The Apostasy Question in Islam

Hat tip Center for Security Policy


One of the central questions surrounding Islam in the West is the question of death for those who leave Islam. Many of the top Islamic leaders in America, those who specialize in "building bridges" to the non-Muslim communities, tend to dance all over this question when asked. Muzammil Siddiqi of the Islamic Center of Orange County is prime among them. In the Islamic world itself, Islamic leaders and scholars are not burdened by the need to win the hearts and minds of non-Muslim majorities in the West. In the below article in the Center for Security Policy, a senior member of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA), Hatem al Haj, affirms the obvious: The penalty for apostasy under Islamic law is death,.

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2013/03/04/senior-cleric-for-american-muslim-group-islamic-punishment-for-apostasy-is-death/

This law is covered under the section of Sharia law called Hudud Sharia, which is the criminal code for "crimes against God".

In his statement, Haj says that the law applies in a majority Muslim country. Thus, it would not apply in a country such as the United States, which would never allow it. As the article points out, however, Muslim leaders like the aforementioned Siddiqi are insisting that Sharia law is perfectly in conformance with the US Constitution. At the same time, Islamic organizations in the US, such as CAIR, are fiercely opposing efforts by several state legislatures to insert language in their state constitutions that only American constitutional law can be used in US courts-purposely excluding Sharia.

Haj also refers to old Jewish texts that promote death for apostasy from that religion. The problem is, however, that Jews who leave the religion are numerous and are not living under the threat of death, while it is still a reality for Muslims who leave Islam. Even Muslim apostates in the West must live in fear of being killed-especially those who speak out publicly and criticize Islam. That is why Former Muslims United sent letters to 200 Muslim leaders in America in 2009 and 2012 asking them to sign a statement that American apostates should not be harmed. To date, only two have signed.

Two.

One of the addressees was the aforementioned Siddiqi. On one occasion last year, he told me he had never received the letter. A few months later, I gave him his copy of the letter. he still has not signed it.

Recently, I posted a video of Yusuf al Qaradawi affirming that the penalty for apostasy is death. Now Haj affirms it. I thank both gentlemen for making things clear.