NEWS STORY: Islamic court in Kuwait proclaims Christian convert an apostate

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-An Islamic court in Kuwait Wednesday (May 29) proclaimed Hussein Qambar Ali, 45, guilty of apostasy-abandoning Islam, the majority religion in the Persian Gulf Arab state-because of his conversion to Christianity. Hussein, who has taken the Christian name Robert, has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Constitutional […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)-An Islamic court in Kuwait Wednesday (May 29) proclaimed Hussein Qambar Ali, 45, guilty of apostasy-abandoning Islam, the majority religion in the Persian Gulf Arab state-because of his conversion to Christianity.

Hussein, who has taken the Christian name Robert, has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court.


Because Hussein’s case is believed to be the first of its kind in modern Kuwait, his punishment is unclear.

Asked if Muslims might take the ruling as permission to kill Hussein, Judge Jaafar al-Mazidi, who chaired the Shi’ite court in Kuwait City, told the Reuter news agency,”That is possible.” But killing an apostate violates criminal law, the judge added.”Kuwaiti people are as far as could be from”such a killing, he said.

The Kuwaiti Constitution acknowledges that Sharia (Islamic law) is the”main source”for all law, but there are no legal provisions calling apostasy a crime.

While apostasy has no legal penalty under Kuwaiti criminal law, it does under Islamic rulings, Mazidi was quoted by Reuters.”Apostasy in Islam has a hadd (penalty) which is death, (forceful) divorce, distribution of belongings to heirs before death,”the judge said.

Hussein has demanded that the Constitutional Court view his case on the grounds that Kuwait’s constitution guarantees freedom of belief, Reuters said.

Hussein has remained in hiding since December, when he made his conversion public during a legal battle with his estranged wife over whether he should be allowed to visit their two children. In interviews with local newspapers, he alleged that his wife was divorcing him and preventing him from seeing his children because he had adopted Christianity.

After the interviews were published, three lawyers filed a private suit against Hussein, charging him with apostasy. He said he subsequently received several death threats.


The lawyers said they did not want Hussein killed but wanted him stripped of several civil rights, including his Kuwaiti nationality, according to Reuters.”Those demands can be addressed by a civil court,”the news service quoted Mazidi.

In a telephone interview in April with Religion News Service, Hussein spoke out against the apostasy accusation.”I want to live a normal life like other Kuwaiti citizens,”he said.”I found my God somewhere else. Why should I pay the price for it?” Human rights groups denounced Wednesday’s verdict.”We Americans who are free and have tremendous influence through our government over Kuwait have a moral responsibility to do everything in our power to defend this victim of the most fundamental of human rights abuses,”said Nina Shea, director of the New York-based Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom.

Shea said she hoped Americans would”exert various levers, including those through our military defense of Kuwait,”to let the Gulf state know that”our interests are not limited to oil supplies and trade.” The Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

On May 23, 12 U.S. senators led by Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) wrote to Kuwait’s head of state, Amir Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabath, expressing their concern about the case and their hope that Hussein’s right to religious freedom would be respected. Several members of the House of Representatives have also written to Kuwaiti officials.

During the April telephone interview, Hussein said he believed some U.S. officials appeared reluctant to intervene on his behalf.”When I asked why the United States doesn’t do anything about (my case), they say, `We don’t want to interfere in the internal (affairs) of Kuwait,'”he said.”Well, you interfered when you liberated Kuwait, when you killed your sons for us.”

MJP END LAWTON

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