If you haven’t heard by now the Taliban, after being kicked out of Afghanistan, have set up shop in Pakistan.

At last count they controlled a few provinces on the Afghan border where they have implemented Sharia law to keep their women in line.

It’s no use butter coating it or dressing it up to make it more palatable folks, they use Sharia law so that they can keep their thumb on women and oppress them in any way possible.

This is done solely for the purpose of bolstering their false sense of male supremacy and power over females.

I don’t know what you would call it in psychological terms, but I can imagine that it’s done with about the same motivation that makes a bully pick on and torment someone who is smaller and weaker than themselves.

It’s a cowardly and disgusting way to puff up their own self image and esteem at the expense of someone else and invariably perpetrated by those that proclaim their “manhood” and Machismo” the loudest.

This vile way of treating women is human nature at it’s absolute worst, while all the while proclaiming it to be Divinely inspired and sanctioned by God.

A recent example of this sick cultural and religious abomination was the beating of a teenage girl by three adult men for not wearing a Hijab, or headscarf/veil while out in public.

(Oh yea, I almost forgot.... a group of about a hundred other males were on the sidelines... cheering!)

Some of the religious fanatics amongst the Taliban even put the Mutaween, or Religious Police of Saudi Arabia to shame in their zeal to oppress and humiliate women, and this brings me to the purpose of this article.

A few hundred years ago, say in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Islam was a lot more tolerant than it is today, even amongst the ultra conservative.

It is almost as if a dark force has descended on the land and brought out the worst in the followers of Islam.

Now I know that Christianity has had it’s periods of shame as well with the last great example being “The Spanish Inquisition” during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain back about five hundred years ago.

But, although removed in time and geography from what is happening in the Middle East today, they do seem to have one chilling commonality that needs to be brought into the light of day!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the DEVIL!

Now before you go off on a tangent about the forces of evil and start looking for an exorcist, let me tell you that I do not personally believe in any form of a so called personal Devil as described in the Bible.

But, throughout history we have been inundated with examples of human beings seemingly giving in to forces of darkness and despair and committing horrendous deeds while proclaiming them to be God’s Will.

These periods of conflict between good and evil seem to come quite regularly and could almost be described as that never ending battle between the light of our destiny and the darkness of the perversions that want to drag us back into the mud.

Now I am donce again, not in any way claiming there is a literal Devil. But do believe there are dark forces in this Universe and that they are at constant war with the inherent good that is within us.

It is a battle that cannot, and will not be lost, as long as we remain true to ourselves and not give in to these undercurrents that flow through all of us.

Our duty is to be ever vigilant against this vile serpent and recognize it for what it is!

A threat to our ultimate destiny.

Your humble scribe;
Allan W Janssen