re the inimitable rushdie re an anecdote about islam in article apr monu cc monash edu au darice yoyo cc monash edu au fred rice wrote in article c c cn gb ra nrl navy mil khan itd itd nrl navy mil umar khan writes stuff deleted what we should be demanding is for khomeini and his ilk to publicly come clean and to show their proof that islamic law punishes apostacy with death or that it tolerates any similar form of coversion of freedom of conscience all five schools of law to the best of my knowledge support the death sentence for apostasy when it is accompanied by open persistent and aggravated hostility to islam otherwise i agree there is no legal support for punishment of disbelief the qur an makes it clear that belief is a matter of conscience public or private disavowal of islam or conversion to another faith is not punishable there are some jurists who have gone against this trend and insisted that apostasy is punishable even by death but historically they are the exception cursing and insulting the prophets falls under the category of shatim i just borrowed a book from the library on khomeini s fatwa etc lots of stuff deleted and according to the above analysis it looks like khomeini s offering of a reward for rushdie s death in fact constitutes a criminal act according to islamic law please see my post under re yet more rushdie islamic law
