Apostasy...

The BBC is “under fire” for broadcasting a “strikingly hostile” interview, on Woman’s Hour, with Zara Mohammed, the first woman to lead the Muslim Council of Britain. Though I haven’t heard the interview, I am familiar with the automatic assumption that even the mildest criticism of Islam is ‘Islamophobic’. This is what happens when the Koran is considered to be the “perfect” book, and Mohammed - who married a 6-year-old girl and consummated the marriage three years later - is considered to be the “perfect” man. How is it possible to criticise perfection?

I doubt if many non-Muslims have read the Koran (spoiler alert: it’s both horrifying and dull… a bad combination). But even before we open the book, Islam has a case or two to answer. For example, the penalty for leaving Islam is death. In the Hadith, the sayings of the prophet, Mohammed said “Whoever changes his religion, kill him” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, 9:57). There’s nothing metaphorical about that demand, nor does it represent an extreme position. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, 88% of Muslims in Egypt, and 62% of Muslims in Pakistan, favor the death penalty for people who leave Islam. Figures are lower, but still significant, in other Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and South Asia.

While this doesn’t mean that all apostates are executed, of course, it’s nevertheless a chilling reminder that religious freedom, in many Islamic countries, just means the ‘freedom’ to worship Allah. We have to ask whether compulsory belief can ever be compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to article 18, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”…