A few examples of harassment and even murder of former Muslims (read why this happens here).
- Iran: Mostafa Bordbar, a Christian convert,
was tried in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. He is one of several
Christain [sic] prisoners currently being held in ward 350 of Evin prison
for their faith. The court announced his charges as "illegal
gathering and participating in a house church". Five years before
that incident, he had also been arrested in Rasht for converting to
Christianity and participating in a house church. His interrogator at the
time, condemned him for "apostasy". However, he was temporarily
released on bail after his case passed through all legal processes. This
condemnation still remain in his record (the supporting document has been
received by Mohabat News). Judge Pir-Abbas, the judge working on Mr.
Bordbar's case, is the one who sentenced Saeed Abedini, the
Iranian-American pastor, to eight years in prison for "starting a
house church aimed to disrupt national security" (Mohabat
News).
- Iran: In January, an American Christian was
sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence on charges of “endangering
national security” in Iran. A
32-year-old married father of two from Boise, Idaho, Pastor Saeed Abedini
traveled to his country of origin last year to visit family and help build
an orphanage, only to be arrested and sent to Tehran’s brutal Evin prison.
According to Fox News, Abedini, a Muslim convert to Christianity—also
known as an apostate deserving of death under Islamic Sharia law—is
“facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors
demanding he renounce his beliefs.” In a recent letter smuggled to family
members, he recounted the “horrific pressures” and “death threats” he
endures: “My eyes get blurry, my body does not have the strength to walk,
and my steps become very weak and shaky…
They are only waiting for one thing… for me to deny Christ. But
they will never get this from me.” (Fox News; Raymond Ibrahim)
- Iran: Mohabet News
reported that four Muslim converts to Christianity were arrested in
February during house-church worship and “taken to the Revolutionary Court
of Shiraz several times in a pitiful condition with their hands and feet
chained.” They were charged with
the usual: “participating in house-church services, evangelizing and
promoting Christianity … and disturbing national security.” The report
elaborates on the “obvious mental and physical torture” Iran’s converts to
Christianity experience in prison (Raymond Ibrahim).
· Iran: Another house church pastor, Benham Irani,
remains behind bars even as his family expresses concerns that he may die
from continued
beatings, leading to internal bleeding and other ailments. The verdict
against him contains text describing him as an apostate who “can be killed.”
According to one activist, “His
‘crimes’ were being a pastor and possessing Christian materials.”( Raymond Ibrahim)
· Iran: A six-year prison sentence for Pastor Farshid
Fathi Malayeri—whose
crime was to convert to and preach Christianity—was upheld last year
following an unsuccessful appeal hearing. A woman, Leila Mohammadi, who
had earlier converted to Christianity was arrested when security agents raided
her house. Imprisoned for five months in Evin prison without any word on her
fate, she was later sentenced to two
years in prison (Raymond Ibrahim).
· Iran: A 2012 June
report indicated that, five months after five Christian converts were
arrested, their condition and fate was still unknown. They were accused of
“attending house church services, promoting Christianity, propagating against
the regime and disturbing national security.” Being imprisoned for 130 days
without word “is an obvious example of physical and mental abuse of the
detainees…. one of the prison guards openly told one of these Christian
detainees that all these pressures and uncertainties are intended to make them
flee the country after they are released.” (Raymond Ibrahim)
- Iran, 2012: A young woman who had recently converted to Christianity and was an outspoken activist against the Islamic regime, was found dead, slumped over her car’s steering wheel, with a single gunshot wound to her head. (Raymond Ibrahim)
- Rifqa Bary, a Sri Lankan teenager who lived with his parents in the United States, left home for fear of reprisal from their parents for converting to Christianity. The dispute was resolved in the courts and stirred the Muslim community in the U.S., with even the intervention of groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, such as CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations). Several sites emerged on Facebook dedicated to the subject, many of them calling for the death of Rifqa (see figure below). The conflict was resolved when Rifqa turned 18. She is afraid to return home and become victim of honor killing, and she also fears the "religious" Islamic community in the U.S. (more on wikiislam).
- The Baha’i are considered as apostates of Islam.
- Morocco Oct 2011: Dr. Bostom reports that a Moroccan Muslim 'apostate' to Christianity survives stabbing and gets US asylum. In the same post he refers to April 2010 when nearly 7,000 Muslim religious leaders backed the deportation of foreign Christians by signing a document describing their work within Morocco as "moral rape" and "religious terrorism." The pronouncement came amid a national campaign designed to vilify Christians in putatively "moderate" Morocco for the Sharia-based "crime" of proselytism.
- Iran Sept 2011: Youcef Nadarkhani, 32, a Pastor in Iran, has been condemned to death by the the 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court. The Court determined that since he has has Islamic ancestry he must recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Nadarkhani is the latest Christian cleric to be imprisoned in Iran for his religious beliefs. According to Elam Ministries, a United Kingdom-based organization that serves Christian churches in Iran, there was a significant increase in the number of Christians arrested solely for practicing their faith between June 2010 and January 2011. A total of 202 arrests occurred during that six-month period, including 33 people who remained in prison as of January, Elam reported (Fox).
- US Feb 2011: Cleric says president Obama 'must embrace Islam' or be tried when Muslims take over U.S. (WND).
- Afghanistan Feb 2011: Former Afghan Muslim Said Musa released after 9 months in prison due to international pressure. He was condemned to death after leaving Islam and adopting Christianity (AM).
- Italy Feb/2011: Muslim activists arrested for planning to "punish" Pope Benedict XVI for converting a Muslim journalist to Catholicism (ME-online).
- Ethiopia Sept/2010: Three Muslim men attacked a Christian convert with a knife in Dufti, Ethiopia. On September 13, the Muslim men forcefully took Muhammad Ali, a new Christian convert from Islam, to a mosque on suspicion that he had left Islam. When Ali refused to enter and pray at the mosque, they stabbed him on the hip with a knife. The Ethiopian constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but sadly Christians living in Muslim-dominated parts of the country suffer persecution at the hands of radicals (Northly News).
- USA Oct/2009: Sabri Husibi, a former Muslim who is now an atheist, says he has been ostracized and threatened with death since publication of a Tulsa World article Saturday in which he was critical of Islam and all other religions. Sabri Husibi, a former Muslim who is now an atheist, says he has been ostracized and threatened with death since publication of a Tulsa World article Saturday in which he was critical of Islam and all other religions. One caller said that if said anything against Shariah (Islamic law), he would be killed (Tulsa World).
- Abdul-Basser, Harvard Muslim Student Chaplain, wrote that there was "great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment [for apostates]) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand (The Harvard Crimson April 14, 2009)
- BANGLADESH Sep/2009: Christian convert from Islam and his family are threatened with death. After Friday prayers a group of zealots attacked the house of human rights activist William Gomes, a young Muslim who converted to Christianity. The police takes no steps to ensure his protection (Asia News).
- Egypt, Sept 2007: Islamic sharia scholars call fro applying apostasy punishment and enacting a law criminalizing inter-faith marriage (Almasry Alyoum).
- Afghanistan, 2006: Abdul Rahman, an Afghan citizen, was arrested in 2006 for converting to Christianity. Members of his family have asked prosecutors to the death penalty. Rahman has just released (and migrating to Italy under asylum) because of the international outcry over the case of Mr. Rahman, and the fact that the Afghan government had been installed by the U.S. invasion (CNN).
- In Britain, while Christians who turn to Islam are celebrated, the 200,000 Muslims who turned away from Islam are faced with abuse, violence and even murder.
- Somali Christian martyred. Hussein, a former Muslim, was killed by Islamic extremists after telling them that he did not pray facing Mecca since he believed God is omnipresent.
- TURKEY 1843: During the autumn of 1843, in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey, Sir Henry Layard, the British archeologist, writer, and diplomat, witnessed the punishment mandated by the Shari’a, i.e., Islamic Law for apostasizing from Islam. He described this abhorrent spectacle as follows:
“An Armenian who had embraced Islamism had returned to his former faith. For his apostasy he was condemned to death according to the Mohammedan [Islamic] law. His execution took place, accompanied by details of studied insult and indignity directed against Christianity and Europeans in general. The corpse was exposed in one of the most public and frequented places in Stamboul [Istanbul], and the head, which had been severed from the body, was placed upon it, covered by a European hat.”
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