Apostasy in Islam

Apostasy in Islam
The Point of No Return
By Abdullah Al Araby
For fourteen centuries, Muslims were able to conceal some of their most outrageous teachings from the rest of the world. Their deceptions were hidden behind language, cultural and geographic barriers. Modern technology and new communication methods have made it difficult for Muslims to hide the dark side of Islam any longer. Muslim advocates, especially in the West, are now faced with the tough task of explaining the discrepancies between how they want Islam perceived as a tolerant, civil and peaceful religion; and the realties of some of its basic tenets, which are quite the opposite. They’re finding it hard to maintain the façades and to simultaneously remain faithful to the harsh doctrines that are essential to the practices of authentic Islam.

Damage control has become one of their main objectives in modern societies. It’s not unusual for various types of contradictions to happen as they do so. This was recently demonstrated by some rulings made by Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt. He is Egypt’s superior authority in charge of issuing official fatwas (Islamic religious rulings).

Ali Gomaa issued a wide range of opinions on critical issues of Islam such as Jihad, women’s status and the right of Muslims to change religions. News agencies around the world published them in multiple languages. In regard to a Muslim’s right to renounce Islam and to join another religion that is called apostasy, his initial rulings sounded lenient. The Washington Post-Newsweek forum in English was one of the forums that published his decisions.

Here are excerpts from what he said on the issue of apostasy:

“The essential question before us is: Can a person who is a Muslim choose a religion other than Islam? The answer is yes, they can, because the Quran says, ‘Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion,’ (Quran 109:6) and, ‘Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosever will, let him disbelieve,’ (Quran18:29) and, ‘There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is distinct from error’ (Quran 2:256).”

He added, “These verses from the Quran discuss a freedom that God affords all people. But from a religious prospective, the act of abandoning one’s religion is a sin punishable by God on the Day of Judgment. If the case in Question is one of merely rejecting faith, then there is no worldly punishment.” He went on to state, “If, however, the crime of undermining the foundations of the society is added to the sin of apostasy, then the case must be referred to a judicial system whose role is to protect the integrity of the society…..According to Islam, it is not permitted for Muslims to reject their faith, so if a Muslim were to leave Islam and adopt another religion, they would thereby be committing a sin in the eyes of Islam. Religious belief and practice is a personal matter, and society only intervenes when that personal matter becomes public and threatens the well-being of its members.”

My first reaction to these statements was that I thought they were balanced and reasonable. I had hopes that Islam was softening its extreme attitudes towards those who leave Islam. It seemed that the Grand Mufti was emphasizing that Muslims do have the freedom to change religions. He emphatically implied that such matters are personal, between man and his Creator. He also asserted that although such conversions are sinful, that God, rather than man, would enact the punishments in the Day of Judgment. He only cited one exception. It would be in instances wherein a person’s conversion to another faith had the potential to undermine the foundations of a society. In such cases he suggested that the courts should get involved to settle the issue. Although I was concerned about that exception, I dismissed it as unimportant. I couldn’t imagine how a person switching religions could be interpreted as an act that could undermine the foundation of an entire society.

My hopes were soon shattered. A few days later, the Grand Mufti, issued another statement. This time he was speaking in Arabic in Cairo and what he said was completely different: “What I actually said was that Islam prohibits a Muslim from changing his religion and it’s a crime that must be punished.”

It was then that I realized that we had all been fooled, again. The Muslim strategy of only speaking half-truths was still alive and well. What is being said in places like Washington to English speaking groups is almost simultaneously retracted and rendered meaningless when they speak in Arabic in places like Cairo. What was originally presented as simply a rare and remote possible exception had become the general rule. Changing religions from Islam to another faith is interpreted as an act of apostasy. The Islamic mindset dictates that such apostasies can undermine the foundations of Muslim societies.

It’s difficult for non-Muslims to understand how a personal decision to change one’s religion by one Muslim or even hundreds could undermine an entire Islamic society. And, assuming that it could, would denial of the facts change anything? Apparently the grand Mufti thought so. However, he must have imagined that he achieved both of his goals. On one hand, it was to polish Islam’s image in the West; and on the other, he spoke the truth about Islamic polices in the Islamic world.

The only way that Islamists like the Mufti can continually get away with such deceptive maneuvers is for us to allow them to do so. There must be clarity about Islam’s consistent track record of doubletalk about thorny issues such as this one. Non-Muslims really need to know the truth about just what constitutes apostasy in the Muslim world.