Dervish

There shall be no coercion in matters of faith. Distinct has now become the right way from [the way of] error: hence, he who rejects the powers of evil and believes in God has indeed taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way: for God is all-hearing, all-knowing. (al-Baqara 2:256)

As Barney Leith, a prominent UK Baha’i whose blog posting I felt was prejudicial against Islam and what mainstream Muslims believe, has written in a subsequent blog-post:

It seems to me that, if we want genuine freedom for ourselves to seek truth and to make informed and conscientious choices about our beliefs, we must respect that freedom in others. To respect others’ freedom to choose and change their religion or belief, we actually have to respect their humanity, to accept that they are responsible moral actors, just we ourselves are.

I couldn’t agree more. What’s more, it’s a very Islamic sentiment. Surprised?

At my previous university I had the honour of being a research assistant for Professor Abdullah Saeed (who will be heading up the new government-funded Islamic Studies Centre at the University). One of my pleasurable tasks, was assisting Professor Saeed with his book Freedom of Religion and Apostasy in Islam (UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2004).

Saeed argues that when it came to matters of conviction, the Prophet of Islam honoured the right of individuals to leave Islam and we have records of people doing just that. The Prophet “left them to their own devices” as the phrase goes.
However, Saeed argues that there was a difference between apostasy as simply a faith choice (for which there is no temporal punishment, as the Qur’an says there is no compulsion in religion) and historically Muslims joining opposing armies and betraying the community. The punishment for treason (not mere apostasy) was capital, as it is in many nations around the world, including the United States today.

The problem is when apostasy laws were used as tools of political oppression. Baha’is have a similar mechanism called Covenant-Breaker status. Although they don’t impose capital punishment for people they deem Covenant-Breakers, they do impose a harsh set of social sanctions, which includes requiring Baha’i family and friends to literally and physically shun the Covenant-Breaker, or risk being declared Covenant-Breakers themselves.

Consequently, it is merely an accident of history that Islam has had the opportunity to be a state religion, and Muslims over the centuries have erred by using apostasy laws to punish political opponents. If the Baha’i faith were ever to become a state religion, I have no doubt that erring Baha’is would be tempted to use Covenant-Breaker status and disenrollment in similar measures: it is the nature of man.

Perhaps Maranatha should have invited at least one Muslim–Professor Saeed would have been a good choice–to take part in their discussion about us
[tags]Islam, Baha’i, freedom of religion, apostasy, compulsion, treason, Covenant-Breaker[/tags]

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