interpreted in some different way…
@Snurp “wouldn’t want that message to be interpreted in some different way…”
I’m sure the honor of your right hand has been preserved. Long may it fight the tyranny and oppression that so troubles you! :P
Tell you what…She’s one hot muslim mommy! Poor thing, though. Heart-breaking, really. All she wants to be is adored.
Or she’s one hot mommy who was born into a religous family and indoctrinated. But not enough to make her want to cover up her gorgeous self…..Go you good thing I say.
Does this mean we can start the “handedness” thread all over again? That one was fun =)
You rightys are off to a way dodgy start though, I must say!
I realize I am late to this conversation, and I hope some of you bother to read it.
The Druzes are an offshoot of Islam. They were radical reformers in their time period, advocating ending polygamy, slavery, and separating religion and state. The rest of Islam thought they were nuts and hence they became their own religion. A very secretive one by the way, but generally quite peaceful.
Without knowing all the details I can tell you this much from my own research into the Druzes: This is not the norm. Most Druzes are very open-minded, kind and hospitable people. While many of them may frown on ‘Angelina’s’ (her chosen stage name) choice to participate in this contest, they are far more outraged by murder.
The best way to combat this kind of atrocity, is to engage with and support the moderate base of the given religion, be it Islam, Druze, Judaism, Catholicism or any other.
I have an interest in the Druze that comes from my Arabic teacher often using Druze as an example word because it contains a lot of easy letters/markings. My teacher is from Lebanon and grew up in a village with many Druze friends who lived in the nearby mountains. Although he is not Druze himself, he has had only good things to say about the people and portrays their culture as a bastion of tolerance, even compared to the Lebanese.
To me this sounds like the policy of keeping the majority of the population “outer initiates” is good. By limiting the exposure to the (often barbaric) tenents of their religion, it appears the average Druze is better off. This is similar to how most Christians have a very basic understanding of what they claim to believe. By not delving too deeply into the scripture, they avoid having to recognize the really bad parts.
From the sound of this story it appears that the problem is not so much the Druze religion but the culture. Conservative communities in any country or of any faith have done, and will continue to do, this sort of thing. In America this sort of thing still happens with homosexuals. In the USA we are just lucky we have a legal system that does not recognize religious laws, because there are people of many faiths that would perform “honor killings” or the equivilent, if they thought they could get away with it.
Hi, I would just like to say that the Druze like any other religion has some really strict people in it and some who are not so strict. By strict I just mean those who cant tolerate anything that is outside the norm for them, as was the case with Angelina. By the way speaking of secrecy, I dont think there are any two people in any religion whether it be Bhuddism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, so on and so forth, who would tell you the same thing about their religion. So I believe that there is secrecy in every religion. Cheers and Good night.
Ubiquity isn’t an argument for validity. To hell with intolerance regardless of the flavor.
Look i’m a druze and my family isn’t strict. Women can choose to wear the religious garments or bahave and wear clothes like any other modern women!They are NOT forced.We do not believe in honor killing, that is bad and we’re also a very religious family… So as you can see women have a choice. i dont know about other druze people who are in a very srrict culture.All I know is that angelina’s family is strict because of their culture not being a druze.If a women does do something bad her family will be ashamed but God will do what he has to do with her. God knows what to do.her family should not react in the same way like angelina’s family!
My father is an Israeli Druze and I have visited Israel several times and it is well known amongst the Druze that the village that Ms. Fares comes from is extremely conservative, or “behind the times” as they like to say. There are other Druze villages which are open and more tolerant. It is actually very strange that the villages are so different even though they are in such close proximity to one another. It’s true that the strictness comes from more of a cultural thing than actualy religion. Pure Arab culture which tends to be biased. I, being a Druze myself, was actually pretty proud of Ms. Fares for competing in the pageant. I suppose those who were trying to plot a “honour killing,” against her were just afraid that she might actually realize that she could be somebody and leave them. However, the Druze in Lebanon seem to be the complete opposite as you have Druze women in the media at almost every corner, such as nidal Al-ahmadie, and Mona Abou Hamze. It just depends where you go….
Interesting that the further we get away from the guidelines of a religion, the more tolerant and reasonable we become.
I believe that the one who wrote this article doesn’t have the right to insult any religion whether it was druze or any others. You should respect the believes of every person, maybe you will not tolerate his acts “such as the Honor killing” you can criticize but have some respect. Peace :)
“re”, that is a dramatically wrongheaded post that you just made. Please read this over, and then reconsider what you were pleading for:
Beliefs and religions are not people. They are ideas, nothing more. As such, they do not deserve or merit respect. They instead demand unwaveringly critical examination, so that bad and wrong ideas can be discarded.
Religion and other superstitions are simply bad ideas. It is morally wrong to not criticize them thoroughly.
i am a druz boy
i’m a druze and a lot of what your saying is wrong. My sister doesnt have to cover all her body she can wear skirts(she’s 15 btw). I’m lebanese and even there are lots of women who are not obliged to wear reserved outfits. in the above case her family did this to her because they live in israel not because shes druze. If a girl or boy chooses to become more religious like for instance a christian girl becoming a nun who are not allowed to enter a pageant then in this case she wears the religious outfit with her choice!
Ummmm, Alaa why isn’t your sister here speaking for herself?
Good one, Penny. Alaa should be druzed and dattered after that line.
It’s an amazing paragraph in favor of all the internet people; they will get advantage from it I am sure.