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Tolerant, liberal Jordan is not so tolerant and liberal when it comes to those who convert from Islam to Christianity. This is yet more evidence of the fact that non-Muslims do not enjoy full and equal rights with Muslims in any Muslim country in the world today. "Apostasy rules," from World Magazine, with thanks to JS and Natasha Tynes:
In Jordan's King Abdullah, Washington saw the kinder, gentler face of the Arab world.Arriving last month to accept an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, the 43-year-old monarch told American reporters he supports democracy movements spreading from Iraq to Lebanon.
His visit to Washington came just as Arab leaders gathered in Algiers without him. The king skipped a regional summit of the Arab League, even though the most talked-about item on the agenda was a Jordanian peace proposal that for the first time dropped Arab demands that Israel cede all lands it acquired in the 1967 war. Rather than tussle with contentious Arab comrades, he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and gave interviews with American reporters. His message: "Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion." Terrorists who struck the United States and elsewhere, he said, "have nothing to do with Islam."
But even as the king projects a more tolerant Islamic face, his record at home does not yet reflect the progressive image.
Ask Samer and Abeer. Last September Jordanian security police connected to the country's Mukhabarat, or intelligence agency, showed up at the couple's home unannounced. They arrested Samer and detained him overnight. Samer's crime: coming to faith in Jesus Christ 14 years ago. Originally a Muslim, Samer over the years since his conversion has been questioned several times by security police but never detained. This time, the police turned him over to the Islamic courts.
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy in name only, with an elected parliament whose decisions are subject to royal fiat and a judicial system that continues to impose strict penalties under Islamic, or Shariah, law. Apostasy, or religious conversion, is rarely punished but remains illegal. Church leaders in Amman say they know of two Muslim-background Christians now in prison because they became Christians, both non-Jordanians and one in solitary confinement.
At his October hearing, Samer was asked to "alter his confession," or recant his Christian faith. He refused. Officials set another court date. In the meantime, Samer made precautionary arrangements for Abeer, his wife, and their 18-month-old son to leave Jordan. (Samer's wife once spent six years in prison for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy before she was taken in by a Christian family and came to faith in Jesus Christ.) At a November hearing before the Islamic court, an exasperated judge told Samer, "We don't know what to do with you." He implored him, saying, "You cannot be a Christian, you must come back to Islam." Samer again refused.
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at April 3, 2005 8:15 AM
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"Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion."
So that whole business of the jizyah, the kharaj, the distinctive garb, the ban on marrying Muslim women, the ban on riding horses, the inability to have one's testimony against Muslims be considered valid, and a hundred other things -- all based on some hideous misunderstanding of Islam?
Perhaps it is King Abdullah himself who should be asked to take the lead, then, in Showing the True Face of Islam.
Here's how. Every faculty member, every administrator, every student at Georgetown should read "The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam" by Bat Ye'or, and then possibly "Islam and Dhimmitude." Then they should all read an on-line essay or two by Habib Malik, by Ibn Warraq, by Ali Sina.
Then, in solemn conclave assembled, let the Worthies of Georgetown write a collective letter. Perhaps leave the precise wording up to Professor James V. Schall. Circulate the letter, so that all those who have read "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" and the other recommended reading, or even read other books by the most acute students of Islam and dhimmitude before Bat Y'eor (Antoine Fattal, or Fagnan, Huart, Dufourcq, Henri Lammens, St. Clair Tisdall, Arthur Jeffery, Joseph Schacht), may have a chance to sign it.
One suspects that almost everyone will sign it, except possibly John Esposito, no doubt Host-for-the-Day at islamonline, or perhaps accepting another large "prize" from some Saudi foundation, and John Voll, and Yvonne Haddad may also be curiously unavailable to add their signatures.
And what should that Letter from Georgetown say to the recipient of its honors? It should ask King Abdullah if he could kindly explain just what he meant by his statement that "Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion" in the light of the treatment of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists everywhere that they were subject to Muslim rule, beginning some 1300 years ago, and could he also explain the current position of Christians in the Muslim-ruled lands of Sudan, Egypt, northern Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, not to mention the position of those who seek to exercise their own freedom of conscience and embrace Christianity -- presumably a matter of some interest and concern at the Jesuit-run, and Catholic-funded, Georgetown University.
He may have a little difficulty. At Deerfield, Abdullah was on the wrestling team. Perhaps some Infidel opponent from Andover or Exeter got him a headlock that lasted too long, or threw that direct descendant of Muhammad on the mat a little too hard. Thinking may not be his strong suit.
But he should be asked to give it a try.
Posted by: Hugh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 3, 2005 10:41 AM
The lessons of contemporary events and of historical record give a different picture: the statement "Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion" is a lie, an attempt to gloss over the uncomfortable facts of the history of Islam and present-day events.
Posted by: epg at April 3, 2005 11:21 AM
Yet we 'dummies' in western nations allow pagan islamics to reside here, to build their temples, run their schools and also to proselyte their hatefilled, barbaric, pagan religion. More fools us. Christians try to do the same in any pagan islamic nation. Regards, numbat
Posted by: numbat at April 4, 2005 1:36 AM
Yet we 'dummies' in western nations allow pagan islamics to reside here, to build their temples, run their schools and also to proselyte their hatefilled, barbaric, pagan religion. More fool us. Christians try to do the same in a pagan islamic nation. Regards, numbat
Posted by: numbat at April 4, 2005 1:36 AM
Yet we 'dummies' in western nations allow pagan islamics to reside here, to build their temples, run their schools and also to proselyte their hatefilled, barbaric, pagan religion. More fools us. Christians try to do the same in a pagan islamic nation. Regards, numbat
Posted by: numbat at April 4, 2005 1:36 AM
"Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion."
But it does, but this honoring and making no distinction is simply something different then non-muslims think. The only distinctions that are made are those ordered by the Koran, and thus everybody is getting his rightfull due, regardless color, race or religion.
It is just as with the word "peace", I take that to mean that different people can live their lives in different countries as they see fit, in Islam the word peace means follow Islam or accept dhimmi-status (or get killed or enslaved).
Thus, it is all a question of semantics.
Posted by: Ernst at April 4, 2005 8:46 AM
You know,that's also a salient point. Peace in islam does spring (scripturally anyway) from Sura 9: the peace of being the dhimmi, or death, or conversion. Reading the sura again does tend to confirm this. This would seem to be a good point to keep in mind.
Geoff
Posted by: Geoff at April 4, 2005 1:21 PM
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