This vid comes courtesy of the Atlas Shrugs blog. The video is dramatic, but if there are any questions about the girl being perhaps overemotional, there is no question about the statistical reality of the danger she is in. Ex-Muslims are being killed for the sake of honor even in the US. And at this point, if her father isn’t out to get her, others are.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09WjFwe8pUk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]]

Over in Pakistan a week ago, on mere rumors that Christians had torn pages of a Koran as part of a wedding ritual (hardly likely, knowing it would be suicide in that culture), thousands of Muslims went on a rampage. They shot, they looted, they burned, they burned to death. When it was done 14 Christians had been murdered, eight of them mercilessly burned to death, as the police stood by, claiming to be helpless against the numbers.

So, according to the Muslim mentality, it’s ok to kill for a book. You tear a page of my precious Koran, and I kill you. Allah’s honor is assuaged and I get to sleep with a good conscience.

Few Muslims will admit the gross moral inequity in that. A human life, created in the image of God, for a page of a book? What’s going on here? Why are Muslim so easily and disproportionately offended?

On one level, Muslim nations have supported identity politics because it’s good for the ruling elites. Getting people riled up about religion gets their attention off the miserable state of their nation and economy. But such politics are an offshoot of ancient tribalism, and have served these nations very poorly. The Muslim nations have a horrendous record on both human rights and material progress. If it were not for their oil and for their strategic placement in the global balance of power, the West would have largely forgotten about them. And even those massive petrobucks and defense bucks changing hands have benefited only the corrupt ruling classes.

But there’s something more fundamental to Islam than realpolitik that’s causing the hypersensitivity and exaggerated sense of honor. In short, despite all the coercion, despite all the legalism, despite all the regimentation, at heart Muslims simply do not believe what they profess.

People who really believe in the Creator are passionate, but reasonable. They have a calm assurance and are willing to discuss. They can respect where others come from, because they are secure in their own inner affirmation. They know that coercion is absolutely useless when it comes to issues of the heart. While you may be able to make a man conform externally to your design, you cannot force the human heart to believe. You can only suppress the truth and force it to come out in aberrant behavior.

This is the same mistake Christendom made with Constantine back in the 4th Century, and it took us well over a millennia to get over it. We eventually could because doing so entailed a return to the truth of the scriptures which were supposed to be driving us all the while. Christ left us the example of eschewing political power and all coercion, instead choosing the suffering of the cross.

Islam’s root problem is that its founder did the exact opposite. Islam from its early days has spread by bloodlust, and its source book fully endorses the use of the sword to coerce and punish in matters of religion.

Very frankly, that’s nothing worth believing in. And I don’t care if you’ve been a Muslim all your life, if you love truth, your heart knows it.

God is love. This life makes no sense unless it is driven by total love. Yes, sin is in the world, and it takes faith to see beyond it, but ultimately God has to be love and His intentions toward us have to be good, or there is no hope.

Now, if you’ve got a belief system at odds with that most basic truth, what must you do? If you choose to defend your system, you must use coercion. You must harshly guard against even the smallest entrance of doubt or difference, lest the entire edifice come crashing down. Simply put, you must engage in the kind of behavior that characterizes the Muslim world. And where has that gotten them?

Or you can choose to follow the light you’ve been given. You can admit that there are fundamental problems with your belief system and begin to face them honestly.

My Muslim friends, please consider your ways. Violence and coercion do not glorify God. This exaggerated honor does not honor God. God loves you with an everlasting love. Jesus promises to set you free, and He says that who He has set free is free indeed – free of the world, free of self, free of the devil; free to be a son of God.

Jew, Gentile, Westerner, Muslim – all can be accepted in the Beloved. There is no longer rejection; once a person of any background is in Christ, he is a new creation, and the old things have passed away. It doesn’t matter what sins you’ve committed. He will accept you.

Please, find out about Jesus. Start by finding out what your own Koran says about him. Watch this Jesus in the Koran video. Trust me, you will be very surprised. This stuff is straight from the Koran yet is not being preached in the mosques.

And if you’re a Christian, it is time for us to do what we can to help our suffering brothers. Here is the contact information of the Pakistan Embassy to the US:

Embassy of Pakistan

3517 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008

Phone: 202-243-6500

E-mail [email protected]

We need to call or write and respectfully express our concern about the rights of minorities. State that our nations’ mutual peace and prosperity depends on mutual respect for human rights. Request protection and full restitution for those who have suffered loss. Ask for a repeal of the blasphemy laws, which impose capital punishment for “insult to religion”. Not only do these laws form the legal backbone of persecution, just the overhanging threat of their spurious invocation fuels extreme coercion against minorities.

I’m not trying to single out Pakistan here. There are dozens of nations I could have picked, sadly. This is simply where some of the most dramatic abuses have occurred lately.

May the Lord grant peace and favor to our suffering brethren. May He grant light to peoples in darkness. And may He grant that His people walk in a manner worthy of the name by which we are called. Let’s bear one another’s heavy burdens, and thus fulfill the law of love in Christ.
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