Well, we’ve been here once before…

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How unsurprising. This time around, from comes the same old story of a former Muslim who converted to ending up on trial for having done so. faces up to three years in prison for “abandoning the Islamic faith without government permission.”

Apparently, in Algeria, one needs a special permit to be a Christian.

It seems almost pedantic to say this, but it’s worth saying again: I honestly want to believe that there is something redeeming, or at least redeemable, about . I want to believe that it’s something more than a rather large cult obsessed with and violent death. I want to believe that it will not, given even the slightest opportunity, immediately and inexorably resort to persecuting those who do not follow it.

And I keep finding myself disappointed as story after story, from all around the world, makes it impossible to believe just those sort of things.

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Shaukat wishes there were no Jews

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Islamist blogger Shaukat Khawja really, really doesn’t like Jews — so much so, in fact, that he would rather that ’s proposal that all convert (or be converted) to had gone through back in its day.

Got that? A radical Muslim so hates the Jews that he would rather they had all been converted into infidel Christians, instead of being allowed to remain Jews.

And why?

Speaks Shaukat:

The history of the world would have been so peacefully different if the propsed mass Baptism of European Jewry had gone through.

Because clearly, Jews are responsible for all the wars of the world, right?

How much more true would Shaukat’s statement be, I wonder, were it modified to allow for the possibility that had been killed in a tribal skirmish just prior to his first “visitation” from whatever demonic entity decided to temporarily assume the identity of Gabriel?

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Update - the Meltdown: I seem to have touched a nerve, as Shaukat has now done two things. He had begun by demonstrating the maturity I have come to expect from him now, on par with that of a twelve-year-old casting angry aspersions from atop a playground. But following that up, he says a couple of…well, to be honest, his statements are gems in their own right.

For example:

Without going into Biblical treatment of Jews, which quotes contempt coming from , , and - I wonder why Jews were expelled from almost every an country — topping the list — expulsion of Jews for almost 350 years. Could it be interpreted as a sign of Christians’ love or hatred towards Jews - and for what reasons???

Poor grammar aside, it is interesting that Shaukat chose to mention Moses — the man who, arguably, was the instrument by which established the foundations of Judaism — as an example of one who has only demonstrated “contempt” for Jews. I suppose a narrow reading of, for example, the could lead one to think that, since Moses does spend quite a bit of time castigating the Hebrew people for their sinfulness.

But then, the Hebrew people did sinful things in the desert, not the least of which was to build a golden calf and worship it. Humanity as a whole regularly sins, and periodically needs to be corrected, sometimes harshly. Certainly, Jesus and St. Paul both give example of this, as did Moses in his day.

Following Shaukat’s odd statement, though, is a list of dates in history that supposedly demonstrate Christian persecution of Jews. And, to be fair, many of the dates he lists do in fact accurately mention instances of persecution of Jews by Christian religious authorities. Other dates he lists, however, do not belong on the list.
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