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.
“Islamists kill 17 in northeast Nigeria, attack mosque,” from Reuters, April 6 (thanks to Kenneth):
DAMATURU, Nigeria (Reuters) – Islamist militants attacked a remote town in northeast Nigeria’s Yobe state on Saturday, killing 17 people including five who were worshipping at a mosque, witnesses said.
They said dozens of gunmen surrounded the village of Buni Gari, shooting residents and setting shops and houses ablaze.
“There were too many of them to count. They were shouting ‘God is Great’,” said an old woman who identified herself only as Kaka, glancing around at the mostly mud-and-thatch houses, many of which were stained with black soot or reduced to rubble.
“People were praying in the mosque and they surrounded it and killed them,” she told Reuters at the scene on Sunday.
Boko Haram militants, fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria, have in the past year broadened the range of their targets beyond security forces, government officials and Christians to include schoolchildren and other civilians, sometimes massacring whole villages and abducting girls.
They regard all who do not subscribe to their austere, al-Qaeda inspired brand of Islam, whether Christian or Muslim, as apostates, although they only began attacking civilians in large numbers after the formation of pro-government civilian militia as a counterinsurgency tactic a year ago.
It seems that this Reuters writer doesn’t know the meaning of the word “apostate.” Boko Haram doesn’t consider Christians apostates. It considers them Infidels.
A military crackdown since last May has failed to stem the insurgency, which remains the leading security threat to Africa’s top oil producer and has blighted President Goodluck Jonathan’s record ahead of elections next February.
Thousands have died in the violence over the past four and a half years, and many local security forces are ill-equipped to deal with the insurgency. One soldier in the Buni Gari area told Reuters his colleagues were unable to coordinate reinforcements because few have radios and they were out of range of mobile phone signals.
“I am moving out of that town. I will not come back with my family,” said Adamu Isa, a businessman in Buni Gari. “I don’t want my children to witness what happened in that place again.”
richard Sherman says
Typical Muslims…nothing out of the ordinary…just following MEIN KAMPF…oh sorry …THE KORAN…is there a difference?
Angemon says
One is the ramblings of a Jew-hating madman who spread war through the world, the other is Mein Kampf.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Which was a shoddy knock-off of the Holy Ko-Ran.
Jay Boo says
Mein Kampf is German for:
— MY STRUGGLE or MY JIHAD
Muslim groups purporting to ‘reclaim Islam’ from the Islamophobes and Muslim extremists use the exact same terminology.
Wink, Wink as if they did not know.
You can’t make this stuff up.
http://myjihad.org/
EYESOPEN says
No. No real difference. Evil is as evil does.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
following MEIN KAMPF…oh sorry …THE KORAN…is there a difference?
Well, the former has a dash of the war god Thor to season a big helping of socialism. It’s more sophisticated in the Holy Ko-Ran, composed 1,400 years earlier. Turns out the Jews from 5,000 years ago had it all wrong, and that violence is necessary to turn the tide against mistaken religion, to attain the highbrow moral heights of the Islam.
Andy says
Here, there and everywhere muslim is always the same. Killing people, burn down churches, torching infidale, married a little girl, having 4 or more wives, always demanding more shariah laws, always demanding other to follow their stupid tradition, always demanding halal food, never ever want to submit themselves to the official laws. Why don’t you go to hell and kiss your allah ass
duh_swami says
‘The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam’…Rasool O.
Rejecting Allah and his messenger is a great slander and spreading mischief in the land. Boko Haram is just making sure these slanderers, have no future, the old fashion way, they kill them. After all, that’s sunnah isn’t it? Mahound made sure those who slandered him had no future.
Welldweller says
O Moosleemeen,
I am the Mahdi.
I hereby call takfir on the lot of ye.
Salaamat.
King Dave @Newsvine says
Hardly a day goes by without another mass murder committed by Islamic separatist group boko Haram in Nigeria as the liberal media doesn’t bother to cover it anyway.
Mix Islam and genocide in black Africa and you get institutional racism, which leaves the left baffled on who to blame.
exsgtbrown says
“Mix Islam and genocide in black Africa and you get institutional racism, which leaves the left baffled on who to blame.”
They’ll either blame Bush or their go to guys….the Jews….
Julian says
Nit Beard’s present day murderous followers think anyone not believing as mohammed did is a blasphemer.
Certainly Nit Beard applied the term blasphemer to christians and anyone else who he felt might be challenging him about theology. All blasphemers were on Nit Beard’s kill list, and he urged his followers to fight them, kill, take their lands, enslave them etc. unless they payed the tribute and submit in passivity. The good news about all this of course is that it’s a recipe for his demented followers to slaughter one another over disagreements about doctrine.
It could even culminate in a domino effect which wipes mohammedism out. Imagine this scenario (it actually sums up their mentality) – after wholesale slaughter the only surviving member of one sect, whislt screaming “Ackie’s Gay Bar!”, successfully suicide bombs the few remaining members of the only other sect that had any living followers left.
mortimer says
Actually, there is no penalty for ANYONE who MURDERS an apostate according to Sharia law.
Salah says
“..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..”
This is precisely why we must educate and protect decent Nominal Muslims. The vast majority of Muslims are prisoners, hostages and victims of Islam. They are at the mercy of a few well organized, well armed gangs of True Muslims. They don’t leave islam because they CAN’T leave Islam.
We live in a free world, yet, we are doing nothing to help free these victims from their ugly fate.
The best way to defeat Islam is to help Muslims understand Islam, then, to protect those who decide to leave this satanic cult.
How? I think we have enough military power to wipe out a few thugs here and there. If we don’t do it, it’s because we don’t want to.
Jay Boo says
It would need to be a quick decisive unapologetic strike before their MSM lackeys get a chance to put on their Islamist butt-kissing kneepads to stage a pretense at journalism.
Defcon 4 says
“decent, nominal muslims” has all the appeal of “moderate” nazis.
I often wonder if you’re engaged in cointelpro.
Salah says
@ Defcon 4
What would you do if you were born in a Muslim country, from Muslim parents? What would you do if you were taught that Muhammad was a perfect man and that …if you leave Islam you will be killed?
If you are a decent person, would you stop being a decent person because you are a Muslim?