Death for Apostates in Islam? Yes

I have written before on the question of apostasy in Islam. Within the Islamic world, there is not much controversy. It is covered in that section of Sharia law called Hudud Sharia-Crimes Against God. In the West, however, American Muslim religious leaders have been painted into a corner when asked this question. I have asked the question at various Muslim or interfaith events, and have gotten rather long and convoluted answers. Below is a conversation I had with Imam Muzammil Siddiqi, one of the most influential Muslim leaders in America. The conversation on the topic of apostasy took place at Loyola Marymount University in April 2012.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/04/muzammil-siddiqi-and-freedom-pledge.html

Siddiqi seemed to draw the line at those who quietly leave Islam and keep their mouths shut and those who publicly criticize the religion. "That is treason", Siddiqi told me, comparing it to those Muslims who joined the Russians in the 1970s Afghan war. I should also state that at a later event at Cerritos College in Norwalk (below link), I personally delivered a copy of the Freedom Pledge letter from Former Muslims United to Siddiqi, the letter he said he had never received. He has never signed it. (The Freedom Letter was sent to 200 leading Muslim leaders in America in 2009 and 2012 asking them to sign a pledge that apostates in America should not be harmed. Only two have signed.)

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/11/muzammil-siddiqi-promotes-sharia-at.html

Another speaker at the above-mentioned Loyola Marymount event was Jamal Bidawi, considered by many as a prominent and moderate Muslim leader in the US. Below is how he dealt with the question of apostasy in answer to a query on an Islamic website (undated). Like Siddiqi, he drew an important distinction between those who quietly leave Islam as opposed to those who speak out after leaving. Badawi is also one who received the Freedom Letter and has never signed it.

http://www.alsiraj.net/English/misc/nonmuslims/html/page19.html

"In my point of view, as the scholars have differentiated between major and minor innovations in religion and between mere innovators and those who spread and call for their innovations in religion, we can also differentiate between major and minor apostasy, and between apostates who do not wage war against Islam and Muslims and those who proclaim their apostasy and call for it.

Major apostasy, which the apostate proclaims and openly calls for in speech or writing, is to be, with all the more reason, severely punished by the death penalty, according to the majority of scholars and the apparent meaning of the Prophet's hadiths. Otherwise, An-Nakh`i and Ath-Thawri's view which was built on `Umar's attitude may be followed.

Apostates who call for apostasy from Islam have not only become disbelievers in Islam but have also become enemies of Islam and the Muslim nation. They, by doing so, fall under the category of those who wage war against Almighty Allah and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land. According to Ibn Taymiyah, waging war against something may be done by already attacking it or by speaking against it. The latter may be far more dangerous than the former with regard to religions. So is also the case with spreading mischief: it may be through causing physical damage or through causing moral harm, and the latter is, likewise, far more hazardous than the former with regard to religions. This proves how much more harmful it is to wage war against Allah and His Messenger by speaking against them and seeking to spread mischief in the land."

Both Siddiqi and Badawi are members of the Fiqh Council of North America, which deals with questions of Islamic law. Coincidentally, Badawi has a current article on the Fiqh English language site on the very question, which is more convoluted than the one above.

http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/node/34

(From introduction)

It also discusses briefly actions attributed the companions of Prophet Muhammad [P] after him and concludes that there is no conclusive evidence to sustain the claim that apostasy in itself is a capital crime."(emphasis mine)

"It is abundantly clear that there is no conclusive evidence, indeed no evidence at all exists in the Qur’an to sustain the claim that the apostate should be executed on the sole ground that he or she apostated." (emphasis mine)

 "In the light of the evidence discussed above, the Prophet’s command here seems to refer to the permissibility of capital punishment, when apostasy is coupled with a capital crime such as waging war against the community." (emphasis mine)

Conclusions: 
1. "The preponderance of evidence from both the Qur’an and Sunnah indicates that there is no firm ground for the claim that apostasy is in itself a mandatory fixed punishment [Hadd], namely capital punishment." (emphasis mine)

In this article on a site more likely to be visited by English-speaking non Muslims, Badawi's thesis is that there is no death penalty for apostasy. You have to read it carefully, however, to realize that he is not speaking in absolute terms.  In the first article, he delineates between minor apostasy and major apostasy, in which apostates speak out against Islam.

And here is a most revealing statement on the topic from Hatem al Haj, a senior cleric with the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America. (Hat tip Translating Jihad and Center for Security Policy)

http://www.translatingjihad.com/2013/03/senior-cleric-for-american-muslim-group.html

Note the emphasis on how to explain this part of Sharia to Western audiences. Also note the reference to Israel as Al Haj quotes from the Book of Deuteronomy:

"And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; ......"

Slip of the tongue? But I digress.

Both Badawi and Al Haj emphasize that such a sentence must be carried out by lawful authorities in Muslim countries. Badawi also quotes Yusef al Qaradawi, the spiritual mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood and considered one of the top Muslim clerics in the world, yet one who has called the Holocaust, "God's punishment for the Jews" and has expressed a desire to die fighting in battle against the infidel. Badawi in the most recent article, starts off by declaring that no evidence exists that apostasy itself is punishable by death. The wiggle room is in his discussion of other capital crimes that accompanied the apostasy, some instances involving murder. But what about "waging war against God and his messenger"? Does that cover apostates today who speak out publicly against Islam?

So let us assume that death for apostates should be reserved for those who also speak out against Islam and should only be carried out upon the verdict of a lawful court in an Islamic nation. Let us also add the opportunity for an apostate to recant and return to Islam as explained to me by a Saudi law student (studying Saudi law) a couple of years back. He explained that apostates in Saudi Arabia are given three chances over a period of time to return to the fold before being put to death.

Assuming the above, what are we left with?

Islam does have a death penalty-under certain restrictions- for those who leave the religion. In the cases where apostates have been killed, have they always been carried out only in Islamic countries, by lawfully-recognized courts, and only in cases where the apostate also "waged war against God and His Messenger and spread mischief"?

I invite comments from my Muslim readers.