Dr. Ali Mufti: Muslims are free to leave their religion, their fate is with God on Judgment Day
July 24th, 2007On today’s Al Masry Al Youm (Arabic), Dr. Ali Jum’a Mufti explains that God has given the freedom to all humans to alter their faith, and should they do that their fate awaits them with God on Judgment Day. Dr. Mufti uses certain verses within the Holy Quran to support this argument, “whoever wants to believe shall believe and whoever wants to disbelieve may do so,” as well as “you have your religion and we have ours,” and finally “there’s no hatred in religion.”
Dr. Mufti adds that if a person merely rejects Islam, there is no punishment against that and it should be left in the hands of God. It may only involve the judicial body should that person be actually harmful, an argument not in favor of Egypt’s ruling against Kareem Amer. What Kareem went through is a personal struggle between Him and God, and he is free to believe and express whatever he wants as long as it doesn’t preach violence, which Kareem is also innocent of.
Why, then, did Kareem get sentenced to three years in prison for “insulting” Islam, if the Koran specifically notes that he is free to do so and only God reserves the right and power to punish such person for sinning? Why does the Egyptian government take upon the role of God in this case, punishing whoever it wishes in the name of Islam? We at the Free Kareem Coalition respectfully demand a valid justification on the basis of Kareem’s sentence. Where in the Quran is this action supported? More importantly, where are the rest of the Muslim voices to condemn this grave misrepresentation and injustice?
We are Muslims. Our faith teaches us to live and let live. We are not afraid of criticism as it is normal nor should we allow our governments to play the role of God and make decisions that they don’t have the right to do. Our opinions are our own and we are free to express them, should they be against Islam then the decision is up to God to do as He wishes. The role of the government is to protect us, not imprison those they ideologically disagree with.
We kindly ask the Egyptian government to respect our individual freedoms, if not in the name of humanity, then at the very least in the name of Islam!
Read the article in Arabic here.



July 25th, 2007 at 10:19 am
للأسف تراجع عن ذلك
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10141696.html
Top cleric denies ‘freedom to choose religion’ comment
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Published: July 24, 2007, 23:05
Cairo: Egypt’s top cleric yesterday denied in a statement that he had said a Muslim can give up his faith without punishment.
Ali Goma’a, the mufti of Egypt, was quoted as saying in a posting on a Washington Post-Newsweek forum that Muslims are free to change their faith and this is a matter between an individual and God.
“What I actually said is that Islam prohibits a Muslim from changing his religion and that apostasy is a crime, which must be punished,” Goma’a said.
The alleged fatwa coincides with an uproar over the case of 12 Egyptians who converted to Islam from Christianity and now want to re-embrace Christianity.
“There is a campaign by secularists to distort the image of Dr Ali Goma’a,” a senior official in Al Azhar told Gulf News.
“He cannot deny punishment in this life for the apostate,” said Mustafa Al Chaka of the Islamic Research Centre.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Thank you for informing us Ahmed, that is extremely unfortunate. It seems as though something very fishy is going on - either there is an actual “campaign” to ‘distort’ his image which is highly unlikely, or he was threatened to take back his statements, which surely sparked a lot of controversy within the field.
The message we are sending via the post above still stands firmly. Him taking “his word” back doesn’t change the true nature of Islam nor the Muslim efforts of this campaign.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:03 am
[...] of Religion: Free Kareem is discussing the latest fatwa or religions opinion by Egypt’s Mufti (top cleric) on the freedom to leave the [...]
July 27th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
It seems as though he has reaffirmed his position:
Hmmm.