The Brotherhood’s position on Apostasy and freedom of belief

Does the Brotherhood believe in religious freedom? The answer is “no,” and their position on the issue just confirms this.

It is relevant here to point out that the so-called “Punishment of Apostasy,” or in Arabic, Hadd al-Ridda, has stirred a great deal of controversy and difference of opinions among Muslim scholars, the majority of whom say that Islam does not recognize Hadd al-Ridda. There is not enough room here to review the different views and interpretations on the issue of apostasy, because it is beyond the scope of this document.  What concerns us is to adduce all the Brotherhood’s fatwas.

Issue No. 23 of Al-Da’wa magazine, April 23, 1978, Ahmed Barakat asks:

“A girl announced her conversion to Islam after a conflict with her family who later reconciled with her and convinced her to retract her decision. Is this an apostasy case per se? If yes, what is the juristic ruling on such a case?”

The sheikh replied:

Renouncing Islam after entering into it is clear apostasy without a doubt.  The apostasy is an affront to Islam; it is merely an act of recklessness and defiance to the Islamic Ummah. Islam does not force anyone to convert to it, but it categorically rejects anyone who abuses or misuses it for any overt or covert reason. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.”

Also: “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas (Justice) for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.”

As for the girl, if she is forced to live with her family, she is in a state of belief. She must try hard to get rid of the shackles of disbelief and survive her religion. However, if she reconciled with her family, and her heart has been opened to disbelief again, then she is clearly an apostate.

The scholars also stipulate before judging the apostate is to give them a second chance: If he/she repents, then they are not to be killed; but if he/she does not repent, then they are to be killed. If the apostate refuses to comply, the ruling of apostasy would be applicable. This is the tolerance of Islam, even with the dissenters – and God knows best.[1]

The inquirer neither tells us the reasons that led the girl to Islam, nor bothers to clarify the nature of the conflict she had with her family. He makes no mention of how and why she eventually agreed to reconcile with her family.  In actuality, to me, the whole story is shrouded in mystery.

The ambiguity of the answer is also no less than the question: How would the girl break the shackles of her family and flee away with her religion? Who has the right to conduct an inquisition of the degree of her belief or disbelief? And most importantly, who would execute the “Islamic” ruling of apostasy if she refuses to repent and return to Islam, or perhaps, who on earth might have the prerogative of forgiving her in the first place?

This is the Brotherhood’s self-styled tolerance that they tend to grant to their opponents. Its salient hallmarks are overlooking the root causes of the issue, and spreading death threats to dissenters and mystifying the modus operandi of implementing the rule of God.

The position of the Brotherhood on the freedom of religion manifests itself in another more general fatwa. The following question is not about a specific individual situation, as in the previous fatwa, but about the status of the apostate in Islam along with their family.

Issue No. 23, April 1978, Ryad Abdul Qader from the Kashmir, India asks:

What is the status of the apostate in Islam? What is the status of his family, too?

Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah al-Khateeb replied:

• Apostasy, or irtidād in Arabic, literally means defection or backsliding. As an Islamic legal term, it means denouncing Islam as one’s religion by a Muslim. There is no single verse in the Qur’an which prescribes an earthly punishment for apostasy. However, this Qur’anic verse illustrates the concept better: [But if any of you should turn away from his/her faith and die as a denier [of the truth] – these it is whose works will bear no fruit in this world and in the life to come; and these it is who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.] (2:217) There is no compulsion in religion. The truth is distinct from misguidance. (2:256)
• Islam does not force nor coerce a person to become a Muslim or even to remain a Muslim against his or her free will. It is also conceivable to say, “Yes, no one is forced to become a Muslim, but once he or she accepts Islam willingly, it is forbidden to reject it.”
• “Apostasy” is equal to treason. Open rejection of the fundamental beliefs of Islam by a Muslim is an act of treason. Irtidād has also negative influence on the Muslim society; it is indeed a major fitna (sedition). [And] that is why Islam has prescribed harsh punishment for it.
• According to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence: Any children should be removed and considered ward of the Islamic state.  In the case that the entire family has left Islam, or there are no surviving Muslim relatives recognized by Sharia, the apostate’s children are to remain Muslims and under Muslim custody. In the case that the children are still unborn, they will be raised by other Muslims. If a Muslim man becomes an apostates while his pregnant wife is not (or the vice versa), that child (who is born after that), is ruled as a Muslim according to his mother’s religion. “The son follows the better of the two parents,” and if the pregnancy coincided with his parents’ apostasy, the child will be also an infidel.[2]

[1]Issue No. 23 of Al-Dawa Magazine, April 1978

For more on the concept of apostasy, see:

-Ahmed Subhi Mansour: The Limit of Apostasy in Islam

[2]ibid. (Issue No. 23, April 1978)