The High Religious Committee of Morocco has retracted a previous
ruling that apostasy from Islam is punishable by death and says that Muslims may
now change their religion.
Previously the committee, which holds the responsibility of
issuing Fatwas (Islamic rulings), had stated that defection from Islam merited
the death penalty. Now however, the committee has retracted its position, Morocco World News reports.
In a document titled The Way of the
Scholars the committee defines apostasy not as a religious issue but a
political one.
"The most accurate understanding, and the most consistent with the
Islamic legislation and the practical way of the Prophet, peace be upon him, is
that the killing of the apostate is meant for the traitor of the group, the one
disclosing secrets, [...] the equivalent of treason in international law," it
says.
Apostasy is described as something thatin the earliest period of
Islam was punishable for its political consequences – those who fled Islam might
disclose the secrets of the nation to its enemies. The context of apostasy and
its punishment, the committee suggests, was predominantly pragmatic and
political. Such tensions are no longer relevant to most cases of apostasy, it
says. Christian
Today.
