Islamic Republic of Iran: Sharia court sentences Christians to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine

Islamic Republic of Iran: Sharia court sentences Christians to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine
Robert Spencer/Jihad Watch/November 16, 2016

“It is not illegal for Christians to drink alcohol in Iran but under Islamic law, Muslims are forbidden from drinking and it is illegal for Muslims to convert. The trio’s conversion from Islam to Christianity is not recognised by Iranian authorities who subscribe to Sharia law.”

The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. 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.”But the Iranian authorities are just lashing these converts, not executing them. At last, moderate Islam!

“Christians sentenced to 80 lashes by Sharia court for drinking communion wine,”
Katie Mansfield, Express, November 16, 2016
A SHARIA court has sentenced three Christians to 80 lashes each after finding them guilty of blasphemy for drinking holy communion wine. Yaser Mosibzadeh, Saheb Fadayee and Mohammed Reza Omidi will be flogged in public after being arrested at a house church gathering in Rasht, Iran, earlier this year.

The trio spent weeks in prison before finally being released on bail, but will now be subjected to the cruel and degrading punishment after being found guilty by Islamist judges.
Security agents also raided the home of their pastor Yousef Nadarkhani and his wife Fatemeh Pasandideh and arrested them at the same time, but they were not detained.
Iranian authorities later charged converts Mosibzadeh, Fadayee and Omidi for consuming alcohol during a communion service.

It is not illegal for Christians to drink alcohol in Iran but under Islamic law, Muslims are forbidden from drinking and it is illegal for Muslims to convert. The trio’s conversion from Islam to Christianity is not recognised by Iranian authorities who subscribe to Sharia law.

An Iranian court sentenced the trio to 80 lashes each as punishment for their actions. Many people faint after eight strokes due to the severe pain of the barbaric corporal punishment, which was commonplace in the Middle Ages. The group, alongside Nadarkhani, are also due to be sentenced for “action against national security” at a later date at the Revolutionary Court in Rasht….