Jenifer Nakirya

It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslim extremists in eastern Uganda beat a widow and her 16-year-old daughter unconscious on Dec. 30, leaving the girl unable to walk a year after killing her father, sources said.

Suffering from an apparent spinal injury, Oliva Apio has had to discontinue her high school studies, said her injured mother, Jenifer Nakirya, in Kasasya village, Olimoto parish, Puti-Puti Sub-County in Pallisa District.

The same Islamist villagers killed Nakirya’s husband, Simon Olinga, by poisoning him a year ago for leading six Muslims to Christ in the predominantly Muslim area, she said. Nakirya said they also tried to kill her and her daughter in October.

On Dec. 28 at about 7:30 p.m., several men on the road outside her house warned her to leave the village, and that they could attack at any time, she said. She recognized the voice of one villager, Jafari Outa, and two others, but could not see them in the dark, Nakirya said.

The following night – at 1 a.m., thus technically Dec. 30 – she heard the same voice and the breaking of a window in her home, she said.

“The attackers then entered and started beating us, me and my daughter, with sticks and kicks,” Nakirya told Morning Star News. “We tried to make an alarm, but all was in vain. They beat us so badly that both of us lost consciousness. When the cock crowed in the morning I regained my consciousness, but my daughter was still unconscious.”

A member of their church arrived at about 6:30 a.m. with food as part of the church’s aid to widows. “She called my name, but I couldn’t respond because my voice was affected,” Nakirya said.

The church member entered the house and, finding Nakirya and her daughter badly injured, ran for help. Congregation members took them to a medical clinic, where they were referred to a hospital in Mbale, but Nakirya did not have money for treatment, she said.

A Morning Star News representative visiting her on Friday (Jan. 7) found Nakirya still in great pain, and her daughter unable to walk due to spinal injury. Without diagnosis or treatment, Oliva was only taking painkillers, her mother said. Oliva’s memory also seems to have been affected, she said.

The assailant whose voice she recognized, Outa, on Oct. 19 tried to kill them with a sword but was deterred by several visitors at their home for evening prayer, Nakirya said.

“I made an alarm, and Jafari Outa fled,” she said. “In the morning I reported the case at Pallisa central police station, and Outo was arrested and charged with attempted murder under reference number REF 36/19/10/2021, but he was released on bond.”…