[Dean's World] Aziz P: no compulsion

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Aziz P:
no compulsion
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1156794775.shtml


   Donald Sennsing, analyzing the gunpoint conversions of the FOX News
   journalists who were kidnapped in Gaza and then subsequently released,
   [1]comes to the conclusion that Muslims neccessarily accept a forced
   conversion as valid:

     So according to the precepts of Islam, Centanni's and Wiig's
     confessions were completely valid. Any Muslim, not just their
     captors, considers it so. That they were uttered "at gunpoint" is
     unobjectionable. The guns simply enabled the two newsmen to
     understand that submission to Allah was required of them.
     Regardless of what Centanni or Wiig may think or believe, Muslims
     now consider them to be of their religion.

   Unfortunately, this interpretation of Islam is driven as much by
   Sensing's own Christian polemical agenda as it is by any real attempt
   at understanding the issue of conversions. It is rooted in a false
   understanding of what the "submission" that is Islam's name means - a
   deliberate misunderstanding to be sure. It is just as false as a
   muslim claiming that Christians are polytheists because of the Trinity
   doctrine.

   The truth is that the acceptance of Islam is a purely individual
   decision. The Shahada (There is no God but God and Mohammed Is His
   Prophet) is an oath. Sensing portrays this as a submission of slave to
   master, but in reality it is no different from the oath of citizenship
   that immigrants take when becoming US citizens.

   Whether or not a person is muslim depends solely on whether that
   person declares it to be so. Since Centanni or Wiig appear to have
   indicated that they only gave the shahada out of fear for their lives,
   it's essentially obvious that they are not truly muslim.

   This issue also touches on the issues of takfir and of taqqiya. I will
   leave discussion of the latter to Ali Eteraz (link forthcoming).

References

   1. http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008985.php