Anyone Who Leaves Islam Should Be Killed
Islamists organized a call under the title “Anyone Who Leaves Islam Should Be Killed.”
A video was published on social networks showing an attack by a 25-year-old Afghan man in the city of Mannheim, Germany, including an attack on a police officer. News published regarding this person’s attack came following calls for the killing of individuals who leave Islam, and many Islamists, upon seeing this video, celebrated the attack and announced: “Anyone who has left Islam or criticized it should be killed.”
The 25-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, has been a refugee in Germany since 2014. It should be noted that the police officer who was attacked with a knife by him has been severely injured and is currently in a coma with his life in danger.
According to many Islamists, leaving Islam is considered apostasy. Apostasy in Islam is defined as the deliberate renunciation of Islam through speech or through action, and includes the act of changing religion or rejecting religious beliefs to become non-religious, by a person born into a Muslim family or someone who previously accepted Islam.
The majority of Sunni and Shia jurists in the past believed that for adult males, apostasy from Islam was a crime, a sin, and a treacherous act that could be punishable by execution, with the apostate usually given the opportunity to return to Islam. However, the apostasy that jurists generally consider punishable today is of a political nature, and even in this regard there is considerable disagreement among Islamic jurists on this matter.
