EX-MUSLIMS: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

In the name of God (who is) the most beneficent (and) the most merciful.

Peace be upon our Master Muhammad and his purified progeny.

Ex-Muslims seek protection in the West against oppression by their our countrymen

Apostasy in a serious problem for all organized religions, especially the proselyting ones i.e. Christianity and Islam. All organized religions work to increase the number of their followers and, in ancient times, when religious tensions were at their highest, leaving a community meant treachery, betrayal and militant aggression against one's own people. I can explain the issue of apostasy in biblical and koranic terms for pages but here I am concerned only with a simple matter: Must apostates with killed? Does Islam ask Muslims to execute ex-Muslims? Is it legal in Islam for an Islamic government to behead former Muslims, members of the Muslim community who were either born as Muslims or converted voluntarily but then became disillusioned with the truth of Islam and decided to leave the faith? Can we, in the 21st century, execute such people? Well, what do you guts tell you? If you are a sane and reasonable guy, you will answer these questions like this: No, you cannot kill a person just because he left your religion. And you're right, my friend. In the 21st century, apostasy doesn't mean tyranny,  no more than marrying girls right after puberty had hit them means not pedophilia. To be clear, it wasn't carried out by pedophiles in the ancient times but now it will be considered pedophilia. Similarly, apostasy was, indeed, treason in yea old days but, in the 21st century, communities are not build upon the rock of faith. People use politics, nationalism and ideologies to differentiate from other communities. So, if you are a Pakistani citizen and adhere to Hinduism, you will still be loyal to your country, despite the fact that Pakistan was founded by Muslims to apply shari'ah. If you are an Indian citizen and adhere to Christianity, you will still be loyal to your country, despite the fact that India was liberated from Christians. Thus, religion doesn't decide where your loyalties lie and changing it doesn't imply you're a traitor. But how can we prove this point from Qur'an and Sunnah.

Ibn Warraq who borrows the pen-name from an ancient Arab ex-Muslim, is a modern-day outspoken critic of Islam who has written numerous books against Islam and in favor of the Western civilization

Qur'an doesn't lay down any punishment for the crime of apostasy. Qur'an does condemn apostates but never asks Muslims to execute them.

Sunnah - the sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad - do have something to say about whether apostates should be killed or not. Some hadiths instruct Muslims to kill apostates while other hadiths ask Muslims to leave them alone. Let's look at both of them.

The Prophet said:

"Whoever changed his religion, kill him."

But if we study the entire hadith, we learn that:

"Some atheists were brought to `Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event reached Ibn `Abbas who said: "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) forbade it, saying: 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ): 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'""

Who were the people whom Ali executed? They were Abdullah ibn Saba and his fellows who approached Ali and said: "You are God."

Well, why did Muhammad ask Muslims to execute apostates? Was he against freedom of expression or had he just issued that command for traitors? Let's find out by going deeper into this study and by digging out more hadiths.

The Prophet - and I'm quoting Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Nisa'i and Ibn Majah - said:

"Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshiped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In retaliation for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.""

So, Bukhari records the Prophet saying: "leaves the Muslims." Muslim records him saying: "abandoning the community." Tirmidhi records: "parts from the jama'ah (gathering)." Nisa'i records: "separates, leaving his religion." Ibn Majah records: "splits from the jama'ah (gathering)."

To get a clearer picture, let's discuss this hadith:

"The Messenger of Allah said: "It is not permissible to shed the blood of a Muslim except in three cases: An adulterer who had been married, who should be stoned to death; a man who killed another man intentionally, who should be killed; and a man who left Islam and waged war against Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, and His Messenger, who should be killed or crucified or banished from the land.""

Here it is, fellows. The real reason why apostates must be killed. The man who reverts from Islam and then initiates violence and aggression against Muslims, his blood must be spilled, because of his tyranny and militancy.

Abu Amina Elias explained by saying:
"The reference to one who “separates from the community” (al-mufariq lil-jama’ah) indicates that a person is not legally punished simply for not practicing Islam, but rather for high treason against Muslim authorities."

The next hadith I'm going to present shows two points: first, the Prophet's commandment about executing apostates is his way of saying that only traitors must be punished (i.e. whenever the Prophet asks to murder apostates, he actually means to kill those who fight against Muslims); second, he way many liberal moderate Muslims have understood the Prophet's words is the same as how Muhammad's Companions' students understood them. So, here's what Abu Qilabah, a person who met Muhammad's Companions and narrated from the Prophet's servant Anas ibn Malik, had to say to Caliph Umar II regarding the possibility of the execution of a Muslim. He said:

"I do not know that killing a person is lawful in Islam except in three cases: a married person committing illegal sexual intercourse, one who has murdered somebody unlawfully or one who wages war against Allah and His Apostle."

Now, did the Prophet actually executed someone for being an apostate. Critics of Islam cite the example of Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh whom the Prophet wanted murdered. But, unfortunately, the Prophet didn't want him executed just for being his ex-scribe but for joining the Meccans who were at war against Muslims at that time. Then there is an incident of a guy who wanted to left Islam (and left it, as per some narrations) but the Prophet didn't apply death penalty over him.

If someone is interested in studying the matter of riddah or apostasy in Islam more professionally, he would like to learn that it was Caliph Abu Bakr during whose tenure many Muslims (allegedly, as per Sunni Islam) reverted from Islam and waged war against Abu Bakr's Caliphate. So, Abu Bakr warred against them. Moreover, Caliph Umar II encountered some people who converted to Islam but then couldn't remain firm on their faith and returned to their previous religion. Umar didn't execute them. He just kept receiving jizyah from them.

Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq 18102
Read the original Arabic version by clicking here

"Ma’mar reported: Some residents of the peninsula told me that some people had embraced Islam, but it was not long until they became apostates. Maymun ibn Mihran wrote to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz regarding them and Umar wrote back saying: “Let them return to paying tribute and leave them alone.”"

Umar II left those apostates alone because they had only committed the lesser apostasy. The greater apostasy is to become an ex-Muslim and then wage war against Muslims, something which only a traitor would do, a crime punishable by execution.

Some jurists have stated: "A female apostate is not to be executed." Why on earth are Muslims asked not to execute female apostates? Because of the same reason why women in battlefields are not killed. Women are not combatants and, in Islam, only combatants are killed. Thus, naturally, even if a woman leaves Islam and joins the violent male apostates, it is assumed that she, being a woman, is not a combatant.

The last argument in favor of this opinion of mine (i.e. that apostates must not be killed in the 21st century) will be from the book of a famous Sunni scholar Ibn al-Humam who wrote:

فَكَذَا يَجِبُ فِي الْقَتْلِ بِالرِّدَّةِ أَنْ يَكُونَ لِدَفْعِ شَرِّ حِرَابِهِ لَا جَزَاءٍ عَلَى فِعْلِ الْكُفْرِ لِأَنَّ جَزَاءَهُ أَعْظَمُ مِنْ ذَلِكَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى فَيَخْتَصُّ بِمَنْ يَتَأَتَّى مِنْهُ الْحِرَابُ وَهُوَ الرَّجُلُ وَلِهَذَا نَهَى النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ عَنْ قَتْلِ النِّسَاءِ وَعَلَّلَهُ بِأَنَّهَا لَمْ تَكُنْ تُقَاتِلُ

"It is necessary to punish apostasy with death in order to avert the evil of war, not as punishment for the act of unbelief, because the greatest punishment for that is with Allah. This punishment is specifically for those who wage war and this is for the man. For this reason, the Prophet prohibited killing women because they do not fight."

I think after reading this blog it shall become clear unto everyone that, in Islam, apostates are killed only if they "wage war against Allah and His Apostle", not for just changing their minds.