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April 9, 2006

US: Islamic Laws Deny Basic Human Rights, Say Experts

The Pakistan Daily Times reports on a Congressional forum which took place last week, hosted by the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, in Washington, and the opinions expressed have been severely critical of the way in which laws based on Islam are in contradiction of human rights.

The recent case of 41-year old Afghan Christian, Abdul Rahman (pictured left, who now calls himself Joel in his new home of Italy), who was under threat of a death sentence for apostasing from Islam until taken out of the country on March 29, has highlighted the severity of Islamic law regarding apostates. 500 clerics were openly calling for Abdul's death.

The forum heard that at least 14 countries consider apostasy a crime. Nina Shea, director of global rights group Freedom House's centre for religious freedom, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said that of these countries, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania and Comoros make it punishable by death.

In Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman and Qatar, punishments are imposed for apostasy.

On March 27, Associated Press via Santa Barbara News Press reported that two yeas ago in Jordan, a Muslim man who converted to Christianity was convicted of apostasy, and had his right to work taken away and his marriage annulled. He had been reported by his wife and her family. He appealed to a higher court, but lost.

In Sudan, a convert was arrested in 2004 for apostasy and, according to the US State Department he was tortured in custody. In Kuwait, a Shiite Muslim convert to Christianity was convicted by a court but was not sentenced because the criminal code did not have a sentencing tariff for such cases.

Though not mentioned by Nina Shea, in Egypt, converts can be tried for "contempt for religion", which can mean a sentence of up to five years, stated Hossam Baghat recently. Baghat is director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. An Egyptian convert to Christianity was arrested in May 2005, and still remains in custody, awaiting trial.

Sheik Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza said that Palestinian women seeking a divorce often accuse their husbands of converting to allow a court to nullify the marriae. In traditional Islamic law, it is forbidden for a wife to divorce a man.

At the Congress forum, Nina Shea (pictured right) criticised the US for the "fatal flaw" in Afghanistan's constitution which allowed prosecution for the "crime" of apostasy.

Felice Gaer, vice chairwoman of the US Commission of International Religious Freedom said: "The implication of Rahman's case is that it points out the unresolved tension in certain Muslim countries between the application of Islamic law and protection of human rights."

We already reported on the pronouncements of Father Samir Khalil Samir who said that Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights specifies: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." Afghanistan and many other Muslim countries signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Gaer pointed out that "the freedom to adopt a religion is the freedom to change religion".

44 countries were studied by her commission, and 15 of these had Islamic law and principles serving as "a source of, or a limitation on, general legislation." She said: "In the vast majority of these cases, however, no constitutional guidance is given or how legislation should be assessed against Islamic principles, or how conflicts between Islamic principles and constitutional protections for human rights should be resolved."

The issue of Malaysia was mentioned, where conversion out of Islam is forbidden.

In Malaysia, for example, the courts have ruled that ethnic Malays could not renounce Islam at all because they were defined by the Federal Constitution to be persons of the Islamic faith, said Angela Wu of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

One Malay Muslim woman who converted to Christianity was asked to apply to the Shariah court for permission to legally renounce Islam before she could change the Muslim designation on her national identification papers, she said. But Malaysian Shariah courts reportedly have never granted permission for a Malay Muslim to convert out of Islam and Wu said the Muslim designation had prevented the woman from marrying a Christian and placed other restrictions on her.

Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain of Washington-based Georgetown University, said: "I believe that punishing those converting out of Islam is absolutely unIslamic, absolutely illegal under Islamic law and unQuranic and contradicts the teaching of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in whose teachings we believe." Originally from Palestine but now a US citizen, Hendi (pictured left) said: "there is not a single verse in the Quran that talks about apostasy and that those who convert out of Islam should be killed. On the contrary five verses of the Quran say that those who convert out of Islam have the right to do so."

But despite what Hendi may think, Islamic Jurisprudence does not rely on the Koran alone. It also is based on the Sunna and the Hadiths. And in the Hadiths there is ample evidence to sugest Mohammed did not approve of apostates, and wanted them killed.

Ikrimah said: 'Ali burned some people who retreated from Islam. When Ibn 'Abbas was informed of it, he said: If it had been I, I would not have them burned, for the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Do not inflict Allah's punishment on anyone, but would have had killed them on account of the statement of the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him). The Apostle said: Kill those who change their religion. - Sunan Abu Dawud, Book XXXIII, Kitab al-Hudud

Joyce Davis, writing in Radio Free Europe discussed the issues of apostasy and the religious rulings on this. The Koran states: Let there be no compulsion in religion.(Al-Baqarah, 2:256). Yet in 47:34, the Koran states "Lo! Those who disbelieve and turn from the way of Allah and then die disbelievers, Allah surely will not pardon them.".

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Qatar-based theologian, states: "All Muslim jurists agree that the apostate is to be punished. However, they differ regarding the punishment itself. The majority of them go for killing; meaning that an apostate is to be sentenced to death."

Ms Davis writes:

Sheikh Muhammad al-Gazali, a renowned Egyptian religious scholar who died in March 1996, ignited the most recent debate within Islamic circles on the question of apostasy when he testified, in July 1993, at the trial of 13 Islamic militants accused of killing the Egyptian writer Farag Foda. Foda was an outspoken critic of radical Islamists, who accused him of apostasy. Al-Ghazali ruled than an apostate should be given time to repent. And he rejected the death penalty, arguing instead for life imprisonment.

"Those who blasphemed and back away from the ways of Allah and die as blasphemers, Allah shall not forgive them." (Nisa Ayah - The Women - Surah 4, 48)

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 9, 2006 10:46 PM

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