Cameroon: Muslim converts to Christianity, his wife calls for him to be beheaded

“Last October, his wife levied a case against him, causing the sultan of his area to summon him. Abdul’s wife reminded the sultan that he deserved to be beheaded, according to sharia law, because he had abandoned Islam.”

The death penalty for those who leave Islam is based upon the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

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.”

“Family’s Murder Attempts Embolden Cameroon Disciple Leader’s Faith,” by Lindy Lowry, Open Doors, February 13, 2018:

“They threatened to kill me, and had God not protected me, they would have succeeded.”

The “they” in *Abdul’s story are not Islamic jihadist group Boko Haram that terrorizes Christians and churches in West Africa, fiercely attempting to eradicate Christianity. “They” are Abdul’s family.

When Abdul left his tribal religion of Islam and committed his life to Christ in 2000, his Muslim family felt and acted like he had just pointed a challenging dagger straight at them. Abdul’s family (part of the ethnic Kotoko group spread over Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria) always took pride in the fact that they were one of the few tribes in their region of Cameroon with no known Christians.

“When all their spells and curses with the help of the local medicine man failed, they tried to kill me themselves.”

More than once, Abdul’s family tried to poison his food. One night, strangers kidnapped him and took him to an unknown destination. “On the way there, I prayed for God to confuse them so they could release me. And He did! They just let me go without saying anything. I knew it was God who had changed their minds.”
Constant Schemes and Plots

Ten years down the road, and Abdul’s family has still not given up trying to get him back to Islam. He faces constant insults and exclusion from the family. His wife has also left him and often slanders him in front of their seven children.

Last October, his wife levied a case against him, causing the sultan of his area to summon him. Abdul’s wife reminded the sultan that he deserved to be beheaded, according to sharia law, because he had abandoned Islam.

“I just told them, ‘If you want to behead me because of Jesus, you might as well start right away.’”

When they saw their plot wasn’t going to convince Abdul to change his mind, they kept him in a cell for about four hours before his wife brought another charge against him.

Abdul’s wife then claimed she had purchased the land their house was built on and that he had failed to repay her. She asked to have Abdul evicted. When Abdul proved she was lying, she tried another scheme, claiming that he sold some of her property but had failed to pay her.

“But the sultan saw she had no charge against me and let me go,” Abdul says. “He even told her to apologize to me.”
‘They have seen how we are progressing with the gospel’

Realizing his wife would never give up, Abdul scraped together the disputed sum of money with the help of Christian friends and paid her. “They will stop at nothing to have me denounce my faith. They have seen how we are progressing with the gospel, and I know it’s an attempt to block this progress.”…