{"id":1454,"date":"2011-11-15T17:47:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T17:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2013-03-11T17:50:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T17:50:57","slug":"islams-predictability-apostasy-execution-and-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islams-predictability-apostasy-execution-and-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam’s Predictability: Apostasy, Execution, and Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n

Jihad Watch<\/em><\/p>\n

As one ponders the fate of Yousef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor on death row for refusing to renounce Christianity, it is well to reflect that, for all the talk that Islam is perpetually “misunderstood,” it is actually immensely predictable and consistent; not only do its patterns cross time and space, but their manifestations are\u00a0often identical<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Consider: Muslims have no qualms proudly declaring the particulars of their religion for all and sundry to hear \u2014 no matter how absurd or how it reflects on them or Islam. Thus\u00a0talk<\/a>\u00a0about the legitimacy of adult “breast feeding,” pedophilia as marriage, insistence that the earth is flat, commands not to yawn (lest Satan flies down one’s throat), the salutary effects of drinking prophet urine, the need to execute the “infidel” Mickey Mouse, and any number of other oddities and perversities are regularly evoked by Islam’s sheikhs and clerics throughout the Muslim world.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, one caveat: whenever Islam is vulnerable vis-\u00e0-vis the international infidel, as it is today,\u00a0caution is called for<\/a>\u00a0regarding the declaration of those things that might backfire, things that might make Islam look like a threat \u2014 things that might incline other civilizations to go on a preemptive offensive, while they have the advantage.<\/p>\n

Jihad is a perfect example. Despite the fact that “holy war” to conquer infidel territories and spread Islamic hegemony is an ironclad aspect of the religion \u2014 an integral part of its history, its doctrines, its very being \u2014 Muslims are careful not to evoke it around infidels.<\/p>\n

Even Islamist organizations, including\u00a0al Qaeda<\/a>, while regularly pontificating to fellow Muslims about how Islam demands the subjugation of non-Muslims \u2014 simply because they are infidels \u2014 always back-peddle when communicating with the West, opting instead to use language and paradigms that comport with Western sensibilities.<\/p>\n

It is in this manner that many in the West have come to believe Islam’s nonstop aggression around the globe is a byproduct of “grievances,” of “Zionism,” of US “foreign policy,” of anything and everything, not Islam.<\/p>\n

Now consider how this identical pattern \u2014 Muslims proudly displaying Islam’s particulars, only to deny them once they become counterproductive \u2014 has played out in the Iranian Christian pastor saga:<\/p>\n

First, Iran’s Supreme Court made it unequivocally clear that apostasy is punishable by death. Why shouldn’t it? All legitimate schools of Islamic law \u2014 including Shia \u2014 mandate death for the apostate, in accordance with theirprophet’s command<\/a>: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, kill him.”<\/p>\n

Then, to the chagrin of Iran’s government, which likely expected to get away with its barbarities unnoticed, the Western mainstream media actually picked up the story, resulting in widespread condemnation from Western politicians, many highlighting Iran’s hypocrisy, thereby undermining its constant calls for “justice” and “humanitarianism” in its attempt to\u00a0demonize Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what did the\u00a0taqiyya<\/em>\u00a0masters of Shia Iran do? In the face of all the documented evidence otherwise, they decided to change the whole story, to use language intelligible to the West: now the pastor is supposedly being executed because he is a “Zionist traitor<\/a>,” a “rapist” and “extortionist<\/a>,” a “brothel owner<\/a>,” etc. \u2014 all epithets Iran knows will resonate with the West.<\/p>\n

Of course, none of these charges exist in\u00a0Iran’s Supreme Court ruling<\/a>, which clearly and unequivocally asserts that pastor Yousef Nadarkhani<\/p>\n

is convicted of turning his back on Islam, the greatest religion the prophesy of Mohammad at the age of 19. He has often participated in Christian worship and organized home church services, evangelizing and has been baptized and baptized others, converting Muslims to Christianity. He has been accused of breaking Islamic Law that from puberty (15 years according to Islamic law) until the age of 19 the year 1996, he was raised a Muslim in a Muslim home. During court trials, he denied the prophecy of Mohammad and the authority of Islam. He has stated that he is a Christian and no longer Muslim.<\/p>\n

Thus, just like all the other Muslims who boldly and proudly declare the things of Islam, except of course when counterproductive to Islam’s wellbeing, those in Iran who unashamedly sought to execute a man in accordance to Islam’s apostasy laws, once exposed, cringed and dissembled, as usual: lack of religious freedom, like jihad, is equally codified in Sharia, and equally detested in the West.<\/p>\n

For anyone following the patterns of Islamic behavior, this is all too predictable\u2014almost as predictable as the fact that many wishful thinkers in the West will happily accept Iran’s lies, simply to validate their own worldview, despite all the evidence otherwise.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch As one ponders the fate of Yousef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor on death row for refusing to renounce Christianity, it is well to reflect that, for all the talk that Islam is perpetually “misunderstood,” it is actually immensely predictable and consistent; not only do its patterns cross time and space, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[124,29,227],"tags":[161,192,1039,1017,1061,1060,583],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ns","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1053,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/who-the-president-should-speak-out-against-religious-persecution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":0},"title":"Why the President Should Speak Out Against Religious Persecution","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Christian Solidarity International On January 24, during his State of the Union Address, the president of the United States has a chance to expose the plight of religious minorities living in Muslim majority nations. 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