{"id":18850,"date":"2014-05-15T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=18850"},"modified":"2014-05-15T17:45:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T17:45:00","slug":"sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

A court ruling in Sudan sentencing a heavily pregnant woman to death has reignited debate about punishment for apostasy.<\/p>\n

Dr Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was\u00a0condemned to hang for allegedly leaving Islam<\/a>\u00a0and marrying a Christian man.<\/p>\n

The court said that by doing so, she had abandoned her religious faith and was guilty of apostasy, which carries the ultimate penalty under Islamic law in the country.<\/p>\n

But some liberal religious scholars have argued apostasy is not even a crime.<\/p>\n

They back up their beliefs by citing the Koranic verse which states: “There shall be no compulsion in religion.”<\/p>\n

Other more conservative Muslims refer to the words of the Prophet Muhammad in the Hadith saying: “It is not permissible to spill the blood of a Muslim except in three [instances]: A life for a life; a married person who commits adultery; and one who forsakes his religion and separates from the community.”<\/p>\n

Day of judgement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Islam’s legal system – Sharia – says apostasy covers a wide range of offences, including conversion to another religion, idol worship, or mistreating the Koran.<\/p>\n

While some scholars favour the death penalty, others say the punishment should be left to God on the day of judgement.<\/p>\n

The late Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s religious and political leader, famously denounced the author Salman Rushdie as an apostate for his novel The Satanic Verses – and said he should be killed.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan also uphold strict interpretations.’<\/p>\n

In 2006, an Afghan, Abdul Rahman, who announced his conversion to Christianity escaped a death sentence and was offered asylum in Italy.<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0Afghan citizen was granted asylum in the UK<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year after persuading the courts he faced the death penalty at home because he was an atheist.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, non-Muslims such as the Bahai community have faced difficulties in countries including Egypt.<\/p>\n

‘Abhorrent’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Human rights groups have condemned Islamic laws on apostasy.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has\u00a0described the latest case in Sudan as “abhorrent”.<\/a><\/p>\n

“The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice \u2026 should never be even considered,” it said.<\/p>\n

When she was convicted on Sunday, Dr Ibrahim – who is said to be eight months pregnant – was given three days by the court to return to Islam.<\/p>\n

But she again affirmed her Christian faith, and her lawyer says she will appeal against the sentence.<\/p>\n

For now, her fate hangs in the balance.<\/p>\n

And the debate over apostasy – and whether she committed a crime in the first place – goes on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A court ruling in Sudan sentencing a heavily pregnant woman to death has reignited debate about punishment for apostasy. Dr Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was\u00a0condemned to hang for allegedly leaving Islam\u00a0and marrying a Christian man. The court said that by doing so, she had abandoned her religious faith and was guilty of apostasy, which carries the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[703,731,14,732],"yoast_head":"\nSudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A court ruling in Sudan sentencing a heavily pregnant woman to death has reignited debate about punishment for apostasy. Dr Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was\u00a0condemned to hang for allegedly leaving Islam\u00a0and marrying a Christian man. The court said that by doing so, she had abandoned her religious faith and was guilty of apostasy, which carries the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-15T17:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/74885885_74885447.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"624\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"351\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jonas Nyabor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jonas Nyabor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/\",\"name\":\"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-15T17:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-15T17:45:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/476b2fb2e9233445afbfa2662d85fe6b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\",\"name\":\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"description\":\"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/476b2fb2e9233445afbfa2662d85fe6b\",\"name\":\"Jonas Nyabor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74e004fce505330b7ba17aeaae177b3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74e004fce505330b7ba17aeaae177b3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jonas Nyabor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/jonas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","og_description":"A court ruling in Sudan sentencing a heavily pregnant woman to death has reignited debate about punishment for apostasy. Dr Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was\u00a0condemned to hang for allegedly leaving Islam\u00a0and marrying a Christian man. The court said that by doing so, she had abandoned her religious faith and was guilty of apostasy, which carries the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/","og_site_name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3","article_published_time":"2014-05-15T17:45:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":624,"height":351,"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/74885885_74885447.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jonas Nyabor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@citi973","twitter_site":"@citi973","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jonas Nyabor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/","name":"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-15T17:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-15T17:45:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/476b2fb2e9233445afbfa2662d85fe6b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/sudan-death-penalty-reignites-islam-apostasy-debate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/","name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","description":"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/476b2fb2e9233445afbfa2662d85fe6b","name":"Jonas Nyabor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74e004fce505330b7ba17aeaae177b3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74e004fce505330b7ba17aeaae177b3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jonas Nyabor"},"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/jonas\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}