It could have been worse for these converts from Islam. The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on 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.”
“Iran’s regime arrests 8 Christians, sending them to solitary confinement,” by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, July 6, 2019:
Security officials from Iran’s Intelligence Ministry on July 1 raided the homes of eight Iranians who converted to Christianity in the southern city of Bushehr, carting them off to solitary confinement.
The arrest was first reported on Friday by Article 18, an organization that promotes religious freedom and supports Iran’s repressed Christians.
Article 18 wrote that intelligence agents “stormed the Christians’ homes in a coordinated operation at around 9 a.m., confiscating Bibles, Christian literature, wooden crosses and pictures carrying Christian symbols, along with laptops, phones, all forms of identity cards, bank cards and other personal belongings.”
Alireza Nader, the CEO of New Iran, a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that: “Reporting suggests that Christianity is on the rise in Iran, along with other non-Islamic religions. This is a threat to the Islamic republic, a regime based on a narrow and totalitarian view of Islam. As the regime faces more internal unrest, the more it’ll crack down on religious minorities it views as threatening its stranglehold on religion.”
The Article 18 report noted that: “Arresting agents also searched the work offices of at least two Christians and confiscated computer hard drives and security-camera recordings,” and “The officers are reported to have treated the Christians harshly, even though small children were present during the arrests.”
The human rights website wrote that the Iranian regime authorities have not allowed lawyers to gain access to the arrested Christians. The Christians are being held at an Intelligence Ministry site in the Persian Gulf port city of Bushehr.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in late June, after the US released its new report on religious freedom, that “In Iran, the regime’s crackdown on Baha’is, Christians and others continues to shock the conscience.”
The U.S. has designated the Islamic republic as a “Country of Concern” since 1999, because its regime violates religious freedom as defined by the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act (1998). Article 18 said the names of the Iranian Christians who were imprisoned are: :Sam Khosravi, 36, and his wife Maryam Falahi, 35; Sam’s brother Sasan, 35, and his wife Marjan Falahi, 33; Sam and Sasan’s mother, Khatoon Fatolahzadeh, 61; Pooriya Peyma, 27, and his wife Fatemeh Talebi, 27; and Habib Heydari, 38.”…