[Progressive_Pakistan] Rehman Faiz on Apostasy In Islam

[Guest guest]

Apostasy In Islam - Sharia Vs IslamBy Rehman Faiz

28 March, 2006

Countercurrents.org

http://www.countercurrents.org/faiz280306.htm

The Abdul Rahman case is considered to be a test for Afghanistan's path towards

secularism and democracy, the system strongly promised by president Hamid

Karzai, apparently a secular and broad minded leader. Abdul Rahman was detained

two weeks ago when his relatives reported to the police about his conversion to

Christianity which is forbidden under Islamic Sharia law. Supreme Court Judge

Ansarullah Mawlavizada has persisted that Abdul Rahman, is in police custody

and that he could face the death penalty if he refused to become a Muslim

again. It is important to note here that the strict Sharia law was introduced

and implemented by Taliban, who confronted strict criticism by the secular

states especially by the West governments and if sentenced to death, the man

will be the first to be punished for conversion since the dismissal of the

Taliban regime.

 

Over the last few years, the experts have continuously been expressing their

concerns over the superficial way of modernization in Afghanistan even four

years after the fall of the Taliban while the corruption and cronyism remained

one of the major part of the country's administrative system with ever

increasing production of narcotics currently reaching to an extent of $2.8

billion. The current case has verified various concerns and apprehensions by

the secular circles on the developments in Afghanistan, triggering alarms in

Germany, the US, Italy and all NATO countries with their peacekeeping troops in

Afghanistan. German politicians has started a serious debate this week to define

the role of Germany, a country which is sincerely involved in Afghanistan's

postwar reconstruction and peacekeeping with 2,700 soldiers deployed there,

with a reformist agenda in Afghanistan but without any genuine breakthrough by

the religious conservatives in Afghanistan. The similar debates and dialogues

have been started within the parliaments and governments' circles of the

developed countries identifying that if Afghanistan went ahead with the death

sentence it would show that the country has serious flaws in its way towards

democracy and secularism. Sharia Law has been an issue of major concerns by the

secular circles and the civil society organizations during the past many years.

According to these circles a strict and harsh religious law is impractical

since there is no boundary between civil and criminal matters in this law. The

Sharia law has been criticized due to its clash with the known and recognized

global standards of human rights especially its clauses relating to blasphemy,

Hudood, Qisas or Diyat issues. These clauses have harshly been used in many of

the Muslim countries mostly to set personal scores against minorities, and to

badly violate the minorities' and women's rights. The accretion of

discriminatory religious legislation in many Muslim countries has fostered an

atmosphere of religious intolerance, which contributes to acts of violence

directed against Muslim and non Muslim minorities groups like Hindus,

Christians Ahmadis, Zikris, and Shias. Even if the Government does not

encourage sectarian violence, there are instances in which the Governments

failed to intervene in cases of societal violence directed at minority

religious groups. In this regard it is considered that the separation of

religion from the state is crucial in order to grantee equal and just rights

for all. It is important here to have a look at the genesis of the Sharia Law

in the Islamic tradition and its position in the basic tenets of Islam. Sharia

is the Arabic word for Islamic law, also known as the Law of Allah , and

governs both public and private lives of those living in an Islamic state.

Sharia covers not only religious rituals, but many aspects of day-to-day life,

politics, economics, banking, business or contract law, and social issues.

Although it is considered that the Sharia law has been inspired by the Quran

yet in fact it has been developed and evolved through medieval Islamic periods

with the will and efforts of the then Islamic rulers. The Sharia as it

developed in the first few centuries of Islam incorporated many pre-Islamic

Middle-Eastern indigenous and tribal customs and traditions. Therefore Sharia

law is a reflection of human efforts made some 1000 years back to establish

legislative systems for the then regimes by taking help from the Quran as well

as the legal principles from other traditions. Thereby it refers the social and

economic conditions at the time of the Abbasids and became out of touch with

later social, economic, technological, cultural and moral developments. The

efforts to apply the Sharia law in today's world, mainly consisted of the

religious tenets of a millennium's back society, just reveals the failure of

the Islamic clergy in getting benefit out of the productive theme of 'Ijtehad'

(the way of improvement according to the contemporary social needs). The

failure of Islamic clergy in bridging up the Sharia law between the

contemporary global needs and the basic Islamic ideology is evident by the

examples given below. The basic Islamic ideology in the Quran ensures freedom

of religion: "Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the Christians,

and the converts; anyone who (1) believes in God, and (2) believes in the Last

Day, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their

Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve". 2:62] "Let there be no

compulsion in religion" [2:256] similarly there is no death penalty for

apostasy even: "Surely (as for) those who believe then disbelieve, again

believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, Allah will not

forgive them nor guide them in the (right) path" [4:137]. It is important to

note here that the Quran authorizes death penalty for murder and other

horrendous crimes, not for apostasy: "You shall not kill any person - for GOD

has made life sacred - except in the course of justice. If one is killed

unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice" [17:33]. Another

Quranic verse states: "For this reason did We prescribe to the children of

Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief

in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is

as though he kept alive all men" [5:32]. Similarly one can find numerous

inconsistencies between the basic Islamic principles and the proposed Shariah

law. For instance, Shariah sanctions stoning to death for both the adulterer

and adulteress, while the Quran prescribes 100 lashes as punishment for

adultery. These few examples highlight the failure of the modern Islamic clergy

in re-modifying the Islamic scripture to address the newer challenges in the

fields of science, economy, sociology and politics as modified by the clerics

of many religions including Christianity. If we compare Islamic and Christian

theology during the medieval times we can find numerous similarities between

the two traditions on the subjects of state, theology, sociology and economy.

However, we find both religious traditions expediting through the opposite

directions especially since the early 20th century. The clerics of Christianity

seem successful in incorporating the newer issues like global peace, human

rights, charity and human assistance, economy, polity and sociology. However,

there seems to be a be an overall lack of initiative as far as the Islamic

clergy is concerned. The Muslim clerics seems tackling the only issue of the

modern age: the post-colonial and post-imperial fallout. The critical challenge

produced by the modern issues is the way to assess the contemporary Muslim

clerics in directing Muslims towards a profound, vivid and practical way to

lead peaceful, interactive and coordinated lives with other inhabitants of the

global village. Rehman Faiz lives in Lahore - Pakistan E-mail address:

rehmanfaiz2003

 

 

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