Guantanamo Bay Prison

Guantánamo Bay has proven itself to be a very large topic in the United States today. For all of you that don't know the issue behind Guantánamo Bay, Guantánamo Bay prison is a prison that currently holds detainees that the government may consider to be harmful to the future of the world; in other words, terrorists. The controversy behind this is two things: one, that there has been confirmed and suspected forms of torture going on in Guantánamo, acts that other countries and the United Nations frown upon, and two, many of the detainees may have no reason of being in the prison other than a government officials gut feeling that, that detainee is a terrorist or an aid to terrorism. This has come to requests and demands of an inspection (or closure) of the said prison. The fact is this is hurting our foreign political status badly.

Aside from our political status, this is hurting us morally as a nation. We're a nation that is against acts of torture (at least our government tries to proclaim it) and promotes freedom of religion. The moral and religious controversy at Guantánamo relates with this. I'm introducing a new type of controversy here: specifically, does a detainee at Guantánamo still hold his or her right to freedom of religion and freedom to practice that religion? Right now, according to recent articles and reports, detainees do not have that freedom and right. Some Muslim prisoners have been forced to be in contact with other women, when their religion states they are not to be in contact with other women other than their wives. Prisoners have lost their ability and right to also practice their religion while detained. This may not be such a proclaimed problem and controversy such as the likes of torture, but it is having huge effects on our foreign status and our values as a nation.

Personally, as a Roman Catholic Christian, I believe prisoners should be given back their rights to their religions. The fact that these prisoners may have committed acts against our country and our people doesn't change the fact that they have rights as a human being. Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay prison have lost all their rights as humans and are under the will of the prison. This is causing a huge sense of hate from countries in the Middle East and giving the United States more and more enemies by the day. Yes, these prisoners may have committed crimes against our countries and deserve to be punished for their actions, but this does not mean they should lose their rights as human beings. In addition to morals this also ties into the logical reasons of imprisonment. One of the main reasons behind punishment for wrong actions is to gain the respect of others and to stop others from committing such acts. Rather than getting respect from terrorists, actions limiting religion and moral values have instead caused hate and an encouragement of anger and acts of terrorism against our country. Well, which one is it, shall we continue to take the rights of others because they have committed evil acts, or should they be allowed their religious rights nonetheless? I certainly believe from both political and moral points of view allowing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay prison religious rights would help our nation.

Religion's Side Effect

Religions Side Effects
Just last week another not-so-uncommon suicide bombing “killed more than 30 people and wounded at least 50” in Islamabad, Pakistan. What was the motivation behind this attack? I let you take one guess, religion. The bomber was targeting the funeral of a Shiite man. You see the two largest denominations of Islam are the Sunnis and the Shiites, both are of the Muslim following but differ in certain details regarding the prophet Muhammad. Not surprising this slight difference in belief has caused the deaths of many innocents.
Why doesn’t this surprise us? Religion has been the fuel behind many conflicts yet we hardly ever take the time to question the logic behind it. It’s almost as if we use religion as an excuse to hate each other and upset the balance of what could be a peaceful world.
There have been many wars in mankind’s past that have been affected and cause by religion. The Korean War had its roots in religion when 300,000 Christians were forced to flee. In the Civil War slave owners thought it was their “god given right” to own slaves. During World War Two Hitler used the 'Jews Killed Jesus' thing to rally his cause. All of the wars could have most likely been resolved or at least ended quicker had we thrown our ridiculous religious intolerances out the window.
Even today we are in a “war on terrorism”, which is more a war on Muslim fundamentalists than anything. To have a war on “terrorism” makes no sense. Terrorism is a simple side effect from Muslim fundamentalists intolerance for non-Muslims. Sam Harris the Author of “The End of Faith” states: “If Osama bin Laden were the leader of a nation, and the World Trade Center had been brought down with missiles, the atrocities of September 11 would have been acts of war. It should go without saying that we would have resisted the temptation to declare a war on “war” in response.” What Harris is implying is that terrorism is caused by religious intolerance, it isn’t terrorism itself that is the problem, the intolerance is.
We live in a world where most people have faith in a divine being. People’s thoughts and actions are premeditated and filtered through their belief system before the logic of the situation is analyzed. This world has witnessed prejudices, murder, war, and other terrible events any of us would call “crimes” had the causation not had been religion. Today prejudice does not come from the color of a persons skin (we have gotten over that ridiculousness), but now it comes from a persons belief system. We are threatened by weapons that could destroy our earth, simply because we don’t share the same “faith” as others.
Now I am completely aware that this is a very unique and complex situation. We will never see the end of religion, it has been around for nearly as long as we have and will be until our species is extinct. Some people simply need faith, they need something that makes sense to them to explain why they are here and have some comfort knowing that death is always around the corner. What I would suggest as a potential step towards a more tolerant society is that we focus more on morals from a common sense standpoint. Just because some people aren’t Christians doesn’t mean they can’t be “Christ-like”. I know plenty of atheists who are kind-hearted, charitable, loving people. The point is that we can be a kind society with our religious affiliations set to the side. I’m not saying that people should stop believing, but that they should try believing in their own space and be open to living amongst a diverse society of varied religions.
I’m not trying to disprove or belittle religion in any way. I feel that everyone should have the freedom to believe whatever he or she wishes to believe in. Whether a certain religion has more evidence or proof behind it shouldn’t play a role either. It just doesn’t make sense for us to continue fighting each other over this. I simply am stating from a common sense and logical standpoint that religious extremists (mostly the violent ones) are harming the world more than helping it. We need stop fighting over faith.
*Info taken from NY Times Article “Pakistan Bombing Kills More Than 30” by Pir Zubair Shah

Religion in Schools

Religions Side Effects
Why doesn’t this surprise us? Religion has been the fuel behind many conflicts yet we hardly ever take the time to question the logic behind it. It’s almost as if we use religion as an excuse to hate each other and upset the balance of what could be a peaceful world.
There have been many wars in mankind’s past that have been affected and cause by religion. The Korean War had its roots in religion when 300,000 Christians were forced to flee. In the Civil War slave owners thought it was their “god given right” to own slaves. During World War Two Hitler used the 'Jews Killed Jesus' thing to rally his cause. All of the wars could have most likely been resolved or at least ended quicker had we thrown our ridiculous religious intolerances out the window.
Even today we are in a “war on terrorism”, which is more a war on Muslim fundamentalists than anything. To have a war on “terrorism” makes no sense. Terrorism is a simple side effect from Muslim fundamentalists intolerance for non-Muslims. Sam Harris the Author of “The End of Faith” states: “If Osama bin Laden were the leader of a nation, and the World Trade Center had been brought down with missiles, the atrocities of September 11 would have been acts of war. It should go without saying that we would have resisted the temptation to declare a war on “war” in response.” What Harris is implying is that terrorism is caused by religious intolerance, it isn’t terrorism itself that is the problem, the intolerance is.
We live in a world where most people have faith in a divine being. People’s thoughts and actions are premeditated and filtered through their belief system before the logic of the situation is analyzed. This world has witnessed prejudices, murder, war, and other terrible events any of us would call “crimes” had the causation not had been religion. Today prejudice does not come from the color of a persons skin (we have gotten over that ridiculousness), but now it comes from a persons belief system. We are threatened by weapons that could destroy our earth, simply because we don’t share the same “faith” as others.
Now I am completely aware that this is a very unique and complex situation. We will never see the end of religion, it has been around for nearly as long as we have and will be until our species is extinct. Some people simply need faith, they need something that makes sense to them to explain why they are here and have some comfort knowing that death is always around the corner. What I would suggest as a potential step towards a more tolerant society is that we focus more on morals from a common sense standpoint. Just because some people aren’t Christians doesn’t mean they can’t be “Christ-like”. I know plenty of atheists who are kind-hearted, charitable, loving people. The point is that we can be a kind society with our religious affiliations set to the side. I’m not saying that people should stop believing, but that they should try believing in their own space and be open to living amongst a diverse society of varied religions.
I’m not trying to disprove or belittle religion in any way. I feel that everyone should have the freedom to believe whatever he or she wishes to believe in. Whether a certain religion has more evidence or proof behind it shouldn’t play a role either. It just doesn’t make sense for us to continue fighting each other over this. I simply am stating from a common sense and logical standpoint that religious extremists (mostly the violent ones) are harming the world more than helping it. We need stop fighting over faith.
*Info taken from NY Times Article “Pakistan Bombing Kills More Than 30” by Pir Zubair Shah