Unfathomable Zealotry
What strikes me about the threat to execute Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who converted to Christianity, is not that Afghanistan remains deeply medieval and not even remotely the democracy that George W. Bush would like it to be, but that with the exception of the (largely) Christian West, the rest of the world has been mostly silent. The Americans have protested, the Brits have protested, the Vatican has protested and so (I assume) have some others. But if there has been a holler of protest from anywhere in the Muslim world, it has not reached my ears. That is appalling.
The murder of a person for his religious belief ought to be inconceivable. It is something we in the West stopped accepting hundreds of years ago, and while Americans and others continued to kill on account of race deep into the past century, the right of the government to take a life on account of religion has not even been argued in the longest time. We are way beyond that...
I don't often agree with Mr. Cohen, but in this case he's dead on! We are constantly told that Islam is a great religion that's been hi-jacked by radicals. Really?! Excuse me if I'm less than enthusiastic in my willingness to believe that! I don't believe that Christ ever told the disciples to chop the head off of anyone who failed to except him as their Lord and Savior. While people have done some pretty atrocious things in Christ's name, you will not find him teaching and encouraging any such behavior. No where in the New Testament can I find any admonition of violence, but neither can I find any place where he says that we are just supposed to lay down and be slaughtered. Any admonitions of violence can be attributed directly to Islam, which is responsible for the slaughter of millions of Christians since it's founding (continuing to this very day)!
Mr. Cohen ends his piece thus, "The groupthink of the Muslim world is frightening. I know there are exceptions -- many exceptions. But still it seems that a man could be killed for his religious beliefs and no one would say anything in protest. It is also frightening to confront how differently we in the West think about such matters and why the word "culture" is not always a mask for bigotry, but an honest statement of how things are. It is sometimes a bridge too far -- the leap that cannot be made. I can embrace an Afghan for his children, his work, even his piety -- all he shares with much of humanity. But when he insists that a convert must die, I am stunned into disbelief: Is this my fellow man?" The Muslim worlds silence says all I need to know about where they stand regarding these issues! If they want my trust, then it's time that they start earning it!
I'll end on this note. Islam may or may not be a great religion, that can be debated, but I most definitely have a GREAT SAVIOR, who is Christ The Lord! I would rather have a Great Savior than a great religion any day of the week!!! Mr. Rahman, I will see you in Heaven one day!
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