forahmad@hotmail.com wrote:

mr. snerdly wrote:

"What I had stated or meant was that in no Islamic country apostasy is
a capital crime. If there are extremists who take law into their own
hands, that's a different matter and that sort of thing can happen
anywhere. " -- Ahmad 1man

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.islam/browse_frm/thread/f1cad9e600d9298/8e6a1452d0233c69?lnk=st&q=1man4all+apostasy&rnum=2&hl=en#8e6a1452d0233c69

Don't believe everything you read on ARI :-)

I did make an exception for Afghanistan in another one of my post, see
http://tinyurl.com/zqwxo, dated Fri, Oct 12 2001, in which I had
stated:

"Except for Afghanistan, which is not an Arab country, there are no
laws for apostasy per se in the 56 or so Islamic countries. However,
there are blasphemy laws in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, but nobody has
ever been executed for those crimes. These blasphemy laws are not
Islamic (not supported by any Shariyyah law) but are created by
zealots. Great Britain, the great paragon of democracy, also has
blasphemy laws. It is against the law in England to blaspheme
Christianity or the Church of England. However, these laws are not
enforced. My question is that if these laws are not needed, why keep
them on the books?"

The apostasy law had been put in place by the Taliban and when I made
my other. more recent, statement, which you have quoted above, my
assumption was that those laws were no longer in place. Article 2 of
the new Afghan Constitution says the following:" (1) The religion of
the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion
of Islam.(2) Followers of other religions are free to exercise their
faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the
provisions of law." However, it doesn't define what provisions of
Islamic law the state adheres to, as there are many different
interpretations of "shariah" and there is no consensus. It is not even
clear whether by making Islam the state religion Shariah automatically
becomes the law of the land. In other Muslim countries where Islam has
been declared the state religion, shariah-based laws are well defined
and incorporated into the legal framework. Furthermore, the Preamble of
the Afghan constitution says, "Observing the United Nations Charter and
respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," which as you may
well know includes the right to adopt another religion. So, if I am a
lawyer I would argue that since a particular interpretation of Shariah,
regardless of its suitability, has not been incorporated into the laws
of the country and the Constitution by its Preamble allows conversion
to another faith, there is no legal basis to imprison a man for
apostasy. And therefore my statement was technically correct; and if
the Karzai government is still enforcing antiquated Taliban laws, whose
fault is that? Well, the good news is that the man would be freed. I
never thought for a second that he would be executed, anyway.

sacraments required by their faith, particularly are affected.

mosques in the country, although over 30 percent of all mosques in Saudi
Arabia are built and endowed by private persons. The Ministry pays the
salaries of imams (prayer leaders) and others who work in the mosques. A
governmental committee defines the qualifications of imams. The
Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice (commonly called "religious
police" or Mutawwa'in) is a government entity, and its chairman has
ministerial status. The Committee sends out armed and unarmed people
into the public to ensure that Saudi citizens and expatriates living in
the kigndom follow the Islamic mores, at least in public.

Foreign imams are barred from leading worship during the most heavily
attended prayer times and prohibited from delivering sermons during
Friday congregational prayers. The Government states that its actions
are part of its "Saudiization" plan to replace foreign workers with
citizens.
Under Shari'a conversion by a Muslim to another religion is considered
apostasy, a crime punishable by death if the accused does not recant.
Sadeq Mallallah was a Saudi executed for merely owning a Bible.

Saudi Arabia prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities.
Non-Muslim worshippers risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation,
and sometimes torture for engaging in overt religious activity that
attracts official attention.

The Government has stated publicly, including before the U.N. Committee
on Human Rights in Geneva, that its policy is to protect the right of
non-Muslims to worship privately. However, non-Muslim organizations have
claimed that there are no explicit guidelines for distinguishing between
public and private worship, such as the number of persons permitted to
attend and the types of locations that are acceptable. Such lack of
clarity, as well as instances of arbitrary enforcement by the
authorities, obliges most non-Muslims to worship in such a manner as to
avoid discovery. Those detained for non-Muslim worship almost always are
deported by authorities after sometimes lengthy periods of arrest during
investigation. In some cases, they also are sentenced to receive lashes
prior to deportation.

The Government does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country
for the purpose of conducting

The Government does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country
for the purpose of conducting religious services, although some come
under other auspices and perform religious functions in secret. Such
restrictions make it very difficult for most non-Muslims to maintain
contact with clergymen and attend services. Catholics and Orthodox
Christians, who require a priest on a regular basis to receive the
sacraments required by their faith, particularly are affected.

Proselytizing by non-Muslims, including the distribution of non-Muslim
religious materials such as Bibles, is illegal.

Rob Duncan wrote...

<KyleCasey@Armstrong.com> wrote in message
news:l-SdnZWlav_K6LnZ4p2dnA@giganews.com...

Sounds like the Nazis are back. It's funny when I see bumper sticker
that
compare Bush to Hitler when its so obvious that radical Muslims are the
true
reincarnation of the Nazis.

They worship none other than SATAN, what else could they be but evil?

I happen to worship Satan and resent your comparison to izlamists.