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Islamic law is harsh. It shows no mercy. Take the case of a boy we’ll call Mohammad. He was seventeen years old and lived in a small, forgotten town some miles from Tehran. Mohammad was a bright boy; athletic. He attended a school where his sports abilities ranked him high among other students. He had a bright future.

Mohammad was always a bit on the wild side. He loved to party, occasionally drank illegal alcohol, even smoked hashish when it was available. His antics would have landed him in serious trouble with the Islamic authorities were he ever to be caught.

One night, during the celebration of a religious festival, Mohammad and some of his friends were partying. A couple of girls came around and before long the party turned into a sexual free-for-all. For fun, one of the boys used his video recorder to record Mohammad having oral sex with one of the girls, who was only fifteen years old. In fact, it was the girl who instigated the act with Mohammad.

Later, the video camera fell into the hands of the local police. Mohammad was arrested. He’s now serving ten years in jail, with no prospect of parole. His crime – child molestation.

Mohammad was a victim of his own raging hormones and a fifteen year old girl unable to control her desires. Neither did anything that most of us, if we are honest, have not indulged in at some time during our pubescent years. But, Islamic law is strict and shows no mercy…………

……..except, Mohammad does not live in a small, forgotten town some miles from Tehran. His name is not Mohammad, but Genarlow Wilson. He lives in Georgia, in the USA.

He was not sentenced under Islamic law – Genarlow is not a Muslim – but under the laws of the United States of America.

You can read more of the story of Genarlow Wilson at this CSpan link – once again, my thanks to Mike at “From Chaos To Order” for bringing the story to our attention.

For sometime, US politicians have been criticizing harsh Islamic regimes for their treatment of wayward citizens; the state of their jails; the lack of freedoms and rights afforded to ordinary folk.

From where I’m observing, there seems little difference between such regimes, and that of the United States of America.

Filed under: Perceptions

Today, on a blog, I wrote a comment castigating a young man for describing America as “….still the greatest country in the world.” Prior to that statement he had gone to some lengths in describing much that was wrong with the “greatest country in the world”, hence the “still” that preceded his remark.

I was, with hindsight, a little hard on him. At least he had the intelligence and thoughtfulness not to support his government’s present policies, unlike many much older than he. It got me musing on the concept of “the greatest country in the world”, and what exactly is determined by that phrase.

One could be forgiven for allowing it to trip off the tongue. After all, it’s hardly new. As a child, I was taught that America was great. I was also taught that Britain was the greatest country with the finest empire, an empire filled with the grateful recipients of Britishness. Fifty years on, it was all a load of what Americans love to call “bullshit”; a political doctrine designed to assuage the masses and disguise the brutish and economic rape of weaker nations overpowered by force of arms.

Websters lists eleven definitions of the word “great”. The first deals with size, so in that sense America could be described as great – though not the great-est” as it is beaten into second* place by Russia.

The second concerns “large in number” i.e. numerous. Well, there’s only one America, but lots of Americans. Perhaps it is the most populous nation? But no, still way behind China and India.

Seven of the other definitions couldn’t even remotely apply, which left two that might just fit the bill. The first was a general term applicable to “greatness”, in the sense that “I had a great time on vacation in America.” Unfortunately, in this context, the word is descriptive of the “time”, rather than the place, and while the place probably would have a bearing on the quality of time spent there, even if the sentence was condensed to simply “America was great”, it only refers to that person’s limited experience of the time spent there, not the country as a whole.

Having whittled down the opposition, we are left with only one possible definition that might fit the context of our phrase, “the greatest country in the world”.

Websters defines “great” as: “markedly superior in character or quality; especially : NOBLE”

Here we run into a serious problem. Is there evidence to support the idea that America is superior in character or quality to every other nation on the planet? The obvious answer, to anyone who’s traveled further afield than the Mexican or Canadian borders, is “No.”

America may have some superior traits compared with certain other countries, but not enough to warrant the title “greatest country in the world”. Other countries are superior to America in many areas where this nation fails to reign supreme.

So, having decided America fails the test, which is the greatest country in the world?

The simple answer is: there isn’t one.

Any independent-minded, seasoned traveler will tell you that each country has its good and bad points. None is superior in all aspects, and certainly there is no such thing as a “noble” nation – the defining adjective for our final definition of “great” as supplied by Websters. In fact, given the politicians and political systems that have developed in most countries, the term “noble” would be laughable were it not for the misery and suffering caused to many of their citizens by laws designed to trap them in poverty and despair. In that league table, America only manages to achieve a place somewhere in the middle, with most of Europe having better social security and health systems than their transatlantic cousin.

Why is it then that the idea of a superior America so readily leaps from American lips, even when their country is living through an era when it is despised by most of the world?

Perhaps it is exactly for that reason – insecurity.

Here, maybe, is an insight into why my young blogger rushed to console himself and his readers after just reeling off a whole list of reasons why America was quite definitely not “the greatest country in the world”.

He needed to reassure himself that, in spite of all, maybe, just maybe, it could be one day.

* _{NOTE: In fact, measured by geographical size, the US ranks fourth, behind Russia, Canada, and China. My thanks to Sister Anan for pointing out the error.}

Filed under: National pride

My thanks to Mike at “From Chaos to Order” for bringing this to our attention.

It seems New England hasn’t advanced very far from the witch-hunting days of the early settlers. A grade school teacher is facing forty years in prison for allegedly exposing 7th-grade students to pornographic sites on the school’s computer. It seems obvious that the innocuous website being visited at the time was infected, and automatically opened the porn sites before the teacher, who was not very computer literate, could do anything about it.

Despite the defense apparently arguing that the computer was heavily infected with spyware and malware that caused it to go into an endless loop of pop-ups leading to porn sites when the browser was opened, such technological jargon was lost on the judge in Connecticut, and the teacher was found guilty.

Sentencing will take place on March 2nd.

They say ignorance is no defense in law, but that should equally apply to the law itself. No judge should be allowed to sit on a bench and pass moral, as well as legal judgments, with no knowledge of the subject matter before him.

While details in this case are still sketchy, the decision appears to have been made more on moralistic grounds than legal.

Just as was the case in the witchcraft trials of 17th century New England.

More on this case:

This from the Norwich Bulletin

This from W. Herbert Horner, computer consultant.

And three updated summaries available from THIS blog

Filed under: US legal victims