离开伊斯兰，投奔其他宗教，处死无根据

离开伊斯兰，投奔其他宗教，处死无根据

宗教自由在马来西亚是一个大课题。个人有宗教自由的权利，怎么就这么难让那些信奉伊斯兰教的朋友理解？

还好有这么一些伊斯兰学者和朋友，能够对《可兰经》有正向的理解。下列这篇文章让我看到未来宗教融合的希望。

When Muslims become Christians
Posted by Raja Petra
Monday, 21 April 2008

(BBC News) - I was staggered to learn that the Quran does not say anything about punishing apostates and that its proponents use two hadiths instead to support their view.

There's a widespread belief that the penalty for leaving Islam is death - hence, perhaps, the killing of a British teacher last week. But Shiraz Maher believes attitudes may be softening.
Ziya Miral's parents disowned him when he converted from Islam to Christianity.
"They said 'go away, you're not our son.' They told people I died in an accident rather than having the shame of their son leaving Islam."

It's too easy to say this is just a cultural problem. --Shiraz Maher

Born and raised in Turkey, he decided to convert to Christianity after moving to university. He knew telling his parents would be a difficult moment even though they're not particularly observant Muslims, and he planned to break the news to them gently.

In the end, events overtook him. Before heading back to Turkey for the holidays, Ziya briefly visited a Christian summer camp where he was filmed eating a bowl of spaghetti.

The first his parents heard of his conversion was when they saw Ziya on the national news being described as "an evil missionary" intent on "brainwashing" Turkish children.

His parents decided they would rather tell people that he was dead than acknowledge he was a Christian. And Ziya, who now lives in the UK, is not alone in this experience.

Sophia, which is not her real name, faced similar pressures when she decided to become a Christian. Coming from a Pakistani background but living in east London, 28-year-old Sophia spoke about the extreme cultural pressures her family put her under.

"They kept saying: 'The punishment is death, do you know the punishment is death?"

In the end, Sophia ran away from home. Her mother tracked her down and turned up at her baptism. "I got up to get baptised, that's when my mother got up, ran to the front and tried to pull me out of the water. "My brother was really angry. He reacted and phoned me on my mobile and just said: 'I'm coming down to burn that church."

For Sophia and Ziya, a lot of the prejudice they faced seemed to be borne out of cultural ideas, which are particularly ingrained in the South Asian community relating to notions of family honour.

SENTENCED TO DEATH

Hashem Aghajari, a history professor in Tehran, was sentenced to death for apostasy in Nov 2002. He had said Muslims should not follow clerics "like monkeys". The sentence sparked off a month of student protests and was quashed by Iran's Supreme Court.

Abdul Rahman began a new life in Italy after his trial for apostasy in Kabul collapsed.

But it's too easy to say this is just a cultural problem. Dig a little deeper and you find that there is a theological argument which advocates the death penalty for apostates, which has serious implications for British society.

Last week, British teacher Daud Hassan Ali, 64, was shot dead in Somalia. His widow, Margaret Ali, said her husband was targeted by Islamists who "believe it is ok to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith".

Those renouncing their faith for atheism or agnosticism are viewed in a similar way to those who adopt another faith.

A poll conducted by the Policy Exchange last year suggested that over a third of young British Muslims believe that the death penalty should apply for apostasy.

Until recently, I would have shared that view, but since personally rejecting extremism myself, I've been re-examining the issues which I once regarded as conclusive.

Discretion

I was staggered to learn that the Quran does not say anything about punishing apostates and that its proponents use two hadiths instead to support their view. Hadiths are the recorded traditions and sayings of the Prophet which, in addition to the Quran, provide an additional source of Islamic law.

The hadiths which relate to apostasy are linguistically ambiguous and open to interpretation. Distinguished scholars told me that the hadiths actually speak about a death penalty for treason, not apostasy. And even then, they stressed the punishment is discretionary.

I believe the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and based on a misunderstanding.
---- Usama Hassan (Scientist and imam)

Dr Hisham Hellyer is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies at University of Oxford, and has researched classical Islamic law.

He believes the death penalty punishment is no longer applicable and should be suspended under certain circumstances.

Usama Hassan, a Cambridge-educated scientist and an imam, goes further and says the classical scholars were wrong in how they interpreted the Quran. He is unequivocal in denouncing those who advocate the death penalty.

"I believe the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and based on a misunderstanding of the original sources, because the Quran and Hadith don't actually talk about a death penalty for apostasy."

Last year Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, unequivocally told the Washington Post that the death penalty for apostasy simply no longer applies. It provoked a flurry of debate in Egypt and the wider Middle East.

Traitor

The idea of killing apostates has become a resurgent theme in recent years, a fact closely-related to the increasing politicisation of Islam since 9/11.

It epitomises the "us and them" mentality felt by many Muslims between themselves and the West. And there's an uncomfortable conclusion to all this.

Muslim attitudes towards apostasy are a metaphor for the wider struggle taking place within Islam. ----Shiraz Maher

If there is a death penalty for treason, then who defines what treason is?

Earlier this year a group of men from Birmingham pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to kidnap and behead a British Muslim solider because they regarded him as a traitor. Joining the British army was to them treason against Islam.

So while the debate surrounding one aspect of apostasy continues, it is simultaneously throwing up an entirely new series of challenges around other issues including what should be considered treason against Islam.

Muslim attitudes towards apostasy are a metaphor for the wider struggle taking place within Islam, between those who argue for a progressive form of Islam and those who argue for more dogmatic interpretations.

Attitudes to apostasy may be a useful barometer for judging where it's headed.

掀开世界历史的新章

张济作终于开始写BLOG了。世界将开始不一样了。哈哈！

首先要感谢两张。一大一小，一男一女。大者，男也，吉安先生；小者，女将，嫚欐小姐。

没有他们的鼓励和支援，我还不知如何开始写BLOG。

今天新开张，先抒发一下心情。

2008年3月8日是最令我开心的日子。期盼已久的两线制，终于初露雏形，在野者终于可以有伸展政治抱负的舞台。衷心希望他们可以把握机会，认真为民谋福利，实现真民主。

权力使人腐化。未掌权时态度可能谦卑柔和；掌权后，可不能变得傲慢无礼。我的许多“人民联盟”的朋友，现在开始忙了，难联络上了，希望他们原来真诚为人民服务的本质，不会随着岁月的流失而变质。

我的患难朋友们终于可以扬眉吐气，我替他们感到高兴。

我特别感念那些从1998年“烈火莫熄”开始，就投入政治改革运动的朋友，尤其是壮志未酬的阿TAN，陈信构。愿他安息，也愿他保佑，使人民公正党不会偏离原来的轨迹。