What would you do if your friend converted his/her religion?

Group four:
Second Post (16th April 2010)

Freedom of religion is a right that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any religion.
Freedom of religion is considered a fundamental right in some nations and was mentioned in the universal declaration of human rights in article 18:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
In some countries, the citizens face a difficulty in changing their religion or even in practicing their religion, due to public pressure exerted by adherents of the majority religion. This has occurred through both official action such as arrests and imprisonment and unofficial action such as failing to prevent or punish private acts of violence targeting voluntary religious converts. The universal right to choose one’s religious affiliation creates an obligation for all governments to investigate and punish non-governmental acts of violence or discrimination that interfere with the freedom to choose one’s religion.

When we first posed such a question, the direct quick answer that will jump to our minds would be “why should I even care?".
But that's not true; we care and pay much attention to such controversial issues.
Every one of us keeps saying all the time that he believes in the freedom of thinking and the freedom of believing in specific religion, but when it comes to practical experiments it seems that those beliefs are fake and not true.
We asked that difficult question to some of our friends and the answers were not all the same.

Here are the opinions of some of our friends regarding this issue when they were asked about their reaction if their friend converted his/her religion:

Most people were much interested on the topic and believed that the freedom of religion is a personal and depended on individual beliefs. They said they would talk it over with their friend about his/her new beliefs and most importantly about WHY he/she took such a major change. (60%)

Second group were people who stood on the border line not knowing what to say. They said it depended whether this person changed in character or behavior or not. They were shocked from the idea and tried to digest first before taking any decisions. (20%)

Third group were people who stood on firm conclusion and were not willing to negotiate. They simply refused the whole matter. If a person converts then this means that he/she would change in nature and that can’t be a friend any more. (15%)

Last but not least were people who only wanted the conversion to be in to the Islamic religion and that would make them very happy and accepting. For them it was a matter of religious belief rather than a hypothetical question related to an idea or a possibility. (5%)

The question still remains and every person is entitled to his/her opinion but does that give us the right to be judgmental. Do we fully let go of our prejudices to have a tolerant society? Do we believe in live and let live? Or more importantly can we do that in the first place?