If ISIS Came to Your Town Would You Convert to Islam?

You might expect a group of teenagers to say they’d stand up to the Islamic State and refuse to convert. But what would you do if push came to shove?
BY DAVID HARRIS

Thu, April 21, 2016

So here’s the scenario.

A teacher in Italy taught her class of 13-year olds all about the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). At the end of the project she asked her 25 students what they would do if the Islamic State took over their town. All but two reportedly said they would convert to Islam.

It’s somewhat tragic that a mix of classroom education and possibly some media exposure to ISIS barbarism would suck the bravado out of all the kids, other than two die-hard Catholics. But that’s the effect of the threats and actions of ISIS.

In every generation, there are the brave few who stand up to fight against one evil scourge or another, despite the likely great personal sacrifice.

In the Massacre of Verden in 782, Charlemagne is said to have killed 4,500 captive Saxons who rebelled against forced conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Legend has it that the Souliot women in the village of Zalongo in 1803 in Epirus danced and sang as they killed their own babies before committing suicide rather than facing capture by Ottoman-Albanian ruler Ali Pasha and all that would have followed.

 

https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/if-isis-came-your-town-would-you-convert-islam