01 April 2010

Apostasy and the IFE

.... If we really want to know the IFE’s views on apostasy, we have to dispose of the bogus ’subtleties’ of Shaykh Abdullah Adhami and go straight to the real source of the IFE’s ideology, to Sayyid Abu Ala Mawdudi the godfather of Islamism. Mawdudi’s political ideology is the bedrock of Jamaat-e-Islam (which he founded), its politics and those of its British offshoot, Islamic Forum Europe.

Mawdudi’s views on apostasy were formulated in a treatise called The Punishment of the Apostate According to Islamic Law which has been translated into English from Urdu by Syed Silas Husain and Ernest Hahn. Mawdudi used this work to expound the penalty of apostates by death, which he defended as the “traditional” view and argued against religious freedom to protect the interests of Islam. [The Spittoon] Read more