it’s not about you

So I’ve recently been alerted to a case of an Afghan man, converted to Christianity from Islam, who is about to undergo trial in his country. Since first hearing about the case, it has received widespread international attention.

You can read the latest New York Times story here.

I know very little about Islam, and in all honesty it is hard to take those who say it is a peaceful religion seriously, especially when someone is quoted as saying this: “The prophet says when somebody changes religion, he must be killed.”

I know Christianity has its own asshole “clerics” who say some pretty idiotic things, but I find that on the whole, the Christian community at large recognizes their stupidity and they are not considered the voice of the Church.

Part of my confusion with Islam is the calls for death all the time - from converts to newspaper cartoonists to all Westerners - even people who were never Muslim in the first place. People in many Muslim countries even believe that vaccination attempts against diseases long eradicated in the West, such as polio, are attempts to sterilize Muslim girls. I mean, seriously.

Maybe it’s just the media, but the impression being sent about the religion is that it is one of controlling its constituents by means of fear-mongering and complete, unadulterated intolerance.

Hope this isn’t too random, but these are some floating thoughts and observations i’ve had over the past few weeks. I’d love to hear yours, especially if you have any light to shed.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.