Apostasy and Religious Freedom

Reciprocity and Social Peace

The principle of reciprocity, central to all religious and secular ethics, lies at the core of the Islamic concept of justice.  The Quran is pervaded with injunctions that encourage Muslims to reciprocate good for good and evil for evil. [10] The principle is, similarly, epitomized in the Golden Rule of the Christian faith, and has been given a secular expression in Kant's categorical imperative: "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law." [11]

In modern society where people of different faiths live side by side, and cooperate under a system of law that recognizes their equal dignity, a due attention must be given to the principle of reciprocity as the essence of justice in a multi-religious society. Any attempt by a religious community to place sanctions and apply coercion on its members who choose to convert to another religious group will place a moral obligation on the latter to defend the newcomers who choose to join their faith. Muslims would feel morally obligated to defend the right of a Jew and Christian to freely embrace Islam, and would not accept any coercive measure intended to restrict the right of Jews and Christians to convert to Islam. A Christian or a Jew who converts to Islam is no more a Christian or a Jew, but a Muslim and must be respected as such. By the same token a Muslim who converts to Christianity is no more a Muslim, but a Christian and must be respected as such.

Indeed, there are already signs that the calls by radical voices within Muslim societies to revive apostasy laws have provoked calls by others to restrict conversion to Islam of members of their communities. In December 2004, members of the Coptic community in Egypt cried foul when Coptic women converted to Islam. Coptic leaders accused Muslims of forcing the women to accept Islam, and thousands of Christian Copts demonstrated "in various parts of the nation against what they say is the government's failure to protect them against anti-Christian crimes." [12]

Although medieval Christian Europe practiced coercion to force reverse conversions to Christianity, modern societies recognize the freedom of religion of all citizens. Muslim scholars have the obligation to reconsider modern reality and reject any attempt to revive historical claims rooted in classical jurisprudence that are clearly at odd with Quranic principles and Islamic spirit, and with modern society and international conventions and practices. It would be a tragedy, for both social peace in Muslim societies and world peace in an increasingly diverse global society, if religious communities embrace practices that limit freedom of religion, and adopt measures that rely on coercion to maintain the integrity of religious communities.

Notes:

[1] Abdul Rahman is an Afghani national who converted to Christianity in 1990 while working as a medical assistance for a Christian non-governmental aid group Peshawar, Pakistan. In 1993, he moved to Germany, and he later unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium before returning to Afghanistan in 2002.  Abdul Rahman was divorced by his wife over his conversion to Christianity, and in the ensuing custody battle over the couple's two daughters, she and her family raised the issue of his religion as grounds for denying him custody. In February 2006, after a custody dispute concerning Abdul Rahman's daughters, members of his family reported him to the police. He was arrested after police discovered that he possessed a Bible.

[2] See Christian Science Monitor, March 27, 2006 edition, "Conversion a thorny issue in Muslim world."

[3] Ibid., see also New York Times, "Kabul Judge Rejects Calls to End Trial of Christian Convert," March 24, 2006.

[4] See for example al-Shatibi, al-Muafaqat (Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Ma'rifah, n.d.), vol. 3, pp. 15-26.

[5] Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiah (Cairo : Mustafa Halabi Press, 1955/1375), Vol. 2, P. 409.

[6] For an elaborate discussion of this point see Mohamad Hashim Kamali, Freedom of Expression In Islam (Kuala Lumpur : Ilmiah Publishers, 1998), pp. 87-106.

[7] See for instance Al-Iz bin Abdul Salam (d. 660AH), Qawa'id al-Ahkam (The Basis of Rules), Vol. 1, pp. 113-21; al-Shatibi, Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 318-20.

[8] The Quran repeatedly points out that people's neglect of its commandments has no consequences onto the Divine whatsoever -- be it good or evil -- but only onto themselves: See for example, verses: (2 Baqarah 57), (7 al-A'raf 160), (3 Al-Imran 176-77), and (47 Muhammad 32).