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Acting in emergencies, force, and the law

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A fact to take into consideration also is the shopkeeper's state of mind. Facing armed men is scary, and fear can distort perceptions to several degrees. Previous experience should also be taken into consideration (if, for example, the shopkeeper has been previously injured in past robberies).

You can think and plan ahead how you'd face danger, but until you face it you don't really know how you'll react.

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Here's another story along these lines: A person was wanted by the police as a person of interest in a child rape, but wasn't charged with anything; the neighbors recognized him and come up behind him and began beating him with stick and rods. I think they were definitely out of line of taking the law into their own hands. In this case, there was no emergency situation at all, and they neighbors ought to have simply turned him in for questioning. The purpose of having established laws and courts is precisely to prevent vigilantism of this nature -- and we still don't know if he had anything to do with the child rape or why the police wanted to question him.
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Here is a recent armed robbery caught on tape, with the robber having a shop owner gun turned on him, he swore to change his ways. I don't think he should have been given money and food as a bribe, nor turned free without charges pressed against him, but the shop owner scared the mess out of hum. The gun wasn't loaded, which is not a good thing to advertise on TV, and the shop owner was Muslim so he showed mercy. Is this a case of conversion by force?
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Here is a recent armed robbery caught on tape, with the robber having a shop owner gun turned on him, he swore to change his ways. I don't think he should have been given money and food as a bribe, nor turned free without charges pressed against him, but the shop owner scared the mess out of hum. The gun wasn't loaded, which is not a good thing to advertise on TV, and the shop owner was Muslim so he showed mercy. Is this a case of conversion by force?

It's a case on anti social behaviour. There is a good reason to send criminals to prison: to protect people's rights. If you let them go, that is a sign of a lack of respect for this country's values. (Though it's not really a Muslim thing, it's more of a liberal thing. I really doubt he let the guy go becaose of his religion alone.)

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Here is a recent armed robbery caught on tape, ... he showed mercy. Is this a case of conversion by force?
This reminds me of the early scene from Les Misrables, where the priest lets Jean Valjean steal his candles.

Forced conversion? Nope; if does not even qualify as conversion in the first place.

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I watched the Muslim shopkeeper video again, and I had misunderstood what had happened. Those in that neighborhood knew that the shopkeeper was Muslim, as did the robber. It was because the shopkeeper showed mercy that the robber stated that he wanted to become a good Muslim.

There are those who think that if you show kindness to someone like a robber then he will change his ways. Les Miserable was trying to show this, and in that case, it worked out, but I don't accept it as a general principle of ethics.

As to the Muslim letting the robber go showing disrespect for the laws of his new country, I don't know that I'd go that far. He's not legally obligated to press charges. I'd have to know more about him, such as does he want to establish Islamic Law?

I certainly don't think the shopkeeper who shows mercy ought to be given the great TV coverage he got, as that promotes altruism and the idea that criminality is caused by poverty. That is a liberal stance, and it is wrong.

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Here's another story along these lines: A person was wanted by the police as a person of interest in a child rape, but wasn't charged with anything; the neighbors recognized him and come up behind him and began beating him with stick and rods.

Local police have decided not to charge anyone in the crowd because emotions were running high and after all they didn't kill him :P

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