On Mon, 8 Mar 2010 01:47:09 pm Steven D'Aprano wrote: > Historically, freedom of choice in religion was vanishingly rare. It > *still* is vanishingly rare in many parts of the world, particularly > the Islamic world, where proselytising other religions is a crime, > and converting away from Islam is often treated as a capital offense.
Er, I should qualify that before somebody corrects me. Proselytising other religions is a crime in *some* parts of the Islamic world, but not necessarily all of it. For instance, I know it is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Syria, Pakistan and Qatar, and almost certainly others. Even in places which officially allow proselytising, like Kuwait and Malaysia, there may be all sorts of official and unofficial ways of discouraging it, usually by prohibiting or limiting the right of Muslims to convert. As I said, in many places it is a crime punishable by fines, jail and in many places, including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen, death. The Muslims[1] are hardly alone: proselytising is also illegal in China. They don't shoot you though, they just lock you up for five years working 15 hour days making cheap goods for sale in America. (I'm not joking. Part of the reason Chinese-made goods are so cheap is that wages are depressed by free labour from prisoners.) [1] Not that Islam is a unified group by any means, any more than "the Christians" or "the Jews" are a unified group. -- Steven D'Aprano _______________________________________________ Pan-users mailing list Pan-users@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pan-users
