Uganda: Muslim converts to Christianity, his family members murder him

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.”

“Muslim Family Members Kill Recent Convert to Christianity,” Morning Star News, November 20, 2024:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A Muslim teacher at an Islamic school in eastern Uganda who became a Christian on Oct. 4 was killed on Oct. 21, area sources said.

Wanjala Hamidu was a teacher at Swidiki Islamic School in Nankoma, Bugiri District, four kilometers from his home in Masita village, where his brothers beat him to death after learning he had put his faith in Christ, the sources said. Hamidu was 32.

Hamidu converted to Christianity at an Oct. 4 evangelistic event in Bulange that he attended with his brother, Wulasiyo Swamadu. As Hamidu remained after the event for further Christian teaching, Swamadu returned home and told other Muslim family members about his conversion, said an area source who spoke with villagers and Christian sources.

Word of Hamidu’s new faith spread quickly in Masita and at the school, where the head-teacher learned of it and planned to fire him at the end of the school term, the source said. On Oct. 21, four of his brothers arrived at the school led by Hiire Isifu and Hawumba Jamada and found Hamidu teaching, he said.

After the brothers had a long meeting with administrators, the school officials gave them permission to take him and his belongings back to his home village of Masita, the source said. Upon their arrival, he said, the brothers ordered Hamidu to renounce Christ, but he refused.

Isifu slapped him as the other brothers looked for a stick to beat him with the 39 blows they believed Islam prescribes for apostates, said the area Christian source.

“We heard a very loud cry, wailing and alarm that required help and attention, so neighbors thronged in large numbers to the scene of the incident,” the source told Morning Star News. “When we arrived, we found Hamidu on the ground held tightly by his three brothers bleeding as the brothers were shouting, ‘Infidel, infidel, shame, shame to our family.’”

Hamidu’s mother stood nearby shouting for help, but no one dared to defy the Muslims and their vigilante administration of sharia (Islamic law), the source said. Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another.

“Soon he was dead and lying in a pool of blood,” the source said. “He had deep injuries in the head and chest from a sharp object that hit him.”…