Hugh Fitzgerald: “There Is No Compulsion In Religion”

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Qur’an 2:256 — “There Is No Compulsion In Religion” — is one of the two Qur’anic verses most often quoted by Muslim apologists. (The other verse is a carefully abridged version of 5:32, which seems to denounce killing, but in its full version, is addressed not to Muslims but to the Children of Israel, and far from denouncing killing, explains when killing is justified.)

In Islam there are two kinds of “compulsion in religion”:

The first is the compulsion to convert felt by non-Muslims. Unbelievers subjugated by Muslims are given three options: death, conversion to Islam, or permanent status as “dhimmis,” allowed to live and even to practice their (non-Islamic) religion, but subject to a host of onerous conditions, including payment of the Jizyah. Not all Unbelievers over 1,400 years found  the dhimmi condition endurable; some converted to Islam in order to escape what for them is the unbearable status of dhimmi.

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The second kind of “compulsion in religion” is that directed at Muslim apostates, who leave Islam for another religion — almost always Christianity — or for no religion at all. In a famous hadith in the most trustworthy Hadith collection, that of al-Bukhari, Muhammad says “Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him.’” Sahih Al-Bukhari (9:57)

Recently there was a reminder of that “compulsion in religion” in a story from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

An elderly Iranian Christian woman has endured ten days of intensive interrogation by intelligence officers and been forced to go to an Islamic religious leader to be “instructed.”

Ruhsari Kamberi, 65, was one of five women converts from Islam arrested from different church groups in Karaj, close to Tehran. The whereabouts of the other four are not known at the time of writing.

Three intelligence officers arrived at Ruhsari’s home early one morning before Christmas 2018. They searched the rooms and seized mobile phones, Bibles and other Christian material before detaining her for questioning.

According to a local source, “Ruhsari was interrogated from morning until evening for ten consecutive days.” The wife and mother was finally released when bail of 30 million Toman (around £5,500) was paid.

She was taken before a prosecutor to answer charges of “acting against national security” and forced to go to an Islamic religious leader to be “instructed” and “offered the opportunity to return to Islam.”

Friends of Ruhsari say she is extremely distressed and request that fellow Christians pray for her and the four other women arrested asking that, “God will help all Christians who are arrested and interrogated in Iran to stand firm in the faith,” and that “those people responsible for the mistreatment of the women and the violations of their rights will repent of their actions”.

The Ministry of Intelligence in Iran, an Islamic Republic, particularly targets converts. As apostates from Islam, Christians are viewed as traitors deserving death (for men) and lifelong imprisonment with beating (for women) according to the Shia version of sharia law followed in Iran.

This is one small episode showing the hysterical response to apostasy by the mighty Islamic Republic of Iran. This one inoffensive elderly lady, having chosen to become a Christian, became the object of a full-court press by the authorities. The police raided her home, to find and remove incriminating material, literature such as a Bible, and other written material — a missal? A Christmas card? A picture of Jesus? — and also took away her phone, so that she can’t communicate with fellow Christians. Clearly she was someone who needs to be watched.

Taken into custody, she was then sentenced to ten days of nonstop “re-education” to try to persuade her to return to the One True Faith of Islam. What better way to demonstrate the excellence of Islam than by subjecting an elderly lady from morning to evening, without respite, for ten days of incessant anti-Christian and pro-Islam propaganda? She was finally let out on bail of 5,500 pounds, which is more than the average annual salary in Iran. Was this 65-year-old woman a threat in any way to Muslims or to Islam? Did she engage in anti-Islam proselytizing, or was her conversion hardly known to anyone else? How did her reading the Bible, and her belief in the divinity of Christ threaten, the 80 million Muslims in the mighty Islamic Republic of Iran?

She’s been subject to mental torture. She’s had to pay a year’s salary in order to be released on bail, but her case is not over. There is more mental and physical torment torment to come. And if she does not revert to Islam, as a female apostate she faces a sentence of life imprisonment. (In Iran only male apostates can be sentenced to death.) How is that for “compulsion in religion”?

The next time you attend one of those Ask-A-Muslim-Anything events, and you are earnestly informed by your hosts that “there is no compulsion in [the Islamic] religion,” bring up the case of 65-year-old Ruhsari Kamberi in Iran. Telling her particular story will make the suffering of apostates less abstract for your audience of fellow Unbelievers. Ask whether the police raid on her house, and the seizure of her Bible and other Christian material, and the ten days of dawn-to-dusk “re-education” she had to endure, and even the large sum, the equivalent of a year’s salary in Iran, that Ruhsari Kamberi had to post as bail to obtain her temporary freedom, constitute “compulsion.” Enjoy the discomfort of your Muslim host, as he tries to defend the indefensible. That should throw a well-deserved spanner in the works.

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felix1999
felix1999
4 years ago

No Compulsion in Islam!
Muslims will often say to non-Muslims “There is no compulsion in religion”.
Let’s examine the sources if this is really true.

Quran 4:89 “They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So do not make friends with them, till they emigrate in the way of Allah. But if they turn back (from Islam), seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and do not take anyone of them as a friend or as a helper.”

Q2:193 “And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion be only for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrong-doers.”

Q88:21-24 “So remind. You are only a reminder. You have no control over them. But whoever turns away and disbelieves, God will punish him with the greatest punishment, to us they will all return.

Q3:85 “If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter, He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).”

Q16:106 – Anyone who after accepting faith in God, speaks unbelief, except under compulsion while their heart remaining firm in faith, yes those who open their breast to unbelief, on them is punishment from God, and theirs will be a dreadful penalty.

What happens if they don’t pay the Jizyah? Death! If this is not compulsion then what is it?

Q9:29 – Fight against those who
(1) believe not in Allah,
(2) nor in the Last Day,
3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger
(4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah (Protection tax) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Sahih Bukhari – Volume 9, Book 92, Hadith 447
Narrated Abu Huraira: While we were in the mosque, Allah’s Messenger came out and said, “Let us proceed to the Jews.” So we went out with him till we came to Bait-al-Midras. The Prophet stood up there and called them, saying, “O assembly of Jews! Surrender to Allah (embrace Islam) and you will be safe!“.

ETC.

Now the TRUTH!

So, the reason for this revelation is that when the Banu an-Nadir Jews were expelled from Arabia, they didn’t want to leave their children behind and didn’t want convert to Islam for which the prophet reveals that “Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from error”

Q2:256 applies to people of the book only, not idolaters.

He clearly says that this verse has been abrogated by verse “FIGHTING”. And it must be obeyed. If jihad is not fought with the intent to convert one by force to Islam, then there is no need for the “FIGHTING” verse to abrogate this “NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION VERSE”.

Moreover Ibn Kathir’s tafsir makes it clear this verse was meant to a particular situation and has been abrogated therefore, all people of the world should be called to Islam. If anyone of them refuses to do so, or refuses to pay the Jizya they should be fought till they are killed.

I believe this information is sufficient to prove that this verse (2:256) no longer has and had any relevance to today’s world and in the Islamic history respectively. Still have doubts, now here is the stumper.

Qur’an 3:85 “If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost all spiritual good.”

Tafsir of Ibn Kathir, Al-Firdous Ltd., First Edition, Part 3, Pages 37-38
But, this verse is abrogated by the verse of “fighting…Therefore, all people of the world should be called to Islam. If anyone of them refuses to do so, or refuses to pay the Jizya they should be fought till they are killed. This is the meaning of compulsion.

The scholars differed concerning Q. 2:256. Some said: ‘It has been abrogated [cancelled] for the Prophet compelled the Arabs to embrace Islam and fought them and did not accept any alternative but their surrender to Islam. The abrogating verse is Q. 9:73 ‘O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be thou harsh with them.’ Muhammad asked Allah the permission to fight them and it was granted. Other scholars said Q. 2:256 has not been abrogated, but it had a special application. It was revealed concerning the people of the Book [the Jews and the Christians]; they can not be compelled to embrace Islam if they pay the Jizia (that is head tax on free non-Muslims under Muslim rule). It is only the idol worshippers who are compelled to embrace Islam and upon them Q. 9:73 applies. This is the opinion of Ibn ‘Abbas which is the best opinion due to the authenticity of its chain of authority.

If Muslims ever say “There is no compulsion in religion”
then stick these sources in their faces to cure their ignorance.

https://islamreligionofwar.wordpress.com/no-compulsion-in-islam/

pfwag
pfwag
4 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

Like Henry Ford said when introducing the Model T, “You can get it in any color as long as it is black.” In Islam, there’s no compulsion in religion as long as the religion is Islam.

created4el
created4el
4 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

The Meccan verses as well as the “no compulsion” versus apply if taqiya is needed to obfuscate the truth about Islam.

felix1999
felix1999
4 years ago

Young Christian man killed in Pakistan for not converting to Islam
(Happens all the time!)
ASSIST News Service Mon 21 Apr 2014 10:44 BST

A young man named only as Haroon, 22, has reportedly been shot and killed for his faith by a Muslim co-worker in Pakistan.

According to a news release from the advocacy group the Center for Legal Aid and Settlement in the UK (CLAAS), Haroon had recently started work in Lahore as a road sweeper, where he worked alongside Muslim security guard Umer Farooq.

Farooq mocked Haroon’s Christian faith on a daily basis and tried to persuade him to convert to Islam. He told Haroon he was good looking, and should embrace Islam.

Farooq also promised Haroon a prosperous life and marriage to a rich Muslim woman, but Haroon did not care about these things and refused to convert.

When Haroon told his father what was going on, he advised him to ignore Farooq. On April 16 2014 Haroon went to work. Farooq again started a conversation about religion and began pressurizing him to embrace Islam.

CLAAS said Haroon asked Farooq politely why he was so keen for him to convert.

Harroon refused to convert, saying he was a follower of Jesus Christ. Farooq then shot Haroon, with a bullet hitting him the head, killing him on the spot. He later started shouting that Haroon had attempted suicide.

Nasir Saeed, Director CLAAS-UK, has condemned the killing.

He said in the news release, “Recently we have seen a report … that 1000 Christian and Hindu girls are being forcibly converted to Islam, while there are also incidents where young boys and some men are also forced to convert to Islam, and if they refused they are killed and implicated in false cases.”

https://www.christiantoday.com/article/young-christian-man-killed-in-pakistan-for-not-converting-to-islam/36917.htm

Jay Wizzy
Jay Wizzy
4 years ago

From what I remember the “there’s no compulsion” sentence is followed by the public service announcement that whoever criticizes the Muhammadist ideology must be crucified or have his hands or feet cut off, – see Wikiislam.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago

The next time you attend one of those Ask-A-Muslim-Anything events, and you are earnestly informed by your hosts that “there is no compulsion in [the Islamic] religion,” bring up the case of 65-year-old Ruhsari Kamberi in Iran.

The response, particularly from a Sunni Moslem, likely would be that Iran is not a legitimate Islamic state. I know, because I’ve gotten it.

Responding to that with with, as Fitzgerald noted (slightly edited):

[Koran] 5:32 seems to denounce killing, but in its full version, it is addressed not to Muslims but to the Children of Israel, and far from denouncing killing, explains when killing is justified..

In the case of my interlocutor, that lead to a plea of ignorance, but the assurance that I must have misunderstood the Koran.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago

I’ve read there are bona-fide re-education camps for muslum apostates in Indonesia, after all “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder isn’t it?

Dennis
Dennis
4 years ago

This articles commentary is more evidence that the free world is facing a conflagration from these Islamic believers. That seems to be what the future holds for all us non-Muslims.

Alleged-Comment
Alleged-Comment
4 years ago

Mouslems don’t see compulsion in religion but they certainly remind you of it.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
4 years ago

Religion without morality is a superstition and a curse.

Rufus T. Firefly
Rufus T. Firefly
4 years ago

If the Muslim confronted with this story is Shiite he will make lots of distracting noises, protestations and accusations and accuse you of “Islamophobia”. If Sunni, he will agree with you about just how bad the Iranians are and how they don’t represent Islam. These Muslims who make public presentations are skilled at deception, the art of Taquia.

Bart's Bantering
Bart's Bantering
4 years ago

No compulsion – but they are mandated in the koran to behead your children and your wife in front of you if you do not convert –

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago

In Afghanistain (spit) under Karzai, a man was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity from islum. He was only saved by being deemed mentally ill because anyone who leaves the vile, violent, Jew hating, fascist death cult called islum must be insane…

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