Egypt cleric raises controversy
2007-07-26 22:15
Cairo - One of Egypt's most senior Muslim clerics has raised controversy by saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion, prompting an outcry from conservatives insisting Islamic law requires such apostates be killed.
The editorial in The Washington Post came from Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, who is the highest official authority for issuing fatwas, or religious edicts.
The flap reflects the sharp, ongoing debate among Muslims over interpretation of Islamic law in an era when many in the West and some in the Islamic world blame hardline ideology for fuelling militancy and terrorism.
Gomaa's comments came in an editorial he contributed to a Post series on Muslim voices explaining their faith.
"The essential question before us is can a person who is Muslim choose a religion other than Islam? The answer is yes, they can, because the Quran says, 'Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion,"' he wrote, citing from Islam's holy book.
"If the case in question is one of merely rejecting faith, then there is no worldly punishment," Gomaa wrote it the article, published in The Post last weekend.
"The matter is left until the Day of Judgment, and it is not to be dealt with in the life of this world."
He said that if the apostate is also "undermining the foundations of the society," then he could be prosecuted by the judicial system to "protect the integrity of the society" - but Gomaa did not mention execution as a punishment.
The editorial brought an angry response from conservatives.
Sheik Youssef el-Badri, a hard-line cleric who has sought to prosecute in court many Egyptian artists and writers for alleged insults to Islam, called Gomaa's commentary "terrible" and demanded he resign.
"Apostasy is similar to high treason," he told said. "Its a matter of your personal choice to convert to Islam, but its not permitted to abandon it."
"Sharia (Islamic law) punishes those who convert with death; religion is not a game to play with," he said.
Gomaa's interpretation against killing apostates is not new - other prominent clerics have taken the same stance - but it was a rare, high-profile expression of the argument.
Killings for apostasy are rare in the Arab world. Government executions of apostates are unheard of.
But Sunni extremists in Iraq use the accusation of apostasy to justify attacks on Iraqis co- operating with the US or the Baghdad government.
The Quran does not directly lay down a punishment for apostasy. It has several verses saying God will deal with those who renounce their religion once they die and are judged in the afterlife.
Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a theology professor at Cairo's prominent Islamic Al-Azhar University who wrote a book of apostasy, backed Gomaa's interpretation.
Gomaa "should have been more careful," Bayoumi said. "His remarks sounded as if he was opening the doors for apostasy."
- AP