Ansarullah Mawlazezadah Quotes
We will invite him again because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance. We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him
Abdul Rahman had converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years before. Conversion from Islam is a capital crime under Sharia Law. Rahman was charged but the judge demonstrating the tolerance of Islamic law said that Rahman would be given an opportunity to change his mind and re-embrace Islam and if he did so, he would be converted and not killed.
Ansarullah Mawlazezadah, Afghan Judge, Referring to the Defendant in a Capital Case, March 20, 2006, Quoted on BBC News, March 21, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Abdul Rahman, Afghan citizen, had converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years before. Conversion from Islam is a capital crime under Sharia Law which was the law of Afghanistan even after the Taliban had been overthrown. He was jailed and threatened with death. Statements like this and others made directly to the government persuaded the Afghan politicians to go against their mullahs who demanded the death penalty as is proscribed by Islamic Law—Sharia. The judges tried to get Rahman to recant and he would not (see {589518}). So they finally decided that he must be mentally insane and therefore could not be tried, and the problem was solved that way.
The Empress provided freedom of religion in order to induce many settlers to immigrate to Russia. However, the clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church were terribly fearful that they would lose parishioners to other religions and they prevailed upon Catherine to outlaw preaching and conversion of the Russians. However, they were all for any attempt to convert the Muslims in the Russian Empier or at the borders. This limitation on conversion lasted until the Communist Revolution when the Communists even prohibited the Russian Orthodox from converting people. It was not until the fall of the Soviet Union that other religions were allowed to try and convert Russians and even then the number of sects that were allowed to do so were limited.
Despite the fact that the statues were holy symbols to Buddhists, they were offensive to Muslims who say statues as “graven images” prohibited by the Koran. See Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil {608419} and Jamal’s other quotation {604665}.
While not in the Koran, this attributed statement is the basis for the ban on non-Muslims going on a Hajj and going to the most holy Muslim places—Mecca, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat as well as the anti-religious hostility to all religions but Islam which is present in some Muslim countries.
Augustine had been sent by Pope Gregory to bring Christianity to England. He began by trying to preach to King Ethelbert and his court. The king’s response was the essence of what most modern democratic societies would formulate as a policy and is given in full. It is one of the great statements of religious toleration in the history of the world.
This article was originally directed against non-Muslim religions who actively sought to convert Muslims. However, Islamic organizations, have also historically made their greatest inroads with the poor and ignorant members of a society. The madrassas of Pakistan, the activities of Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza all have common characteristics with the Salvation Army where services are provided for the poor and often uneducated with the required participation in religious services, education and/or prayer. There are many Christian, Muslim, and other religious leaders who do not approve of such attempts at conversion, but there are forces within these same religions who not only take advantage of poverty and ignorance to convert but are almost exclusively devoted to that tactic. The Russian Orthodox Church had the same protest against Protestant sects targeting the poor after the fall of the Soviet Union. In general, most religions see nothing wrong with converting people in times of crisis, so long as they are doing the converting. But if another religion is converting their adherents, then it is a violation of human rights.
See {618216} for a seemingly contradictory quotation by White.
This quotation is important because it emphasizes an aspect of freedom of religion that is not usually discussed—the freedom to LEAVE a religion. As an Islamic reformer born in Iran, this notion is extremely important. Under Sharia—Islamic Law—capital punishment is required for anyone who converts from Islam to any other religion. This has been made a part of the civil law of many Islamic nations from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia as well as Iran where Sharia IS the civil law. There is no other religion in the world which makes conversion away from the religion a capital crime requiring execution. Executing people who leave a religion is a major violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This was a remarkable public statement for its time. No other political leader of an Islamic country would dare claim that people have a right to be atheists. Very few would even suggest that people should be free to choose their own religion.
