Freedom to chose.

[oldnitro]

Is the child of a Muslim family free to chose his/her religion or are they bound by Islamic law to follow Islam?

[Ankou]

i guess its like any form of upbringing - religion (jewish, christian, sikh etc) or lifestyle (naturism, vegetarianism, camping in skegness). the parents raise a child according to their principles and choices, and when the child reaches the age of maturity they can choose to make their own way in life.

of course, doing so as an adult may ostrcise them from their parents/that community, but thems the choices aintnt they.

[jake-the-peg]

Well when I got married in a Catholic church I had to promise to bring up any children in that faith.

Yeah right like that was going to happen!

[LazyGun]

I could well be wrong - but dont all the Abrahamic faiths (Catholicism, Islam, Judeism) insist upon inflicting, ermm indoctrinating ermmm bringing up the children to be the next generation of faithful followers? What better way to ensure that the virus of faith is carried on, and the seeds of violence and sectarianism live on too?

Yet more evidence that God is weak - cannot even allow for the application of adult free will!

[notasyoungasiwas]

'Yeah right like that was going to happen!' lol

[oldnitro]

What I am trying to get at here is if the child was brought up as a Muslim from birth and then decided at age 15 that he/she wanted to follow a different religion is he/she forbidden under Islamic law or would there be an honor killing demanded?

[Ankou]

it depends where in the world they are really and the strictness of the family around them. for instance, in iran, converting from islam to judaism is punishable by death.

apparently every year 6m muslims convert to christianity. not sure how true or accurate that is. i did find this though:

"There's a certain hadith [verse] that said if anyone changes his or her religion, he deserves to be killed. In my research, I found that was linked to some people who were trying to penetrate the Muslim community at the time in Medina. They came from Jewish or pagan communities, and announced they had become Muslims. Then after a few days, they announced they had found this religion to be very bad and they had decided to go back to their religions: Judaism, paganism, whatever.

"The Prophet was trying to stop that kind of conspiracy so he said that if anyone changes from the religion he has adopted, we will kill him. Islamic jurists [ scholars] have not paid attention to [the exceptional nature] of that event. They have generalized that hadith to say if anyone practices apostasy, we should kill him."

of course it only takes one numpty cleric somewhere to interpret it a certain way, and all hell breaks loose.

[jake-the-peg]

And I think the bible prescribes stoning to death as a punishment for all sorts of things too

http://skepticsannota...ys_about/stoning.html

Including touching Mount Sinai!!

[Ankou]

i've touched mount sinai, what do i do what do i do ??

is it ten hell mary's and three half fathers or summink, wheres the guidelines?

[douglas9401]

So if the stoning is at the foot of Mount Sinai and the stoners pick up rocks that form part of the base of the mountain are they next for the pounding?

[Ric.ror]

Firstly the nicest man I ever met was a RC priest from Nigeria - he was born into a muslim family but decided to convert at 13 - when he told his father he said 'Well that must be the will of Allah'

Secondly why did you get married in a church if you had no intention of following the rules - I never understand it. To me its like being a tory but joining the Labour Party

[keyplus90]

Islam does not stop anyone from leaving but few Muslims do. In Quran it is very clearly mentioned that there is no compulsion in the religion.

Then we come to Hadith second authority AFTER Quran. No Muslim Scholar would say that Hadith is more important than Quran unless Quran’s message is not clear enough. Then, as ANKOU put it that during the time of early days few Jews and Pagans did what ANKOU mentioned. But only Hadith which few people use says that if someone leaves Islam and turns hostile towards Muslims. So the punishment is not for leaving but attacking or treason even according to the ONLY ONE Hadith on this matter. That is to stop from society going into unrest which as a result can cause more damage. Now someone may not agree with that. That is the reason that majority of the well known scholars believe in three things for someone who leaves Islam but does not attack Muslims or Islam.

1 – Do not force the person but try to answer his questions that why did he not like Islam. As Islam has answer to every question. Same can be said about other religions. That have a dialogue and prove your point.

2 – In Quran there is not a single verse talking about any punishment for apostasy in this world. Any punishment mentioned is to do with hereafter. And that is between that individual and the creator and therefore has nothing to do with anyone else.

3 – Act upon what Quran clearly says that it is Allah who knows what a person will die as.

So on the basis of that In Islam there is no force to be used for someone who turns away. But few Muslims (who do not know their own religion properly) may think otherwise but then media exaggerate it to a huge proportion. And that is the reason I once offered a specific person here to travel back to my country (Pakistan) on my expense and I would show him people who left Islam and still no one has killed them.

Overall there are more people who are coming to Islam than who are leaving. 6 Million a year mentioned there is just not right as ground realities are suggesting otherwise.

[Ankou]

keyplus, the 6m figure came from an al jazeerah article, and some geezer called ahmad al katani. some islamic scholars think he is way off the mark and the number is higher because he was just talking about africa.

up to you to take it or leave it, no bother to me

[keyplus90]

I know that Christian missionaries are throwing billions of dollars and manipulating poor areas of Africa. But 6 Millions a year is a bit too much of exaggeration. It does not matter if Al Jazeera played it or what. People do not understand that how active Arab Coptic Christians are. But I will not go to long debates on this as I will just wait and see. If 6 Millions (and even that only in Africa) are leaving Islam a YEAR then probably within my life time I would see a clear difference in this world. Now lets wait and see. Otherwise it will just die out like many other lies have done in the time gone by. So for the time being I would take your words for it.

[jomifl]

Yes Keyplus you have it spot on ... it is ALL lies

[boxtops]

Keyplus has it - those who say that there is punishment for coming away from Islam are using words for their own ends. Many Muslims (and several I know personally) believe that "once a Muslim always a Muslim", and certain regimes have made it very difficult for those who convert to other faiths.