No earthly penalty for converts, local imam says By DAVID YONKE BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
A person cannot be forced into being a Muslim, and neither should someone be punished for peacefully abandoning the faith, according to Imam Farooq Abo-Elzahab.
"The penalty is up to God in the hereafter, but there is no penalty on this Earth for apostasy," Imam Farooq said yesterday. He called the Afghan government's charges against Abdul Rahman "a kind of nonsense, a misinterpretation of Islam."
The imam pointed to Chapter 2, verse 255, in the Qur'an, or Islamic holy book: "Let there be no compulsion in religion."
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, said "it is the position of the scholars we've consulted that an individual's choice of faiths is not a matter for state intervention. If the state were to intervene, it would have to be like any other legal system in the world: It would have to be tied to some act of treason or hostile behavior."
Later the article said:
Imam Farooq, spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, said yesterday that if a Muslim converts to another religion and then organizes a military attack on an Islamic community, "then we would have to fight to defend the freedom of religion. They would be insurgents."
But Imam Farooq said Afghan leaders who believe Mr. Rahman should face the death penalty for converting to Christianity 16 years ago are "confused" in how they interpret the Hadith, the collected sayings of the Prophet Mohammed.
"The Hadith must be interpreted in light of the Qur'an, and the Qur'an never says that people who abandon Islam should be killed," he said.
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