The phenomenon of apostasy and radical Islamic groups

This is translation of an article published in Deutsche Welle in Malay

Some Islamic scholars point out that an apostate is the prerogative of God, not human authority. Follow Sumanto al Qurtuby’s opinion.

The apostasy problem has always been an important issue in Islamic history and discourse. In Islam, the actions or attitudes of a Muslim leave Islam — either with words or deeds-referred to as “riddah” or “irtidad” in Arabic, and Muslims who take this action are called “apostates.” One is said “apostasy” They moved or converted to a new religion. They may also choose not to be religious: to be secular, atheist, agnostic, etc. This problem of apostasy is not only exclusively discourse and phenomena in Islam but also in other religions.

There are many opinions among Muslim scholars about the status of riddah and how it should treat an apostate. Some argue that politics is a matter of non-religious-theological issues, so people who are out of Islam (apostates) do not have to be punished, including the execution of the murder, as it will contravene the Islamic doctrine and the Qur’an that guarantees the freedom for a person to Believing and being religious or non-believers and non-religious. For them, the history of the murder sentence for those who quit Islam is more referring to phenomena and socio-political reasons. In other words, the word “apostasy” for them, refers to the notion of “political disobedience” rather than “theological rebellion.”

There’s no consensus about it

But some argue that the problem of apostasy is a religious-theology issue that declares people out of Islam should be put to death as practiced by the early Islamic generation after the death of Prophet Muhammad. Interestingly, a number of prominent Islamic scholars, both classical and contemporary, both Sunni and Shiite, call it Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Sarakshi, Abu al-Walid al-Baji, Ibrahim al-Nakhai, Ibn al-Humam, Burhanuddin al-Marghinani Ali Gomaa, Hossein Ali Montazeri, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Tariq Ramadan, stated there is no consensus among the scholars about the death penalty for an apostate. They also affirm that the punishment of an apostate is God’s prerogative, not human authority.

The historical problems and the phenomenon of apostasy in Islam are well offset by Abdullah Saeed in the Freedom of Religion, Apostasy, and Islam or Taha Jabir al-Alwani in Apostasy in Islam: A Historical and Scriptural Analysis. This does not mean to go into more detail and detail about this apostasy. But it wants to present some apostasy phenomena among contemporary Islamic societies where many people who opt out of Islam are not in the face of the “problem of Islamic theology,” for example, but because they are sick of seeing the behavior of Muslims themselves, especially extremist Muslims.

Traumatic factors

For militant-conservative Islamic groups, apostasy is a haram act and apostates must be killed. But they do not realize that many Muslims who choose to become “apostates” is precisely because they are traumatized by the brutal behavior of the radical Islamic group itself.See for example the narration of “former Muslims” in the book Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out edited by Ibn Warraq A Rajkot-born “retired Islamist” India.In this highly provocative book, a number of ex-Muslims voiced loudly testifying about the deplorable behavior of radical Muslim groups in Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.

The authors of this book were formerly devout Muslim scholars until they witnessed the terrible moments in their lives until they finally proclaimed a “good bye” to Islam, now they chose to be Christian, agnostic, atheist, humanist, secularist, Free thinkers, etc. After declaring themselves “emoh” to Islam, they then — in general — choose to live in the West (especially the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Australia) as their new asylum with consideration (1) They remain in their home country because a convert is denied apostasy and therefore can be killed, and (2) because in the West there is a guarantee of freedom of religion.

The book written by the “apostates” is important to be listened to as a sharp criticism of the act of religious radicalism done by, in the words of Muhammad Said Ashmawi, the group of “extreme Islam” which often spread violence and hatred in conveying religious messages. Without realizing that their sadistic and barbaric behavior has caused some Muslims to become frustrated and lose faith in their religion then choose to leave Islam. This shows that the problem of apostasy or the conversion process is not solely a theological-religious but also socio-political (and economic) issue.

That’s what Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina, Anwar Shaikh, Faisal Muhammad, Sheraz Malik, Samia Labidi, Abul Kasem, and many more. Their return was devout Islamic converts who then opted out of this religion after they had experienced and witnessed tragic events in their life history. Check out, for example, Ali Sina’s speech. In the “Why I Left Islam: My Passage from Faith to Enlightenment”, Ali Sina, who is still a descendent of Ayatollah Iran, said that his life was witnessing a series of horror in his country, Iran, saying that since Ayatollah Khomeini succeeded in toppling the dictator Shah Reza Pahlevi in 1979 He replaced the secular ideology of the state with the “Islamic ideology” subject to the Khomeini authority.

According to Ali Sina, instead of wanting to uphold the “sovereignty of God”, in practice it is the upholding of “Khomeini’s sovereignty” which through his secret agent Sazamane Etelaat Va Amniate Kechrar (SEVAK) he and his supporters destroy anyone who will not bow to His religious-political authority, including his former allies. So when Imam Khomeini came to power, Sina said, life was very cheap: thousands of Iraqis were killed as a Gulf War effect between Iran-Iraq, thousands of followers of Baha’i Faith tortured on apostasy charges, and thousands of Iranians who rejected political and religious authority The Imam was imprisoned. The fate of women is even more tragic. Before they were killed, they were raped by “shari’a soldiers” for a reason: as a “reward” of dissent to the Ayatollah and a ticket to heaven. The tragic events during Khomeini’s regime left Ali Sina traumatized and lost faith in Islam, so he chose apostasy. Now he founded Faith Freedom Foundation to advocate people who want to leave Islam.

Tired experience

In addition to Ali Sina, a bitter experience is also experienced by Abul Kasem (Bangladesh), Sheraz Malik (Pakistan), Anwar Shaikh (Pakistan-Britain), Nadia (Marocco), Samia Labidi (Tunisia), Azad (India) and many more. After experiencing and witnessing the tragic events of “religious violence” committed by radical Muslims in their country, they then migrated to a new “faith.” It is undeniable that in “Islamic-based” countries there have been some sadistic events perpetrated by a group of militant Muslim regimes and religious radicals for their political-power ambitions.In the name of religion and the enforcement of “Islamic Shari’ah” Terror and violence against minority groups and political opponents-his religion.

Egyptian female writer Bat Ye’or has shown some of the dark histories of militant-conservative radicalism against these minorities in The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam from Jihad to Dhimmitude 7th-20th. In this book, he argues that the concept of dhimmi-especially Christianity and Judaism-that literally refers to the definition of “protected people” in reality becomes “exploited/oppressed people” Exploited “because, in addition to being forced to pay taxes to the government, they have never enjoyed civil rights as citizens. In Islamic Shari’ah-based countries, they do become second-class citizens (if not “not classy” anymore).

Not only non-Muslims alone, Muslims who happen to be opposed to the ideology and religious flow of the ruling regime, both Sunni and Shiite regimes, are also subjected to cruel and discriminatory treatment. Some of the Muslims who are oppressed by this extreme Islamic regime still survive Islam. But some others prefer to escape to other countries and unwilling embrace Islam again.

The above illustrations are a stern warning and provide valuable lessons for Muslims, especially militant-conservative Muslim groups who have been keen to “preach” in violent and intolerant ways.The brutal behavior and violent acts they perpetrate not only cause public sympathy Against the Muslims declining, or degrading the level of public confidence in Islam as a religion of peace, tolerance-pluralism, and “rahmatan lil alamain”, but more than this silly act of radical religion has led to the apostasy of some Muslims themselves.

In the future, Muslims must spread Islam in peaceful, polite, and tolerant ways, not by violent, abusive, and intolerant actions that harm Islam and Muslims themselves. If Islam is a religion of “mercy for the universe,” then prove it by real action.

Author:

Sumanto Al Qurtuby (ap / HPF)

Lecturer of Cultural Anthropology and Director of Scientific Research in Social Sciences, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, and Senior Scholar at the National University of Singapore. He earned his doctorate from Boston University and has received visiting fellowships from the University of Oxford, the University of Notre Dame, and Kyoto University. He has written hundreds of scientific articles and dozens of books, including Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia (London & New York: Routledge, 2016)

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