CAIR Speaks about Abdul Rahman

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has called for the release of Abdul Rahman, stating the obvious position most Muslims take, that religious conversion is a personal matter and should not be dealt with by the government.

CAIR Calls For Release Of Afghan Christian

“Islamic scholars say the original rulings on apostasy were similar to those for treasonous acts in legal systems worldwide and do not apply to an individual's choice of religion. Islam advocates both freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, a position supported by verses in the Quran, Islam's revealed text, such as:

1) ‘If it had been the will of your Lord that all the people of the world should be believers, all the people of the earth would have believed! Would you then compel mankind against their will to believe?’ (10:99)
2) ‘(O Prophet) proclaim: 'This is the Truth from your Lord. Now let him who will, believe in it, and him who will, deny it.'’ (18:29)
3) ‘If they turn away from thee (O Muhammad) they should know that We have not sent you to be their keeper. Your only duty is to convey My message.’ (42:48)
4) ‘Let there be no compulsion in religion.’ (2:256)

“Religious decisions should be matters of personal choice, not a cause for state intervention. Faith imposed by force is not true belief, but coercion. Islam has no need to compel belief in its divine truth. As the Quran states: ‘Truth stands out clear from error. Therefore, whoever rejects evil and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks.’ (2:256)

“We urge the government of Afghanistan to order the immediate release of Mr. Abdul Rahman.”

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, and got council from Fiqh Council of North America, an association of Islamic legal scholars that interprets Muslim religious law.

Those who are calling for this man's death are very wrong.

CAIR is a good organization who are doing their part to fight against hate, sign the petition today to help correct misperceptions of Islam and the Islamic stance on religiously-motivated terrorism.

Tags: Abdul Rahman

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Muslims Converting to Christianity

I wanted to point readers to this article which details why the Afghani courts are wrong to put a Abdul Rahman on trial for converting to Christiantiy.

Some Thoughts on Muslims Converting to Christianity and Vice-Versa

The Qur'an says, "There is no compulsion in religion, truth stands clear from error".[1] A person who leaves Islam is thus exercising that free choice and no one will shoulder the results of such a choice but himself.

There is no compulsion to be Muslim, if you are Muslim, it is of your own volition. If God wants you to follow the path of Islam, you will find yourself there. But no one should ever say they have the authority to put a man on trial for acting out of his own free will. This goes against the peaceful nature of Islam and should not be accepted in the Muslim world.

There is a particular verse from Surah 2 in the Quran, Al Baqarah, or the Cow, that I am often reminded of when I hear of the harm being done to Islam by people using Islam in a hurtful and mean fashion. (This is of couse a translation)

78. And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture.

79. Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.

80. And they say: "The Fire shall not touch us but for a few numbered days:" Say: "Have ye taken a promise from Allah, for He never breaks His promise? or is it that ye say of Allah what ye do not know?"

81. Nay, those who seek gain in evil, and are girt round by their sins,- they are companions of the Fire: Therein shall they abide (For ever).

The verse is saying to not twist the words from the Quran to use for your own purposes, which is what those who justify killing, and injustice in the name of Islam are doing. They should know that God knows and sees all things, and they will be punished for their wrong doings.

Tags: abdul rahman, quran

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