Do you
believe that the punishment of apostasy is death according to Islam? Quran reprimands apostasy in Islam and suggests it deserves
coercion and severe punishment. There are references to punishments for
committing apostasy in Islam.
Example evidence of Apostasy in
Islam, according to Sunni Shafi'i school of jurisprudence (Fiqh), are:
1.
bowing before sun, moon, objects of
nature, idols, cross or any images symbolically representing God whether in
mere contrariness, sarcastically or with conviction;
2.
intention, hesitation or actually
committing unbelief in Islam;
3.
speak words such as "Allah is
part of trinity", "Jesus is the son of Allah", "I am a
Prophet";
4.
revile, question, wonder, doubt,
mock the Prophet was sent by Allah;
5.
revile, deny, doubt any verse of the
Quran;
6.
deny that which is considered
obligatory by Ijma (consensus of Muslims);
7.
believe that things in themselves
have cause rather than it being the will of Allah;
8.
to pay respect to a non-Muslim.
Al-Ghazali held that apostasy occurs
when a Muslim:
1.
denies, intends to deny that
"there is no God but Allah, Muhammad
is the messenger of Allah";
2.
denies, doubts Quran and the Law
(Sharia); and
3.
denies, doubts through action
Muhammad's prophecy about the end of the world and last judgment.
Brunei
is the latest Muslim country to enact a law that makes apostasy a crime
punishable with death. Egypt's penal code is silent about the punishment for
apostasy from Islam. Contemporary Egyptian jurisprudence prohibits apostasy
from Islam, but has also remained silent about death penalty. The silence about
punishment for apostasy along with constitutional enshrinement of Sharia, means
death sentence for apostasy is possibility.
15
ex-Muslim Christians were incarcerated on 15 May 2008 under charges of apostasy
in Iran. National laws of Malaysia require Muslim
apostates who seek to convert from Islam to another religion to first
obtain approval from a sharia court.
Article
306 of the criminal code of Mauritania declares apostasy in Islam as illegal
and provides a death sentence for the crime of leaving Islam. The penal code of
Morocco does not impose the death penalty for apostasy.
While
several attempts have been made to enact laws prescribing "death penalty for apostasy" in Pakistan,
it has no apostasy law as of 2013. There is no law against proselytizing
non-Muslims to join Islam in Qatar.
Apostasy
law is actively enforced in Saudi Arabia. Two Saudi Sunni Muslim citizens were
arrested and charged with apostasy for adopting the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. Apostasy
is a crime in Somalia. The prescribed punishment for apostasy is the death
penalty.
The
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) protests against Islamic states that still punish Muslim apostates with death under
the Sharia law. Apostasy is a crime in Yemen.
If some Muslims insist on the death penalty for
apostasy out of a concern to discourage apostasy, others do so simply because
of a tendency to cling to traditional views no matter how much evidence exists
against them. This attitude is un-Qur`an since the Book of God says:
When it is said to them: “Follow what God has sent
down,” they say, “Nay! We shall follow what we found our fathers following.”
What! Even if their fathers did not understand (ya‘qilun) anything and
they were not guided? (2:170)
The Qur`an and authentic ahadith teach us to
treat apostates like other kuffar, whose treatment varies from kindness
to killing depending on the circumstances and on the degree of hostility they
show towards Islam and Muslims.
It is a significant fact that the Book of God does
not prescribe any punishment for apostasy. Many Muslims would immediately say,
The Qur`an does not tell us everything. It is thus a natural conclusion
to draw that the absence of any legal penalty for apostasy in the Qur`an means
that God never intended any such penalty to become part of Islamic Shari‘ah.
The apostates who rejected
Islam by failing to emigrate as commanded by God are divided into three
categories:
1. Those who ally themselves with a group with whom Muslims have a peace
treaty;
2. Those who want to keep neutrality, committing themselves to peace with
both the Muslims and their own people who had not accepted Islam;
3. Those who provide no real guarantee of peace to Muslims and by all
indications ally themselves with non-believers engaged in hostilities towards
Islam.
The Qur`an actually prohibits
killing those apostates who want to live in peaceful terms with the
Muslims.
