Death to Apostates?

 
There was a conference in the UK where a number of former adherents of Islam talked about the fact that rejecting Islam is a very serious offense. Apostates can be killed.

A.C. Graying wrote an article about the conference. It was published in The Guardian and you can read it on RichardDawkins.net.

Now Nesrine Malik has responded in Friday's issue of The Guardian [Death for apostasy?].

Here's part of what she says ...

As a Muslim who has lived most of my life in Muslim countries, this picture is hard to recognise. I have several friends and family members who are non-believers and apart from some efforts to return them to the straight and narrow or at least go through the motions of religious observance, they have not come into any physical danger. A close friend – hitherto religious – only recently sent me a long, tortured email detailing his journey away from Islam and from all religion; he expressed no fears for his life or safety, merely trepidation at the prospect of acclimatising to this new God-free world view.

Although the Council of Ex-Muslims and AC Grayling depict the threat to life and limb as an indisputable fact, in reality there are differences of opinion among Muslim scholars (ostensibly the hard core of the religion) regarding the death penalty for apostates.

This is not to say that Muslim governments – and Arab ones in particular – have a tolerant view of apostasy but the death threat is invoked only rarely and more for political reasons rather than religion ones: to set an example or to save face as a proxy punishment for challenging the social or political status quo. While this is in no way acceptable, it is an extension of the general lack of enshrined civic human rights and evolved political institutions and processes – a historical, social and geo-political reality in many Muslim countries that makes a mockery of any comparison to the experience of those renouncing Christianity or Judaism.

It's of little comfort to an ex-Muslim to learn that there is disagreement within the Muslim community about whether they should be put to death or not. They take only a little more comfort from the fact that the death penalty is only used "rarely."

I admire Nesrine Malik for stating that killing apostates is "in no way acceptable" but she weakens her case a great deal by making excuses. Just because killing apostates is part of a larger intolerant viewpoint is an explanation, but not an excuse. Personally, I don't much care how the members of a cultural group run their lives but I draw the line when they interfere with others. People who leave the group are making a choice and they should be left alone.

Malik claims that many ex-Muslims try to make themselves into martyrs by claiming they have been threatened with death. They are just using "the emotive power of 'death for apostasy' to serve their own ends, be they personal or political." That may or may not be true—it probably is—but that's not the point.

The point is that outspoken Muslims like Nesrine Malik should make their opposition to 'death for apostasy' much clearer than just throwing away a phrase like "no way acceptable" to be immediately followed with a reason why it's understandable.

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