Man Accidentally Divorces Wife in Sleep
NEW DELHI (AP) - Village elders ordered a Muslim man in eastern India to leave his wife after he accidentally divorced her in his sleep, a news report said Tuesday. Aftab Ansari uttered the Urdu word for divorce, "talaq," three times in his sleep, prompting his worried wife to discuss the matter with her friends, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. Under Islamic law, a husband need only say "I divorce you" three times to secure a permanent end to his marriage. Muslim leaders in the couple's village in West Bengal state found out and decreed that Ansari's unconscious utterances constituted a divorce, PTI reported. But 30-year-old Ansari said he had no intention of leaving his wife of 11 years. "I have not given talaq. When I uttered talaq three times I had taken medicines to help me sleep," he was quoted as saying in the report. The religious leaders said that before remarrying, the couple would have to be apart for at least 100 days and that the wife, Sohela, would also have to spend a night with another man and then be divorced by him. PTI reported that the couple has been ostracized because of their refusal to abide by the decision of the village leaders. Link

It is ridiculous for them to assume that a divorce could occur without lawyers being involved.

Everyone keeps saying that these people are Islamic extremists, that most of them aren't like that. So where are the bloody moderates? Where is the Islamic outrage over something this silly? Where were the muslims speaking out against these radicals that are always making the news? I'm starting to doubt they exist, 'cause I'm not seeing any evidence of them.

Whenever something like this makes the news -- muslims rioting and killing people over cartoons, having a guy on trial for his life for daring to convert away from Islam, ostricizing a couple because they want to be together even though one of them said a magic word -- my hope is that it's only the radical elements of the religion. That there really are a huge silent majority of sane moderate muslims. But when I look for evidence of them, I find nothing. That scares me. That what I consider a unconscionable and horrific doctrines are being preached and practiced by one of the world's major religions, and I'm not hearing any outrage from them about it. Is it because they aren't outraged by these actions, or is it because they lack the courage to stand up to them? Either way, it doesn't bode well for coexistance between Islam and the western world.

That's typical for ANY fundamentalism, though, whether it's islam, judaism, christianity or flying spaghetti monsterism.

Or, look at it this way: Is this any more ridiculous than a school expelling a 12 year old for bringing a steak knife to school to slice samples off an onion for science class, because they have a 0-tolerance policy towards weapons? Or charging an 8 year old girl with sexual harassment because she kissed some boy on the cheek? In both cases, you have those responsible for enforcing their society's laws interpreting those laws in a very rigid, letter-of-the-law manner, rather than interpreting the intent of the law, or its spirit. Both are examples of ridiculousness in bureaucracy. You never hear about the 8 year old girl who kissed some boy at school on the cheek, but DIDN'T get slapped with a sexual harassment suit, after all. "News" isn't a good way to get an idea of what a people is like. It's a medium that's self-selecting for the WORST aspects of a people.

No. But I do hear all kinds of people pro-*test*-('")ing those stupid actions. I realize there's always extremists.

Meh. It's just people being people - adhering stupidly to stupid rules simply because they're rules, not because they make any sense. It's easier to follow what's already set than to change it to something more relevant. It's the same everywhere.

We gotta find a game before this turns into a political discussion forum. LR and myself are getting along..... there has to be something better than getting into politics. I'm off to Seattle, be back in a week or so.

Even worse than politics -- I railed against religion. Wave to the mountain for me.

I thought most Indians were Hindus...