Two updates on stories we touched on earlier this week. The Grand Mufti of Al Azhar's Newsweek column on apostasy continues to generate controversy. He either stands by his comments that individuals who choose to change their religion are free to do so - or he doesn't stand by them. First the Middle East Times:
The Grand
Mufti of Egypt said he stands by his comments on apostasy and the right
to choose one's religion in his On Faith article last Sunday despite
reports in the Egyptian press to the contrary.
Egypt's official religious
advisor has ruled that Muslims are free to change their faith as it is
a matter between an individual and God...
Hossam Bahgat of
the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who is involved with a
case of 12 former Christians who converted to Islam and are now trying
to revert, said: "This (ruling) is significant, especially coming from
Gomaa."
The current opinion opens the possibility of converting without threatening "the foundations of society."
A spokesman for Dar
al-Iftaa, the body headed by Gomaa which is responsible for issuing
religious opinions, maintained that the mufti's stance has not changed.
"The posting is
consistent with the mufti's past fatwas," he said. "Apostasy is only
punishable when it is considered akin to subversion."
Then there's the AFP:
The body headed by Egypt's
official religious advisor on Tuesday denied he had said that Muslims
were free to change their faith, as had been reported by a US
Washington Post-Newsweek forum on Islam.
"The quotes attributed to the mufti were never said during the
interview published by the Washington Post," Dar al-Iftaa said in a
statement carried by the official Egyptian news agency MENA...
However, according to the denial, "the mufti said that Islam forbids
Muslims from renouncing their faith ... and that if a Muslim did they
would be committing a mortal sin."
"Sheikh Ali Gomaa
said apostasy is a kind of subversion and a sort of crime that requires
punishment," the statement said, while also clarifying that Islam
allows other religions to practise freely.
A spokesman for Dar al-Iftaa, which is responsible for issuing
religious opinions, had earlier told AFP the posting was "consistent
with the mufti's past fatwas" and that "apostasy is only punishable
when it is considered akin to subversion."
The issue of apostasy is a thorny one in the Islamic world, with one
extremist interpretation declaring that apostates should be killed.
Attempts by Muslims in Egypt
to convert to other religions have been hindered by the state's refusal
to recognise the change in official documents and in some cases have
led to arrests and imprisonment.
Ummm... So if you're a Muslim in Egypt contemplating publicly changing your religion, here's the $64,000 question: which statement of the Mufti do you have faith in?
BONUS: The latest update on the Libya ransom scam includes this Bulgarian pay-off:
Bulgaria is considering writing off
Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal
that led to the release of six medics convicted of infecting
Libyan children with HIV.
After more than eight years in jail, five Bulgarian nurses
and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian
citizenship were freed on Tuesday under a cooperation accord
between Tripoli and the European Union.
"Undoubtedly, the issue of (forgiving) the Libyan debt is
one of the possible ways for Bulgaria to contribute," Prime
Minister Sergei Stanishev told a news conference on Wednesday.
"The debt amounts to about $54 million. We will look at
other possibilities too ... because this is a humanitarian act,
not a ransom." He did not elaborate.
No need to elaborate.