It is stories like this that make the smooth deceptions of Muslim spokesmen such as Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz so dangerous. They assure us that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, despite Muhammad’s words, “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” If al-Marayati, Bassiouni and Eteraz were sincere, they would be denouncing the Iranian action here and working against it, instead of attacking Western non-Muslims who dare to point out the grim reality of Islam’s death penalty for apostasy.
More on this story. “A convert from Islam, Iranian pastor risks the death penalty,” from Asia News, July 12 (thanks to C. Cantoni):
Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Iran’s Supreme Court has called for the death sentence of Rev Youcef Nadarkhani to be re-examined by the lower court that convicted him. He was found guilty of apostasy even though this offence is not covered by Iranian law. Rev Nadarkhani’s defence attorney had appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court.
Iranian sources say the conviction was not overturned. “According to one source the Supreme Court has agreed with the verdict “˜as it is based on fatwas of Ayatollahs Khomeiny, Khamenei and Makarem Shirazi”.”
Ayatollah Khomeiny was the first Supreme leader of Iran, and is considered the father of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei is the current supreme leader, whilst Ayatollah Shirazi is one of Iran’s most influential religious scholars.
Whilst agreeing with the death sentence, the sources noted, “The Supreme Court pointed out procedural flaws and is asking the lower court to re-examine the case. This is the only binding point of the ruling.”
“Is there a guarantee that Youcef will not be executed between now and the time of the re-examination?” According to one Iranian source it seems there is no such guarantee.”…