Islamic apologists in the West routinely claim that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy. Unfortunately, misunderstanders of Islam abound in large numbers, and for some reason they cannot shake the notion that Islam does mandate death for those who are considered to have left the faith. Why do they persist in this misunderstanding? Maybe it’s because Muhammad commanded: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). 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.”
There is only disagreement over whether the law applies only to men, or to women also – some authorities hold that apostate women should not be killed, but only imprisoned in their houses until death.
“Mystery over girl’s murder in church,” by Oluwatoyin Malik for the Nigerian Tribune, April 6:
Could a man order his daughter’s murder just because she changed faith? If that was not the case, who and what could have been responsible for the death of 19-year-old Kaosara Isiaka, who was hacked to death inside Calvary Church, Ayekale area, Ibadan, Oyo State where she attended a vigil service?
This was the mystery the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku, of Oyo State Police Command tried to resolve when the case was transferred to its Homicide Section in March from Agugu Division which handled it initially.
Aside Kaosara who was killed, the pastor of the church, Pastor Daniel Oladimeji (50); his wife; and a member of the church, one Anu Olumuyiwa, were also seriously injured, with the pastor mostly affected, as he is yet to fully recover from the deep machete cuts inflicted on his head and body.
Initially, he was given up for the dead as no one thought he could survive the injuries. Crime Reports findings revealed that unknown attackers invaded the church on February 26 at about 3.45a.m. The pastor and others were sleeping when the invaders came. As he woke up, the pastor reportedly started pleading that he and his members should be spared, but the hoodlums were quoted to have said that they had been paid for the lives of their captives.
Crime Reports learnt that the hoodlums spent about 30minutes. While others kept watch outside, one of them was said to have inflicted fatal machete cuts on Kaosara, the pastor, his wife and Anu before leaving with the cleric’s phone and his wife’s money.
After the attackers left, the pastor reportedly struggled to call his in-law who came over to rush him and others to Mobolaji Hospital, Oremeji area, Ibadan. Unfortunately, Kaosara gave up the ghost while doctors also battled to save Pastor Oladimeji’s life and those of his wife and church member. Though he had been discharged, the pastor is yet to fully recover, according to a reliable source.
According to the pastor, “before the incident, Kaosara had told me that her father threatened to kill her, as he did not want her to become a Christian, being a muslim himself. I never knew the father, but she used to tell me that he was wicked. It was because of this she preferred to sleep in the church.
“On the fateful day, we were inside the church sleeping when a man came in and started asking of Kaosara. He started using a cutlass to inflict injury on me. Before the attack on me, I heard Anu, another girl who was inside the church too, shouting for help. As I fell down, I heard Kaosara’s agonising cry too. I didn’t know anything again until I woke up in the hospital.”
Anu (19), also said: “I was in the church to pray about my coming Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE). I woke up from sleep when a man attacked the pastor with cutlass after gaining entry into the church. The man came to me and asked of Kaosara. I told him I didn’t know where she was and he landed a machete blow on my head.
“He moved around and saw Kaosara where she was. He started inflicting machete cuts on her. The man came to me again and asked of the pastor’s wife; again, I told him I didn’t know. He hit me with the cutlass the second time and said he had been sent to kill pastor and Kaosara. He thereafter collected pastor’s phone as well as money belonging to the pastor’s wife.”
However, Isiaka denied being responsible for the attack on and killing of his daughter, saying that she was his first child and he would not have wished her evil. The man, an automobile technician turned bricklayer, told Crime Reports that he was informed of his daughter’s predicament on February 26.
“It is true I knew that she was attending church but I never stopped her. My daughter was a wayward girl who liked men and before her death, I cautioned her severally, but she did not listen to me. Before her death, she accused her younger sister of stealing and I reprimanded her.
Because of this, she left for her mother’s younger sister’s place.
“My daughter was an apprentice with a woman popularly called Iya Ibeji, from whom she was learning fashion designing. I knew it was the woman who introduced her to church but I didn’t know the church or the pastor. I never sent anyone after my daughter and I don’t know the person who went to the church to kill her,” Isiaka said.
Meanwhile, Crime Reports learnt the suspect was charged to court and remanded in prison custody.
mortimer says
Sharia law for America? Already, several such murders and attempted murders have occurred in the United States, but why do American judges and politicians fail to see the link between Sharia law and the murder of apostates from Islam?
Sharia law contains no punishment for parents or grandparents who murder their offspring. This means the grandparents may authorize such murder and the killer will be acting as their agent. In many cases, the sons or male cousins take part in the slaying. They are all exonerated by Sharia law.
Islam is rapidly losing the battle for hearts and minds in Nigeria and the Islamists’ rageful revenges will merely accelerate this process, rather than stop it. Eventually, there will be a tipping point when there will be a radical turning against the Islamists and a cultural rejection of Islam throughout Nigeria.
Salah says
“but why do American judges and politicians fail to see the link between Sharia law and the murder of apostates from Islam?”
Political Correctness, our No 1 enemy.
boakai ngombu says
no such thing as freedom of conscience, i.e., forsaking your father’s religion, when your father is enslaved by SHARIA (an enslavement tool, invented and inspired by base desires of depraved men) and you can’t escape family.
a fashion designer must be inventive. a corrupt way to exist according to the wonderful and wise men down at the mosque, who (enslaved) seek to enslave others using SHARIA and guilt and shame, while extolling the virtues of Muhammad (lately contrived; full of lust).
no such thing as sanctuary under the supposed merciful care of the Allah god of Islam (unknowable; not just), whom one must fear from out of terror.
St. Michael Defend Us says
“It is true I knew that she was attending church but I never stopped her. My daughter was a wayward girl who liked men” according to the father. Either he is just smearing the victim to sully her reputation, in an effort to deflect away anyone’s concern for her, or, he just let slip another reason why he would have thought himself justified to have killed her.
Mo says
Have you noticed how jihadists always seem to murder people in the most horrifying, bloody, painful ways imaginable? It’s never enough to simply kill them quickly. They seem to enjoy inflicting the maximum amount of suffering upon them before finally finishing them off.
It’s inhuman. Dare I say it?
It’s demonic.
Salah says
“Islam does mandate death for those who are considered to have left the faith.”
Indeed, it does. That’s what’s keeping decent Muslims from leaving this satanic cult.
Here’s what they do when feeling safe:
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2014/01/egyptian-muslims-tear-up-quran.html
Jay Boo says
Muslims expect and demand that their mosques and filthy Quran be treated with respect yet are not the least bit outraged when a fellow self-righteous Muslim intrudes into a church with a machete to commit murder.
Islam Rude Crude
and rotting from within
The slamist says
what is the western punishment for leaving CIA or the army? Why do you want muslims to not follow their rules? Tomorrow you will ask us to become homosexual-pigs. Keep your demoncrazy and we will keep our sharia. Sharia is good only your vision is bad.
Elsie says
We have no punishment for such things. We live in a free world. Islam is the satanic words of a non prophet. It is an evil debauched cult on which dirty paedophile men thrive. It’s a sickness of the mind which must be eradicated from this earth. Sharia is demonic, it comes from a demonic satan and has no credibility in our civilised western world. you are all evil and must be got rid of in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour…… Goodbye Muslims……
Mo says
@ The slamist
So you are publicly admitting that Islamic rules command such barbarity?
Thank you!
Know that I loathe your blood cult with every fiber of my being. I loathe your warlord child rapist prophet with every fiber of my being. I loathe the intolerance, oppression, ignorance, backwardness, and murder of your death cult with every fiber of my being.
Know that I will never submit to your death cult. Know that.
Richard Bushey says
I am not an Islamic theologian. but it is my observation that most Muslims would be in favor of capital punishment for apostasy in Sharia countries. See my article, ‘5 Verses In The Qur’an That Promote Violence’ http://thereforegodexists.com/2013/12/5-quran-verses-that-promote-violence/