In India, there is a question of Safoora Zargar, who allegedly instigated riots in Delhi in February 2020, being denied bail and kept in jail despite being pregnant. There are laws which specify what needs to be done in such cases, and her being denied bail is perfectly legal. Besides, her dangerous statements are on record. One can see just a sample of what she said here.
Despite this, the Left-liberals and camouflaged Islamic radicals like Arfa Sherwani, and others claimed that ‘injustice’ was done to her, and that she should have been released from jail just because she is pregnant. In this context, we must tell the world what Islamists did and continue to do to former Muslims, those who leave Islam.
In May 2014 in Sudan, a heavily pregnant woman was given death penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam, marrying a Christian man. Her only ‘crime’ was leaving Islam. A BBC report said on this incident:
“A court ruling in Sudan sentencing a heavily pregnant woman to death has reignited debate about punishment for apostasy.
Dr Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was condemned to hang for allegedly leaving Islam and marrying a Christian man.
The court said that by doing so, she had abandoned her religious faith and was guilty of apostasy, which carries the ultimate penalty under Islamic law in the country…
…Other more conservative Muslims refer to the words of the Prophet Muhammad in the Hadith saying: “It is not permissible to spill the blood of a Muslim except in three [instances]: A life for a life; a married person who commits adultery; and one who forsakes his religion and separates from the community.”…
The late Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s religious and political leader, famously denounced the author Salman Rushdie as an apostate for his novel The Satanic Verses – and said he should be killed.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan also uphold strict interpretations.
…In 2006, an Afghan, Abdul Rahman, who announced his conversion to Christianity escaped a death sentence and was offered asylum in Italy.
Another Afghan citizen was granted asylum in the UK earlier this year after persuading the courts he faced the death penalty at home because he was an atheist.
Meanwhile, non-Muslims such as the Bahai community have faced difficulties in countries including Egypt…
…When she was convicted on Sunday, Dr Ibrahim – who is said to be eight months pregnant – was given three days by the court to return to Islam. But she again affirmed her Christian faith, and her lawyer says she will appeal against the sentence…”
Recently there were trends on Twitter saying #BlackLivesMatter, #WhiteLivesMatter #HinduLivesMatter #MuslimLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter What needs to be trended is #ExMuslimLivesMatter since ex-Muslims are to be given death penalty in Islamic and Shariah Law, anywhere in the world. Everywhere a former Muslim is under threat, USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, or anywhere. Death penalty to anyone leaving Islam is the law today in 8 nations in the world, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Most, or all other Islamic nations have laws against apostasy, giving various punishments.
A known Indian ‘secularist’ and apologist of Islamists, Swaminathan Aiyar wrote against this on 2 April 2006 when he came to know of this law, giving death to apostates in Afghanistan, in a country supposedly rescued by liberals from the fanatical Taliban. He wrote in an article titled “The sad silence over Abdul Rehman”:
“…I am aghast at the virtual silence in India over the proposed execution of Abdul Rahman of Afghanistan for what his country’s legal system regards as the capital offence of having converted to Christianity. But I hear no outcry from moderate Muslims, or Hindu intellectuals who normally wave the secular flag. None of the major secular parties seems interested in deploring the horror. They would rather bury their heads in the sand and emerge only whenHindu communalism is the issue.
I always knew that Afghanistan’s new Constitution made it an Islamic state. But I had no idea that its laws called for the execution of any Muslim who converts to another religion. Needless to say, the law happily permits Christians or Hindus to convert to Islam.
This is not a case of some Islamic extremist saying crazy things. This is not a law in some state ruled by mad mullahs. It is the law in a country supposedly rescued by liberals from the religious extremism of the Taliban. It is the law in a country that India hails as secular, and as an old friend.
For that reason, intellectuals and political parties that never hesitated to condemn the excesses of the Taliban are silent today. To me, this reeks of hypocrisy.
…An alert prosecutor promptly charged Rahman with apostasy, punishable by death.
The prosecution had widespread public support. Rahman had to be kept in a high-security cell for fear that other prison inmates would kill him. Apparently his “crime” was enough to enrage even hardened criminals.
Most people would have quickly repudiated their conversion to escape death. But Rahman refused to budge. Go ahead and kill me, he said, but I will remain true to my faith…
…I say that a person willing to die for his religious beliefs, without threatening violence or retribution, is a hero.
My fellow secularists will argue: why raise a fuss about Abdul Rahman? He is going to be sent out of Afghanistan, and will not die. Indeed, sundry Christian associations will hail and support him wherever he goes.
To me, this is moral cowardice parading as pragmatism. Religious bigotry, whether of the Hindu or Islamic variety, is a curse, an evil. If it is not attacked wherever it exists, it will spread.
…A milder but still disturbing form of international communalism is the lack of protests in Muslim countries over Abdul Rahman’s prosecution. It bodes ill for the future.
We need to fight all religious bigotry—Muslim, Hindu or Christian. We must not gloss over the shocking Afghan law placing religious converts on par with murderers, worthy of execution. I use the word we, yet I do not how many people are with me on this issue. I hear mainly silence from Islamic countries. I hear mainly silence from supposed secularists in India. Hardly anybody wants to rock the boat for something as minor as principle.
All my life, I have sought a brotherhood of man. But if some fellow humans say I can be killed for my beliefs, will they ever be my brothers? Is there any future for this vision of brotherhood?”
Swaminathan Aiyar was shocked to know the Afghanistan law giving death to apostates. He would be more shocked to know that not just Afghanistan, but a total of 8 Islamic countries have this law giving death (and almost all other Muslim countries have laws giving various other punishments), which is in Islamic law & majority of Muslims support it.
Swaminathan Aiyar expected ‘protests’ in the Muslim world over this Afghanistan law giving death to apostates! This is because he was unaware of the theology of radical Islamists. Had he read it, he would have realized the dangers to human freedom from it, realized that the Hindu nationalists in India, who he castigated for a lifetime, are right, and that the truth is far more dangerous than what the Hindu nationalists dare to say in India.
In an Islamic Questions and Answers website, the person who answered a question on apostasy openly justified the death penalty to apostates, to anyone leaving Islam-whether born Muslim or convert.
This website said this while replying to a question by a non-Muslim asking about death to apostates in Islam! One would have thought it would misinterpret and say that it is not so, and that only God will decide after this life what to do to anyone who leaves Islam. But no, it was very honest and clear- death to any apostate.
Have you seen any ‘moderate’ Muslim condemn this? Arfa Khanum, Zainab Sikander and other camouflaged Islamic radicals have never condemned the death penalty to apostates and demanded that every Muslim should have full freedom to leave Islam. Let us dare Arfa Sherwani, Zainab Sikander and others to condemn the apostasy law in Islam.
This is how they behave in this age of Internet, when they are in a minority in the world, openly justifying death penalty to apostates while talking to non-Muslims!
