The grotesqueness of fundamentalist "justice"

A ten-year-old Afghani girl was raped by a mullah but now faces being murdered by her own family out of their sense of family honor.

Let's recap:

• The crime: rape. (A very violent one at that, not that that should matter.)
• The victim: a ten-year-old girl.
• The rapist: a man supposedly "educated in Islamic theology and sacred law", according to Wikipedia. His name is Mohammad Amin, should you be in a position to spit on him. He confessed to the rape, incidentally, so don't worry that you'll be wasting saliva.

Yet who's being persecuted? Who might be killed? The victim — who is, again, a little girl. Even the girl's mother wants her dead.

In the hospital room, the doctor found the girl’s mother holding her child’s hand, and both were weeping. “My daughter, may dust and soil protect you now,” Dr. Sarwari quoted the mother as saying. “We will make you a bed of dust and soil. We will send you to the cemetery where you will be safe.”

You might be asking yourself, is this just one supremely screwed-up family?

Nope. A couple of women's advocates publicized this case, and the blowback didn't just come from the family.

After the two women’s officials began speaking out about the case, they started receiving threatening calls from mullahs — some of them Taliban, others on the government side — and from arbakai, or pro-government militiamen. One of their claims was that the girl was actually 17, and thus of marriageable age, not 10.

(Photos of the girl clearly show she's prepubescent.)

What the fuck is the matter with you zealots calling for this girl's life?

Are you so completely fucked in the head that you think a little girl bears any responsibility for this crime, much less all of it?

Are your values so completely evil that you refuse to admit it was the man who was completely responsible, that it is he who should suffer the consequences for this crime?

The family's attitude is utterly, monstrously wrong. However, it's very much a product of the warped, debased, and deeply misogynistic religious fundamentalism that holds the region in thrall.

Wanting to shame sexual promiscuity is understandable, but to take that principle as far as slaughtering a rape victim — who, I repeat, is a little girl — brands the responsible religion as sick and immoral.

This is what makes fundamentalist Islam incompatible with civilization. It's utterly at odds with humane values and true justice.