Muslims Free To Leave Faith

At a meeting in Ireland, the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Faith Forum, Dr Mamoun Mobayed, said that the understanding that Muslims were not allowed to leave the Muslim faith was mistaken.

One of the tenets of the Koran was that there can be no compulsion in religion, Dr Mobayed told delegates at the Greenhills Ecumenical Conference earlier this week.

However another clause of the Koran says ‘If you want to leave Islam, you will be killed.’ Dr Mobayed said that this clause really meant that people should not come to to Islam ‘as a phase’ and then drop away again. ‘This clause is often misunderstood, even at the highest level,’ he said.

Judith Charri, a Jew, said that Jews were free to leave their religion and join another, and that people could also convert to Judaism. ‘It must be out of a genuine desire,’ she said, ‘therefore it is a lengthy process of study and observance.’

Dr Mobayed said that Islam was much misunderstood by the media. ‘The word “Allah” means “God” so even at an Arab Catholic Mass, the term would be used for God, but the media presents it as something strange.’

He complained that the syllabus for religious education in Northern Ireland is exclusively Christian. ‘The education issue should not just be left to the four Christian Churches,’ he said.

He also appealed to schools in Northern Ireland with Moslem pupils, to inform them of their right to absent themselves from religion classes.

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