On Wednesday I wrote about how in this weeks story lines the writers of NCIS and particularly NCIS LA had turned the Major Hasan FT. Hood story on its ear. In rehashing over the NCIS episode -“Faith” (12/15) -in particular, I realize that I had missed an obvious Muslim tradition within the story that was even more offensively reversed by the writers—forced reconversion or death.
In this episode an American military family was shown to be guilty of trying to force their Muslim convert son/brother to drop Islam. In the end it turned out to be his own brother who had killed the Muslim officer because he had ‘dishonored’ the family with his conversion to Islam and his refusal to recant.
I totally missed the irony of this story line.
In Muslim countries throughout the Middle East and elsewhere when family members convert from Islam to Christianity (or any other religion) it is considered a blot on family honor and the person it given the choice to reconvert to Islam or be killed. Hundreds of honor killings are carried out in the name of Islam every year, many for the ‘crime’ of conversion.
Even in the West, particularly in the UK, Muslim families have occasionally carried out different types of ‘honor killings’. This is a dilemma that many Muslim families face in Western countries. Their Muslim traditions sometimes put them at odds with the culture and the laws of the country. I have written about this previously in the case of Rifqa Bary who ran away from her Muslim family with concerns for her life after she converted to Christianity.
I guess the PC writers of this NCIS episode are trying to get us to look upon the Muslim ‘Honor’ killings and forced reconversions as no different than what any regular American family might participate in on the flip side.
This is where the the story line breaks down and really doesn’t make all that much since. It is hard to conceive of an American or Christian family killing off one of their family members because they converted to Islam, who supposedly ‘dishonored’ the family in the process, and refused to reconvert back to whatever. There is no cultural or religious tradition or reason for that type of response in America. This is a Muslim tradition period.
It has never happened and I submit to you that it never will.
There is no Christian precedence for ‘honor’ killing and there are no Christian leaders or pastors who would support any kind of forced ‘reconversion’. However, in spite of the PC intensions of the NCIS writers, honor killings and forced reconversions continue to be a regular part of Islam and are even legally proscribed in many Muslim countries.