Thursday, March 31, 2016

Good News: Malaysian Court Accepts a Conversion From Islam, Declares a Right to Religious Freedom


I think the greatest challenge for Muslims in civil society is accepting conversion out of Islam.

Islam has an excellent record of living with non-Muslims in their midst, and welcoming converts from other faiths to Islam.  However, it is Muslim doctrine that all people really are Muslims - converting out of the faith, therefore, is apostasy, and merits the highest punishment.

In secular societies, this is not a major issue - the Muslim community just has to suck it up if their members convert out.

In Muslim societies, though, it is a major challenge to accept conversion from Islam.  Therefore it is big news that the Malaysian courts have accepted the conversion of a Muslim to Christianity.  The court accepted a fundamental right of religious freedom within their overwhelmingly Muslim society.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Trump and Clinton Unfavorable Ratings, By Some Interesting Class Designations


Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have high unfavorable ratings from many groups in society.

Zogby Analytics has come up with an interesting way of indicating different social classes in measuring these unfavorable numbers.

Trump unfavorable:

Investor class: 55%
Creative class: 61%
Weekly Wal-Mart Shoppers: 54%


Clinton unfavorable:

Investor class: 53%
Creative class: 53%
Weekly Wal-Mart Shoppers: 52%