Yet another indication of why we don’t see more genuine Islamic reformers. For the jihad imperative to make war against and subjugate unbelievers worldwide to be blunted, there would have to be a large-scale rejection of Qur’anic literalism, which is not remotely on the horizon. And virtually every time anyone appears who does advocate a rejection of literalism, this is the kind of thing that happens.
“Iran executes man for heresy,” by Saeed Kamali Dehghan, The Guardian, September 29, 2014 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
A 37-year-old man has been executed in Iran after being found guilty of heresy and insulting prophet Jonah, according to human rights activists.
Mohsen Amir-Aslani was arrested nine years ago for his activities which the authorities deemed were heretical. He was engaged in psychotherapy but also led sessions reading and reciting the Qur’an and providing his own interpretations of the Islamic holy book, his family said.
Amir-Aslani was hanged last week for making “innovations in the religion” and “spreading corruption on earth”, but human rights activists said he was a prisoner of conscience who was put to death because of his religious beliefs. He had interpreted Jonah’s story in the Qur’an as a symbolic tale.
The punishment for “spreading corruption on earth” is Qur’anic: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth to cause corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.” (Qur’an 5:33)