Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 55
1. . The Maududian Law of Apostasy said: 'This is not the path on which to retreat. To retreat means to apostasise. '20 If quitting the Jamaati Islami and joining another. Muslim group is apostasy, then that other organisation is automatically kafir. So are Muslims who pray for favours at saints' tombs and also the Shiites, who consider the first three caliphs to be usurpers. It is well known that according to the Maulana - and all the ulema of Deoband agree with him - the mainstream Ahli Sunnat wal Jamaat of India and. Pakistan, known as Brelvis, are kafir. . Now that the Maulana has, virtually declared all non-Maududians to be apostates, he deals in great detail with the subject of people who are. Muslim by birth. It is one of the most difficult pieces of Maududi's argument. Discussing his own Islam, the Maulana said: 'I have cast away the collar of inherited Islam . . . I read the Quran and studied the life of. Muhammad . . . and now I am a new (converted) Muslim. ' On the same basis, he devised a scheme for the reconversion of other Muslims. He unveils his plan in the following words:. Whenever the death penalty for apostasy is enforced in a new Islamic state, then Muslims are kept within Islam's fold. But there is a danger that a large number of hypocrites will live alongside them. They will always pose a danger of treason. . My solution to the problem is this. That whenever an Islamic revolution takes place, all non-practising Muslims should, within one year, declare their turning away from Islam and get out of Muslim society. . After one year all born Muslims will be considered Muslim. All Islamic laws will be enforced upon them. They will be forced to practice all the fara id and wajibat of their religion and, if anyone then wishes to leave. Islam, he will be executed. Every effort will be made to save as many people as possible from falling into the lap of kufr. But those who cannot be saved will be reluctantly separated from society forever [executed]. . After this purification Islamic society will start afresh with Muslims who have decided voluntarily to remain Muslims. "1. The Maulana does not tell us under what rules of ijtihad a law laying down the death penalty for apostasy will be relaxed. In any case this law will be relaxed only at the time an Islamic state is established - a one-off concession. After this period of grace, Muslims who are born kafirs will lose out. The Maulana explains why he is unable to make any exception for these unfortunates. He says:. There is one final question about capital punishment which may disturb many of us. A non-Muslim who freely embraced Islam then returned to kufr can be said to have made a deliberate mistake. He could have remained a dhimmi, so why enter a religion of collective 55