I spent a year in Iraq with the military in 2004-05, and before going, out of curiosity, I read the Koran. I have always been interested in Islam, wondering what it was about this religion that causes it to grow so quickly and keep its followers. I personally became a Christian at the age of 18 and have been solidly committed to my faith because of the truthfulness of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

After spending a year in Iraq and reading the Koran, I have concluded there are two factors that produce this seemingly endless growth of Islam. Islam, similar to Roman Catholicism, propagates it faith through birth. If you are born in a Muslim family, you are a Muslim, What you personally believe does not matter. If you father is a Muslim and you mother some other religion, even an atheist, you are still a Muslim. An exception to this might be if your father were a Christian and mother a Muslim. You would be a Christian unless you chose to become a Muslim.

Now, one a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot convert from Islam to Christianity or any other religion without incurring a death sentence. Islam is the only world religion of which I am aware that teaches this. It is in the Koran and is part of the Sharia Law. By the way, any faithful Muslim who is aware of an individual converting from Islam to another religion has the personal responsibility to execute that convert by whatever means possible.

The second factor contributing to the seemingly endless growth of Islam is fear. The Koran has certain moral teachings as do most religions, that are appealing and socially acceptable. The consequences of breaking laws are not so appealing and are, in some cases, barbaric. Muslims, for the most part, obey the laws they live under out of fear. This fear affects not only the individual believer whether a child, mother, father or political leader; but also affects all of society worldwide. The news media is a good example. For the most part, the news media is especially careful of what they say about Islamic faith and their beliefs. This kind of concern is not evident when reporting on Christian faith and beliefs.

This brings up some very interesting questions about one of the Democratic presidential candidates, Barak Obama. Since his father was a Muslim and mother an atheist, how is it that he could publicly state that he has converted to Christianity without there being a public outrage from the Muslim world? Why is it that the news media has never addressed this issue? Are they afraid to? Could it be that the Muslims actually would like to see Barak Obama become president of the United States because of his promise to remove our troops from Iraq? Is it possible that Barak Obama is publicly a Christian, but secretly a Muslim for the time being, and because of his secret faith he personally does not believe American troops should be on Muslim soil?

I think these are just a few questions Americans should take into consideration before casting their ballots.