The other cartoonish topic and in harm's way ..

First it was the Danish cartoons, and now it is the Afghani convert Abdulrahman! These are truely testing times for Muslims , or are they ?

I believe that the 21st century is going to be that of Islam, many Muslims have broken God's covenant and that is why we are in such deep trouble, but from the ashes of this destruction will rise a stronger and prosperous nation following the True Faith ( Gosh look at me I sound so pompous).

Ah but you do not have to take my word for it as I am no prophet . But Abdulrahman's plight which came into a conversation we were having my friend and I yesterday about the veracity of the injuctions for killing Muslims who leave Islam, and what happens if the West starts executing its citizens who convert to Islam as a sort if 'tit for tat' ? (sidenote if one entity is being unenlightened the others do not have to behave the same though right ?it would be like being back in kindergarten)

Hard questions at times are they not ? well I never shirk away from a lovely debate, the goal though is always to remain polite and respectful ( I hope I was :) and remain so).

So where did my thoughts wander ? my proposed theory was that although a person was born into a Muslim family it does not necessarily mean this person is Muslim. These are two different things, because he/she must possess Faith or 'Iman' in the first place, having the adjective signifies only that he/she has the 'generic' make up . Faith is in our hearts and mind i.e.in our soul and not a birth right. Remember the verse I mentioned here and which I tried to translate here ? I will post it again it is Sura 28 verse 56 (thank you AT to whom I got via Sandmonkey).

"انك لا تهدي من أحببت ولكن الله يهدي من يشاء"

"It is true thou wilt not be able to guide every one, whom thou lovest; but Allah guides those whom He will and He knows best those who receive guidance. [Surah 28 - Verse 56] "

Incidently my translation was not that bad either :)

Therefore Abdulrahman is free to do what he wants with his soul and he has only God to answer to.
But in terms of does Islam call for executing converts ? I don't think so but do go and read AT 's excellent argument on this issue in his post " Can you leave Islam" ( excerpts below) :

"The problem is, there's ample evidence in the Quran (which its authenticity is not even debatable by a Muslim) that indicate otherwise! Where's is the truth? Why is the Sunnah contradicting the Quran? To most scholars, it is not. They conveniently find explanations to reconcile (out of zeal to protect Prophetic tradition). I yet to find a convincing argument in favor of the ruling that converts should be executed. [...] Obviously the Quran is not silent about the issue, and in my opinion leaves no room for interpretation. Anything said, and attributed to the Prophet (PBUH), outside of the boundaries drawn by the verses above either must have an explanation that is inline with these verses with no exception, should be considered a narration out of context, or flat out unauthentic even if its in Sahih Al-Bukhary or Sahih Muslim; otherwise we have a schizophrenic religion, which is far from the truth.
Holding Islam hostage to narration that at best constitute "probable knowledge" and neglecting the Quran is just foolish because stories and sayings are seldom narrated in context, seldom preserved in a way that ensures beyond doubt certainty, and neglecting the possibility of human error is at best completely unrealistic. Add to that the sensitivity of the subject matter! We are talking about human lives here. We are talking about killing someone! Not debating whether a Muslim should ware silk clothing or not! [sic]"

Now for the rhetorical question "if Christian's start executing Muslim converts what would the Islamic world do ?"

In my opinion they would take it as one more sign that the 'Christian West' is trying to persecute Islam and it would convince them even more of the truth of their belief. Moreover, the killed western Muslims would be considered 'shuhada' or 'martyrs' in the service of religion, and in another twist, the ambivalent ones with poor judgment might rally around the bin Ladin and Zarqawi franchises message. Oh and what is more the families of the western people whose government would have executed them may voice their opinion perhaps louder than expected ? After all they would be 'white' ( I assume that is what the question implied ) and not Arabs or Asians who have quasi no legitimacy ? Plus it would belie all the slogans we hear about the West being the beacon of freedom and democracy. It will constitute a type of Spanish inquisition similar to when [" Ferdinand and Isabella appointed Tomás de Torquemada in 1481 to investigate and punish conversos: Jews and Muslims who claimed to have converted to Christianity but continued to practice their former religion in secret. Conversos were common in Spain. Some disguised Jews had been ordained as priests and even bishops. Detractors called converted Jews Marranos, a pejorative word that can also be translated as "pigs"] . It could also be a Muslim holocaust ( although I'm aware of what the original Inquisition was about ).

On another thought the West would have no problem on their hands apart from a a moral or ethical one if they killed the converts in secret. Would that constitute state terrorism ? This spiralled me into another branch laid out below :

Nowadays when you hear the term 'terrorism', the media and other unfortunate events make you associate it with Muslims, I found Haitham's post here "Arabs and Muslims are not terrorists" eloquent and well argued, and you have to read all 256 comments, because that is where I stumbled on Rachel from the Velveteen Rabbi who has embarked on reading the Qur'an with an open mind and no hidden agenda.... She is definetely going on my blogroll.These are the types of people we need more.

Moral of the story ? Excellent conversations enrich us all in our basic humanity, we find out that we have the same fears, the same wishes and the same goals. I will do my best to keep out of harm's way and still retain my integrity.