A Tale of Two Apostasies

Cases dealing with apostasy in Islam—whereby Muslims who convert to other religions are tortured and executed—are on the rise and need to be acknowledged for what they are: one of Islam’s most visible attempts to suppress the human conscience—a phenomenon that has dire implications beyond religious freedom. Consider these two recent stories. First, from Somalia:

A kidnapped Christian convert from Islam was found decapitated on Sept. 2 … Juma Nuradin Kamil was forced into a car by three suspected Islamic extremists from the al-Shabaab terrorist group on Aug. 21, area sources said. After members of his community thoroughly combed the area looking for him, at 2 p.m. on Sept. 2 one of them found Kamil’s body dumped on a street. The kidnapping and subsequent manner of murder suggests that al-Shabaab militants had been monitoring him, Christian leaders said. Muslim extremists from al-Shabaab, a militant group with ties to al Qaeda, have vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity. Continue reading A Tale of Two Apostasies