Council of Ulama chairman defends campaign to have those who change faiths executed

COUNCIL of Ulama national chairman Dr Ibrahim Jalingo has thrown his full weight behind the campaign to have those who change their religious faiths sentenced to death as they are apostates who deserve to die.

Across northern Nigeria, hardline Islamic clerics have taken the issue of Muslims converting to Christianity seriously, condemning the practise. In most cases of religious conversion in the 12 states of northern Nigeria which practise Sharia law, Muslims who convert to Christianity have to flee and relocate to other parts of the country.

This practise of religious intolerance has been condemned by human rights groups but Dr Jalingo has openly defended a Hadith prescribing the death penalty for apostates and accused critics of Hadith literature of what he described as compound ignorance. Dr Jalingo launched a detailed theological rebuttal against those he described as fabricators attempting to discredit the Hadith.

Writing on Facebook, Dr Jalingo, wrote: “Today, I came across the first Hadith among the supposed 100 Hadiths which the fabricators claim contradict the Qur’an. They assert that Muslims who believe in both the divine revelation of the Hadith and the Qur’an cannot respond to them.

"The Hadith in question is: Whoever changes his religion, kill him. The person who presented this statement by the fabricators to me is someone named Issiyaku Abdulkadir. Here is what I wrote in response to the claims of these fabricators: First, I thank you for starting to bring me what this compound ignoramus refers to as 100 Hadiths that contradict the verses of the Qur’an. This will, God willing, give me the opportunity to expose his ignorance to the world.

In what is sure to spark fierce debates among scholars and human rights advocates, Dr Jalingo defended the Hadith calling for the execution of apostates, citing Qur’anic verses in support of his position.  He supported his claims with another Quranic citation in Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 193, saying, “Fight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and oppression) and religion is for Allah alone."

He further declared that the widely quoted verse advocating freedom of religion had been abrogated. In a final explosive comment, Dr Jalingo launched a personal attack on his critics and while some hardline followers praised him for defending Islam, other Muslim voices have condemned the remarks as dangerous and inflammatory.