Somewhere in the Sudanese desert, there is the shallow unmarked grave of an innocent man.

He was executed because he preached that Islam is a religion of peace. He argued that God regarded men and women as equals and that man-made laws should do no less. He vigorously resisted government imposition of sharia law because such a decree would be discriminatory against non-Muslim, non-Arabic Sudanese citizens.

He argued against the growth of the fanatic Wahabist version of Islam as a collection of doctrines out of step with the true spirit of the faith. He advocated in favor of peaceful dialogue between Israel and the Arab states, insisting it is possible for all religions to live together in peace.

His name was Mahmoud Mohamed Taha and he died on a Sudanese gallows in 1985.

Taha has been on my mind this week because of the grab-bag of religious craziness splashed across the headlines lately. Here are some examples:

1. An ostensibly Christian guerilla force calling itself “The Lord’s Resistance Army” terrorizes, mutilates and kills hundreds of innocent women and children in the Congo;

2. A 16-year-old Turkish girl is buried alive by her fundamentalist Muslim family as punishment for “talking to boys”;

3. A 22-year-old graduate journalism student in India is killed by her family because she intends to marry a member of a different caste contrary to the family’s Hindu traditions;

4. A child and his mother are sacrificed in Burundi because their body parts are believed to bring wealth and success;

5. In Phoenix, Ariz., a 43-year-old Iraqi father runs down his 20-year-old daughter as she walked across a parking lot. He sped away leaving the girl in a coma with a broken face and spine. According to police, this is an attempted honor killing.

There are other examples, but you get the picture.

Now, I’ll grant there’s an element of irrationality in every religion I have heard of. No disrespect intended here. Fact is, there’s an element of irrationality in every form of government, too. But let’s distinguish between irrationality and insanity. You can be irrational and still live a perfectly happy and beneficial lifestyle. Ask any self-proclaimed optimist.

Insanity is a different breed of cat altogether. If you’re insane, your screwy, scary ideations can completely up-end any healthy, productive relationship with reality. Originally, the word “insane” was just another way of saying “unsound.” It simply meant “unhealthy,” whether referring to the physical body or the mind. As used in this column, “insane” means a profoundly unhealthy and destructive system of collective thought. The behaviors cataloged above are all insane.

I’m not talking here about a strictly private insanity. You can walk around all day dodging imaginary mosquito bats and I may feel sorry for you, but your mosquito bats are no threat to me. No, the insanity I’m talking about here is the kind that makes you believe that you can impose your craziness on me by force. How do we know when forced conformity is a legitimate function of society and when it crosses the line into “la-la land?” Some would say it’s in the eye of the beholder. But surely there’s a baseline in the affairs of mankind that qualifies as “sane behavior.”

Surely, any society that tells a man of good will that he must die if he expresses his ideas is off its rocker. Any society that says it’s okay to kill your children if they disagree with your religious concepts is unsound. There’s a fundamental crack in any society that says it’s okay to mutilate innocent children to further the aims of the Lord. There’s no way to justify murdering innocent people because their sacrificed body parts bring good luck.

I’m not trying to be excessively critical here, but there’s something horribly wrong with any system that executes its thinkers, kills its own children and murders its innocent neighbors.

Surely one of the main tests for a sane society is that it is tolerant of differences of opinion and attempts to protect the defenseless.

As I’m writing this column, news arrives that there has been another terrorist bombing in Allah’s name — this time in Uganda. Hopefully, there will be thinkers in the mold of Mahmoud Taha who will shame these fanatics — worldwide — by pointing out there are ways to regard our religions that serve to promote peace rather than brutality.

Oh, by the way, July 19 is the 318th anniversary of the day five women were hanged as witches in Salem, Mass.

I’m Hink and I’ll see ya.