Traditionally, Islam worked with a fourth category: “the level of Muslims who either leave the Islamic faith through conversion or choose not to believe (atheists or agnostics). ” These were to be punished as unbelievers. 12 Thus Islam allowed no means for a Muslim to change religion . Apostasy applied to any Muslim who denied the existence or a property of God, or a principle based on Islam such as the obligation to pray five times a day and fast during Ramadan, or who declared to be permitted what is manifestly prohibited ( haram) or prohibited what is manifestly permitted ( halal). Sharia uses the Arabic term ridda, which literally means “to turn back ” and a person who turns back, in this sense – someone who has reverted from Islam to unbelief or kufr – is despised as murtad (apostate). 13 According to Sunni Islam ’s four legal schools, the punishment for leaving the Muslim community ( umma), through conversion or renunciation of belief, was a death penalty. In short, Islamic civilization and the millet system should not be sentimentalized. The concept of dhimmitude implied the inferiority even of other monotheists. As Tibi points out, this would now be viewed as “an expression of discrimination rather than of tolerance. ”14 (Blackford, freedom of religion and secular state)
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 21:54:47 +0000
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