From: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad)
Subject: Re: Hudud Laws
Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 16:16:37 GMT

mhkho@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Ho Hiang Kwee) writes:
: I have two questions to ask netters who are familar with Islamic law:
: 
: 1.  Sometime ago on s.c.a., someone (I think it was a Malaysian) mentioned
: that under Islamic (or was it Malaysian law?) anyone marrying a Muslim
: must convert to Islam unless he/she belongs to 'peoples of the Book' (which
: included Jews and Christians ). Is this true, either in Malaysian or Islamic
applicable to she only.
: law? Related to this question, it was in the news a few months ago that 
: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had finally got married, and that he married
: a Christian woman. There was no mention of her conversion. Does anyone
: know if she converted to Islam?
: 
: 2. I was rather troubled on reading a few days ago in the ST that under
: Hudud laws, apostasy (in this case, renunciation of Islam) is a crime
: punishable by death. It was reported explicitly that the PAS govt in
ST does not tell the whole truth again. Most Malaysian muslims think that
the penalty is death for apostasy but is that the real ISLAM?
: Kelantan are not considering implementing this particular law even if
: Hudud laws are introduced, but it still sounds rather frightening and
: appears to be something which would deny Muslims basic human rights. 
: Is there really such a law, and is it practised in any of the Islamic
: states around the world?
I do not know of any. Khomeini ordered the death penalty on Rushdie because
he mocks Muhammad s.a.w. I do not think that this is the usual case in Iran.
: 
: If there are people who have answers but would prefer to keep this
: discussion out of s.c.a., please reply to me by e-mail. However, I believe
: that these sensitive issues can be discussed in the open if people
: keep their cool, but that's just my opinion......
I'm not an expert in Islamic jurispudence but I tend to disagree with the
ulamak in Malaysia. I base my judgemnet on what I read in hadith and quran.
Quran is the word of god so cannot be challanged, but its interpretation can
be tricky, but quran is meant to be simple so the simplest literal meaning 
should be taken.

Hadith is the words and actions of our prophet Muhammad. since he is just a
human being and the records are not as well organised as the quran, it should
be given less weight especially if it contradicts the quran.

In the apostasy case let me quote a few verses from the quran which I 
translate from Malay translation by Haji Zainuddin Hamidy , Fachruddin Hs,
to English. so you see 2 layers of translations, so more chance of distortion
or noise.
3:90,
Atheist(kafir) who become believers(iman), then become even more of his 
atheism, will not be received his "request for forgiveness" and they are one
of those who have lost their way.

Note:
Kafir does not apply  to strict jews and some christians.

Note that there is no mention on death penalty  and I cannot find another
verse overiding this statement, yet.
	Killing someone is a very serious crime in Islam even when the viction
is not a muslim.
	There is a verse which makes cutting off thieves hands.

The death penalty come from a verse from hadith with a story line which to
me sounds like(I do not have the hadith right now so I'm using memory only):

There were bedouins who converted to Islam but later became non-muslim and
mock Islam strongly. The prophet ordered that the bedouins be executed.

There is something missing in this story, there was no mention of when the
case happen, it could be during war and the muslims were desperate to defend
themselves. Also there is no mention of the exact words spoken by Muhammad
s.a.w. himself.

I waited for sometime before replying beause I'm hoping that someone can
answer this more clearly and authoritatively than I can.
	I'm posting this instead of replying by email because I'm also 
interested in the views of other muslims. Hopefully some muslims will wake
up on reading my attempt at explainations.

--
Othman bin Ahmad, School of EEE,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2263.
Internet Email: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg
Bitnet Email: eoahmad@ntuvax.bitnet