Apostasy Forever

Prof. G invited me to his house for dinner.
He wanted to introduce his girlfriend to me.
She is an Algerian girl in her early twenties.
I was amazed by the fact that he is sharing a small apartment with a man and a teenage boy, but is planning to buy a big house when he is ready for marriage.
While we were eating she started to talk about the difficult condition she was facing as an Arab girl that fell in love with a French Professor, or the other way round.
They solved all their other problems including the cultural differences and that he is much older than her, but there was a big problem still burning on the surface of their relationship.
She wants him to become a Moslem.
It was obvious that neither her family nor her community will accept marrying a non-Moslem man.

She tried several times to show him the beauty of Islam, to explain to him all the misconceptions about this religion and how this step will move their relationship to another level, which is marriage.
My Professor was totally convinced that this religion is all about peace and that it came to organize and enlighten people's lives and minds.
But he had only one problem, or maybe many things that he did not understand about this religion. He wanted me to clarify it to him.
This was like an explosion of questions heading towards me.

If I become a Moslem, why can't I change my religion and go back to Christianity?
Why should I be sentenced for death?
Why should my children become automatically Moslems?
Why can't they choose their religion when they are grownups?
Where is the freedom of belief?
Why can't a Moslem woman marry a non-Moslem man, but a Moslem man can marry a Christian or a Jewish woman?

His girlfriend tried to explain to him that Islam wants to protect the religion, so the children must be like their father, and if the father is not a Moslem, then how will they learn the basics of Islam, who will teach them the religion.
Children always mimic their parents.

She gave him another argument by telling him that this religion is not something to play with, if it was easy to convert from Islam to something else then this could scatter the religion's structure and strip away the bonds of the Islamic communities. This will be like an act of treason against the Ummah.
Furthermore we Moslems believe in Jesus and Moses, but you don't believe in Prophet Mohammed (Pbuh).

I looked to Prof. G and could not say a word.
Actually I was surprised with the whole conversation.
To be honest I was not prepared for something like this.
It seemed like the man wanted me to solve this dilemma, or at least find a way out of it.
But I failed.
I had so much sympathy for the girl because she was trying so hard to make the man understand her.
I was not satisfied with myself because I could not help her.
I could see it in his eyes, he was a little disappointed because at that time he felt that this relationship will never work.
I would never dare to ask him about the development of their relationship now.

While she was talking I had a strange thought running in my mind.
I put myself in his position and tried to think the way he was thinking and I felt "fear".
If I had to take this big step and convert to a religion when I know that it is a one way direction-I can not turn back-I doubt I will take this critical step in my life.

We changed the subject when his apartment- mate entered the dinner room.

On my way home I was sad and had to have this short dialogue with my heart:

Islam depends upon faith and will, about really believing in the concepts of this religion, and this would be meaningless if she forced him to become a Moslem as she was doing at that time.
Conversion should not happen with coercion.

Why should I kill someone who did not do any harm to me or to my community?
Who gave you the right to take away something so precious like the soul of a human being?
And what will the Islam gain from an act like that? Justice?

"He will be invited to express his regret for leaving Islam, and if he refuses he will be executed according to the obligations and rights of the Islamic law."

How will foreigners think about Islam now? As a heavy burden that is connected to death?
Islam is "Salam" or peace, god is merciful and killing shows the opposite of forgiveness.
Who knows, maybe after some time he will realize that he has done a mistake and will return back to Islam ?
If we kill him, then he will never have this chance again.

Or do we see that killing him is a way to help him "washing" this big sin.
Here comes the fact or the question: After his death he will return to god as a "Moslem"!?
Like someone who stole something and his hand has been cut.Now he will "not" carry the sin of stealing with him to the grave.

Religion is a pure relationship between the slave "the human being" and god, and no one should evaluate or intrude himself in this very personal connection.


And then I remembered some friends of mine in Egypt who are Moslems but do not do anything related to Islam like praying or fasting.
Are they Moslems too?
Maybe one of them is an atheist, did not tell anyone and kept this secret to himself.
Why shouldn't he talk about his apostasy in public?
But another one can talk about his conversion to Islam?
Should he be executed because he is living in an Islamic country?
What is an Islamic country?
Is Egypt an Islamic country?
Should he leave Egypt if he is not a Moslem or a Christ or a Jew?

God can make everyone in the world a Moslem if Almighty God wants.
There is a deep meaning in the differences between people.

This is life.

To imagine the situation back in the early years of Islam when there were so many wars and it was of so much importance to enlarge the size of the Islamic nation and to strengthen the power of Islam by letting more and more people join this religion, one can understand what happened back at that time.
If one converted from Islam to another religion and fought against Moslems, which means on the other side with the enemies of Islam, it was "then" logic to kill him.
So Moslems did not kill him for his apostasy, but because he was "an enemy" who started to fight against them.

Is there a difference between a man who was born in a Moslem family and decided in his adolescence to become an atheist and a man that was an atheist and decided to embrace the Moslem faith and then became an atheist again? Should both be sentenced for death?

What about ex-Moslem monotheists? Should they be treated the same as ex-Moslem polytheists?

The Quran came to the human being to tell them about Islam in a logical way, in a way that makes sense.
But there are things that you can't find an explanation for.
Like why should Moslems pray five times a day?
Where is god?
Why is it forbidden to eat pork even if it is clean?
Some people can say that the death sentence for an apostate is another thing we just have to accept without arguing or thinking.
Others will say that this dramatic consequence of apostasy is a kind of warning to the person who wants to convert to Islam that is telling him to think twice (and rethink) before taking this decision.

Can't you see what is happening between two poles in the same religion...Sunnis and Shia?
This year I heard about Baha'i faith, Quranists, Egyptian Christians who converted to Islam but want to convert back to Christianity and ex-Moslems who are atheists and I say to myself: what a chaos. It is exactly like Lulu.

If we let those people do what they want, then…then what?
The country and the whole world will collapse?
So there is a connection between state and religion, or let's say politics and religion.
I thought religion was about an individual.
An individual who acts and lives according to his beliefs and morals.
An individual who knows what is wrong and what is right and accordingly affects his surroundings in a positive way.
His surroundings include his family and the community he lives in.
And a good individual and another good individual will make a good nation…an Ummah.
Why should religion be connected to the government?
Am I a secularist now?

This is if we think about the message of Islam from a Moslem's point of view.
But if I am an atheist, or a Buddhist, why should I follow your rules, the rules of Islam.
I have my own rules.
I have my own morals.
For instance: for you it is forbidden to drink alcohol and to have premarital sex. But for me it is not. Why do you want to punish me? Because I am the minority living among a powerful and dominant Islamic community?
Because you think you are right and I am wrong?
I see that I am right and you are wrong.
But I respect your point of view.
Why can't you respect mine?
Where is the freedom?

When I come to this magical word "freedom" I just have to stop thinking, because I tried so many years to find a real definition for "freedom".
Maybe one day I will know.

For now I have a better idea.
Why don’t we just erase the religion part in the identity card and let everyone do what he wants to do, and believe what he wants to believe as long as he doesn’t hurt anyone.
Will you act with him differently if you know his religion?
Religion is something between you and god.

It is no one's business, and only god will decide who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.
If I were an atheist, I would never mention the latter.