Charles fights death penalty for converts
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
(Filed: 18/12/2004)
The Prince of Wales is brokering efforts to end the Muslim death penalty on converts to other faiths, The Telegraph has learned.
He held a private summit of Christian and Muslim leaders at Clarence House
this month to explore the
centuries-old Islamic law under which apostates face persecution and even death.
His intervention follows mounting anger at the treatment of Muslims who
have converted to Christianity in a number of Islamic states.
As an advocate of inter-faith dialogue, Prince Charles has come under
pressure to criticise the religious law that, campaigners say, has resulted
in hundreds of executions in countries from Iran to Sudan.
Among the Christians at the confidential meeting was an Anglican archbishop
from a part of Nigeria where Islamic Sharia law is enforced.
Others included the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, and the
Pakistani-born Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali.
It is understood that the Muslim group, which included the Islamic scholar
Zaki Badawi, cautioned the prince and other non-Muslims against speaking
publicly on the issue.
It argued that Islamic moderates could have more influence on the
traditional position if the debate remained largely internal.
A member of the Christian group said yesterday that he was "very, very
unhappy" about the outcome.
Patrick Sookhdeo, the international director of the Barnabas Fund which
campaigns on behalf of persecuted Christians abroad, stressed that he was
speaking on the record only because details of the meeting had already leaked.
He urged the prince and Muslim leaders in Britain to criticise openly the
traditional Islamic law on apostasy, calling for it to be abolished
throughout the world.
"My view, and I think the other Christians shared it, is that when
something is wrong it must be stated as a wrong."
Other Christian leaders were more sympathetic to the worries of the Muslims
that public criticism could prove counter-productive.
Besides Dr Sookhdeo and the Bishops of London and Rochester, others
Christian leaders at the meeting included the Archbishop of Kaduna in
Nigeria, the Most Rev Josiah Idowu-Fearon, and a bishop from the Orthodox
Church.
Other Muslim leaders included Sayyed Yousef al-Khoei, the director of the
London-based Al-Khoei Foundation, and Sher Khan, of the Islamic Society of
Britain.
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