THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 132, May 23, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CONVERSION, ADULTERY, & SAVAGERY STRIKE EGYPT
By Raymond Ibrahim
THE TRUE, ILLUMINATING, & SORDID STORY BEHIND THE RECENT ISLAMIST ATTACKS ON EGYPT'S COPTS, WHEREIN OVER
A DOZEN CHRISTIANS WERE KILLED, HUNDREDS WOUNDED, & THEIR CHURCHES TORCHED: THE RELEVANCE OF
RELIGIOUS CONVERSION TO THIS STORY -- ISLAM'S VIEWS ON RELIGIOUS CONVERSION -- CONVERSION FROM CHRISTIANITY
TO ISLAM VERSUS CONVERSION FROM ISLAM TO CHRISTIANITY -- THE IMPORTANCE OF GAINING CONVERTS TO ISLAM
VERSUS THE IMPORTANCE OF ACTUALLY UPHOLDING ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES -- CONVERSIONS AS AN EXCUSE TO
ATTACK CHRISTIANS & DESTROY THEIR CHURCHES -- THE CONTINUITY OF ISLAM'S LONG HISTORY OF AGGRESSION,
CONQUEST, & SUPREMACISM -- WHY MOST OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CONQUERED BY ISLAMIC ARMIES OVER THE
CENTURIES CONVERTED TO ISLAM
FULL STORY:
The true story behind the recent Islamist attacks on Egypt's Copts — wherein over a dozen Christians were killed,
hundreds wounded, and their Churches torched — is as illuminating as it is sordid.
To recap, Islamists — or "Salafists," as many in the Egyptian media are referring to the "Taliban-looking guys in
slippers" — demonstrated before St. Mark Cathedral, insisting that their "Muslim sister" Camelia Shehata be released
by the Coptic Church, which was supposedly holding and torturing her, a Copt, for converting to Islam. So Camelia
once again appeared announcing unequivocally that she never converted to Islam, and would live and die as a
Christian.
Not ones to be deterred, Islamists immediately began rioting about how another Coptic girl, Abeer Talaat, had
converted to Islam and was abducted and imprisoned by the Coptic Church — hence the violent rampage (which
continued into the weekend, when Christians demonstrating against the attacks were attacked again, with one killed
and over 100 injured).
In fact, Abeer did convert to Islam. However, her family did not know; all they knew is that their married daughter had
run off with another man. They brought her to stay at a guest house belonging to the Church, designed to help
separated couples reconcile. According to the Priest, she left the guest house well before the Islamists began
insisting that she was being held "against her will" in the Church.
More telling is why Abeer converted to Islam: to get an instantaneous divorce from her husband. A Muslim cabdriver
she knew told her that, if she converted to Islam and "married" him (i.e., lived with him), that would automatically
annul her marriage from the Christian. This, of course, is a Sharia stipulation, though one that (currently) contradicts
Egyptian law, which views her as a bigamist for marrying another man while still being legally wed (she is currently in
jail under investigation).
Asked in a recent interview if she converted to Islam for its own appeal, or simply to get rid of her Coptic husband,
Abeer said: "No, I had a lot of problems with my husband and that's what caused me to do this [convert to Islam]. I
asked 'How can I be rid of him [her husband]' and was told to 'be done of him by changing your religion' [to Islam], so
I did this to be rid of him."
Asked "Do you want to stay a Muslim, Abeer?" she responded with a small "Well, it's something that there's no
return from."
As we have seen, and as Abeer knows, Islam's views on conversion are dramatic: Muslims who convert out, the
apostates, are to be put to death, according to Sharia; non-Muslims who convert in — sincerely or not — are a
source of great pride and parade.
In short, all the death and destruction recently visited upon the Copts was performed in the name of a "convert"
whose only motivation for converting to Islam was to gain an advantage against her Christian husband. Even the
Islamist Muhammad al-Awwa, an inciter against Copts, recently confirmed that Abeer "has no connection with Islam"
and does not know the first thing about it.
Many Egyptian media commentators have rightly asked: what sort of Muslims are these who kill and destroy on
behalf of an adulterous and bigamist woman — two great crimes in Islam? Apparently, for some, gaining converts is
more important than actually upholding Islamic principles; for others, any excuse to attack Christians and Churches,
even in the name of a nominal Muslim, is good enough.
Finally, this entire affair is a reminder of the continuity of Islam's supremacist history. Despite the apologetics and
white-washing, anyone who has studied the historic spread of Islam knows that most of the conquered, indigenous
peoples who converted to Islam throughout the centuries did so, like Abeer, for the temporal benefits and advantages
— including sloughing off dhimmi status — that come with joining the "winning team," and not for anything intrinsic.
Perhaps this also explains why the Muslim world's "inferiority complex" is directly tied to the issue of conversion.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is the Associate Director of the Middle East Forum,
a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection
of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement. Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and
political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend the origins, development, history, and serious
danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida and
implacable enemies of the U.S.A. and the West.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Front Page Magazine, May 23, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2912/conversion-adultery-and-savagery-strike-egypt)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 23, 2011
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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