Egypt’s Top “Moderate” Cleric: Apostasy a “Crime,” Punishable by Death
By Coptic Solidarity
June 22, 2016
The line between “moderate” and “radical” Muslim continues to fade. On the question of apostasy in Islam—whether a born or converted Muslim has the right to abandon Islam for another or no religion—the radical position is well known: unrepentant apostates are to be punished with death.
Yet one of the Muslim world’s greatest authorities, the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar University in Egypt recently made the same pronouncement.
Last week on his daily televised show running throughout Ramadan, Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb—who was recently invited to the Vatican and warmly embraced by Pope Francis and is described in Western media as a “moderate”—said that “Contemporary apostasy presents itself in the guise of crimes, assaults, and grand treason, so we deal with it now as a crime that must be opposed and punished.”
While his main point was that those who do not follow Islam are prone to being criminals, he especially emphasized those whose apostasy is apparent as being a “great danger to Islamic society. And that’s because his apostasy is a result of his hatred for Islam and a reflection of his opposition to it. In my opinion, this is grand treason.”
Finally, Sheikh al-Tayeb added what all Muslims know:
Those learned in Islam [al-fuqaha] and the imams of the four schools of jurisprudence consider apostasy a crime and agree that the apostate must either renounce his apostasy or else be killed.
Finally, for good measure, he cited a hadith, or tradition, of Islam’s prophet permitting the killing of fellow Muslims under three circumstances: adultery, murder, and apostasy.
Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb holds a Ph. D in Islamic philosophy from the Paris-Sorbonne University, and has been president of Al-Azhar University since 2003. Between 2002 and 2003, el-Tayeb served as Grand Mufti of Egypt.
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Apostasy was not introduced by Islam
Down through the ages, any deviant from a given religion was put to death by different means, the sword, burning at the stake, quartered and other equally gut-wrenching means. That Islam still adherers to this archaic brutality, in this day and age, shows signs of fear by Muslims that Islam is on the wane. It appears that President Obama’s conversion from Islam to Christianity, an apostasy, did not ‘take’ similar to rejection of non-compatible grafted tissue, thus he was given a ‘pass’ and not condemned to death. Maybe Islam is revising its ideas about apostasy! Saba E. Demian, M.D.