The Worst of All Worlds

If you were forced to choose between being raped and being murdered, which would you choose?

For myself the answer seemed obvious, until I gave it some thought. My initial gut reaction was “Go ahead and rape me – I love life, and I can easily (well, maybe not 'easily', but roll with me here…) bounce back from being raped".   

To me there’s a huge gulf between being raped and being killed, i.e. as penalties go they’re not standing side-by-side.  I’d rather be raped than be intentionally blinded, for example. Or than be gelded, certainly.

That’s also the advice I’d give my kids if they were old enough to receive it (and will one day). I agree with those professional recovery experts who tell rape victims “you can either let this destroy you, or you can heal and move on – your choice”. I find that I’m generally in the “heal and move on” camp.

But thinking further on the matter, another factor I have to consider is that I’m a Christian. If the choice is between rape and death, and death equals instant glory (undeserved and obtained only by grace), where’s the sting?  Besides, I’d feel compelled to do everything I could to destroy all those involved, which pretty much means they’d have to shoot me – possibly even before being able to get around to offering me the choice.

Ultimately it comes down to choosing between an act which will likely do me no long-term damage, and a death which holds no fear.  So I don’t know which I’d choose.

Perhaps it would depend on what mood I was in, or how realistic the odds were that I’d actually get a chance to inflict damage of my own.

Most likely I think I’d still choose life.  I’m not scared of death, but I love my life and I’m not done with it.  Of course when I’m extremely angry I can make foolish choices, so for myself who knows? But since I love my children I know I’d be consistent with the “choose life” message, as I am elsewhere.

So think about it.

What choice would you make?

What choice would you instruct the children you love to make?

What does this say about a culture whose people will murder their own children for the “crime” of having been raped?

Dār al-Islam is truly the “Worst of All Worlds”.



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Update: Horribly enough, "honor killing" isn't [EXTREMELY GRAPHIC GORE WARNING] the worst thing some Muslims do.