A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
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.”
Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”
“Two Converts from Islam Slain in Yemen,” Morning Star News, November 25, 2015:
ISTANBUL, Turkey (Morning Star News) – Two Christians in Yemen, both converts from Islam, have been ambushed and killed because of their faith, according to sources close to the victims.
In Taiz, a city with a pre-war population of 600,000 people in southwest Yemen, at least one member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) ambushed a Christian man in the city and shot him 15 to 20 times in early September. A second Christian was shot once in his home on Oct. 2, sources said. The second victim may have been killed by a Muslim extremist group or by members of his own family, they said.
Due to security threats in Yemen, a 99.9-percent Muslim country ruled by sharia (Islamic law) and embroiled in a civil war, the names of the victims and the sources cannot be released.
Both men were openly confessing Christ. A Yemeni friend of the second Christian said the convert was involved in evangelism, though he tried to keep his activities low key.
The friend said the second Christian killed, who was in his late 30s or early 40s, was not involved in any other activities that could have led to his death. Others who knew the convert from Islam said Muslims were harassing and threatening him.
“A lot of people didn’t like that he was a convert,” the friend said. “I think it is because of his faith; there is no other reason [to kill him].”
Authorities have made no arrests in the killing. Since March of this year, when civil war started, Yemen has become a dysfunctional, lawless state where “people are killed for numerous reasons,” the friend said. A teenage convert from Islam, for example, was killed recently when an errant, shoulder-fired rocket known as an RPG exploded near him.
The most recent shooting victim is survived by a wife and a teenage son. It was unclear how the two were coping, but the victim’s friend said the deaths have alarmed the convert community in Taiz. In addition to the Muslim harassment, the victim’s house had also been set on fire at least once.
“The people that knew him are afraid, especially because he is the second one,” the friend said. “People that knew him well, they’re afraid, they’re shocked; they know that he was killed for his faith. But people that don’t, many of them think he was killed in the general unrest.”
The friend said the second Christian convert’s family likely felt publically shamed by his decision to follow Christ. Family influence in Yemen cannot be overstated, he said. The family structure in Yemen and in much of the Middle East works to enforce societal norms, especially adherence to Islam….
A source close to the Christian slain first said a member of AQAP was responsible.
“For six months he had been receiving direct threats from known AQAP members that he knew personally,” the source said. “There is no reason to believe that his family was involved in the killing. His family knew of his faith for more than a decade, and although it created tensions, they never threatened his life.”…

john spielman says
to NSA spies who will be reading this; murdering those who leave islam IS ISLAM, not radical islam but islam (just as rape,stealing lying, pedophilia, misogyny were a part of life of muhammed- considered to be islam’s perfect man).
this IS islam, this is islam, this is islam…..
t. says
To the many stupidly naive and willfully ignorant Christians living in the west, who close their eyes, ears and brains to the suffering of true Christians, living in majority Muslim countries: This evil anti Christian persecution will soon be applied to you or your children, especially after the arrival in Europe, North America and Australia of millions of Muslims, in the next few weeks and months.
Continue your deep sleep and happy dreams!
Mike says
Amen brother you said it all
???
manuel paleologus says
These are the people Musobama wants us to accept.
? says
Sure come right in…
This is the reaping 666
Mike says
This is the real Islam , the religion of peace
More Ham Ed says
I have to post my Pew Research blurb again on this one. A couple of years ago the we-like-islam Pew Research Center conducted a survey, about the death penalty for leaving islam, and when you add up the muslim nation population percentages involved, it totals upwards of at least 400 million people worldwide who support the death penalty for leaving islam. Not a Tiny Minority ™ not “peaceful.”
Michael Copeland says
Polls can be quite interesting, but Islam is not defined, or influenced, by polls. The death penalty is there. Support for it, or endorsement, is not needed. The muslim community have no power except to acknowledge and obey (fatwa from the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2011/03/31/american-muslim-leader-issues-fatwa-against-democracy/
Michael Copeland says
Apologies: this was meant for http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/11/yemen-muslims-murder-two-converts-from-islam-to-christianity
Ned says
I don’t pay much attention to PEW (hold your nose) polls. They are TOO predictable and ALWAYS MATCH the politically correct worldview and the LEFT agenda. I don’t BELIEVE their “RESULTS” any more.
ballotcode says
These are the types that need refugee status. These are the ones needing protection.
BO has set the ME on fire and does not give priority to those most in danger.
t. says
You’re absolutely right, ballotcode!
Baucent says
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57).
Ah, this old chesnut. I wonder how the “Study Guide Koran” scholars would interpret this troubling verse.
Matthieu Baudin says
“Two Converts from Islam Slain in Yemen…”
This is their speciality. No need to think, just march in step!
Angemon says
Well, it *is* a muslim-majority country…
dumbledoresarmy says
The remarkable thing about this is that it happened in *Yemen*.
It tells us that *even in Yemen*, in Arabic Yemen that has been controlled by Islam, steeped in Islam, ruled by Islam, since the time of the beginnings of Islam, there are *still* people who are capable of looking beyond Islam. And somehow, somehow, somewhere, they find something else, something that is so powerfully attractive to them that despite *all* the terrible risks associated with leaving Islam – despite the apostasy law – they choose it.
These are the Saints, Martyrs and Confessors of the Church…**in Yemen**.
Kirk says
Yes, in the darkest lands the ‘very stones will cry out,” as Jesus said as He did his triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:40). God has always had His remnant even in the most dark and evil of lands (which, unfortunately, the West is becoming so more & more dark, as “darkness covers the earth & thick darkness the peoples” (Isaiah 60:2. This esp will be so before the coming of the Messiah, which I believe, we are at least in the beginning of those days.
abdurrahman says
we are salut to jihadis…