No compulsion in religion? Oh really

One of the common arguments i hear in defence of Islam and its inculcation to the west has been the soothing idea that there is no compulsion in Islam. However, recent evidence suggests this may not be the case. Readers of Vlad will be aware of the massive horrors in Swat and parts of Pakistan where those who are not Muslim or often even those who are Muslim but insufficiently devout, or devout not in the proscribed manner are tortured and or killed.

However more and more accounts are coming from Eastern Europe where whole villages are being forced to Islam or more conservative Islam. Here is a small report on the village of Ribnovo in Bulgaria where children are forced to mosque:

State Agency for National Security has received a signal about the issue.

16 March 2009 | 13:40 | FOCUS News Agency Sofia. The mayor of the municipality of Garmen Ahmed Bashev and teacher in Islam Murat Boshnak have been questioned in the State Agency for National Security at the order of Prosecutor’s Office, Focus News Agency’s correspondent in the municipality of Gotse Delchev Daniela Kranteva reported.
Ahmed Bashev and Murat Boshnak have been questioned about forcing children and youths to pay obligatory visits to the mosque in the village of Ribnovo and encouraging them to stay away from worldly life. People from nearby villages who dared to complain of the forcible spreading of Islam have often been threatened that they will be driven out of the village. They heard sentences, such as “He who does not support me is against me” or “You are giaours.”

A more detailed description of events in Bulgaria are here:

And aggressive Islamization, “no compulsion in religion” (Qur’an 2:256) notwithstanding. “Bulgaria MP Yanev: Numerous Southern Villages Are Converted to Islam by Force,” from Novinite (Sofia News Agency), March 3 (thanks to Twostellas):

Despite Bulgaria’s European Union membership, some regions of the country need a second liberation from Ottoman yoke, the Bulgarian Member of the Parliament (MP), Yane Yanev, stated, cited by the Bulgarian news agency, BGNES.Yanev, who is the leader of the opposition “Order, Law, Justice” Party (RZS) spoke Monday in Blagoevgrad as reported by the local BGNES correspondent.

The leaders of RZS visited Monday several villages in Southern Bulgaria to meet with alarmed teachers and parents, who have presented concrete evidence of the imposed conversion to fundamentalist Islam in the region.

The example of the village of Ribnovo, in the Gurmen municipality, has been presented as the most striking one. In Ribnovo, the school principal, Feim Issa, had imposed full dictatorship on the teaching staff, forcing them to wear traditional Muslim clothes, and encouraging female student to the same. Issa has been illegally appointed as principal with help of the local mosque’s leaders and is actively supporting the religion teacher at the school, Murat Boshnak. Boshnak is, reportedly, an individual with suspicious past and unclear educational background. He is not holding even a Bulgarian high school diploma, but has graduated from a religious school in Skopje, Macedonia. Ribnovo residents allege that Boshnak has specialized in Saudi Arabia and is forcefully making parents to sign requests for their children to study the Islam. He is also demanding that children address him as “aga’ instead of “gospodin” (Mister), had prohibited girls from attending the last prom in civil attire and issued a ban on celebrations. Boshnak later organized a trip to Turkey with funds from an Arab foundation. Only one girl had attended the prom. Parents, who refuse to follow the fundamentalist rules, are being cursed during services in the local mosque.

Please click the link at the top to read the rest of this article.

While Muslims may not say that killing or torturing those who would convert away from Islam is compulsion to religion, I do. Because it is. Here is a recent example of Libya torturing and killing a number of people who converted to Christianity for leaving Islam. Once again, any attempt to separate the notion of ‘apostasy’ and compulsion to Islam is playing word games.

TRIPOLI, LIBYA (Worthy News) — Libya’s feared intelligence service has “detained and tortured” four Christians for converting from Islam, as part of a wider crackdown on people embracing Christianity, human rights group said in comments monitored by Worthy News Thursday, March 12.

U.S.-based International Christian Concern (ICC) said the believers, whose names were not identified, were imprisoned for the past seven weeks in Tripoli, Libya’s capital.

“Libya’s External Security Organization is believed to be behind the detention and torture of the Christians” ICC said, citing local sources.

The security agents have reportedly barred families from visiting the detained converts and ICC said they “are putting severe physical and psychological pressure on the Christians in order to force them to reveal the names of other converts.”

“Fearing for their lives, converts from Islam are on the run,” the group added.

TORTURE REPORTED

ICC said the detention and alleged torture of the Christian converts come despite efforts by Libya to improve ties with the international community.

Libya began re-establishing relations following the recent lifting of sanctions, which were imposed due to the country’s involvement in the bombing of an American airliner, in which 270 people were killed.

However, “by torturing the four Christian converts and stifling religious freedom, Libya is once again violating basic principles of the international human rights law,” ICC said. Libyan officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We call upon Libyan officials to stop torturing the four Christians and release them from detention,” added ICC Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho. “Libya must respect the rights of its citizens to worship freely and not to be tortured. We particularly ask the Libyan leader and the current head of the African Union, Mr. Muammar Gaddafi, to set the prisoners free and demonstrate his country’s commitment to respect human rights.”

The group said it had urged its supporters to “pray for the safe release of the detained believers” and “for comfort and strength of their families.”

These are just a few very recent examples of compulsion to religion in Islam. An hours work with search engines and the list is seemingly endless in the Islamic world and anywhere that the percentage is high enough. Any attempt to pretend that Islam does not force obedience and submission to Islam is tactical. Mere tenderizer for the mind.

Eeyore for Vlad

gaddafi

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been criticized for reported abuses against Christians.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

7 Replies to “No compulsion in religion? Oh really”

  1. Those who are in Libya are my cousins and my dear friends. I know them well. We share the same believes and ideas. Actually we love all religions, God told us, in the holy Quraan, to believe in him and in his prophets and in his holy books.
    Personally, I deny, refuse and condemn any news which describe our leader, in a negative ways. Some news say that : Muammar Al-Qaddafi is behind their arrest, and that he doesn’t like Christians. I feel that the truth must be said. It said that “you will know the the truth and the truth will set thee free”. We , Libyans, know who Al-Qaddafi is. Al-qaddafi’s ideas and philosophy is bigger than events like these. In Libya. We call him the leader. He is a revolutionary man. His ideas are brilliant. He is an open minded and against any kind of discrimination be it racial or even religious discrimination.
    Al- Qaddafi is a man who have a philosophy. He is a philosopher and thinker. We love Al-Qaddaf, and we have learned many things from him. He is a nice man. We love him. I deny any news that say he is behind the arrest of converted people from Islam. We know that he is a kind man. He respects all religions. We used to listen to his speeches and enjoy the things he talks about. We wish him well and may God bless him and his family. After all his philosophy and ideas are proved to be better than many world leaders and presidents who brought destruction to the world such as president Bush’s ideas and philosophy. I do not say this out of fear, but Love.
    As for my cousins, I do not know how they got involved and therefore were jailed. I hope that they be released soon.

    Blessings

  2. That’s easy for you to say from the comfort freedom and safety of the US. I think you should move back to Libya and join your cousins and say all that.

  3. Well, What I said about Al-qaddafi is true. I did not say it out of fear but out of love. To be honest, he is a person that I learned a lot from. As for freedom, it is from God, not from USA or any other country. For example, the Bible says ” you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. It did not say ” you will know USA and USA will set you free”.
    Regards

    • The man who posted the above comment, now called Libya Lover, emailed me over 40 times so far asking me to change his name and change his comment even and remove his ‘real email’ from the post. When I first received his request, even though I clearly do not agree with him I decided to accommodate him and change some of what he asked. Not the content of his post but his name as it appears and his email. However now he writes me sometimes 10 emails in an hour asking me to do the same thing for other blogs he has posted on. I do not know what kind of a nut this is but its clearly a nut with a high allergic potential. This will be the first person I will if I can, restrict from posting anymore here. In his emails he claims his comments may cause suffering to his ‘cousins’ in Libyan jails. Sort of negates his point if any of it is true at all.

  4. if it was true you would be living in Libya. You are the worst kind of hypocrite. An ungrateful one. I have met many like you. Ones who’s lives where saved by the US directly or its policies. Ones who live in the US and enjoy its benefits daily and complain about it in ways that would have gotten you killed in the ‘old country’. What you said about Mohamar is true because it’s how you feel about him. But he is one of histories classical insane tyrants from his plans to create a single race by interbreeding people to his plans recently to make African kings bow down before him as the king of kings. He cannot get enough power. He does not care who he damages to get it.

  5. Those, who claimed to be in jail in Libya because of their convert from Islam. We share the same believes and ideas. Actually we love all religions, God told us, in the holy Quran, to believe in him, in his prophets and in his holy books.

    We deny, refuse and condemn any news which relate The Leader Al-Qaddafi to arrest of converted people from or to Islam . We know that he is a kind man. A man that respects all religions. We , Libyans, know who Al-Qaddafi is. Al-Qaddafi’s ideas and philosophy are bigger than events like these. In Libya. We call him the leader. He is a wonderful revolutionary man. His ideas are Genuine. He is a very open minded man. One that is against any kind of oppression and discrimination be it racial or even spiritual segregation.

    Al- Qaddafi is a man of philosophy in life. He differs from a lot others that are empty from philosophies. He is a philosopher and thinker. A great philosopher said that, ” Either I create my Philosophy or be enslaved under someone Else’s philosophy”. We love Al-Qaddafi, and we have learned many good things from him. He is a nice man. We love him. We always listen to his speeches and enjoy the subjects he talks about. We wish him well and may God bless him and his family.
    After all, Al-Qaddafi’s ideas and philosophy are proved to be more wise than many world leaders and presidents’ ideas and philosophies who brought destruction to the world such as president Bush’s ideas and philosophies .
    As for those in jail, I do not know how they got involved themselves and therefore, were jailed.
    I hope that they be released soon.

    Blessings

    OldBornlibyan