I have cut and pasted the following from a letter I wrote to my mother and aunt (Grandma and Aunt Aletta to some of you) yesterday. If I had the capability of giving headings with this template I would title it: "A Close Encounter of an Islamic Kind."

Over the weekend I had an interesting encounter. I was outside the Eaton Centre in the heart of Toronto and there were quite a few Muslims handing out copies of the Koran. They had a table set up piled with copies of the Koran and one of them was walking around with a sign on a stick that said "Free Qur'ans." They were bearded and wearing traditional Muslim hats.

Anyhow, I decided I would have a conversation with one of them because I had a question I wanted to ask. Earlier in the week I had been watching a TV show hosted by Michael Coren, a Christian. On it he had two Muslim and two Christian scholars who were, very nicely, discussing their differences. One of the questions that came up was, "What happens to a Muslim if he decides to leave Islam?" A very nice, soft-spoken Muslim professor of Islamic Studies who was on the program answered that most Muslim scholars believe that the Koran teaches that they must be put to death.

The question I wished to pose to one of the Muslims, therefore, was "What does the Koran say should happen to a Muslim if he leaves the faith?" And so I did. First I spoke to a young white woman who looked a little shocked when I posed the question and then told me that she herself was not a Muslim, she was just helping out, thinking it was a worthy thing to do in order to promote understanding. So she directed me to a light-skinned Arab-looking young man who had a light beard on his chin and who spoke almost perfect English. When I asked him the question, he said that anyone who wished to leave Islam was free to go and he quoted some text out of the Koran to the effect that there should be "no compulsion" in religion. I then said, "But that's not what most Muslims around the world believe, is it?" to which he replied that he thought it was, not looking too sure of himself.

After that we talked for another ten minutes or so about a number of things--freedom of religion in places like Saudi Arabia, the war in Iraq, and the like. Though it got a little tense, for the most part it remained quite civil. As I was leaving the young man (whose name is Abdul) asked me if he could have my e-mail address, saying he wanted to continue to "dialogue." I said that I would like that and got his e-mail address as well.

When I got home that evening, I looked up on the internet the question of whether most Muslim scholars believe that someone leaving the faith should be put to death. I soon found an article in an internet encyclopedia which said that "the five major schools of Islamic jurisprudence" agree that a "sane male" who leaves the faith should be put to death. (They were divided on what should happen to women.)

So I then sent an e-mail Abdul and in it mentioned what I had discovered. I included the link to the encyclopedia so he could see for himself. In the message I also told him a bit about myself, telling him I am an "evangelical" Christian, which means I look to the Bible for answers with divine authority, much as he looks to the Koran. I tried to keep the tone of the message friendly and not argumentative. So far I have not heard back from Abdul and will be very interested if and when I do. (Maybe I've spooked him!)