Apostasy

Another reason to fear an Obama presidency.  It's not that he's a secret Muslim (madrassa madrassa), it's that by Islamic law he actually is a Muslim:

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

"Convincingly" is an odd choice of term–is there some suggestion it's not true?  But don't get the idea that the author of these words thinks this is a problem for American Christians (although I can almost hear the dog whistle), it's going to be a problem for the world's Muslims:

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)

The case for Obama's being a Muslim seems kind of tenuous (he was born to a Muslim father who had renounced (when?) his religion).  Had Obama ever been considered a Muslim by his father? I suppose under the notion that you can never stop being a Muslim, if that's true, then Obama will always be one.  All of this adds up to serious concerns for Obama's saftey:

Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.

At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.

I doubt our efforts to fight the war on terrorism and export democracy and human rights (he must be kidding about that, really) could get any more "complicated" than they are.

4 thoughts on “Apostasy”

  1. What tripe. I’m no expert on Muslim law, but the author gives no reason to think he is either. The whole wacky position rests on the claim that Obama is a Muslim apostate, but Mr. Luttwak doesn’t bother to provide the least bit of evidence for this interpretation of Muslim law in a situation such as the present. Someone should tell the good sir that in an argument from authority, one first has to have some sort of authority.

    Given the author’s lack of substantiation, I feel justified in using Wikipedia as my sole source to refute him. To answer your “when?” question:

    ”He describes his Kenyan father as “raised a Muslim,” but a “confirmed atheist” by the time his parents met, and his Indonesian stepfather as “a man who saw religion as not particularly useful.” ”

    So Obama the senior was a confirmed atheist before Obama the junior was conceived–unless, as you say, you or your children can never stop being Muslim. If that’s the interpretation, then that’s quite some pyramid scheme. Who knows, it might even make you or I Muslim in Luttwak’s eyes.

    There are, as of now, 173 comments on the Times about this Op-Ed, and no one–particularly Muslims–seems to be buying his interpretation.

  2. One question: would Obama’s purported apostasy make him less safe in a Muslim nation than Mr. Bush?

    This article is indeed tripe. When has an American president ever relied on another nation’s security for securing his own safety?

  3. I’ve been to three county fairs and a Carrot Top show, and this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.

    This is really what we’ve been lacking: a white guy working for a defense-oriented think tank interpreting Muslim law. It’s complete, of course, with the requisite generalizations about what “the Muslims” think. If one chooses not to vote for Obama there are plenty of valid reasons not to do so. Why these people feel the need to go to such bizarre lengths inventing a new one every day is beyond me.

  4. I was going to leave a clever, snarky comment, but I read that whole article and am now exponentially more dumberer.

    I’m going go lie down now and drool myself to sleep.

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