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Apostasy in the recent past

Background

The violence or threats of violence against apostates in the Muslim world usually derives not from government authorities but from individuals or groups operating with impunity from the government.^[31] An example is the stabbing of a Bangladeshi Murtad Fitri Christian evangelist while returning home from a film version of the Gospel of Luke.^[32] Bangladesh does not have a law against apostasy, but some Imams encourage the killing of converts from Islam. Many ex-Muslims in Great Britain have faced abuse, violence, and even murder at the hands of Muslims.^[33] There are similar reports of violent intimidation of those electing to reject Islam in other Western countries.^[34]

Other examples of persecution of apostates converting to Christianity have been given by the Barnabas Fund:

The field of apostasy and blasphemy and related “crimes” is thus obviously a complex syndrome within all Muslim societies which touches a raw nerve and always arouses great emotional outbursts against the perceived acts of treason, betrayal and attacks on Islam and its honour. While there are a few brave dissenting voices within Muslim societies, the threat of the application of the apostasy and blasphemy laws against any who criticize its application is an efficient weapon used to intimidate opponents, silence criticism, punish rivals, reject innovations and reform, and keep non-Muslim communities in their place.^[35]

Similar views are expressed by the ‘non-religious’ International Humanist and Ethical Union.^[36]

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

In March 2006, an Afghan citizen Abdul Rahman was charged with apostasy and could have faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity. His case attracted much international attention with Western countries condemning Afghanistan for persecuting a convert. Charges against Abdul Rahman were dismissed on technical grounds by the Afghan court after intervention by the president Hamid Karzai. He was released and left the country to find refuge in Italy.^[31]

Two other Afghan converts to Christianity were arrested in March and their fate is unknown. In February, yet other converts had their homes raided by police.^[31]

Islamic Republic of Iran

Probably the most prominent^{[citation needed]} contemporary figure accused of apostasy was Salman Rushdie. In 1989 the killing of that author was urged in a fatwa by theAyatollah Khomeini, the ruler of Iran at the time, for the blasphemy of authoring the book The Satanic Verses.

According to US thinktank Freedom House, since the 1990s the Islamic Republic of Iran has sometimes used death squads against converts, including major Protestant leaders. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the regime has engaged in a systematic campaign to track down and reconvert or kill those who have changed their religion from Islam.^[31]

15 Ex-Muslim Christians^[37] were incarcerated on May 15, 2008 under charges of apostasy. They may face the death penalty if convicted. A new penal code is being proposed in Iran that would require the death penalty in cases of Apostasy on the Internet.^[38]

At least two Iranians – Hashem Aghajari and Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari – have been arrested and charged with apostasy in the Islamic Republic (though not executed), not for self-professed conversion to another faith, but for statements and/or activities deemed by courts of the Islamic Republic to be in violation of Islam, and that appear to outsiders to be Islamic reformist political expression.^[39] Hashem Aghajari, was found guilty of apostasy for a speech urging Iranians to “not blindly follow” Islamic clerics;^[40]Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari was charged with apostasy for attending the ‘Iran After the Elections’ Conference in Berlin Germany which was disrupted by anti-regime demonstrators.^[41]

Bahá’ís

Bahá’ís in Iran, the nation of origin of the Bahá’í Faith and Iran’s largest religious minority, are considered apostates by the Shi’a clergy because of their claim to a valid religious revelation subsequent to that of Muhammad. Iranian law therefore treats Bahá’ís as heretics rather than members of an independent religion, as they describe themselves. Bahá’ís have therefore been subjected to much persecution (documented by various third party entities such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, and the European Union) including beatings, torture, unjustified executions, false imprisonment, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Bahá’í community, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.^[42]

In April 2006, after a court case in Egypt recognized the Bahá’í Faith, members of the clergy convinced the government to appeal the court decision. One member of parliament, Gamal Akl of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, said the Bahá’ís were infidels who should be killed on the grounds that they had changed their religion.^[43]

Algeria

On March 21, 2006, the Algerian parliament approved a new law requiring imprisonment for two to five years and a fine between five and ten thousand euros for anyone “trying to call on a Muslim to embrace another religion.” The same penalty applies to anyone who “stores or circulates publications or audio-visual or other means aiming at destabilizing attachment to Islam.”^[31]

Turkey

Turkey, being a secular state, does not implement Islamic Law (Sharia), thus there is no judgement in Turkish legislation for apostasy. Moreover execution, which is a penalty for apostasy in Sharia, is not implemented in Turkey.

More recently, on January 21, 2007, the Central Council of Ex-Muslims was founded in Germany, an association led by Iranian exile Mina Ahadi and Turkish-German immigrant Arzu Toker. The association stands up for former Muslims who chose to abandon Islam. Shortly after going public on February 28, 2007, the group received death threats by radical islamists.^[44]

On April 18, 2007, two Turkish converts to Christianity, Necati Aydin and Uğur Yüksel, were killed in the Malatya bible publishing firm murders. Having tortured them for several hours, the attackers then slit their throats. The attackers stated that they did it in order to defend the state and their religion. The government and other officials in Turkey had in the past criticized Christian missionary work, while the European Union—which Turkey hopes to join—has called for more freedom for the Christian minority.^[45][46][47]

Egypt

The Mohammed Hegazy case, shows the huge problems in that country for those wishing to leave Islam and be recognised as a member of another religion – where Hegazy has suffered death threats from family and prominent Islamic figures alike. A Judge ruled “He (Hegazy) can believe whatever he wants in his heart, but on paper he can’t convert.”^{[cite this quote]} He is the first Egyptian Muslim convert to Christianity to seek official recognition of his conversion from the Egyptian Government.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2009, a second case came to court, of convert to Christianity Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, whose effort to officially convert to Christianity, faced opposing lawyers who advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death.

“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.^[48]

Other countries

Vigilantes have killed, beaten, and threatened converts in Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, Somalia, and Kenya. In November 2005, Iranian convert Ghorban Tourani was stabbed to death by a group of fanatical Muslims. In December 2005, Nigerian pastor Zacheous Habu Bu Ngwenche was attacked for allegedly hiding a convert. In January 2006, in Turkey, Kamil Kiroglu was beaten unconscious and threatened with death if he refused to deny his Christian faith and return to Islam.^[31]

In Malaysia, although there has not been violence visited upon apostates, cases such as the Lina Joy episode confirm that Muslim apostasy is illegal and unaccepted by the state, at least on an identification card.