As I travel the globe, I keep looking for evidence that Islam is the religion of peace and Judaism and Christianity are using violence to advance their faiths. Strangely, I have yet to discover Christian converts filling a truck with dynamite and destroying a mosque. Or congregants at a Jewish temple torching a Muslim madrassah. I'm looking for cases of Mormons hijacking a plane to crash into downtown Islamabad, Hare Krishnas kidnapping and beheading Muslim aid workers, and Bahais taking over a cruise ship and tossing overboard a handicapped, elderly Muslim.

I'm still waiting.

In fact, the worst religious persecution comes in Islamic nations. In Indonesia I saw churches and a Bible school that had been destroyed by Muslim mobs. In March I met a Christian pastor whose wife lost a leg in a bombing at their church; their home was burned down the following year. A few years ago I walked through Christian neighborhoods in the town of Ambon burned down by Muslim mobs.

Islamic protests against the slightest Western criticism of or doubt about the religion of Mohammed ring hollow. It is sad that many Muslims appear unable to defend their faith through anything but intimidation. Moreover, so long as their religion is noted for its willingness to persecute and employ violence around the globe, they have little credibility to complain of offenses by others.

Does what we say in the West bother Muslims in the Mideast and elsewhere? I have trouble feeling guilty so long as Islamic states fail to recognize that people created by God in his image should be left free to decide whether and how to follow him. A coerced conversion yields no glory to God, even if his name is Allah.

Labels: David C. Price