Cases dealing with apostasy in Islam—whereby Muslims who convert to other religions are tortured and executed—are on the rise and need to be acknowledged for what they are: one of Islam’s most visible attempts to suppress the human conscience—a phenomenon that has dire implications beyond religious freedom. Consider these two recent stories. First, from Somalia:
A kidnapped Christian convert from Islam was found decapitated on Sept. 2 ... Juma Nuradin Kamil was forced into a car by three suspected Islamic extremists from the al-Shabaab terrorist group on Aug. 21, area sources said. After members of his community thoroughly combed the area looking for him, at 2 p.m. on Sept. 2 one of them found Kamil’s body dumped on a street. The kidnapping and subsequent manner of murder suggests that al-Shabaab militants had been monitoring him, Christian leaders said. Muslim extremists from al-Shabaab, a militant group with ties to al Qaeda, have vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity.
According to a leader of the underground church: “It is usual for the al-Shabaab to decapitate those they suspect to have embraced the Christian faith, or sympathizers of western ideals. Our brother accepted the Christian faith three years ago and was determined in his faith in God. We greatly miss him.”
Likewise, it was recently revealed that a Muslim father in Uganda trapped, starved, and maimed his teenage daughter, simply because she embraced Christianity—that is, simply because she attempted to follow her conscience. When she was finally rescued six months later, she “was bony, very weak, and not able to talk or walk. Her hair had turned yellow, she had long fingernails and sunken eyes, and she looked very slim, less than 20 kilograms [44 pounds].” Details follow:
Susan and her younger brother, Mbusa Baluku, lived alone with their father after he divorced their mother. In March 2010 an evangelist from Bwera Full Gospel Church spoke at Susan’s school, and she decided to trust Christ for her salvation. “I heard the message of Christ’s great love of him dying for us to get everlasting peace, and there and then I decided to believe in Christ,” she said from her hospital bed. “After a month, news reached my father that I had converted to Christianity, and that was the beginning of my troubles with him. Our father warned us not to attend church or listen to the gospel message. He even threatened us with a sharp knife that he was ready to kill us in broad daylight in case we converted to Christianity.”
When she refused to recant, “he locked her up in a room of the semi-permanent house for six months without seeing sunlight. The younger brother was warned not to tell anyone that Susan was locked up in a room and was not given any food.”
Susan’s brother, still young and not fully indoctrinated in the things of Islam, smuggled scraps of food to his sister, though “most days she could only feed on mud”; he also dug a hole under the door, pouring water through it, which she was forced to lap “using her tongue.”
These two cases are not “aberrant” or “misrepresentative” of Islam. For starters, even if one were to accept that al-Shabaab in Somalia are “extremists,” we find that “the transitional government in Mogadishu fighting [against al-Shabaab] to retain control of the country treats Christians little better than the al-Shabaab extremists do. While proclaiming himself a moderate, President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed has embraced a version of sharia that mandates the death penalty for those who leave Islam.”
He probably embraced this “version of sharia” as there is no other version: all four recognized schools of Muslim jurisprudence mandate death for apostates. (Meanwhile in Lala land, the New York Times advocates sharia in America.)
As for the Uganda anecdote, Susan’s father actually opted to follow the most lenient form of punishment allowed for apostasy: while Islam’s three Sunni schools of law condemn the apostate to death, the Hanafi School “progressively” advocates beating and imprisoning females until they see the “error of their ways” and return to Islam.
Likewise, though Susan’s father was arrested, he was “quickly released,” doubtless because the authorities recognized that he was only upholding Islam.
Such is the potential fate of all Muslim converts to Christianity wherever Islam is strong. Thus, a Christian pastor in Iran remains behind bars, where he is being tortured and awaits execution for refusing to recant Christianity. Even in onetime Christian Norway, a Muslim convert to Christianity was tortured with boiling water and told by fellow Muslim inmates “If you do not return to Islam, we will kill you”; if deported to his native Afghanistan, he risks death by stoning for leaving Islam (note again the agreement on the penalty for apostasy between individual “fanatics” and Muslim governments).
To all the relativists out there, they have but one question to ask themselves: where is the other religion that kills defectors? There are none; only gangs, not religions, exhibit such a “mafia” mentality—hence the argument that Islam is more a political system than a religion.
Finally, it should be noted that Islam’s suppression of individual choice is not limited to forcing Muslims in far off places to adhere to Islam; rather, the enforced denial of the human conscience in a billion or so people has negative, if unspoken, implications on a global level.
Raymond Ibrahim, an Islam specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. He contributes regularly to Jihad Watch.
This shows the extreme weakness of the islamic god. Nevertheless, the number of Catholics in Africa has increased from one million in 1902 to 330 million in the year 2000, and counting..
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/05/dying-islam-lislam-mourant.html
'...one of Islam’s most visible attempts to suppress the human conscience—a phenomenon that has dire implications beyond religious freedom.'
Very true, in fact Islam destroys the conscience. That's one of the things that makes it so Satanic http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2011/03/islam-destroys-conscience.html
god forbid if they find out you are athiest then there is whole new price to be paid for.
m
As I thought. The numbers of Muslims leaving Islam is on the rise. And the Internet and other forms of mass communication can take the credit for creating much more transparency and accurate info about Islam - of the kind JW provides, for example.
Miram rove
No, actually Muslims rather hear an ex Muslim, say he or she became atheist and not Christian or Jew …especially a Jew ….Muslims would love to taste your blood if that happens.
I was asked why I am criticizing Islam? ...and what I my now? a Christian? ...a Jew?
When I said neither …I saw naked relief in their eyes …they felt reassured that they did not loss a Muslim to other religions…they rather loss to non God then to Gods of others.
I know, if I started to go to church I will loss every thing dear to me.
This thing Muslim feel similar to a man or a woman who divorce their spouse ….they will be happier if that spouse stay alone and never marry again even if they did not want them, but they do not want anther to have them either ..its a humen nature ….
only Muslims take this to the level of utter madness.
Raymond, thank you for this article.
From above:
As for the Uganda anecdote, Susan’s father actually opted to follow the most lenient form of punishment allowed for apostasy: while Islam’s three Sunni schools of law condemn the apostate to death, the Hanafi School “progressively” advocates beating and imprisoning females until they see the “error of their ways” and return to Islam.
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This is comparatively "progressive" only in that it gives the victim time to recant. But starving an apostate to death, as young Susan Ithungu's father tried to do, is in many ways even more barbaric than murdering the victim in other, less slow and torturous ways.
More:
Likewise, though Susan’s father was arrested, he was “quickly released,” doubtless because the authorities recognized that he was only upholding Islam.
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This is possible—but Uganda *is not* a majority-Muslim country. My guess, instead, is that the authorities recognized that *Muslims* would consider him to be "upholding Islam", and would react violently should he face prosecution.
In other words, this was likely not just Muslim supremacy all by itself, but a combination of Muslim supremacy and state dhimmitude in the face of the threat of Muslim violence.
More:
Even in onetime Christian Norway, a Muslim convert to Christianity was tortured with boiling water and told by fellow Muslim inmates “If you do not return to Islam, we will kill you”; if deported to his native Afghanistan, he risks death by stoning for leaving Islam (note again the agreement on the penalty for apostasy between individual “fanatics” and Muslim governments).
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Yes—and recall that Afghanistan is a country that was supposedly liberated by the civilized West. Afghan apostate Abdul Rahman was under penalty of death there until he was given asylum in Italy in 2006.
"Afghan Christian Given Asylum in Italy"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/03/afghan-christian-given-asylum-in-italy.html
More:
To all the relativists out there, they have but one question to ask themselves: where is the other religion that kills defectors? There are none; only gangs, not religions, exhibit such a “mafia” mentality—hence the argument that Islam is more a political system than a religion.
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*Very true*.
More:
Finally, it should be noted that Islam’s suppression of individual choice is not limited to forcing Muslims in far off places to adhere to Islam; rather, the enforced denial of the human conscience in a billion or so people has negative, if unspoken, implications on a global level.
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No, this does not just happen in "far off places". The case of apostate Rifka Bary, and death threats against her by both her family and her "community", happened in *Columbus, Ohio*—as deep in the fabled American Heartland as can be.
Raymond, I'm glad you're back.
I think the death penalty for apostates is the number one Achilles heel of Islam. Here's why:
1. It cannot be blamed on US foreign policy.
2. It cannot be called "self defense".
3. Virtually every non-Muslim finds it repulsive.
4. We have good data that it is widely accepted among Muslims worldwide.
5. We have good evidence (google "Freedom Pledge" former muslims) that mainstream US Muslim organizations will not renounce it.
6. We have good evidence that it is universal among schools of Islamic law.
7. It makes a good comparison with totalitarianism. Only miserable totalitarian countries that no one wants to live in keep people from leaving the country. Desirable countries have to keep people out or they would get over crowded!
8. It shows that Islam is bad for Muslims themselves, taking away their freedom of conscience.
9. It is simply indefensible in every way.
I would like to see the great anti-Jihadists really hammer this issue every day. It's the best one, I think.
I knew of a Palestinian immigrant father and son in the USA. Both had been apostates going to different Christian churches for a couple of years before the father found out that his son wasn't really going to "the library to do homework" and the father really wasn't holding down an "extra job". I'm glad for them, but it's a little scary that they still felt they had to be so discrete in the USA.
"I think the death penalty for apostates is the number one Achilles heel of Islam."
Me too! For the excellent reasons you give. And I mention it as often as I can. Mostly the charge is denied by Muslims, who have the gall to say that that isn't "true Islam".
Or by defenders of Muslims and Islam, who always exonerate Muslims in their country automatically. With no questions asked, no criticism tolerated. Mostly by emphasizing how divers and divided Islam is, saying "THE Islam does not exist".
But yes, it is a great issue to hammer on. Islamologist Hans Jansen wrote that the deathpenalty for apostasy makes Islam actually weaker, because Muslims are then in Islam for a weak reason and less voluntarily and motivated and qualified.
And I want to emphasize a lot that this rule is the opposite of putting conditions on membership of any kind of movement, organisation. Most organisations have some kind of leadership who guard rules. And when those are repeatedly broken, the perpetrators get thrown out by the leadership. That seems to be the best rule regarding membership. Such a rule earns the organisation trust and credibility.
But about Islam one can say that Muslims allow (even force) all sorts of lunatics, oppressors, all kind of people who express and practice all sorts of contradicting interpretations of Islam to stay in the religion, with themselves still staying in it. While still using the same names for all; Muslims, believing in Islam.
Many people in many organisations would, in the absence of strong leadership to enforce membership-conditions, get out of them because of indefensible differences and for reasons of conscience, not wanting to be in the same organisation with misunderstanders, misusers, ignorants and criminals, oppressors, lunatics.
But Muslims, when it's convenient to count the numbers without distinctions, brag about how big and growing their religion is. In contrast with their reaction to criticisms on Islam, when they emphasize Islam's diversity and dividedness!
I really hope some day the Western public condemns membership of Islam in a Democratic nation as membership of an undemocratic, and in that sense illegal/ criminal, organisation and that only Muslims who secede from mainstream Islam, with clear, negotiable, doctrine and membership-conditions, will be accepted as citizens.
Excellent post, Teri.
Thanks, demsci and gravenimage. I think about how to defeat Islam every day.
The death penalty for apostates is so odious that even an America-hating Israel-hating multiculturalist cannot defend it. They can only deny it, but not very easily!
The death penalty for apostacy is a violation of UN human rights.Every violation needs to be recorded by the UN, a fine levied and after a prescribed number of violations the state or country should be removed from the UN and all foreign aid should be cut off.
States and countries that support apostasy or allow it to be a crime should never receive foreign aid or be accepted in the UN.
The use of a law such as apostasy gives a clear view of the nature of a religion.It is cruel,intolerate,supremacist,it represents no respect,no value to human lives or caring for fellow humans.
This is not the 17th century. We should not allow such behavior in a civilized world.
All your points are on the money. It might maximize the efficiency of counterjihadists' persuasive efforts if, instead of trying to make themselves authoritatively knowledgeable about the whole huge subject of Islam, they focused on learning all the relevant data to do with Islamic apostasy, which would still not be exactly a tiny task, but it would be much more manageable than trying to become an authority on Islam itself. The death-for-apostasy law is, in a nutshell, the whole problem with Islam. Therefore it is the most efficient target.
You point to some of the areas where one would need to gather data if one wished to become authoritative in discussions with all comers:
One would need to master that data. And one would need to master that good evidence. It would of course not be authoritative for us merely to assert the claim. One would need to be prepared with data to meet all counter-arguments. One would need to know the names of the four main schools, and some details of how each subtly differs from the others on apostasy law.In addition, to be authoritative in any discussion, one would need to know everything Muhammad is reported to have said in those Islamic texts that Muslims consider trustworthy -- the Qur'an is considered somewhat ambiguous on what is to be done with apostates, but the more trusted hadith collections -- the "sahih" collections, are clear. One would need to know the relevant statements in the core texts, including anything that might be treated as counter-evidence by opponents.
One would do well to think through some of the online debates about Islamic apostasy laws.
One would also find it useful to have statistics on the frequency of death-for-apostasy cases in every part of the current Muslim world; and statistics on the historical frequency, in each century, of death-for-apostasy cases among Muslims. Knowing detailed accounts from specific individuals would be gravy.
To be authoritative one would need to be able to back up one's statements with references to authoritative sources.
Last, but not least, one would probably need to know exactly how apostasy was punished by various Christians at various stages of Christian history: how much consensus was there about what kinds of punishment? To what extent were punishments for apostasy based on the New Testament? How did freedom of conscience and the sense for it affect the gradual elimination of any punishment whatsoever for apostasy?
Teri, thank you for getting me thinking about focusing on Islam's death-for-apostasy culture. I might take that up as my guiding thread of study.
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For a brilliant, witty, highly educational précis of the various Islamic core texts on apostasy, check out this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3HsWLyVlQ
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In Sahih al-Bukhari, the most canonical hadith collection, Muhammad said,
"Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him."
Islam's ludicrous differentiation between "voluntary" and "innate" apostasy is worth mentioning here. "Voluntary" apostasy is punishable by death even if the apostate repents.
A "voluntary" apostate is defined here as:
A person whose parents, or either of them, were Muslim at the time of his or her development in the mother’s womb and who takes up atheism after growing up.
That sounds very much like being born into servitude (not much different from being born into sin) - what one has no choice over can have no bearing upon one's moral stature.
Daniel Pearl was beheaded in Pakistan BECAUSE he was a Jew and Jews are a fair game according to various "holly men" of Islam, just as they were to Mohamed who ordered beheading (a favorite way of disposal of his enemies) of 900 Jews of Medina because they would not accept his megalomania as the world of God. What do you expect from a religion that admires this pedophile polygamist (he married Aisha when she was 6 y old child and had sex with her when she was 9 y old and he was 56) and which in Koran disses Jews for preferring life on earth while "true" Muslims should desire "eternal" life.
Those Koranic verses are then drummed into young men to get them to die as "martyrs" (i.e. blow themselves up while killing Jews and Americans and other "infidels") as a fast ticket to Paradise with 72 virgins. Since most Muslims countries are dysfunctional basket cases with rich rulers stealing from people, the promise of 72 virgins in Paradise is a great draw since they cannot afford buying themselves a wife. It IS ISLAM, stupid and if 1,500 millions of Muslims want to join the civilized world, they need to reform their religion,and abandoned suras of Koran preaching death and hatred of Jews, Christians and infidels. All those countries that still have not signed onto the Universal Declaration of Human Rights need to be expelled from UN, and there is no place for another terrorist state around Israel.
traeh,
You raise very good points and questions. I do not know all the answers, but I of course agree completely that it is a very worthwhile course of study. Here are some responses to your points:
"The death-for-apostasy law is, in a nutshell, the whole problem with Islam." Yes, that's exactly what I think! If ex-Muslims' rights were protected and freedom of speech were protected, Islam would fade away.
Here is some data showing that [death for apostasy from Islam] is widely accepted among Muslims worldwide:
http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/
Scroll down to the "Views of Harsh Punishments". 86% of Jordanian Muslims favor the death penalty for apostates, and it goes down from there. One wonders whether apostates even have full safety in Turkey, where 5% of the Muslim population favors the death penalty, since it only takes one to commit the murder.
"One would need to know the names of the four main schools [of Islamic law], and some details of how each subtly differs from the others on apostasy law."
Here's a start:
http://www.bible.ca/islam/library/Zwemer/Apostasy/chap2.htm
"One would also find it useful to have statistics on the frequency of death-for-apostasy cases in every part of the current Muslim world; and statistics on the historical frequency, in each century, of death-for-apostasy cases among Muslims."
I doubt such could be obtained, but I agree it would be highly desirable!
"Last, but not least, one would probably need to know exactly how apostasy was punished by various Christians at various stages of Christian history...."
Yes, I don't know much about that, only that the Christians did get over it. I believe the Christian basis for killing apostates comes from the old Testament, and it is quite clear, unfortunately. Nevertheless, it is not done currently by Christian majority countries. I know many who have left Christianity, but I know of no ex-Christian who feels any anxiety about his or her life.
I have put an updated list of reasons this is an important issue on a new JihadWatch post by Marisol this morning.
Teri, thank you for the links. I'll also take a look at the new post you referred to...
I had posted this to another article, but seems that it fits here;
About the only time I feel sorry for the mooselips is when they so earnestly set about following the directives in their holy books. Funny thing though, in Africa, the Mid East and most of the islameic world, there is an 80% illiteracy rate. That means very few people can read or write their own languages, let alone take the time to learn arabic. They spend their lives imitating, mimicking and following the dictates of imams(whom have their own agendas), and as far as they know, they are following the quran. We went through changes in Christianity and look at the results. Problem is that no one on the mooselip side can even hint that there is a problem with the written word.