“Before carrying out the execution, a Sharia official read a statement issued by the ISIS Sharia Court, vowing everyone who misses prayers at the mosque to face a similar punishment.” Classifying missing Friday prayers as apostasy is extraordinarily severe, but on the other hand, there is nothing in Islamic law that would forbid or rule out such a classification.
And once apostasy is established, death is the punishment mandated in Islamic law. A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”
So it would be refreshing if someone would explain in light of this how the Islamic State is not behaving Islamically, but no one will.
“Islamic State publicly executes Syrian teenager on charges of ‘apostasy,’” by Salar Qassim, ARA News, March 6, 2016:
ALEPPO – Extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) executed Saturday a teenage boy in Syria’s northern Aleppo province after accusing him of ‘apostasy’, local activists and eyewitnesses reported.
The 16-year-old victim was arrested in the ISIS-held city of Jarablus north of Aleppo for missing Friday prayers at the mosque.
“The teenage boy, who faced charges of apostasy, was beheaded in front of a huge crowd in central Jarablus on Saturday,” local media activist Nasser Taljbini told ARA News.
The victim was accused by the Sharia Court of violating the Islamic law, and ordered his execution in public on charges of apostasy, the source reported.
“Before carrying out the execution, a Sharia official read a statement issued by the ISIS Sharia Court, vowing everyone who misses prayers at the mosque to face a similar punishment,” an eyewitness told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.