MPAC JOINS CALLS FOR RELEASE OF AFGHAN CHRISTIAN
(Washington, DC - 3/25/06) -- The Muslim Public Affairs Council today called on the Afghan government to release a man who is being threatened with death for converting from Islam to Christianity. Abdul Rahman was arrested in early February in the Afghan capital of Kabul after family members filed a complaint with the government, accusing him of rejecting Islam. Rahman, who lived in Germany for many years, became a Christian 16 years ago while working for an aid organization in Pakistan. He returned to Pakistan from Germany in order to obtain custody of his two daughters, who were being looked after by their grandmother. According to Afghanistan's constitution, minority religious rights are protected, but Muslims must follow Islam, the state religion. International scrutiny on this issue has cast sharia as clear-cut on the issue of apostasy -- a person who turns his/her back on Islam is an apostate and must be punished by death. In reality, the "rules of Islam" are not codified, and the Quran mandates that religious freedom be respected. Furthermore, the Prophet Muhammad himself never sentenced an apostate to death. "While apostasy may be a sin in the eyes of God, it is not considered to be criminal behavior," Dr. Maher Hathout writes in his recent book "In Pursuit of Justice: The Jurisprudence of Human Rights in Islam" (available through Amazon.com). "We strongly oppose the state's use of coercion in regulating Islamic belief in such a manner, since faith is a matter of individual choice on which only God can adjudicate." The judge told Rahman that he could face the death penalty if he refused to become a Muslim again. However, the Quran states "There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way. Whoever therefore rejects the forces of evil and believes in God, he has taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way, for God is All Hearing and Knowing" (2:256). As is evident in the following passage from "In Pursuit of Justice", even Muslim governments acting in accordance with sharia, or Islamic law, have no authority to put people to death for renouncing Islam and/or converting to another faith: "Despite the fact that the Quran does not once mention the death penalty for apostasy, jurists have relied on two hadith texts for their argument. The first one states "whoever changes his religion shall be killed" (Abu Dawud). The second is "It is not lawful to kill a man who is a Muslim except for one of the three reasons: Kufr (disbelief) after accepting Islam, fornication after marriage, or wrongfully killing someone, for which he may be killed" (Abu Dawud). Notwithstanding the fact that the chain of transmission on the first hadith has been found to be weak, both of them contradict the Quran and other instances in which the Prophet did not compel anyone to embrace Islam, nor punish them if they recanted. "In one incident, the Prophet pardoned Abdullah bin Sa'd, after he renounced Islam. Abdullah bin Sa'd was one of the people chosen by the Prophet as a scribe, to write down Qur'anic text as it was revealed to the Prophet. After spending some time with the Muslims in Madina, he recanted and returned to the religion of the Quraish. When he was brought before the Prophet, Osman bin Affan pleaded on his behalf, and the Prophet subsequently pardoned Abdullah bin Sa'd (Ibn Hisham). "The problem with the argument for punishment for apostasy is that it cannot be applied in any Islamic state without giving rise to the potential for abuse by the state itself. Erroneously equating moral with political power in the determination of law has led to the political repression that we see in Islamic countries today. We must separate the right of God from that of man in defining freedom of religion as a legal right. The right of God refers only to the moral obligations of Muslims towards God, and is adjudicated by God. The state cannot act as a coercive moral authority, in effect representing God's Will on earth, because it does not have the right to do so. In the context of freedom of religion, the state's responsibility is to uphold and protect it as the right of all humans, as granted by God, without exercising moral judgment on the content and/or manner of exercising those religious beliefs." Click here to view the chapter on "Freedom of Religion" from "In Pursuit of Justice", which examines the issue of apostasy in-depth. *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi 4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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