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This article from Al Jazeera is yet another exemplar of how societies, if they wish to have freedom and human rights as key features, must steer away from theocracy and toward rational, secular rule.

Religion: Persecuting and possibly executing human rights activists.

Shiva Nazar-Ahari charged with “warring against God” and having links to opposition groups as trial opens in Tehran.

A court in Tehran, the Iranian capital, has tried a female human rights activist and journalist on charges including “warring against God,” which has the potential punishment of death.

Shiva Nazar-Ahari, 26, went on trial on Saturday “on charges of Moharebeh [warring against God], conspiring and gathering to commit a crime, propaganda against the regime and harming public order,” Mohammad Sharif, her lawyer, said.

How lovely; and sadly, unsurprising as the corrosive effects of religion are clearly on display for the world to see.  Where religion is a dominant force we can simply toss away rational thought and belief in reality.  You can be put to death for creating war on fictive characters that most likely do not exist.

Consider, if god is omnipotent, does he really need to be defended by mere mortals?  I would think that if he existed he could deal quite succinctly with anyone that brought war to his house.  However, in context of a human based and perpetuated theocracy that will actually kill people who dare to question its bullshite beliefs the reasons are evident.  Persecuting people for calling the deluded on their fatuous nonsense becomes a useful method for dealing with dissent and rational objections to state endorsed mythology.

“But the story here is not about a trial or seeking to get to the bottom of a crime. It is about trying to created a narrative that the authorities would like to portrary about justifying the continued clampdown that we are seeing in this country.

A sham trial that is propping up a vapid theocracy, nothing new here.  Expect more to come soon as Tehran roots out more people who dare to make war on imaginary beings.

*Update:  The situation is not improving.