<<<< Part 1: Apostasy
 

Heresy and Blasphemy

The kidnapping of South Korean Christian missionaries by the Afghan Taliban was almost inevitable. Islam has traditionally protected itself from outside influences and deviations of ideology by imposing strict prohibitions against apostasy. In March 2006, Algeria passed a law banning the "urging or forcing or tempting, to convert a Muslim to another religion." Penalties included a fine of $6,000 to $12,000 and imprisonment from two to three years.

Morocco under King Mohammed VI purports to be moderate, yet in November, 2006, a German man was jailed for six months for trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. He was found guilty under legislation which outlaws "anyone who employs incitements to shake the faith of a Muslim or to convert him to another religion."

In May this year, Pakistan's parliament allowed a draft law to be passed to a committee for possible implementation, called the Apostasy Act 2006. Should this act become law, anyone who adopts a faith other than Islam would (if male) receive the death penalty if he does not "repent" and return to Islam. All property and children of an apostate would be confiscated. Such a law would contradict Pakistan's already meaningless constitution, which claims that "every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion."

For a religion that claims to be the "true" faith, such measures suggest that its followers are easily threatened. In Malaysia since 1988, no issue of Islamic law can be countermanded by the judicial courts. Apostates from Islam are simply not allowed to be recognized as such. The only Muslims who have been allowed to officially leave Islam have only succeeded after their deaths. On August 11^th, Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah, a Chinese former convert to Islam who tried to have her official status as "Muslim" removed was ordered to attend counseling.

Lina Joy, who became a Christian in 1986, has tried without success to have her status as a Muslim removed from her identity card. She took her case to the Supreme Court last year, but on May 30^th this year, her appeal failed. She cannot legally marry her Christian fianc?? while she is classed as a Muslim. She and her lawyer have received death threats. 40% of Malaysia's population is not Muslim. These people are regarded as second class citizens by the ruling UMNO party, who uphold a policy called "ketuanan Melayu", which claims Malays (who are automatically classed as Muslims on their identity cards) are the original inhabitants of Malaysia, and deserving of special privileges.

The true original inhabitants of Malaysia, called the Orang Asli, are subjected to policies of Islamic conversion, whereas in most of Malaysia's 13 states, anyone guilty of "persuading, influencing a Muslim to leave Islam for another religion." can receive a fine of $2,653 and a one year jail sentence. Despite its false claims to be "moderate", Malaysia appears close to implementing sharia law universally. The Chief Justice, Ahmad Fairuz, said last month that sharia law should fill in the "gaps" created by abolishing common law.

Indonesia is the nation with the largest population in the world, and non-Muslims account for only 15% of the population. After the tsunami killed 170,000 Indonesians on December 24, 2004, aid workers from around the world arrived to assist the victims, who were mostly from Aceh province. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam or FPI) also arrived, and according to one report, threatened Christian aid workers:

"Hasri Husan, a leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, a militant Muslim group that is operating a refugee camp in Banda Aceh, made his feelings clear. 'We will chase down any Christian group that does anything beyond offering aid,' he said before making a slashing motion across his throat."

The leader of this group, Habib Muhammad Riziek Syihab, was educated in Saudi Arabia. This group, along with Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Anti-Apostasy Movement and others, has been involved in campaigns of harassment against Christians and their churches. FPI has also been involved in pressuring local city and regional councils to introduce strict Islamic bylaws. These laws have been used to forbid women from being out alone at night, lest they be convicted as prostitutes.

Three Christian women who acted as Sunday school teachers discovered how vicious Indonesian Islamic fanatics can be when they were arrested on May 13, 2005. Dr Rebekka Loanita Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Mala went on trial in in Indramayu, West Java in July, 2005. Their case, which had been brought by the Indonesian Council of Mullahs, involved their being accused of trying to convert Muslim children to Christianity by inviting them to a "Happy Weekend" event. Even though the children's parents had approved their offsprings' participation, the women were found guilty of breaching the 2002 Child Protection Act, and they were jailed for three years on September 1, 2005. The women lost their appeal on January 19, 2006.

The three women were finally released on June 8^th this year. What makes this case more disturbing is the way the court was pressured by Islamists. Three truckloads of angry Muslims arrived and surrounded the court building, issuing calls for the women to be hanged. They also chanted that apostasy is a crime against Islam. The Islamic protesters had even brought an empty coffin to lay outside the courtroom, which bore the name "Rebekka". A video, showing the protesters calling for the deaths of the Christian women, can be found on YouTube.

When inter-faith violence has broken out in Indonesia, the results have been ugly. The Moluccan War took place in the Spice Islands and Sulawesi from 1999 to 2002. 9,000 people, most of them Christians, died. The conflicts on Poso, Sulawesi saw 1,000 people killed in the war, and have continued sporadically until the fall of last year and again in January 2007.

In July 2006 the results of a poll conducted by the Center for Islamic and Social Studies (PPIM) were published. The study found that 43.5 % of Muslim respondents said they would be prepared to wage war on threatening non-Muslim groups, while 40% said they would use violence against anyone seen to be blaspheming against Islam. 14.7% said they would be prepared to destroy Christian churches which did not have official permits.

One Muslim sect that continues to receive persecution from "traditional" Muslims is the Ahmadi or Ahmadiyah sect. This group is peaceful, to the extent that to become an Ahmadi, one must swear not to harm any living person. Despite this, the group is banned from attending the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. In Pakistan, the group is preventing from preaching under the penal code's blasphemy laws, articles 298-B and 298-C. The sect, founded in India in 1898, follows the teachings of Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani (1835 - 1908). For traditional Muslims there is "no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his last prophet". As the Ahmadi believe their founder is a prophet, and also the Messiah or Mahdi predicted by Mohammed, they suffer persecution.

In Indonesia there are an estimated 200,000 Ahmadi living in the archipelago. On the morning of Tuesday, September 20, 2005, a mob of 1,000 fanatical Muslims descended upon an Ahmadi community in Sukadana, West Java. Armed with swords and sharpened bamboo staves, the mob damaged 70 homes and six mosques. Only five people were arrested. In March last year, Indonesia's religious affairs minister, Maftuh Basyuni, announced that the Ahmadi should declare themselves to be non-Muslim. In February 2006 on the island of Lombok, adjacent to Bali in Nusa Tenggara Barat province, homes belonging to Ahmadis were burned down. 187 Ahmadis fled as refugees to Mataram. Some sought asylum in Canada and Australia.

In Bangladesh, persecutions of the Ahmadi have been led by two parties which were in the last coalition government, the Jamaat-i-Islami and also the Islami Oikya Jote. Mosques have been violently attacked, communities have been boycotted, and their opponents have tried to blockade the main national airport. On January 8, 2004, the Islamist parties caused the corrupt government, led by Khaleda Zia, to ban all publications by the Ahmadis.

In February 2006, U.S. Congressman Joseph F. Crowley (D-NY) condemned the Bangladesh government's failure to protect its minorities, including the Ahmadis. Article 28 of Bangladesh's constitution outlaws any discrimination against "any citizen on grounds only of religion, race caste, sex or place of birth," and Zia's government effectively ignored this to appease rioting Islamists. Khaleda Zia was arrested last week on corruption charges. Her government's mismanagement of the country and support for terrorism has led to democracy being suspended at least for the next year.

In Pakistan, the Jamaat-e-Islami party has been involved in numerous attempts to destroy democracy and forcibly impose Sharia law. When the dictator Zia ul-Haq ruled the country from 1977 until his death in a plane crash in 1988, the Jamaat encouraged him to introduce strict Islamist laws. These included the Blasphemy Laws, introduced in 1986. These laws have been used to persecute religious minorities, particularly Ahmadis and Christians.

The Ahmadis can be directly prosecuted under the Blasphemy Laws, as happened in July last year to four members of the sect (sometimes called Qadiani) in the village of Mianwali Bangla near Sialkot city, adjoining India. The four were accused of preaching their faith to a Muslim villager, a breach of article 298-C. Under article 298-B, no Ahmadi can call him or herself a Muslim. Penalties for such "crimes" can invoke jail sentences of up to three years. More than 2000 Ahmadis have been sentenced under the blasphemy legislation.

There is little need for Islamists to legislate against Ahmadis in Pakisitan, as the local populace in rural areas can enact assaults against them with virtual impunity. A month before the charges were made, a village in the same district as Mianwali Bangla was attacked, and houses and stores were set on fire.The entire community of Ahmadis from Jhando Shahl village, comprising 60 to 70 individuals, was forced to leave the village.

Even in death, Ahmadis can still be vilified. On March 8, 2006, a 17-year-old Ahmadi girl died and was buried in a Muslim graveyard. The local imam had refused to conduct funeral oratories for her, even though she had taught schoolchildren the Koran. Ten days later following pressure from Islamists and cleric, her body was dug up and re-interred in an Ahmadi cemetery. A local madrassa leader issued a fatwa declaring it "permissible" to dig up the body, and Ahmadis must not buried with Muslims. Between 1988 and 2006, there have been 28 similar exhumations, and 36 Ahmadis' bodies have been refused Muslim burial.

The Muslim blasphemy legislation in Pakistan has led to lynching and deaths. Muslims have been among the victims (including imams), as have Christians. Article 295-B of the penal code states that anyone who willfully desecrates a Koran can be jailed for life. Merely to be accused of any of the blasphemy statutes means that an individual is imprisoned until completion of his or her trial. As well as seeing a person remanded on the strength of an accusation, charges often trigger riots against Christians, who number only 3% of the entire population.

On November 12, 2005, a rumor was spread that a Christian man had burned pages from a Koran at Sangla Hill in Punjab. A 1,000 strong mob, encouraged by loudspeaker announcements from mosques, rampaged against the Christian community. The home of Father Samson Dilawar, a Catholic parish priest, was set ablaze, forcing him to flee through a window. His church, a convent, the convent's boarding house, a primary school, a medical center, and a Presbyterian church were also torched. In the Catholic Nazooli-i-Rooh church, statues of Christ had feet snapped off and crucifixes were bent. The accused man was innocent, but was only freed on February 23, 2006. Though 88 Muslims had been charged with the arson attacks, none were convicted. By this time, Islamists from Lashkar-e-Jhvangi had threatened Christian leaders with death.

The violence of mobs incensed by claims of blasphemy is shocking. On June 15, 2006 an imam, Hafiz Qamar Javed, was lynched to death in Bahawalpur after members of a rival Sunni sect accused him of burning pages from a Koran. After his death, police filed blasphemy charges against him. Days later in Punjab province, another Muslim who had been accused of blasphemy was killed. When Abdul Sattar Gopang was being brought into the court compound at Muzaffargah District and Sessions Court, two men stabbed him ten times. When he was buried, no Muslim cleric would deliver funeral rites for him. On June 7, 2006, a 38-year old mentally ill Muslim man from Karachi was placed in jail after being accused of trying to burn a Koran. His arrest probably saved him from a lynch mob which had set out to attack him.

On February 19, 2006, in response to the "blasphemy" of Danish cartoons of Mohammed, two churches in Sukkur in Sindh province were burned down. St Mary's Catholic Church and St. Saviour's church were burned. Four other churches in Pakistan were burned in response to the cartoons.

In November last year, two Christians who had been accused of burning pages of the Koran were sentenced to 15 years' jail, and were fined 25,000 rupees each ($411). In June 2006 the chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance appealed to the chief justice to acknowledge the widespread misuse of Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Shahbaz Bhatti stated: "Blasphemy law is used as a weapon to settle personal scores. Many innocent people are killed and incarcerated due to its misuse of blasphemy laws. Similarly, in the cases of blasphemy the families of the accused are also threatened and they faced harassment and victimization".

In September 2005 a Christian in Chungi Amer Sidhu, Lahore in Punjab province, was accused of blaspheming against the prophet of Islam, breaching article 295-C of the Pakistan penal code. Originally, the penalty for this "crime" was a possible death sentence. After 1990 the death penalty became compulsory, when the Federal Shariat Court ruled that "The penalty for contempt of the Holy Prophet... is death and nothing else."

The man was eventually arrested, but only after violent mobs had caused 50 Christian families to flee their homes. On May 30, 2007, Younis Masih, the Christian man originally accused of "making derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed" was given a death sentence at Lahore Sessions Court. Because of the risk of violence from fanatics, his court appearance was made via a video link from Lakhpat jail. Mr. Masih was also fined 100,000 rupees ($1,647).

Pakistan, a so-called ally in the war on terror, has a religious affairs minister ??? Ajaz ul-Haq ??? who holds views that would be repugnant to any decent human being. Last year he said that even if 100,000 Christians lost their lives, the laws on blasphemy would never be repealed.

Mohammed Ajaz ul-Haq (also spelled Ijaz) is a son of the dictator who originally introduced the blasphemy laws. In June this year, he responded angrily to Britain's knighting of Sir Salman Rushdie. He said in the National Assembly: "The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the 'sir' title." If such an individual is the minister responsible for religious affairs, it is small wonder that al Qaeda thrives in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province.

In Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, the death sentence has been applied for apostasy, though in Saudi Arabia, the last known execution for apostasy happened in 1992. More generally, such cases are charged as blasphemy. In Saudi Arabia, blasphemy has been punished with sentences of decapitation or imprisonment for up to eight years with 2,000 lashes. The latter sentence was imposed in 2002 on a man who had said he found the Koran "boring." On January 7, 2003 Hail Al Masri, a Yemeni fruit seller living in Jeddah, was sentenced to death by decapitation. His "crime" had been to refuse his roommate's entreaties to engage in morning prayers. Masri had been sentenced to two years' jail and 600 lashes, but this had been overturned by a Jeddah court, which had imposed the death penalty.

Indonesia is said to be "moderate", but the blasphemy laws allow a person to be jailed for up to five years. In July last year, an eccentric leader of a sect was jailed for two years. The Kingdom of Eden Sect was led by a woman, Lia Aminuddin. This sect was neither Christian nor Muslim, and was based in Jakarta. Ms. Aminuddin had preached her beliefs with impunity for a decade until she declared that she was the spirit of the Archangel Gabriel. Islamists from the Indonesian Council of Ulemas surrounded her compound in Jakarta for two days in December 2005, until Ms. Aminuddin and 48 others were arrested and charged. The prosecution sought the five year penalty against Ms. Aminuddin, and launched an appeal against her "lenient" sentence. Article 29, b, of Indonesia's constitution states: "The State guarantees all persons the freedom of worship, each according to his/her own religion or belief." Unless one offends Islam, of course.

Countries such as India and Egypt have general laws against "offending religion." In Egypt, the maximum penalty for committing this offense is five years in jail. Recently, Taslima Nasreeen was charged in Hyderabad for "offending religion".

It is easy to document cases of human rights abuses where Muslim countries have enacted draconian blasphemy laws. What becomes more problematic is that though penalties rarely invoke jail sentences, plenty of Western nations have blasphemy laws of their own. These laws protect Christianity from abuse, but they blatantly contradict these nations' professed notions of "freedom of expression" and thus deny basic rights. The U.S. is fortunate. In 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that New York's state statutes against blasphemy were unconstitutional, setting a precedent in legal interpretation. In recent times when any blasphemy laws have been enacted in Western countries there has been moral outrage, and sentences are usually thrown out on appeal.

This has not stopped Muslim activists attempting to widen these virtually obsolete laws, so that any slur against Islam or its prophet becomes a criminal offense. Such measures were attempted in France last year. Though supported by the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), this proposal never got out of the starting gate, as France is rigidly secular and had no blasphemy law to begin with. In Norway last year, in response to the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, Muslims claimed that the country needed a blasphemy law.

In Britain (which has a law against "blasphemous libel???) Tony Blair's Labour Party tried to outlaw blasphemy against Islam in 2005. The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill was introduced after lobbying by the Muslim Council of Britain, an Islamist group which was co-founded by Muslim Brotherhood member Kemal el-Helbawy whose senior members have supported Hamas and Osama bin Laden. The bill was passed by the House of Commons but was defeated in the House of Lords on October 25, 2005. The bill had controversial passages removed, and it became law. In its original form, it would have criminalized any behavior or speech which could have incited religious hatred, invoking a possible 7-year jail term, even if no intention to stir up hate had been intended.

In the state of Victoria, Australia, legislation outlawing any "religious vilification" was introduced in 2004. This law, the "Racial & Religious Tolerance Act" has caused chaos. A Christian Ministry called "Catch the Fire" was singled out for legal persecution by the Islamic Council of Victoria. The ministry's two pastors, Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot, fought their case since it began in December 2004. In June 2005 they refused to acknowledge the court's order for them to apologize and pay a fine. Outside the court Pastor Danny claimed he would not submit "freedom of speech to a law which is sharia law by stealth. We will not bow down to pressure, and if it means we go to prison we will go to prison."

Though the issue of the Danish cartoons is beyond the scope of this article, the global protests which happened in February 2006, which saw at least 30 people killed, have highlighted the real differences between Islam and the West. In the West, we have become accustomed to comedians and others lampooning religious figures. Such jesting cannot harm a faith if it is based upon strong and true values. In the West, the days of burning people alive for heresy and witchcraft have long passed.

Islam, for all the rhetoric of reacting with strength to attack, appears to be very vulnerable if in a city like London a few drawings could cause thousands of people to demonstrate their anger in Trafalgar Square, whereas an Islamist bombing which killed 52 people in one day could not rouse Muslims to make a similar response.

An earlier protest, held on February 3, 2006, saw Muslims from Abu Izzadeen and Anjem Choudary's Islamist group Ahlus Sunna Wal Jammah waving placards and calling for the death of people who insulted Islam. At that time, Choudary and Izzadeen ran another group called Al Ghurabaa. Only four people from the February 3^rd demonstration have been convicted for calling for death to blasphemers. Slogans emblazoned on placards read: ""Behead those who insult Islam", "Europe. Take some lessons from 9/11", "Europe you will pay. Demolition is on its way", "Europe you will pay. Your extermination is on its way," "Slay those who insult Islam," "Butcher those who insult Islam." In Sloane Square, at the top end of Chelsea's fashionable King's Road, Samuel P. Hungtington's "Clash of Civilizations" was displayed in sharp focus.

The Islamists of Ahlus Sunna Wal Jammah and Al Ghurabaa are clear in their conviction that anyone who offends their religious sensibilities should be executed. Before Al Ghurabaa's website vanished when the group was made illegal last year, I copied an article from the site, entitled "Kill those who insult the Prophet Muhammad." This is only an extract, but it shows their reasoning:

 "At the time of the Messenger Muhammad (saw) there were individuals like these who dishonoured and insulted him upon whom the Islamic judgement was executed. Such people were not tolerated in the past and throughout the history of Islam were dealt with according to the Shariah. Ka'ab ibn Ashraf was assassinated by Muhammad ibn Maslamah for harming the Messenger Muhammad (saw) by his words, Abu Raafi' was killed by Abu Ateeq as the Messenger ordered in the most evil of ways for swearing at the prophet, Khalid bin Sufyaan was killed by Abdullah bin Anees who cut off his head and brought it to the prophet for harming the Messenger Muhammad (saw) by his insults, Al-Asmaa bintu Marwaan was killed by Umayr bin Adi' al-Khatmi, a blind man, for writing poetry against the prophet and insulting him in it, Al-Aswad al-Ansi was killed by Fairuz al-Daylami and his family for insulting the Messenger Muhammad (saw) and claiming to be a prophet himself.

 Shortly after these incidents the people began to realise that insulting the Messenger of Allah (saw) was not something to be taken lightly and that by doing so would mean that you would be killed for it, a concept that many have seem to forgotten."

Ahlus Sunna Wal Jammah, which contains the same membership as Al Ghurabaa, and which was behind the February 3, 2006 protest, is still operating legally in Britain, influencing young Muslims to espouse extremist views. Whether this group represents an authentic form of "original" Islam, a claim also made by the Taliban and al Qaeda, is not for me to judge.

>>> Continue in Part 3: Forced Conversion