Islam and Human Rights — Page 196
Isl am and Hum an R ights 196 denunciation of Islam. In such cases, when those guilty became amenable to the jurisdiction of the Islamic State, they were liable to be punished for their treason; which offence, in the circumstances then prevailing, became syn onymous with apostacy. Apostacy thus became a term interchangeable with treason. For instance, the tribes who marched against Medina after the death of the Prophet and against whom Abu Bakr had to take up arms, were ,in essence rebels, and yet they were also apostates and were so designated. Apostacy having thus acquired a double connotation, the penalty for the political crime involved became attached, by an easy transition, to change of religion, even when, in later times, no question of treason to the State was involved. As one wrong often breeds another, the mishief, grave enough in itself as nullifying the provisions of the Quran on freedom of conscience, did not stop there. Orthodoxy, once entrenched in power, soon arrogated to itself the func tion of determining what a person should believe and what he should discard or denounce. The Prophet had said: “Honest and sincere differences of points of view among my people should be accounted a blessing”. 80 Even these 80 As-Sayuti.