I refer to the false report in the Washington Post which attributed a claim to Sheikh Ali Goma’a, Egypt’s Grand Mufti, that Muslims can apostatize from Islam. The mufti has officially retracted this claim as it was reported in the Gulf News. Its like saying that the mufti has become a Beverly Hills plastic surgery specialist.
Egypt’s top cleric yesterday denied in a statement that he had said a Muslim can give up his faith without punishment.
Ali Goma’a, the mufti of Egypt, was quoted as saying in a posting on a Washington Post-Newsweek forum that Muslims are free to change their faith and this is a matter between an individual and God.
“What I actually said is that Islam prohibits a Muslim from changing his religion and that apostasy is a crime, which must be punished,” Goma’a said.
There may be indications as to who was responsible for this false claim.
The alleged fatwa coincides with an uproar over the case of 12 Egyptians who converted to Islam from Christianity and now want to re-embrace Christianity.
“There is a campaign by secularists to distort the image of Dr Ali Goma’a,” a senior official in Al Azhar told Gulf News.
“He cannot deny punishment in this life for the apostate,” said Mustafa Al Chaka of the Islamic Research Centre.
The report is false and verily those who claim that Sheikh Ali Goma’a had ever repudiated the capital punishment for apostasy is a liar. For a detailed exegesis on the subject, see: Apostasy & Blasphemy in Islam.
