I’vw written earlier about my reservations on the letter sent by 138 Muslims to Pope Benedict, “A Common Word Between Us and You.” I recognized several of the names, and I distrusted their words and intentions. Patrick Poole found quite damning evidence of duplicity by one of the co-signers, Sheikh Said Hijjawi, and the very institute that produced the “Common Word” letter. The same institute, Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan, also “issues fatwas condemning apostates and religious freedom.” Lots of them.
Shocker, that, eh?
“The letter was the product of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan, and its chief scholar, Sheikh Said Hijjawi, was one of the 138 signatories (#49). In fact, according to the introduction, the letter was presented by the Institute to the Islamic scholars gathered at a conference held at their facilities in September 2007.”
“There is one thing, however, amidst all the flowery overtures, theological discussion, and representations of religious pluralism that the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute and the 138 Islamic scholars forgot to mention: The Institute, which operates a website, AlTafsir.com, which it calls “the largest and greatest online collection of Qur’anic commentary, translation, recitation, and essential resources in the world,” includes in an “Ask the Mufti” section a number of fatwas on apostasy issued by the Institute’s chief scholar, Sheikh Hijjawi, that call for the death of Christian reverts (Christians converting to Islam and then returning to the Christian faith) and Muslim apostates. Further they state that if the Christian reverts and Muslim apostates are not killed, they should be deprived of all rights and accorded the status of non-persons.”
“This glaring contradiction between the proffer of dialogue with Christians on the basis of allegedly shared common beliefs in freedom of religion and human rights, while simultaneously denying those very fundamental freedoms and recognition of rights to those Christians and Muslims who choose to exercise their freedoms, was first noted by an Australian Anglican cleric, Dr. Mark Durie, in a blog post last week [HT: Andrew Bostom]. “
According to the fatwas issued by Sheikh Hijjawi, here’s what happens to a Muslim who leave Islam:
- His marriage is annulled by virtue of his apostasy.
- He cannot inherit the wealth of any of his relatives — whether they are Muslims or not — because the apostate is legally regarded as dead.
- None of his actions after apostasy has any legal validity (as the apostate is a legal non-person).
- An apostate cannot be remarried, whether to a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
- He cannot be a guardian for anyone else, so he loses custody of his children, and an apostate father has no say over his daughters’ marriages.
- An apostate must not be prayed for by Muslims after his death and must not be buried in a Muslim cemetery.
- If a male apostate comes back to Islam and wishes to resume his marriage, he must remarry his wife with a new ceremony and provide a new dowry for her.
- The apostate’s wealth and possessions are to be entailed upon an heir. If the apostate repents and returns to Islam, he receives his wealth back. If he dies while still an apostate, his wealth is inherited by his Muslim heir, but only the amount which he had at the time of his apostasy. Any wealth which accrued after he had left Islam is considered fay (and thus the collective property of the Muslim community).
This demonstrates the enormous problem faced by the Pope and the Vatican in “engaging in dialogue” with these Muslim leaders. Really, what’s the point? How can anyone believe what they wrote?
I’m not surprised. I hope Patrick cc’ed the Yalies who wrote their own groveling “Christian response” to the “Common Word’ letter. What do the Yalies think about the fatwas that are utterly against religious freedom?