They would likely have killed him if they had not been interrupted. The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”
“Ethnic Somali Muslims in Kenya Break Pastor’s Leg,” Morning Star News, December 23, 2021:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A Somali-born pastor in Kenya is still in severe pain after ethnic Somali Muslims in northeastern Kenya beat him on Dec. 3 for leaving Islam, sources said.
The pastor, whose name is withheld for security reasons, said the four Kenyan-born, ethnic Somalis attacked him on a road near Wajir town, fracturing a bone in his leg, after he had led an underground prayer meeting with 13 new Christians of Somali descent. Wajir is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Somali border.
Unable to speak for nearly two minutes due to pain from his injuries when Morning Star News spoke to him on Wednesday (Dec. 22), the pastor said that two weeks prior to the attack, he received an anonymous, threatening text message.
“We are getting reports that you are now a Christian,” it read. “You have been missing our Friday prayer meeting. If this is true, then you are risking your life.”
The pastor put his faith in Christ four years ago but kept it secret by attending mosque prayers until COVID-19 gave him an excuse to withdraw. He said he knew the four Muslims who stopped him.
“They started questioning me about not attending Friday prayers at the mosque,” he told Morning Star News. “I kept quiet, and one of them threatened to kill me if I continued keeping quiet.”
The pastor said that another one of the assailants told the others, “I think it’s true that he has joined Christianity, that is why he is not answering our question.”
“Immediately one began to slap me while another held me with the intention of strangling me, and I fell down,” he said. “They started beating me with hard objects around my knee. I then shouted for help and screamed with a lot of pain. Thank God that at that moment a vehicle approached with bright lights, and the attackers fled away, leaving me bleeding in a pool of blood.”
The vehicle stopped, and the passerby took him to a Wajir hospital, he said. The pastor, father of three children ages 8, 5 and 3, said he called his family the next day. He was discharged from the hospital after five days.
The pastor left Somalia 15 years ago and has dual Kenyan-Somali citizenship. He, his wife and children have relocated to an undisclosed location….
