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.”
“Christian Slain for Leading Muslims to Faith in Christ,” Morning Star News, March 18, 2024:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda on March 8 killed a Christian for leading Muslims to faith in Christ, sources said.
Kiisa Masolo, 45, had returned to his home in Nakitiku village, Bunabuka parish, Bubeza Sub-County in Sironko District at 7 p.m. after preaching on the streets of Nakaloke and Busajjabwankuba when seven masked men dressed in Islamic attire broke in and took him away, said his mother, Norah Nandege.
“After whisking him away, three men remained behind and told me that, ‘Allah is very displeased with your son, and we’re out to punish him,’” Nandege told Morning Star News. “Then the three men left.”
She called a clan leader who arrived but told her they should wait til the next morning before taking action, she said. When her son did not show up the following morning, she reported the kidnapping to the Local Council 3 chairperson, and a search began.
“After four hours of search, the body of my son Masolo was found lying lifeless in the bush with a written Arabic note which we could not read,” Nandege said. “A person fluent in Arabic was called to read the script which stated, ‘We had warned you not to convert our Muslim brothers and sisters to Christianity, but you failed to heed to our warning. This has finally cost your life.’”
Muslims had left several warnings and threats on Masolo’s mobile phone telling him to stop converting Muslims to Christianity, she said.
“I tried to advise my son to be very cautious with his life, but he used to tell me that his life was in the hands of God and that he was called to carry out the preaching of the gospel of Christ,” Nandege told Morning Star News. “Since then, I knew that the life of my son was in danger, and he might not live for long due to the many threatening messages of Allah who was out to kill him.”…
David Everitt says
“Forgive them o Lord, for they no not what they do”
Well there you have it, all in one ,what else can be said.
All these misguided fools converting from whatever faith they had before to Islam have absolutely no idea of what they have coming to them should they choose to leave, maybe they wrongly believe that Islam is a gentle, placid type of religion incorporating music and dancing and colourful festivities instead of it being a blood thirsty ‘Head Bangers’ cult shouting Allah, Allah and nothing else, it is a soulless hollow path to follow.
Tony Rice says
Death for apostates, has any country actually carried out the death penalty?. I know some have for same sex activity, but for leaving Islam, I am not so sure.
Jayell1 says
If there was much execution of apostates in the Lands of the Crescent Moon, I don’t think we’d know much about it in the West, and I don’t think we’d know much more about even if it did happen in our pafrts of the world because the islamomaniacs in high places would bury the news as much as possible. But I do know of an English girl over here in the UK who was stupid enough to marry one of these savages and was murdered because (according to the news report) she refused to wear their clothing and a Pakistani convert to Christianity who ended up with both kneecaps smashed with a sledge hammer after months of criminal harassment, having to live in a safe house and the local police refusing to do anything much apart from telling him ‘not to behave like a crusader’.
Richard Roy Blake says
Al Azhar University in Cairo is considered the last word for Sunni Islam. Obama acknowledged the same he gave his address to Muslims from there. Very recently Al Azhar upheld the death penalty for apostasy. It is the law of the land in at least nine Islamic nations and enforced elsewhere by equating apostasy with blasphemy (such as in Indonesia). There definitely been recent executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
somehistory says
This brave man will not be forgotten. As Jesus said, “Every hair of your head is numbered.” Jesus will not forget, and “all those in the memorial tombs will hear His voice and come out.”
There will be a reward for this man who died faithful to God and His Son.
And there will be “vengeance” upon those who murdered him for their fake god and fake prophet. They will be made to pay for taking his life.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”
abu taleb says
The Islamic logic is “it is the Christian’s fault that he is killed, because we have warned him”.
But the west has succumbed to the Islamists, therefore they warn people not to offend the muslims and Islam, including preaching Christianity on public places, and jail those who do that.
In the Islamists’ mind, this is the proof that Islam is the true religion.
Ray Jarman says
Old Francis should offer to provide services for this poor Christian. Certainly, no Islamist fanatical would harm him after all he preaches his love for them.
PRCS says
With another of today’s JW posts in mind:
DEI top dogs warn intelligence officials to avoid using words such as ‘jihadist’ and even ‘Radical Islamists’
i note the headline in THIS post states:
“NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda on March 8 killed a Christian for leading Muslims to faith in Christ, sources said.”
Good to know the DEI disease apparently has a low infection rate in Kenya.
Jayell1 says
There used to be a rude joke about the Roman Catholic church being the prostitute’s religion because it was possible to go out doing the business during the week, confess to the Priest on Sunday and say the appropriate number of ‘Hail Mary’s’ for absolution, then back into business on Monday with a clean slate ready for the next slate-wiping session with the Holy father the following weekend. But even if you asked which of the the two ‘Mary’s’ in the New Testament was being ‘hailed’, it would still have been an abuse of a system that was genuinely meant to be helpful. Not so the sick joke of Islam, which was never intended to be any more than a bogus thug’s charter to validate whatever depraved criminality any thug wanted validating because the thuggery is explicitly written into the ‘holy literature’; and the major heavenly reward is eternity in a celestial whore house with far too many ‘virgins’ for comfort whom the ‘God’ they worship would have allegedly medically recycled as ‘untouched’ prostitutes for unlimited carnal entertainment who wouldn’t have to be bothered with any ‘Hail Mary’s’.
Hoi Polloi says
“We had warned you not to convert our Muslim brothers and sisters to Christianity” is indicative of their understanding of conversion as a matter of coercion and force, further exemplified by their command to kill those who leave islam.
Christianity is an expression of free will. People freely submit to Christ.
OLD GUY says
ISLAM is nothing but a DEATH CULT.
violet says
That’s terrible