Zealotry is zealotry. It involves irrational behavior that is destructive to oneself and/or others, and while it can certainly vary by degree, the full range of degrees are displayed by zealots of all religious brands. Rusty and Andrea Yates were Christian-branded zealots, but it certainly made no difference to their children whether they were Christian-branded or Muslim-branded or some other brand. Andrea was certifiably insane in addition to be a zealot, but Rusty was just a garden variety zealot — insisted on following the rather extreme rules of the sect he’d hooked up with, which meant leaving his certifiably insane wife alone all day every day to “homeschool” several young children, and have an additional baby, despite doctors warnings that this was very dangerous, given her precarious psychiatric history and pattern of worsening post-partum depression>psychosis following each baby.
This girl is mentally unstable (read some of the martyr complex stuff she was posting just before she ran away), and she ran away from home instead of finishing high school. Unemployment is high these days, with many wonderful and mentally stable people needing jobs, including many devout Christians who have families to support. Her new friend Pastor Lorenz is up to his ears in expensive legal problems as a result of his involvement with her, so he’s not likely to be hiring her (and thankfully, the courts aren’t going to let him pimp her out to the media, at least until after she’s turned 18).
Rifqa’s 15 minutes of fame will be over soon, and more likely than not she’ll blow any chance she’s given to take a job a support and support herself. Just like she blew her chance to keep relatively quiet about her religion for just one more year, finish high school, and then leave home with her parents having no recourse, since police wouldn’t waste time hunting down an 18 year old who appears to have relocated of her own free will, nor would police have a legal right to tell her parents of her whereabouts even if they located her.
She’s 17. A bit of legal wrangling, and she turns 18.
Problem solved.
I can’t understand the Muslims. I grew up in a Catholic family. I converted to Asatrú at age 14. Told my parents at age 16.
Yeah, they were pissed. They eventually let me be: I was not converting back, and forcing me to go through the motions without actually believing would be pointless in both our faiths.
Why can’t muslims show the same reason?