See Clearly

Iman AL-Qahtani writes about apostasy in Islam:

There is no basis for executing an apostate in Islam. It is nothing more than an invention by narrow-minded men.

Later:

Abdul-Rahman's conversion to Christianity and abandonment of Islam is his right, from the perspective of true Islam, which guarantees the right to believe in any faith one wishes.

Final excerpt:

In his book Killing the Apostate, A Crime Forbidden by Islam, writer Mohamed Adlbi points out that The Qur'an states clearly, {There is no compulsion in religion} and that compulsion is unnecessary because {Truth stands out clearly from Error}.

A few points:

1. During the time of Muhammed.

Sahih Bukhari: Volume 9, Book 84, Number 58.

... There was a fettered man beside Abu Muisa. Mu'adh asked, "Who is this (man)?" Abu Muisa said, "He was a Jew and became a Muslim and then reverted back to Judaism." Then Abu Muisa requested Mu'adh to sit down but Mu'adh said, "I will not sit down till he has been killed. This is the judgment of Allah and His Apostle (for such cases) and repeated it thrice. Then Abu Musa ordered that the man be killed, and he was killed....

Perhaps, Mu'adh had been mistaken.

Sahih Bukhari: Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57.

Narrated 'Ikrima:

Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"

'Ikrima had a hearing problem. Honest.

Sahih Bukhari: Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17.

Narrated 'Abdullah:

Allah's Apostle said, "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims."

Okay, this is definitely a Jewish conspiracy.

2. Islamic "thinking".

The four major schools of Islamic thought -- Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi'i -- agree that a Muslim apostate should be put to death. Though, Hanafi does show some mercy for female ex-Muslims: Life in jail.

Link: "Imam Tahawi has provided an interpretation of the Hanafi School in his book Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar as follows":

The lawyers differ among themselves concerning whether or not the person who has apostatized from Islam should be requested to repent. One group says it is much better that the imam (leader) requests the apostate to repent. If he repents, he should be released. Otherwise he should be executed. Imam Abu Hanifah, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad Rahmatullah are among those who have expressed this opinion. A second group says there is no need to request repentance. For them the condition of the apostate resembles that of the harbi kafir ("the infidel at war").

3. Recent news and events.

January 31, 2005: An article by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

... Asia News reported on December 17 that Emad Alaabadi, a Saudi Arabian convert to Christianity, had been taken into custody by Saudi authorities.

Even in Muslim states that don’t officially prohibit conversion out of Islam, the legal system is often used against those who leave the faith.  In Egypt, for example, the government refuses to issue new identification papers to converts that reflect their new religion.  Without new identification papers, converts’ children must be raised Muslim and the converts have to live their lives as though they were still Muslim.  Those who attempt to raise their children in their new faith when their papers list their religion as Islam may be charged with blasphemy.

March 22, 2006: Abdul Rahman, a convert to Christianity, is put in jail.

Rahman, a father of two, was arrested last week and is now awaiting trial for rejecting Islam.

[...]

The Afghan constitution, which is based on Sharia, or Islamic law, says that apostates can receive the death penalty.

March 29, 2006: The view in Pakistan.

A Muslim convert to Christianity in Afghanistan was saved by subterfuge (it was said he was mentally sick and therefore couldn’t be held accountable under any law for converting to Christianity) by the Kabul government from being done to death, triggering protests from the Islamists who wanted him killed. The clerical view in Pakistan that appeared in the press, too, wanted the man killed. Then Pakistan’s top cleric, Mufti Munib ur Rehman, who chairs the moon-sighting committee on Eid days, came on TV and announced that “if a state is truly Islamic” it would have to kill the apostate.

April 10, 2006: An article in The Daily Times.

... state prosecution for conversion out of Islam is relatively rare in Muslim-majority countries, at least 14 such countries considered apostasy a crime, with Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania and Comoros making it punishable by death, said Nina Shea, director of global rights group Freedom House’s centre for religious freedom.

May 25, 2006: Government-approved textbooks in Malaysia.

... under the heading ‘Ways of Dealing with Apostates’ (Cara menangani orang murtad), the following precepts are given:

1. Advise and persuade the offender to repent and return to Islam (menasihati dan memintanya supaya bertaubat dan kembali kepada Islam)

2. To impose a death sentence (melaksanakan hukuman bunuh)

June 15, 2006: Coming full circle. Iman AL-Qahtani.

There is no basis for executing an apostate in Islam. It is nothing more than an invention by narrow-minded men.

Conclusion: One of the following.

A. Muhammed and his companions and the founders of the four major Islamic schools and the governments and regimes of Muslim-majority nations such as Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania, Comoros, Malaysia, and Egypt are all narrow-minded.

B. Iman AL-Qahtani somehow misses the clear truth.

C. Both A and B.

Comments

[octane]

Excellent post! I gotta remember these references when I run into a Muslim thinker who says there is no compulsion in religion.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Thanks.

Yes, there ought to be no compulsion in religion. Reality is sadly different.