Apostasy : An Overview - The Maranatha Community

support of Joy to the Appeals Court, had received death threats. With the heading "Wanted Dead," the death threat featured a
photograph of Malik and said: "This is the face of the traitorous lawyer to Islam who supports the Lina Joy apostasy case.
Distribute to our friends so they can recognize this traitor. If you find him dead by the side of the road, do not help." Malik, 36,
said he was seeking police protection. 62
• Amnesty International reported recently that a mob of unidentified men carrying machetes set fire to the commune of the Sky
Kingdom religious sect in Terrenganu state. The sect, headed by Arrifin Mohamad, a 65-year-old ethnic Malay who claims to be
a divine spiritual leader, calls for a peaceful synthesis of all faiths, and includes Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and other
followers. Following the attack, 58 sect members, including women and children, were arrested and detained. Forty-five people
were subsequently charged for offences under Sharia law, including practising “deviant” or heretical Islamic beliefs. Only two
arrests of those suspected of attacking the commune were reported. Under Sharia law, Malaysians wishing to renounce Islam
(apostasy) to profess other faiths or beliefs are subject to criminal sanctions, as are those Muslims found to hold beliefs that
“deviate” from Sunni Islam. The Malaysian government regards the maintenance of ethnic and religious stability as critical to
Malaysia’s continued peaceful development. Trying to convert Muslims is prohibited, and officials have labelled 22 religious
sects as “deviant”, threatening either prosecution under Sharia or detention without trial under the Internal Security Act. 63
• Cases of aspiring apostates are handled by Sharia courts rather than civil courts, and according to the Koran, which states that
no Muslim should assist another out of the religion, conversion to another faith is grounds for death. It is illegal, for instance, for
the Bible and other Christian materials to be printed in the national language. Proselytising of Muslims by non-Muslims is also
forbidden (though the reverse is accepted). And proselytisers have been put away under the Internal Securities Act (ISA), which
allows for indefinite detention without trial. Authorities have begun to crack down on converts, restricting their activities in order
to prevent them from introducing Malays to Christian doctrine. Appeals for conversion usually go unheard, and many would-be
apostates don’t live to see their conversion officially recognized. As one religious scholar put it, “In Malaysia, there’s a way into
Islam, but no way out.” (source of example from footnote 64)
• There is discrimination against non-Muslims, as evidenced by the following court case: The husband of a married Hindu couple
converted to Islam in 2002 and, according to the wife, her husband also converted their two children to Islam, without her
consent. The marriage has since ended, but when the wife filed for custodial rights with a civil court, it ruled that only a Sharia
court could decide on her children’s custodial rights because they are Muslim. Subsequently, a Sharia court upheld the
children’s conversion and awarded custody to the father. However, any case dealing with Muslims goes to Sharia court. But the
mother could not testify in Sharia court because she is not Muslim. Eventually, the high court granted custodial rights to the
mother (and actual custody to both parents). There are estimates that 100 Muslims are converting to Christianity every month in
Malaysia. Christian groups estimate that there are 30,000 Malay converts in Malaysia. Some Muslim groups put the figure much
lower, but then, say non-denominational observers, most converts are said to live in secrecy for fear of harassment from the
government, family and fellow Malays. 64
MAURITANIA
• The Constitution of the Islamic republic of Mauritanian reflects Islamic teaching on apostasy, calling for the death penalty for
anyone convicted of apostasy. However, it would appear that no person has actually been executed for apostasy.
Article 306 of the Mauritanian Constitution states:
“If a Muslim is found guilty of the crime of apostasy, either through words or through actions, he will be asked to repent during a
three day period. If he has not repented within this time limit, he will be sentenced to death as an apostate and his property will
be seized by the Revenue office. Every Muslim who refuses to pray will be asked to comply with the obligation to pray within the
prescribed time limit. If he persists in his refusal, he will be punished by death.”. 65
NIGERIA
• The introduction of the Sharia penal code in 12 northern, largely Muslim, states in 1999 provoked tensions between Moslems
and Christians. Hudood punishments (fixed punishments, such as amputation for theft, stoning for adultery, etc) meted out by
Sharia courts have caused international concerns. 66
• In a recent report on Nigeria, Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom deplores the violent rise of Islam as a political
force in Nigeria, leading to a “stunning spread of hard-line Islamic law” in the northern and central parts of the country. The type
of Islam being propagated is “alarmingly similar to that imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan”. 67
• Even though the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right to change one’s religion, under the Sharia law adopted by some
Nigerian states the punishment for conversion can be death. Even trying to appeal a Sharia verdict to one of Nigeria’s higher
courts might be taken as a rejection of Sharia and therefore a sign of apostasy. There are grave concerns about the possibility
of family and vigilante enforcement, which some officials openly encourage and to which the government turns a blind eye.
• For example, while Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani has stated that his state Sharia law does not cover the situation of
someone changing his religion from Islam, he adds that leaving Islam is not allowed by the Quran, and that it is up to the
convert’s family to take “proper action” in such an instance. When asked directly whether the death penalty for apostasy applied
in Zamfara, Governor Sani appeared to give approval for extrajudicial execution: “We have not had such incident…. It is in the
Quran. It is everywhere, all over the Muslim world, but as I said, our Sharia law is clear. We have not included that in our law….
It is a thing all Muslims believe in and it is up to the family to decide what to do.” Although Governor Sani says there have been
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