The highly publicized baptism of Magdi Christian Allam, the Muslim convert baptized by Pope Benedict XVI during the 2008 Easter Vigil, is not the only conversions happening over the last decade, it was just the most publicized.
Allam states, "I was forced to analyze the Koran and the works and thoughts of Mohammed, and I discovered that there are profound ambiguities that allow for violence and terrorism to be legitimized."
Not long after his baptism, reports from the Vatican Newspaper said that the religion of Islam had overtaken Roman Catholicism to become the world's largest single religious denomination.
Allam and others that convert from Islam to any other religion is known as an apostate.
Apostasy- according to Muslim Law, a male apostate, or murtadd, is liable to be put to death if he continue obstinate in his error; a female apostate is not subject to capital punishment, but she may be kept in confinement until she recant.
If a boy under age apostatize, he is not to be put to death, but to be imprisoned until he come to full age, when, if he continues in the state of unbelief, he must be put to death.
More on Apostasy in Islam from Wikipedia.
Today, Andrew Walden, who is the editor for Hawai`i Free Press, via Pajamas Media (PJM) , questions those figures and provides examples from the last few years that seem to contradict that assertion.
He cites examples of millions of people throughout the word, in different countries that are risking their lives because of what he calls Islam's "standing order of death" for apostasy, of those that leave the Islamic religion for another religion.
Iran.
Walden points to over a million in Iran that have quietly converted to Evangelical Christianity over the last five years, which has led to the Iranian parliament, being expected to discuss a new law proposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to condemn to death anyone who decides to leave the Muslim faith and convert to other religions.
Iraq.
Further examples provided in the PJM article, include a recent New York Times article, showing that the young people in Iraq are disgusted by religious extremism, and they quote one young person after another denouncing the religious leaders, with one 24-year-old female college student saying, "I used to love Osama bin Laden. Now I hate Islam. Al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing."
Russia.
Walden shows the same pattern emerging in Russia where in 2005 it was reported that 2 million ethnic Muslims adopted baptism in Russia while only 2,5 thousand Russians converted to Islam .
One Islamic researcher, Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council in Russia, believes that the cause, "In Russia it is accelerated due to extremist activities."
He goes on to state, "As even Muslim sources confirm, after each terrorist action, thousands and may be even dozens of thousands of ethnic Muslims adopt baptism."
India.
The youths of Kashmir in 2006 do not want to be branded or associated with extremists that use the religion to set off bombs and say they feel guilt every time a bomb goes off, even though they have nothing to do with that extremism.
The UK and Western Europe.
A 2005 Times Online piece shows estimates of as many as 15 per cent of Muslims in Western societies have lost their faith, which would mean that in Britain there are about 200,000 apostates and tells of the threats and harassment that Muslims that convert to another religion suffer.
The PJM article points out other examples from over the past decade, but the major theme from witness accounts and the words from those that have converted to another religion is generally the same from all.
They are tired of their religion being used to justify extremism and murdering of innocents and they are willing to risk their lives to convert and not be associated with Islam.
All people should be able to practice the religion of their choice and moderate Muslims should not have to give up their religion because extremists use it to justify terrorist acts and yet the pattern over the last decade suggests this is what is happening.
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