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.
An update on this story. “Sudan: Pregnant Christian Convicted of Apostasy, Adultery,” by Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News, May 13, 2014:
KHARTOUM, SUDAN (Worthy News)– As the U.S. Celebrated Mother’s Day, a Christian carrying her second child to term has been convicted of adultery and apostasy, penalties that are punishable in Sudan by 100 lashes and death, respectively, according to International Christian Concern.
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a pregnant practicing physician in Western Sudan, is married to Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese Christian. But as a Sudanese, Ibrahim is considered a Muslim by birth through her father’s Islamic faith, making her marriage to a Christian illegal. According to sharia, any Muslim woman who marries a non-Muslim man commits adultery; therefore, any children that arise from that marriage are illegitimate in the eyes of Islam.
Ibrahim was arrested in February by Sudanese authorities and arbitrarily detained in the Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison along with her 20-month-old son. Both are separated from Wani who — because of his wife’s “adultery” — is legally ineligible to assume custody of their children, both of whom will be remanded to the Sudanese State in case of Ibrahim’s execution, or prolonged imprisonment.
So, unless Ibrahim is pressured to convert back to the faith of her father, the full sentence against her will undoubtedly be carried out following the birth of her unborn child, which is expected in June.
“We grieve today at the sentencing to death of a mother, pregnant with her second child, for the expression of her faith and legal marriage to a practicing Christian,” said William Stark, ICC’s Regional Manager. “The handing down of such an extreme punishment under a law inspired by the al-Turabi radicalism of the early al-Bashir regime brings into question the direction Sudan intends to head following South Sudanese succession. Having embraced policies of Islamization and Arabization in the past, ICC fears Meriam could be the first of many more Christians to suffer under an increasingly radicalized Sudanese government intent on enforcing Shari’ah law throughout the land.”
mark says
There is the big ethical difference between Christianity and Islam. One religion has a book (NT) that commands its adherents to live in peace with their enemies; the other has a book that commands its adherents to kill any person who will not convert. The charge that Christianity is no better than Islam because the OT commanded Israel to annihilate certain other nations is not relevant because the NT supersedes the Old on all matters that they both touch upon.
Champ ✞ says
The charge that Christianity is no better than Islam because the OT commanded Israel to annihilate certain other nations is not relevant because the NT supersedes the Old on all matters that they both touch upon.
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True, Mark …
And you might enjoy reading this information from “Got Questions”, a Christian website, regarding the point you’ve made:
http://www.gotquestions.org/New-Testament-theology.html
Yeah “Got Questions” has great answers to many tough questions. I absolutely love this Christian resource.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Maybe it’s because Muhammad commanded: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.”
– Hah-Death Bukhari Vol 9 Bk 84 Nbr 57
You make it sound as if the Holy Prophet plainly stated that a Moslem who converts to another religion should be killed. Read his statement again, it is a nuanced pronouncement so simple that it is open to word twisting.
***
If you like your Islam, you can keep it. Period.
Anonymous says
How would you have read it? Because the way I see it is how you are reading it and how we read it are the same. Stop putting wools over people’s eyes, because the truth is, we have learnt that Muslims lies to get people to convert. But we are not gullible, we see your lies.
faralxi says
It’s getting old the “uuuuh, …these are not real muslims, read the Quran, it says…yabada ba da” It’s universal, islam is the religion of peace.
It is not. It breeds hate throughout the world. Everywhere there is a conflict, there are muslims. Everywhere.
That’s how it is. And they refuse to condemn hateful acts, always cowardly hiding behing the : read the holy book properly, these are not real muslims etc, etc.
Face it : Islam is a religion that masterfully teaches to hate and deceive. It will take a few more years before the entire world finally gets it, and then real conflict will begin.
Champ ✞ says
“We grieve today at the sentencing to death of a mother, pregnant with her second child, for the expression of her faith and legal marriage to a practicing Christian,” said William Stark, ICC’s Regional Manager. — headline
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As a Christian myself, I grieve for my sister in Christ, as well. This kind of persecution is barbaric, and violates everyone’s human rights. She is a Christian whose simply put her faith in Jesus Christ–so she isn’t a criminal with whom deserves the death penalty. Like me, she has merely placed her faith in Christ by examining the *evidence* that Jesus Christ did in fact rise from the dead; and she found the evidence beautifully convincing and true. She has found true and lasting peace from the TRUE religion of peace and Prince of Peace: Jesus Christ!
Isaiah 9:6. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
islam has it all wrong to consider someone like her a criminal deserving of death. How preposterous and evil …which sums up the whole of islam, nicely.
Wellington says
One of the many huge differences between Islam and all other major faiths is that Islam commands its believers to dispatch those in this world who in some manner prove a hindrance to Islam (e.g., converting to another religion or, Allah forbid, criticizing Islam).
While other major religions predict some kind of dire consequence for unacceptable action in this world in the next world (e.g., you will come back as a cow or a carrot or you will burn in Hell) , Islam is alone here in also threatening dire action in this world too and with such dire action to be carried out by Mo’s followers. A greater distinction between Islam on the one hand, and all other major religions on the other hand, would be hard to find.
Really, truly, I would argue that this distinction is about the greatest of all distinctions between Islam and other major faiths, to wit, that Islam instructs its believers to “take action” in this world against non-believers or believers who are not “pure” enough, while all other major faiths, in their theological blueprint, take things out of man’s hands and leave it to a higher power alone. This goes to the root of Islam’s inherent totalitarianism, unique among all major religions.
dumbledoresarmy says
There’s something else here, too. Just a small thing, but telling.
“Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a pregnant practicing physician in Western Sudan..”.
She’s a “practising physician”. That is: she is a *doctor*. A medico. A female medico.
Just how many of *those* do they have in Western Sudan? And in a sharia-crazed Islam-maddened society, female doctors are needed, because of the insane strictures on contact between unrelated males and females.
These blithering FOOLS are going to kill off a desperately-needed *doctor*, all because she has chosen a different faith from that of her father.
PJG says
There are more females than males in Sudanese medical schools. Perhaps many women are choosing career over marriage, considering the “joys” of Islamic marriage. But this woman chose the best lifeshe could, a career and a non-Muslim husband.
Muslims and non-Muslims are signing a petition:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/President_of_Sudan_Omar_AlBashir_Save_Mariam_Yahya/?eTqoJeb
boakai ngombu says
there’s something more …
a small conclusion by Moses, inspired, at the creation of Woman having been brought to Adam: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall be come one flesh….” (Genesis 2: 24, ESV)
the SHAIRA controlled manner of marriage is an abomination before the Unique God, Creator.
the charge of “adultery” is a mockery
G179 says
In a sharia state:
A muslim woman cannot marry a non-muslim man.
A muslim man can marry up to 4 non-muslim women.
The laws are aimed at ethnic cleansing of the non-muslim population.
No Fear says
Criminal gangs (e.g. Mafia) have the death penalty for those who leave the group.
National governments have the death penalty (treason) for those leave the group.
Which one is Islam? Nation or criminal gang? If it is a nation then it is political in nature and it becomes my political enemy. If it is criminal gang then it should be eradicated.
PJG says
I have just heard she has been sentenced to death.
tpellow says
Supplementary.
“Sudan woman faces death for apostasy”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27424064
# Defend the life of our Christian sister from her Islamic murderers.
PJG says
What will Obama do? Her husband is an American citizen. This must mean something, surely. Maybe Obama will take a nap…but is there anyone else in the US government who can do something?
PJG says
A Sudanese friend assures me that the sentence will not be carried out. He said the judges are trying to stick it to Bashir, to force him into complying more fully with sharia. We will see.