I just finished reading parts of the 2005 US State Department report on International Religious Freedom. The section on Jordan is quite long and detailed. The report focuses on the hot topic of conversion from Islam to Christianity:
There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom during the reporting period. A convert from Islam to Christianity was detained on the orders of a Shari’a court in September 2004 and charged with apostasy. In November, the Amman Shari’a Court found him guilty of apostasy, stripped him of his civil rights, and annulled his marriage. A Shari’a appellate court upheld the conviction in January 2005. Members of unrecognized religious groups and converts from Islam face legal discrimination and bureaucratic difficulties in personal status cases. Converts from Islam additionally risk the loss of civil rights. There is no statute that expressly forbids proselytizing Muslims. However, Shari’a courts have the authority to prosecute proselytizers.
I blogged about this particular case one year ago, so my comments can be seen here. Other sections of the report discuss alleged discrimination against the Druze and Bahai communities in Jordan.
The Government does not recognize the Druze or Baha’i faiths as religions but does not prohibit their practice. The Druze face official discrimination but do not complain of social discrimination. Baha’is face both official and social discrimination. The Government does not record the bearer’s religion as Druze or Baha’i on national identity cards; Druze are listed as Muslim, and Baha’i do not have any religion officially listed.
All that said, I’m glad the report made mention of the fact that Christians in Jordan enjoy a very good status.
The generally amicable relationship among religions in society contributed to religious freedom. In general, Christians did not suffer discrimination. Christians held high-level government and private sector positions and were represented in the media and academia approximately in proportion to their presence in the general population
Read the entire report on Jordan here.
I think you will find, as I have known someone who has done it personally, that in Jordanian society it is JUST as bad to convert TO Islam from Christianity. I dont know if there is any reaction from the state, but there sure is in society.
I knew one brother, Jordanian Christian, who coverted to Islam, and basically his life was over, as it goes with his family anyway. He had to accept that he could never see his family again, they were libel to kill him. This has happened other places in the Middle East, particularly Palestine.
I think the state should not get involved in such issues, but it is clear that the society has a major problem with this issue. Religion is a personal choice and I think that often it is the culture that is offended, the families in question, not the religion.
And maybe if you took religion or shari law out of the law equation you wouldn’t have this problem.History has shown when “Islamic law” is followed by any country that has other religions … there will be massive never ending conflict. And there is as much or more of that religious conflict today as there ever.
I have no problem with Islam’s ruling on people who convert from it.
However, if a person is born to a Muslim family, he or she is automatically called a Muslim. But what if growing up, he or she never actually becomes a Muslim, what if he or she never identifies with Islam on a day to day basis. What if he or she identifies more with another religion.
Where is the point in that person’s life, where he or she makes the first choice? Because I think Islam allows people to have at least that first choice. It calls on people to join Islam, but it doesn’t force them.
Maybe there’s a missing link. Maybe the religion of citizens should be struck down on paper once they have reached the legal age of making their own decisions. Maybe you only count someone to be a Muslim when they are over 18 and they say “put me down as a Muslim”. At that point, people from unreligious families who don’t care, can leave that field blank.
There are so many points and views to consider here. A very interesting topic I find it.
I think Jordan is pretty good in religious freedoms. Don’t just look at freedoms for chrisitans who are treated equally as citizens, but look at Muslims trhemselves. Many Muslim countries ban certain religious freedoms for its own citizens like hijab and prayers. This is almost non-existant in Jordan.
In Jordan I can at least say Merry Christmas! In America i have to think twice before i do.
Obviously, as Basem and others have pointed out, the report shows the extreme difference between official decisions and the street-inforced attitude. From what I have observed, to be born into a “Christian” family is acceptable; to convert from Islam to Christianity is contemptable. This attitude pattern appears to be an attempt of the hoi polloi to keep the minority religions in check.
Natasha, thanks for the tip on the report.
The individuals in question have been granted UN refugee status. Sadly, in their first application the UN employee told them “You deserve what you get for leaving the nicest religion in the world, you don’t deserve refugee status”.
Basem, in conversations among Christians, I’ve heard many talk about the contempt with which they have been treated as a minority. I ask them if they have confronted the treatment, and they have said “They won’t get it, they think things are fine because we don’t have to pay taxes anymore and are allowed to walk in the shade”.
Here is an example. A guy tells me my daughter is beautiful and wants me to ‘write his name in’ (she’s 3, BTW). I say “thanks for the compliment, but our Bible asks that we marry within our faith”. He says “Not a problem! Our Koran says she is free to marry a Muslim”. Do you see the problem?
Or my landlord saying “When God opens your eyes, you will see the truth and embrace the true way”. Or some shabaab saying to me (in front of my brood of kids) “let’s go get drunk and have sex! That’s what Christians do right?” Coexistence is different than acceptance. Conversely, I feel freer to have a conversation about religion in Jordan than I do in secular USA.
Also, there HAVE been dozens of people called in front of the court and intimidated into recanting their adopted Christian faith openly – but they continue to practice secretly. From what I have been told, this guy is the only one since the 60s who has been convicted. The other was ‘pardoned’ by the late Monarch, and allowed to practice, but had to visit They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named daily. Daily. Now that is what I call “rubbing it in someone’s face”.
Four issues to be highlighted here:
Officialdom is irrelevant here, as it does not represent the true vibe of the street! Jordan represent a sincere and coherent example of coexistence among its majority of Moslems and minority of Christians (along with the odd self-segregating sects belonging to either), a genuine coexistence stared away from hyped notions of stimulated tolerance uttered from poker-faced official spokesman while feelings are flirring in the other direction…
One cannot help but sense the bad karma of the rubbing-it-in-your-face attitude in the report and the blog entry itself! Considering the volume of such cases? have it been a dozen of individuals being persecuted for “apostasy” then one would consider it as a scoring point in a “credible” and “impartial” report!
And even if the persecutor was an official body against a citizen because of his/her personal convections! What is more significant to highlight and acknowledge is the more immanent and traumatizing persecution coming from the families of converts themselves! (from both sides of course, despite the fact that the guesstimated ratio might be at 1:100, talk about volume) and the pressures they exert on their own siblings to salvage them from going astray…
If the people are not ready to embrace and endorse “shifting” personal convections, why one should expect the government to be more mercifully capacitating?
This statistics talks about the government * I THINK* however in real life you will feel more discrimination against you, I’m pure Jordanian and I feel some discrimination against me in some cases…
it’s not about government, it’s about people, they love it, and they want it
That’s a pretty depressing report, Natasha. As Jareer pointed out, one should not be greatful because they are not being openly persecuted. I would have thought Jordan was better than this.
Not a satisfactory report; too many points need improvement beyond just sitting and counting the blessings for not being persecuted or discriminated against. I give it 40 %.