"Clerics Issue Fatwah on Anyone Proposing Secular Laws"

Like any extremist movement, militant Islam contains elements that are going over the edge in a frenzy of delusion and hubris. The Associated Press reports from Sudan about a fatwa (edict) issued by fourteen prominent Islamic scholars and published in the Akhbar al-Yawm newspaper calling for the execution of anyone in Sudan who calls for non-Islamic laws. "Whoever approves or calls for application of a ruling other than the Islamic Shari'a - like those who call for socialism or communism or other subversive beliefs that contradict Islamic thought - is, frankly, an apostate." For example, "Those who question the qiwama [guardianship] of men over women is in fact objecting to God's ruling and is questioning the holy book, and is [therefore] considered unanimously by the Islamic scholars to be an apostate." Further, they also consider an apostate anyone who supports "those schools of thought or those parties." Apostates are to be given a chance to recant; if they refuse, they should be executed. (July 5, 2003)