In the eyes of the clerics who argue for his execution, Abdul Rahman - the Afghan currently on trial for converting to Christianity - is guilty of apostasy.
But in a truer sense, Rahman is really GUILTY OF DESERTION, for radical Islam is NOT a religion, but a tyrannical, militaristic and hegemonistic ideology. The clerics fear that if Rahman "gets away with desertion" that many MILLIONS of other Muslims - who keep their faith only because of fear - will also choose to leave Islam.
COMPLETE ROUNDUP AT MEMEORANDUM. UPDATED ROUNDUP HERE.
But in a truer sense, Rahman is really GUILTY OF DESERTION, for radical Islam is NOT a religion, but a tyrannical, militaristic and hegemonistic ideology. The clerics fear that if Rahman "gets away with desertion" that many MILLIONS of other Muslims - who keep their faith only because of fear - will also choose to leave Islam.
COMPLETE ROUNDUP AT MEMEORANDUM. UPDATED ROUNDUP HERE.
Your analogy to military desertion is apt, and provides us with a sense of what the clerics feel. They conceive of the Ummah as an army in which the believers are enlisted for life in order to fight God's holy war. To renounce that service is indeed in their eyes to desert at a time of war. Several Indian scholars have pointed out that Islamic practices resemble military training & discipline in other ways, as well.
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GOD renounced THEM.
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