Religion can be a force for good - or it can be a weapon of war ! In Pakistan we are seeing religious intolerance condemning children to suffer the crippling effects of polio because the Taliban has issued a Fatwa, condemning to death those who provide immunization against this disease.
Six Pakistani women who were immunizing children were shot dead by militants in coordinated separate attacks in Karachi. As a result, the immunization campaign has been suspended. Polio has been wiped out in most western countries, but it remains endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria - and that's where the Taliban holds sway.
The Taliban have their own weird ideas on what constitutes Islam and this includes banning most things the rest of the world considers " normal ". In areas they control, listening to music, watching television - and even flying kites is banned. Their " punishments " include stoning to death for adultery and the amputation of hands for theft. Now it seems that even the control of disease comes within their orbit.
It seems that this polio immunization ban stems from a " revenge motif ". A Pakistani doctor supposedly helped identify the house in which Osama bin Laden was hiding by using a fake medical check to obtain blood samples. These were then compared with known DNA to reveal a blood link between the terrorist and the people living in the suspected house. The Taliban are now saying that all forms of immunization is a cover for espionage - and they will kill to prevent it happening.
This blanket ban is going to spread death and misery in the lands they control. Countless children are going to have their lives ruined by a disease that it is possible to control - and even completely eliminate. No wonder we are seeing an exodus of thinking people from Afghanistan and other lands that suffer the brutal edicts of the Taliban on every aspect of their lives.
This is the same Taliban that deliberately shot a fifteen year old schoolgirl in the head - for daring to demand that girl's be allowed education. No wonder the Taliban need to keep their subjects dirt poor and ignorant. The moment education opens their minds they can see what a miserable life they are living - and they take off elsewhere for a better life.
The Taliban are fighting a losing battle. They retain control in many places by sheer force of arms, but bit by bit education is seeping into the life of the oppressed and loosening their hold. It is just a pity that until the numbers grow a lot of little kids are going to die or be crippled by a senseless ban imposed by ignorant fundamentalists who interpret a worthy religion into an obscene form to suit their own purposes.
Eventually, a battle between life saving firms of medicine - and religion - can only have one outcome !
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