On submission

I wrote this some time ago following another loss of life.  It seems to me that the message of tolerance towards all people and religions, but of intolerance of intolerance, is lost in our grief.  My decision to publish this now follows the murders in the Quebec City mosque.
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The word Islam, means submission, submission to the will of God.  Therein lies the greatest threat that Islam poses.

It is not that submission itself is a problem.  We submit all the time to forces beyond our control.  Recruits into any army are trained to submit to the orders of their superiors.  Employees in any corporation are expected to submit to the instructions of their bosses.  When we fall in love we submit to the demands of another.   But always within some norm of reason.

In all these situations, free will is involved.  And at any time, that free will can interfere and lead us to resign from an army or an employment, or to fall out of love.  The submission is tempered by known contractual terms

The contract with Islam does not permit a withdrawal from its terms.  Submission is absolute and permanent.  Anyone who subsequently resigns from the faith, is labelled a heretic.  Other religions have labelled once believers as heretics and tortured them to "encourage" them to return.  None have claimed the right to kill such unbelievers in quite the way that Islam does.

Similarly the apostates are treated as less then worthy, treated with extreme contempt for which the extreme unction of termination is considered the only justifiable resolution.

I dont care what your faith is, and I will defend your right to believe whatever you want.  But don't let it interfere with my right to do so similarly, whether it pleases you or horrifies you.  Most likely, if you are threatened by my beliefs, or in my case, my non-beliefs, then it seems to me that you lack confidence in your faith yourself.  If your beliefs are solid, then no other person or faith should be able to shake them.  A reaction to condemn heretics, is evidence of your lack of confidence in what you believe yourself.

Again, I dont care what your faith is.  But, if your faith is in a non-existent god, then you are wrong to have that faith.  And if that is an insult to your God, then your faith is singularly weak.  If you have submitted to a non-existent entity, then you are fooling yourself and all to whom you promote the idea.  Unless and until the faithful can provide the incontrovertible evidence of such an entity -- and I doubt they ever will, I will continue to be a sceptic in all matters of religion.