Liberalguy

The West needs a strategy By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen (bio)

How do you ensure the dominance of one practice over another? You make one illegal. So, when I read recently that two Muslim converts to Christianity are on trial in Algeria for “illegally promoting the Christian faith,” it occurred to me that this is how the West is setting itself up for defeat. This is assuming that we’re at war with radical Islam, which I do. Not that this is a fight the West necessarily sought, but the Jihadists have made it abundantly plain they intent to make the whole world over in their radical Islamic image if they can, and I believe they mean it. Most if not all of the Muslim world is behaving, despite what some of our so-called moderate Arab friends say in sound bites, with a clear understanding of what side of the conflict they’re on. We, on the other hand, aren’t. The recent Associated Press story notes that the two Algerian men, who were convicted in absentia last year for illegal practice of a non-Muslim religion, asked for a new trial as Algerian law allows. They are charged with praying in a building that had not been granted a religious permit by authorities and also of trying to spread the Christian faith among Muslims, the story said. So, here’s the conundrum as I see it. No one would dream in the United States or the West generally, of prosecuting someone for proselytizing their religion or for practicing a particular religion or for failing to practice one. The separation of church and state is one of the Constitutional elements keeping us free. It also may become the suicide pact that allows radical Islam to destroy the whole noble experiment. It puts the West at a distinct and dangerous disadvantage, in a similar way that import tariffs imposed by other countries on our goods, but not vice-versa, put us at an economic disadvantage. Of the 34 million people in Algeria, 99 percent are Muslim, according to the story. The country’s constitution allows freedom of worship — under strict regulation, the story says. But it seems to me that once there’s strict regulation on “how religions other than Islam are practiced,” then there really isn’t freedom of worship, but that’s just me. In the West, Muslims can and do convert people all the time, particularly in prisons, which may or may not say anything about the whole ambiance of that faith, in America, anyway. And for centuries there’s been a convert-or-die imperative to much of Islamic growth. But no one is permitted to return the favor in most if not all Muslim countries. I’m not sure how to rectify this inequity without damaging the best parts of being American, but a way really must be found, and sooner rather than later. Because it’s not just the conversion imbalance, but also a birth rate among Muslims that alone could overtake much of the world in a few of generations. The story describes Algeria as a “moderate” Muslim country with “a tradition of tolerance for other religions.” But one can be arrested there just for having a Bible. That’s how the two men in the story were first arrested. But, as we all know, if a copy of the Quran is perceived to be disrespected in any way, anywhere, the entire Muslim world erupts in violence and/or threats of violence. We need to find a way to even out the playing field, so the radical Islamists aren’t able to continue finding new ways to use our own freedoms against us, as they did on 9/11.