Islam
Père Zakaria Boutros

The religious freedom and freedom of renouncement
 

The author      : Father Zakaria Boutros
The publisher:  www.fatherzakaria.com
 

The human rights treaty

What are the rights stated for in the human rights treaties, those signed by the Arabic countries;

Article 18, section 1:

Every one has the right of free thinking, consciousness and religion, that right includes the right to belong to any religion or creed with his own choice, and to express freely alone or in group his religion or creed, by worshiping, practicing or preaching

So the religious right and the right to choose is granted to human being

Article 18, section 2:

It is not allowed to subject anyone to any form of compulsion that results in hindering his expression of the belonging to the religion or creed

Does Islam allow that freedom granted by the human rights to everyone?

The quran says in The Repentance chapter (Surat At-Taubah) 29:"Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah (tribute) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued"

In Sahih Al-Bokhary: the prophet said:" I was commanded to fight people till they testify that, no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah"

Why people are not given their freedom granted by the human rights

The freedom of renouncement:

In the cow chapter (Surat Al-Baqarah) 217:"whoever turns back from his religion dies as a disbeliever"

Al-Nisabory said: whoever renounces, they should fight him, if he didn't come back will be killed

The prophet said: whoever changes his religion, cut his neck"(1)

It was mentioned that when the prophet died many Arabs renounced from Islam (2), and Ibn Al-Athir mentioned that thousands were killed in the renouncement wars (3)

Khalid Ibn Al-Walid alone killed twenty thousands of the people of Halifa

In the recent history the clear examples for that are the converted Christians who came to Christianity from Islam in the Arabic countries , they are arrested , tortured, hit, some of them die in the prisons, some disappear without knowing anything about them,

Is that the right of freedom of choice?

Those countries had signed the human rights treaties, but the world is aware about that

In the American ministry of state report, those countries violating the human rights while they have signed the human rights treaty were mentioned ,among them Egypt, and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Concerning Egypt:

 The report said literally: the Egyptian government keeps judging people because of their religious creeds; the government doesn't permit people to convert to Christianity from Islam

The American president, the state secretary, the deputy secretary for Middle East affairs, the American ambassador in Egypt had discussed their worries about the religious freedom in a dual talks with the Egyptian leaders, the supreme ambassador for the religious freedom had discussed with the high officials, those violations of the religious freedom,

Officials from the international religious freedom went to Egypt and had meeting on ministerial level with the religious leaders and the nongovernmental organizations

That's the state of human rights and religious freedom in Egypt

Concerning the kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

The report said: the religious freedom doesn't exist at all in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Islam is the religion of the country, all citizens should be Muslims, or they will deprived from their citizenship (that's the compulsion, where is the freedom?)

There are reports that Muslim imams working for the Saudi government are preaching in the mosques such provocative preaches, inciting against the Christians and Jews

On September 2004, the American state secretary described Saudi Arabia as, a country causing much worry because of the serious violations of the religious freedom, the American ambassador mentioned cases of violations committed by high Saudi officials, the ambassador of the religious freedom in his visit to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and his meeting with the Saudi officials said that we are working to enforce the religious freedom as an international affirmed right that should be protected

Actually the problem doesn't exist in the governments themselves, the problem is more serious than that, it is in the quran itself as it is inciting on killing who is not Muslim. And kill whoever renounces from Islam

So as long as the governments are applying the Islamic legislation, that is the great obstacle in the human rights

With the presence of the renouncement verdict and Al-jihad, things could never be rectified

Freedom is the most precious thing man has, it should never be confiscated

Islam wanted to be propagated; well they should do that by preaching the creed words, and not by the sward, leaving people to have their right of choice
 
They should delete from the constitutions of those countries the articles that consider Islam as the official religion of the country

The other rights:

In Abraham chapter (Surat Ibrahim) 4:"Allah misleads whom he wants and guides whom he wills"

So where is the human freedom? If God misleads whom he wants, so those misled by God will not be guilty if they commit sins, if God was the one who misled them

The Journey by Night chapter (Surah Al-Isra') 16:"And when we decide to destroy a town, we send a definite order to those among them who are given the good things of this life. Then, they transgress therein, and thus the word of torment is justified against them, then we destroy it with complete destruction"

In Sahih Muslim: the prophet said God sends an angel to the womb of the woman, he blows the spirit into the embryo, and orders four words, his sustenance, his life duration, his work and whether happy or miserable (before his birth all of those are predetermined) , then if one of you works as the people of paradise till he is about a yard from the paradise , then his book comes to him , then he works the work of the people of fire, and get into the fire and  if one of you works as the people of fire till he is about a yard from the fire , then his book comes to him , then he works the work of the people of paradise, and get into the paradise

So if God wrote for someone a miserable destiny, what will be his guilt of doing wrong and be a dweller of fire if that is predetermined before his birth

In Christianity:

In 1Timothy 2:4 "God desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth."

In 2Peter 3:9:" The Lord is not wishing that any one should perish, but that all should come to repentance"
 
And in Deuteronomy 30:15:" Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil therefore choose life, that you may live" That's the real freedom given to human being

The Christ said: if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

So there is great difference between the human rights in Christianity and Islam
 

(1)  Mote' Malek, converse number 559;

(2)  The prophetical life history by Ibn Hesham, part 6, page 311

(3) "The complete in the history", by Ibn Al-Athir, part 2, and page 147: