Forced Conversion

A December 26th news story mentions that Egyptian Christians have accused Muslims of abducting the women and forcing them to convert.  Now this is something that Christian and Muslims have been engaged in for around fifteen centuries.  If we put aside the abducting of women – which is a direct violation of the Koran and therefore proves the Muslim’s are just criminals born to the Islamic religion - What’s the big deal?

Forced conversion is a bit of a joke.  You cannot force conversion – from a religious viewpoint it is irrational and therefore makes it clear that those engaged in the practice are themselves irrational.

Consider this: if two individuals, who wish to reach a common destination, are, by chance, walking down a road and come to a fork in that road … one looks to the left, one to the right, and both BELIEVE they are looking down the proper/correct fork … what is their proper action?

Should they argue over which road leads to the desired destination?  Should one force the other to take and travel THEIR fork?  Or should they each journey as they will with the one who was right achieving their goal of arriving to the destination?  What if the general destination is the same, but different specific locations are sought?  (Two Egyptians heading to the Americas – one to North, the other to South. Or to the United States and one to Maine the other Florida – same government, different state jurisdictions.)

What if both roads go to that destination – and neither has made the wrong choice?  What if neither road gets them there and both their beliefs were wrong?  But to keep it simple, let us assume one is right and the other wrong.  Will the one who is forced be grateful that they have been brought kicking and screaming to the destination?  And what if they have been brought, kicking and screaming, down the wrong road – what response are they entitled to, what punishment can they bestow upon their abductor? 

Now, what if that destination only admits those who came willingly, and what if it also bars admission to those who force others to come there?

In terms of theology – is it valid to bring someone where they do not wish to be?  If so, could not Satan grab souls off the street in the same way the Muslims grab Christian women?  Or the same way Mormons retroactively seal deceased ancestors into a religion which, during the ancestor’s life, the ancestor did not know, nor would have had any interest in knowing?

It is interesting that Al-Qaida in Iraq turned the desire of the women to revert to their faith into a cause celebre when it cited the women as the reason behind a Baghdad church siege.  NOTE that Al-Qaida murderers – those who violate the Koran by killing innocents – are championing the validity of forced conversion.  Those who, by their nature and base doctrine, violate every basic tenet of every known religion, are the ones who are at the forefront in the support of forced conversion.  Just goes to show what the true purpose and value of the underlying religion is … pure evil and mutually assured spiritual destruction.