The bravery of religion is yet again on display, this time in Pakistan where a man has been sentence to death for supposedly insulting the prophet Mohammed. There's a familiar pattern that arises in these parts: the predominately Muslim population has a few altercations with other religious groups that are Christian, and suddenly the lone person is accused of blasphemy and is usually beaten, followed by the ...

This week, Ryan joins me as we tackle the problem of Orthodox Jews giving herpes to poor little babies, and a scumbag Imam tries to frame a disabled Christian girl for blasphemy in Pakistan. SHOW NOTES Topics New York Rabbis to defy circumcision law, Pakistan Imam accused of planting burnt Qur’an as evidence to prosecute disabled girl Introduction: 2 day vacation in Banff, Alberta and why I understand why p ...

Remember last year when 24 people died because a US pastor made a public display of burning the Koran? Despite President Obama begging the guy not to do it, Pastor Terry Jones held a mock trial for the book, found it guilty of 3 crimes against humanity and set it on fire. Huge protests errupted in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and like every crazy protest in these countries, a bunch of people got killed. S ...

In the slums of Khanewal, Pakistan, the poor and indigent who suffer from treatable illnesses are sent, often by physicians wishing to unload their patients, to the Islamic equivalent of exorcists. They are called Pirs (or Peers), meaning "old man", and these "saints" often perform barbaric torture rituals they believe can clean people of djinns, or demons. One victim of their archaic stupidity was a woman ...

In a large Suffi shrine in Southern Pakistan, two young men with explosives strapped on their backs navigate nervously through a packed crowd. They are looking for an ideal place to murder as many of their fellow human beings as possible. The plan is surprisingly evil: the second boy is there to detonate himself the moment help arrives to care for the victims of the first attack. As chance would have it, Um ...

If we want to start claiming we're a community, it's time we started acting like one. Here's a great opportunity: it seems two young girls, Asmaa and Fatima, are seeking refuge from both their highly religious country of Pakistan, and their abusive fundamentalist parents. They've been petitioning the government of Sri Lanka for visas to allow them to stay in the country and avoid being deported to their the ...

It's pretty rare I agree with the Pope, but he's recently been calling on Pakistan to repeal their insane blasphemy laws, and I'm behind him on this one. His calls were met, unsurprisingly, with a friendly "mind your own fucking business": The pope has given a statement today that has not only offended the 180 million Muslims in Pakistan, it has also hurt the sentiments of the entire Islamic world," said Ha ...

Imagine your loved one gets gunned down for trying to reform a law that makes the lives of people visibly worse, and the murderer is showered with rose petals and celebrated for his actions? Well, for that to happen, you'd have to be in Pakistan, and the law you would have to try and reform would be the blasphemy kind. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was attempting to reform the laws in an effort to ...

You remember Pakistan right? It's the country currently being ruled by a military dictator who happens to be nice and chummy to Islamic groups who like to get women sentenced to death for blasphemy. They seem to be profoundly confused about what to do regarding the sacredness of the name "Muhammad", as they've recently arrested a man for throwing out a business card of someone who shared the namesake. You c ...

A few podcasts ago, Ryan and I discussed the case of the world famous "blasphemer", Asia Bibi of Pakistan, who faces the death penalty for insulting Islam. She's recently been trying to get a Presidential pardon, which was just rejected by a Pakistani "court" yesterday. The high court barred the President from even attempting to let her off the hook for having supposedly said some hurtful things about a man ...