There are some people criticizing a recent report from the US about religious freedom here in Yemen. The Yemenis point to the fact that you can practice any religion you want here. In fact, down in Aden there are 3 Catholic churches, an Anglican church, and a hindu(!) temple. The report points out that there aren’t any churches in the former North Yemen, including Sana’a. The thing that really gets people here is that the report criticized Yemen for making conversion from Islam and proselytizing muslims illegal. I’m pretty sure that converting from Islam is a capital offense, it is by Sharia law certainly. People here have various lame excuses like, “But no one is coerced into becoming a muslim here,” which may be true enough, but God help anyone here that grew up muslim and finds Jesus somehow… All of the defenses basically boil down to, “But we have the correct religion…”Seriously, how can people defend this? I know, it’s in the Koran. I’m sorry, but anyone with any critical reasoning skills can see what a transparent power play this is. Christians gave this up a long time ago. They now have what I believe to be the “correct” view, “Do whatever you like, but you better choose well cause God’s got the final say…” To me, this is the essence of religious freedom, you choose, and you (like everyone) will eventually pay for whatever bad decisions you make throughout life. Why can’t they leave religious “justice” up to God?
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3 replies on “Religious freedom in Yemen”
I gotta disagree again with you on the distinction you draw between Islam and Christianity. “[Insert religion here] is the correct religion because the [insert revered text or sacred authority here] clearly states this to be so. Therefore your views on [insert religion here] being oppressive of [insert differing religious viewpoint here] are invalid.” This phrase appears to me to be universally attributable to every heavily indoctrinated religious person in the world, regardless of their particular faith.
Additionally I have found it to be just as likely as not that a self-identifying Christian most certainly will not adopt a “[d]o whatever you like” attitude. In fact, per capita, the number of highly tolerant Muslims I have met far FAR exceeds the number of highly tolerant Christians I have had the pleasure of encountering.
Careful with those broad brush strokes. Remember you’ve exchanged immersion in one culture’s world view for one that in many ways is utterly perpendicular.
Wow. What Christians have you been hanging around? They sound pretty magnanimous. I still see plenty of “my god is better than your god” going on. True, its not illegal to leave the faith here in the US but to say that Christians “left that all behind” seems a bit vain.
Just my .02
No, no, what I was trying to get across is that Christians no longer kill people that leave the faith. Whatever pressure Christians put on people, they have not killed for their faith for a long, long time. Many, if not most of them do believe that they have the “correct” religion, but I can’t think of any that would ever think that death is the appropriate reaction to someone that denies Christianity. It is that attitude that makes me think that Christians are inherently more tolerant of apostates, I don’t really think this is debatable. The fact that you are not facing death for you decision means that Christians ultimately do have the attitude of “Do what you want…” because if you don’t do what they want, they have no choice but to leave you alone (unless they get the government to do their bidding… don’t get me started on that.).
I have met many tolerant people here when it comes to being another monotheist. I have never felt any real pressure because of what I believe. I have had to shy away from talking to people curious about Christianity. I always have in the back of my mind that someone will think that I am proselytizing, and that could land me in jail. I don’t believe I have this power, but if someone converted due to my exposition, they could die because of it.
Isn’t that more intolerant than any (recent) Christian anything?
My point is that there is a BIG difference between having intolerant views about other religions and killing people that leave your faith to go to others. Christianity has no shortage of intolerant people, but they do not, unlike mainstream Islam here, Saudi, and other places expect people to die if they switch. In my mind, that is significantly less tolerant…
Isaac