Apostasy in Islam
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The English used in this article may not be easy for everybody to understand. (February 2012) |
Apostasy in Islam is when a follower of Islam tries to change their religion. When someone tries to reject their religion, this is called apostasy. There are different cases to be handled:
- The follower of Islam must be an adult, the rules usually do not apply to children.
- The follower of Islam must be sane. Insane people cannot make decisions.
- The follower must change their religion because they want to. Being forced to change their religion is not apostasy.[1][2]
Most Sunni Islam and the Twelvers Shi'a Islamic schools of thought agree that apostasy is a sin. There is a difference between harmful apostasy and harmless apostasy[3] (also known as major and minor apostasy).[1] According to Wael Hallaq nothing of the apostasy law are based on the Qur'an,[4] although the jurist al-Shafi'i interpreted the Qu'ranic verse 2:217. This provided the main evidence for apostasy being a capital crime in Islam.[5] Sharia says the punishment for apostasy should be death, but the Koran does not have a punishment for apostates in this world.
Some Islamic jurists[6][7][8][9][10] argued or issued fatwas that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances[11][12][13][14] Some groups within Islam, such as the Shi'a Ismaili, reject death for apostasy altogether.
Examples [change]
- Salman Rushdie was condemned to death in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini,[15] (ruler of Iran at the time) for his book The Satanic Verses
- Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert to Christianity, was arrested and jailed on the charge of rejecting Islam in 2006 but later released as 'insane'.[16]
References [change]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Is Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam?" Islam Online, 26 April 2006
- ↑ "Should an Apostate Be Put to Death?" www.islam.ca, 27 March, 2006
- ↑ "Apostasy Major and Minor", Qaradawi, 13 April 2006
- ↑ Encyclopedia of the Quran, Apostasy
- ↑ W. Heffening, in Encyclopedia of Islam
- ↑ Abdullah Saeed and Hassan Saeed (2004), Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam, p. 85, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 0754630838.
- ↑ Mohammad Hashim Kamali (1998), "Punishment in Islamic Law: A Critique of the Hudud Bill of Kelantan, Malaysia", Arab Law Quarterly 13 (3): 203-234, Brill Publishers.
- ↑ Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, Gomaa's Statement on Apostasy, The Washington Post, July 25, 2007.
- ↑ Nashwa Abdel-Tawab, 'Whosoever will, let him disbelieve', Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue No. 857, 9-15 August 2007.
- ↑ Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: "Not Every Conversion is Apostasy", by Mahdi Jami, In Persian, BBC Persian, February 2, 2005, retrieved April 25, 2006
- ↑ What Islam says on religious freedom, by Magdi Abdelhadi, BBC Arab affairs analyst, 27 March 2006, retrieved April 25, 2006
- ↑ Fatwa on Intellectual Apostasy, Text of the fatwa by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
- ↑ S. A. Rahman in "Punishment of Apostasy in Islam", Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, 1972, pp. 10-13
- ↑ The punishment of apostasy in Islam, View of Dr. Ahmad Shafaat on apostasy.
- ↑ On this day: February 14, 1989; BBC News, accessed March 17, 2009
- ↑ "Afghan convert freed from prison", BBC News, March 28, 2006, retrieved April 11, 2006
