These people could be murdered, for that is the traditional penalty for apostasy in Islamic law. Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely deny that Islamic law mandates that apostates from Islam be murdered. "Rev. Lorenz is then quoted in a local television station report saying that if a Muslim leaves his religion and does not return to Islam in a couple of days, then he must be killed. He claims that someone showed him the verse. There is no such verse, Rev. Lorenz. In every faith, apostasy is shunned but ultimate judgment is left to God, not people." -- Salam al-Marayati "A Muslim's conversion to Christianity is not a crime punishable by death under Islamic law." -- M. Cherif Bassiouni "It becomes really difficult, in light of this information, to persuasively argue that Islamic Law should permit a death penalty for apostasy." -- Ali Eteraz Unfortunately for the apostates, the facts are otherwise. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and supreme example of conduct for the Muslim (cf. Qur'an 33:21), said: "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him." (Bukhari 9.84.57) The Tafsir al-Qurtubi, a classic and thoroughly mainstream exegesis of the Qur'an, says this about Qur'an 2:217: "Scholars disagree about whether or not apostates are asked to repent. One group say that they are asked to repent and, if they do not, they are killed. Some say they are given an hour and others a month. Others say that they are asked to repent three times, and that is the view of Malik. Al-Hasan said they are asked a hundred times. It is also said that they are killed without being asked to repent." All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence teach that a sane adult male who leaves Islam must be killed. They have some disagreements about what must he done with other types of people who leave Islam, but they have no disagreement on that. "Christians arrested in Iran," from UPI, January 7 (thanks to Amil Imani): Tehran Gov. Morteza Tamadon said Iranian Christians were arrested during the Christmas holiday for converting from Islam or trying to convert others to Christianity. "Just like the Taliban, who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite, (evangelicals) have crafted a movement in the name of Christianity," he was quoted by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying.... An Iranian evangelical group in Canada, the Journal notes, claims plainclothes security guards stormed Christian households during the Christmas season looking for religious items.... "The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forcedsexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride." Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Girl gets a year in jail, 100 lashes for adultery," by Adnan Shabrawi from the Saudi Gazette, January 7 (thanks to Joseph): The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long. The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks' pregnant then, the hospital confirmed. According to the ruling, the woman will be sent to a jail outside Jeddah to spend her time and will be lashed after delivery of her baby who will take the mother's last name. Where are the Moderate Muslim voices speaking up to say these Somali Muslims are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong? Sharia Alert from Somalia: isn't it great that Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange made Oklahoma safe for Sharia? "Somali Islamists ban men, women from shaking hands," from AP, January 8 (thanks to all who sent this in): The insurgents already have banned women from working in public, leaving many mothers with a terrible choice: risk execution by going to sell some tea or vegetables in the marketplace, or stay safely at home and watch the children slowly starve. "It's an awful rule. I feel like I'm under arrest. I've started to ignore the greetings of the women I know to avoid punishment," Hussein Ali said by phone form [sic] the southern Somali town of Jowhar. The edict is also being enforced in the town of Elasha. Gunmen are searching buses for improperly dressed women or women traveling alone, said student Hamdi Osman in Elasha. She said she was once beaten for wearing Somali traditional dress instead of the long, shapeless black robes favored by the fighters. The Islamists' insistence that women wear the long, heavy robes also forces many women to stay at home because they can't afford the new clothing.... The insurgents even control parts of the capital, brazenly carrying out amputations, whippings and stonings in public places. The list of forbidden things differs from town to town and commander to commander. In Jowhar, the insurgents are now also insisting that men grow their beards but shave their mustaches, said another resident, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. The Islamists have also banned the cinema, music, and bras because they say they are all un-Islamic. Such restrictions are influenced by foreign fighters practicing Wahhabi Islam, which is much stricter than Somalia's traditional Sufi Islam that incorporates a long tradition of poetry and song. "The last time I listened a song or music, was two years ago, before the insurgents managed the full control of my village," said Bile Hassan. Now, he says, even the memory of music makes him feel afraid. Progress!TEHRAN, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Amid widespread outrage over Christian persecution, Iranian authorities said they arrested dozens of Christians who had converted from Islam.
JEDDAH - A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Al-Qaida-linked militants in war-torn southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public, residents said Saturday. People who break the rules could be imprisoned, whipped or even executed.
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos I (seen here pulling a bag of groceries into his apartment) has been imprisoned in his Jerusalem apartment for the last three years by his successor, Theofilos III, for selling land to Jews.Irineos spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday through a wireless microphone hoisted at the end of a rope to his roof — in the same black shopping bag supporters use nightly to deliver him groceries.
Read the whole thing. I'm actually surprised they haven't murdered him yet.
"They allow nobody out and nobody in to visit me," said Irineos. "They are afraid of the people because I'm loved by the people, and I love the people," he said into the microphone, peering over the edge of his roof.
It is a harsh comedown for a man who ruled his flock for four years as a revered spiritual figure.
Irineos said his successor, Theofilos III, will not allow attorneys, doctors or visitors to enter the home he has lived in for almost 40 years. He said he's been trapped there for three years for refusing to concede the patriarchate.
Senior church officials denied he was under house arrest, but others say he is indeed being held against his will.
The church deposed Irineos in 2005 over allegations he signed a land deal handing over prime church properties to Jews who seek to increase their presence in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want for capital of a future state. Irineos refused to recognize his ouster.
Palestinians consider sale of land to Jews a serious crime, and most Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem are Palestinians.
Irineos maintains he was unaware of the transactions and did nothing wrong. A report commissioned by the Palestinian Authority in 2005 concluded he didn't participate in any of the sales. When he was deposed, his defenders said the land sale charges were trumped up by his political opponents.
"I ask God every day to reveal the truth," he said. "There is no patriarch. I'm the patriarch."
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Iran arrests dozens of converts from Islam to Christianity
Saudi Arabia: Girl gets year in jail, 100 lashes for being a rape victim
January 8, 2011 http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/01/saudi-arabia-girl-gets-year-in-jail-100-lashes-for-being-a-rape-victim.html
Somalia: Misunderstanders of Islam ban handshakes between men and women, women working in public, music, movies, bras
Greek Orthodox Patriarch has been imprisoned for three years for selling land to Jews
January 9, 2010
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