"Dr" Zakir Naik - A Champion for the Death Penalty for "Apostasy"

[PeteWaldo]

http://www.realcourage.org/2010/05/mohamed-nazim/

Maldives: Man Attacked, Threatened with Death, for Freedom of Conscience
By R.E.A.L. Organization • on May 30, 2010

In the Muslim-majority nation of Maldives, a man stunned an audience during questions and answers period in a lecture given by an Islamic cleric, by stating that he had chosen freedom of conscience not to follow Islam.  The man, Mohamed Nazim, was promptly attacked, taken into custody, and has been threatened with death and beheading, or other punishments for choosing his freedom of conscience.  Maldives media are reporting that it is the first time in many hundreds of years that a Maldivian has publicly renounced Islam, since Sultan King Hassan IX converted to Christianity in 1552 and was deposed.

The Maldives constitution mandates that all citizens of Maldives must be Muslims.   A December 2009 study showed the Maldives (with a 99 percent literacy rate) to be in the top 5 percent of the worst nations for religious freedom. It is a nation that has been building its criminal law based on Sharia law, and whose Parliament bans non-Islamic houses of worship. There have been repeated reports on Maldives government publicly whipping of women and the Maldives is in the bottom rankings of nations with a global gender gap.

The Maldives is also a nation that, on May 13, 2010, was elected to be part of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The Haveeru newspaper reported that Mohamed Nazim came up to ask a question of Islamic cleric Zakir Naik, stating “Dr Zakir Naik. I am a Maldivian. I am still struggling to believe in religion. That is why I just came to the front of this row. I was born a Maldivian. My parents taught me the religion of Islam. They are good practitioners, actually. I read a lot of books. I have read the translation of Quran. Yet, I still do not believe in a religion. So what do you say, [about] my verdict in Islam?”

Islamic cleric Zakir Naik asked “are you a Muslim?”  and Mohamed Nazim replied “I am not.”  Zakir Naik  has a long history of calling for the death penalty for “apostates” in both Muslim majority nations and other parts of the world.

The Haveeru newspaper reported that Zakir Naik responded by stating: “according to Prophetic traditions, every child is born as a Muslim and that a Muslim is one who submits his/her will to God. In Islam, death penalty should not necessarily be evoked on every person who leaves Islam, but to those who propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam, he added.”

The Haveeru newspaper report states that his question “sparked comments of hatred from an angry crowd of around 11,000 with many calling to kill him and attack him, while Naik was answering the question. Several people rushed towards Nazim, who was sitting at a back row after moving away from the microphone, as an official of the Islamic Ministry tried to escort him out. Police, however, came between Nazim and the crowd and escorted him into custody.”   The Haveeru newspaper report also stated that a crowed gathered outside the police station and demanded that Mohamed Nazim be handed over to the crowd.  The Haveeru newspaper report stated that “They shouted anti-atheism slogans and called for Nazim’s beheading.”

In a separate report, the Haveeru newspaper stated that Maldives Islamic Ministry would arrange for religious “counseling” for Mohamed Nazim while he is in custody."

[PeteWaldo]

Zakir Naik responded by stating: “according to Prophetic traditions, every child is born as a Muslim and that a Muslim is one who submits his/her will to God. In Islam, death penalty should not necessarily be evoked on every person who leaves Islam, but to those who propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam, he added.”

So then it would seem that Dr Naik is a champion of the death penalty for apostasy for everyone, since we were all "born as a Muslim".