Uganda: Muslim relatives savagely beat former mosque leader for leaving Islam

The attackers no doubt consider themselves righteous. The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”

“Former Mosque Leader in Uganda Beaten for Faith in Christ,” Morning Star News, January 24, 2022:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A former mosque leader in eastern Uganda who converted to Christianity is still hospitalized with serious head, back and hand injuries after Muslim relatives beat him on Jan. 13, he said.

Bashir Sengendo had not returned home to visit his family in Namaato village, Kigalama Sub-County in Namutimba District since leaving Islam in 2016. Relatives had long sent him messages urging him to return to tend to a portion of land supposedly allocated to him, he said.

“This request continued for the last six years, but I had been reluctant to go back home,” Sengendo told Morning Star News.

He decided to return home from his base in western Uganda for a visit on Jan. 12, arriving at 9 p.m., he said.

“I was shocked to receive a cold reception and slept without food, only to be attacked and beaten badly in the morning by my brother and my uncle,” Sengendo said. “They cut me with an object in the head, back and hand.”

His screams brought police and neighbors who rescued him and took him Namutimba Hospital, he said.

“As the attackers were hitting me, my uncle said that the family spent a lot of money training me as a Muslim teacher, and that I have caused a lot of shame to the family and Muslims at large,” Sengendo said.

He lost a large amount of blood and was still critically ill when a Morning Star News contact visited him in the hospital….