His casual aside about some people feeling he should be beheaded was impressively nonchalant. Polling that indicates 78% support for the death penalty for apostasy is a quantitative expression of just how widespread such bloodthirsty views remain in large portions of the Muslim world.

Another objective expression of this notion is in those Muslim regimes who reject the UN declaration on human rights precisely because they reject the notion of freedom of conscience. Many if not most Muslims believe that a person who is born to Muslim parents must remain a Muslim for life, or risk execution.

The many cultural relativists on this site who insist that there are no substantive differences among the monotheistic religions apparently have no ability to comprehend how frightening and stifling it would be to face a LEGITIMATE threat of execution for nothing but renouncing the faith of one's parents.

I have rejected my parents' faith, and the notion that I'd be subject to execution for that if I'd been born in Lahore to Muslims is absolutely horrifying to me. It strikes a similar nerve as the first thoughts that eventually led me to atheism--I was repulsed at the notion that kids who had the misfortune to have Hindu parents were facing certain hellfire and damnation, unless they converted (my old church taught that belief in Christ and baptism were required for salvation). Why should a kid who has the misfortune to be born to Muslim parents have any less right than me to decide that all religions are bullshit?

It really bothers my sense of justice, that many Muslims are legally denied such a fundamental right as the right to draw their own conclusions about the nature of universe. It 'bugs' me in a way that pedophile priests do not--those are criminal individuals breaking the rules of their church and their society, which is not the case with the Muslims who are eager to behead the atheists among them.