Mauritania is a land of striking beauty. With sand dunes
lined against the sky, Bedouins riding camels in the
countryside, and flying beetles that look like they come
straight from the abyss of the Apocalypse; Mauritania is a
land of extremes—extreme beauty, extreme hospitality, and
lately, extreme religion ... [A. Taylor]
As the world mourned the death
of Michael Jackson, another man went not so quietly into
the night, though largely unnoticed by mainstream media.
On Tuesday, June 23rd 2009, an American Christian worker
named Chris Leggett was gunned down by Al Qaeda for the
alleged “crime” of trying to convert Muslims to
Christianity. To give you an idea of what kind of man
Chris Legget was, the 39-year old native of Cleveland,
Tennessee not only taught computer science in a low-class
neighborhood in the capital city of Nouakchott, he also,
according to the Cleveland Daily Banner, worked with the
prison systems to train and equip women and young boys to
re-enter society, directed a training center providing
training in computer skills, sewing, and literacy, and
oversaw a micro-loan program which fostered the growth of
hundreds of small businesses.
Although the miniscule media coverage has been fairly
straightforward, I was saddened to see some of the nasty
comments on the Huffington Post when Ahmed Mohammed posted
the Associated Press story on the site. Although a few of
the comments unequivocally condemned Leggett’s murder for
what it is, a cowardly act of violence motivated by
extremists, far too many seemed to think that Leggett was
somehow “asking for it” because of the nature of his work
in a Muslim land, as if Chris Leggett somehow deserved to
die because of his passion for sharing his faith.
One commenter wrote, “Well, you know, it is their country.
You go walking around with arrogant disregard of their
laws, you better be prepared to pay the consequences.
Non-story.” Another commenter cut from the same cloth
replied, “I agree. It doesn't take much intelligence for
non-military Americans to keep out of these countries. You
not only go there at your own risk - you ask for it.”
My beef isn’t so much with the Huffington Post (who likely
has little control over what people comment on the site),
but to the people who made those nasty comments (there were
some that were far worse) I would like to say feel free to
criticize Christian missionaries working in Muslims lands,
but I hope you realize that you’re criticizing from a
position of privilege. Many of you live in countries that
allow you to choose your religious beliefs without fear of
torture, imprisonment, or death. Hundreds of millions of
Muslims live in countries that deny them that right. How
do you know that out of the worlds’ roughly 1.2 billion
Muslims, that some of them don’t want to hear another
perspective?
Chris Leggett most likely wasn’t banging the Bible over
anyone’s head, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few curious
Muslims quietly asked him about his religious beliefs.
After all, most Muslims I know—unlike most Westerners I
know—like to discuss religion in every day conversation and
enjoy hearing other people’s perspectives. If a few of
these same Muslims through peaceful dialogue came to the
conclusion that Chris’s beliefs were correct, where’s the
crime in that? If Chris Leggett did break Mauritanian law,
then it was an unjust law that he broke. Last time I
checked, breaking unjust laws is called civil disobedience.
Acts of civil disobedience have been crucial to every
major advance in human rights.
As a matter of fact, there are hundreds of secret believers
in Mauritania right now. Many of them have been abducted,
tortured in horrific ways, and forced to name their fellow
believers—while the Mauritanian government looks the other
way. According to many persecution watchdogs, the
persecution of Christians in Mauritania is particularly
ferocious, but the same story can be found in countless
other countries like Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan,
Syria, and Pakistan.
It’s time that the decent people of the world wake up to
the fact that roughly a billion people live under
governments that don’t allow them the freedom to obey their
conscience in choosing their religious beliefs. The right
to choose one’s religion is the most basic of human rights.
After all, why should human rights apply to everyone
except for Muslims?
----------------------------------------------------
Aaron D. Taylor is the author of "Alone with a Jihadist: A
Biblical Response to Holy War" available for pre-order on
http://www.amazon.com To follow Aaron on Twitter, go to
http://www.twitter.com/aarondtaylor Aaron blogs at
http://www.aarondtaylor.blogspot.com and can be contacted
at
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