Her divine grace, the coal-black kettle of infinite wisdom and effusive love pouring from the heavens.
A Malaysian woman has been incarcerated for a crime so horrendous I shudder just to think of it. Arrested in 2005, Kamariah Ali had the breathtaking audacity to hold religious beliefs that conflict with Sharia law. During sentencing on her foul apostasy, Judge Mohammed Abdullah explained the court’s draconian ruling thusly:
“The court is not convinced that the accused has repented and is willing to abandon any teachings contrary to Islam. I pray God will open the doors of your heart, Kamariah.”
Kamariah wasn’t hurting anyone with her belief system. The two story tea pot she worshiped as a devout member of the Sky Kingdom sect was too consumed with the essential task of pouring love from heaven to urge followers to kill in its name. But because she didn’t acknowledge Mohammad as the prophet of Islam, her freedom is forfeit.
Why should one set of beliefs in the supernatural be held as sacrosanct while another is ridiculed, or worse, used as justification for persecution? Anyone with a pulse will readily acknowledge the United States is far from perfect, but I am eternally grateful for the founding father’s insistence on a clause in the constitution that separates religion from the state, in theory if not always in practice.
Because I’m still protected by one of the cornerstones of our legal system, I can devote myself to Islam. I can ponder the mysteries of the trinity. I can wait for the promised messiah of the Hebrew people. I can assimilate the religion of Native Americans, cross-breed it with the Egyptian pantheon and use it as justification for taking psychedelics. I could even worship a tea pot, an apple, myself, human sexuality, or nothing at all. I chose the latter, mostly because I’m afraid I’d eat the apple.
