Gutsy Polish Engineer Chooses Death over Islam
http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1399
I’m posting this with two motivations. One to highlight the courage of this individual but two to insure all readers that this blog is NOT a hivemind that exists solely to advance the interests of Islam in lockstep under the banner of anti-imperialism, Marxism and Nationalism. This is a position that I have failed to articulate strongly enough and I take full responsibility if any pro-Islamic, anti-Islamic or neutral readers failed to realize our true position. We continue to not require strict ideological convergence on every issue.
In addition, it must be stated more forcefully that those of us who say we are atheists are telling the truth and not “controlled” by Islamic interests, hiding our religion or only ducking behind the banner of free speech for self-interested reasons. I oppose the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War and any Persian War, but at the same time would never allow my opposition to imperialism to blind me on other issues.
I recognize the Greyness of the world and we as a blog are not Black and White, or always on the side of Muslims. We do not seek to deny speech to anything anti-Islamic, desecrate Buddhist statues, enforce Sharia Law, outlaw criticism of the Koran or justify crimes committed in the name of religion. The opposition to contemporary American imperialism and liberalism is based on ideological and material principles (depending a bit on each poster)-not necessarily empathy for Theocracy.
After the Liberal Democratic Imperialist question is solved, there will be a subsequent Islamic question. It cannot be swept under the rug forever. If Fundamentalist Muslims think they can bully and intimidate non-Muslims into submission, then they are wrong and will learn just how wrong they are. I have to salute this guy for his courage and would do the same thing if I was in his situation.
Piotr Stańczak, a Polish engineer working in Afghanistan for Geofizyka Krakow, was kidnapped by the Taliban in late 2008 and beheaded by his captors on the 7th of February. Now, a fellow hostage has revealed that Stańczak was given a chance to save his own life – and refused.
According to the German Press Agency (DPA), who interviewed Mohammad Amir (not his real name), a recently-released hostage of the Taliban, Stańczak had gained the respect of his captors. The Pole did not show fear and ate and slept well while in captivity. Amir was told about Stańczak by a Taliban guard, who stressed that it was difficult for his commander to order the engineer’s execution. According to Amir, that was why the commander gave Stańczak a choice: convert to Islam or face death. With no hesitation, Stańczak chose the latter.
Amir told the DPA that Stańczak was “very stubborn” according to the guard, and that he insisted that the Taliban release him, allow him to return home and take counsel from his family and then decide whether to convert.
Stańczak’s captors had been negotiating with the Pakistani government, which failed to meet their demand of the release of imprisoned militants. The Polish government has been heavily criticised for their role in the engineer’s death; a report released in early June by the Presidential National Security Bureau (BBN) stated that “Piotr Stańczak did not fall victim to the effective tactics used by the kidnappers, but to the inefficiency of the Polish government.” In particular, the report blames Prime Minister Tusk for his statement made on the eve of Stańczak’s murder, in which he said: “Poland will not pay ransom to Taliban […] and it is not going to pay any ransoms whatsoever.” The BBN concluded that the prime minister’s words could have directly contributed to the engineer’s death.
However, the prime minister’s government has criticised the president for using the report as a political attack before the elections.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I don’t believe you. You say you are an atheist but you are secretly a Muslim.
This post is merely damage control. You are responding to criticism that correctly pointed out that you are a Muslim earlier by pretending to oppose “fundamentalist” Islam. This is known as Taqiyya or deception in Islam.
The bottom line is that you are merely denying your Islam to advance politics in a way that serves Muslims and not sincere in your atheism, even though you pretend to be now.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:44 am
I don’t doubt that the guy shouldn’t have been there and that was probably there for material reasons. My views on imperialism have not changed. I still respect the guy for defying religious proselytizing which is just as much a form of imperialism.
Just because Muslims suffer from the Macro-economic trend of American imperialism does not mean they are incapable of imperialism on a micro level. Just because on a Macro level, Americans are oppressors does not make the world black and white. That’s a bunch of politically correct bs that Marx himself would reject.