Conversion to Christianity

Freedom of _Expression in Islam
Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Islamic Text Society, 1997
http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/islam/freedom /kamali_freedom.doc

[Dr Mohammad Hashim Kamali is Professor of Law at the International Islamic University Malaysia where he has been teaching Islamic law and jurisprudence since 1985. Among his other works published by the Islamic Texts Society is Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.]

Mahmassani has observed that the death penalty was meant to apply, not to simple acts of apostasy from Islam, but when apostasy was linked to an act of political betrayal of the community. The Prophet never killed anyone solely for apostasy. This being the case, the death penalty was not meant to apply to a simple change of faith but to punish acts such as treason, joining forces with the enemy and sedition.

The late Ayatollah Mutahhari highlighted the incompatibility of coercion with the spirit of Islam, and the basic redundancy of punitive measures in the propagation of its message. He wrote that it is impossible to force anyone to acquire the kind of faith that is required by Islam, just as 'it is not possible to spank a child into solving an arithmetical problem. His mind and thought must be left free in order that he may solve it. The Islamic faith is something of this kind.'

Selim el-Awa discusses the issue of apostasy at length, declaring that 'there is an urgent need to reinterpret the principles contained in the Qur'an and Sunnah'. He cites the fact that the Qur'an is completely silent on the death penalty for apostasy, and that the evidence in the Sunnah is open to interpretation.

El-Awa elaborates that the death penalty in the Sunnah is not designed for apostasy per se but for high treason, or hirabah, that is, when apostasy is accompanied by hostility and rebellion against the community and its legitimate leadership. . .

The Prophet did not treat apostasy as a proscribed offense (hadd), but, on the contrary, pardoned many individuals who had embraced Islam, then renounced it, and then embraced it again. . .

USA1, maybe we can email the Afhgani counsulate. I'm sure it is online. Or the Ambasador from Afhganistan to the U.S.A. I would stress that in a democratic country like the U.s. or Canada for example many christians have converted to Islam and they still have equal protection and rights under the law. No one can be executed for changing thier religon. And that Afghanistan must show the world that they care about individual and human rights and that thier is no compulsion in religon.

Mishmish wrote: Well, I wish the starving women and children in Afghanistan could get this much press, attention, and sympathy here in the States. Or the millions trapped in Darfur, or the drought and consquent food shortage in south Africa...Or the Christian Palestinians who are as oppressed as the Muslim Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. Having said that, I think writing the consulate is a great idea. If they are inundated with letters, they may begin to realise how important many people find this man's life.

I agree

Mr. Rahman seems out of danger, but the law remains untouched. It seems
he was pardoned through some combination of being classified mentally
unstable (probably true) and being deported.

Afghanistan also considers teaching people about Christianity a capital
offense. The legalities of the situation have not changed, and unless they do
we will see this problem again.