51
the article that declares Islam to be the official state religion, ‘because we have among
us Copts [Egyptian Christians], and because religion is a matter between man and God
and no one has the right to impose his faith, his God and his rituals on others.” She also
said that she believes in a political and military struggle against[47] the U.S. and Israel.
The reactions to Sa’dawi’s statements were mixed, but Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Al-Berri, former
head of The Front of Al-Azhar Clerics, explained that “we should ask her to repent within
three days, but if she persists with these ideas, she should be punished according to
what the Islamic Shari’a [religious law] determined for those who abandon Islam. The
ruler, meaning the head of state or government, should carry out the punishment.”
Sheikh Mustafa Al-Azhari explained that “the punishment for anyone who fights Allah and
His Prophet is execution, crucifixion, the amputation of opposite limbs or banishment
from earth.”
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross[48] states that “Though official proceedings against those who
reject Islam are fairly rare - in part, no doubt, because most keep their conversion a
closely held secret - apostasy is punishable by death in Afghanistan, Comoros, Iran,
Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. It is also illegal in Jordan, Kuwait,
Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, and Qatar. (…) The greatest threat to apostates in the
Muslim world derives not from the state, however, but from private individuals who take
punishment into their own hands. In Bangladesh, for example, a native-born Muslim-
turned-Christian evangelist was stabbed to death in the spring of 2003 while returning
home from a film version of the Gospel of Luke. As another Bangladeshi apostate told the
U.S. Newswire, ‘If a Muslim converts to Christianity, now he cannot live in this country. It
is not safe. The fundamentalism is increasing more and more.’”
In Britain in 2004, Prince Charles[49] brokered efforts to end the Muslim death penalty
on converts to other faiths by holding a private summit of Christian and Muslim leaders.
The Muslim group cautioned the prince and other non-Muslims against speaking publicly
on the issue. A member of the Christian group said that he was “very, very unhappy”
about the outcome. Patrick Sookhdeo, the international director of the Barnabas Fund
which campaigns on behalf of persecuted Christians abroad, urged the prince and Muslim
leaders in Britain to criticise openly the traditional Islamic law on apostasy, calling for it
to be abolished throughout the world. According to Sookhdeo, “one of the fundamental
notions of a secular society is the moral importance of freedom, of individual choice. But
in Islam, choice is not allowable: there cannot be free choice about whether to choose or
reject any of the fundamental aspects of the religion, because they are all divinely
ordained. God has laid down the law, and man must obey.”
In the London Times, Anthony Browne[50] wrote about Mr Hussein, a 39-year-old
hospital nurse in Bradford, one of a growing number of former Muslims in the West who
face not just being shunned by family and community, but attacked, kidnapped, and in
some cases killed. One estimate suggests that as many as 15 per cent of Muslims in
Western societies have lost their faith. Mr Hussein told “It’s been absolutely appalling.
This is England - where I was born and raised. You would never imagine Christians would
suffer in such a way.” The police have not charged anyone, but told him to leave the
area.
Anwar Sheikh, a former mosque teacher from Pakistan, became an atheist after coming
to Britain, and lived with a special alarm in his house in Cardiff after criticising Islam in a
series of hardline books. “I’ve had 18 fatwas against me. They telephone me - they
aren’t foolhardy enough to put it in writing. I had a call a couple of weeks ago. They
mean repent or be hanged,” he said. “What I have written, I believe and I will not take it
back. I will suffer the consequences. If that is the price, I will pay it.” Anwar Sheikh died
peacefully in his home in Wales in November 2006.
Aluma Dankowitz[51], director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)