Muslim Writer Threatened With Beheading for Non-Traditional Interpretation of Quran
A Scottish Muslim writer has received threats of beheading over writings in which he said the Quran doesn’t require fasting during Ramadan.
Scottish police offered protection to Paigham Mustafa and his family after Islamic extremists branded him a “Kafir” — or a “disbeliever” — and left death threats on a Facebook post in which he asserted that certain widely practiced Islamic rituals were not actually prescribed by the Quran, according to the Sunday Herald Scotland.
RITUAL FASTING: IS IT IN THE QURAN?https://t.co/pPRBGRijZl https://t.co/ByDgG64LpI
— Paigham Mustafa (@xeitre) May 25, 2018
Mustafa is a known Islamic iconoclast who has garnered the ire of Muslim clerics by calling for burqa bans since they are not explicitly prescribed in the Quran, questioning mosque teachings and publishing his interpretation of the Quran.
“Shut up or else you will get your head chopped off … shut up or else you will be beheaded … shut up you Kafir dog … you will get beheaded … we will kill you kafir,” one Facebook user commented on Mustafa’s post, according to Sunday Herald Scotland.
Another Facebook user by the name Imran Waleed Ibn Kaad implored “O Allah, kill this kafir.”
Mustafa later reported and blocked at least one of the men who persistently posted threats on the Facebook post.
“I feel very tense and my family are extremely anxious and worried. As we saw with the case of Asad Shah, there are people in the UK who are quite capable of carrying out these threats. It’s happened once and it’s quite possible it could happen again,” Mustafa told the Sunday Herald, referencing the case of a man who was stabbed to death in Scotland in 2016 for allegedly disrespecting Islam.
Mustafa claims that 15 Muslim clerics in Glasgow issued a fatwah, or Islamic ruling, against him in 2001 for publicly questioning the teachings of certain mosques in a series of papers he published.
— Paigham Mustafa (@xeitre) June 1, 2018
“I think it is important to emphasize that it is not Islam that I am against. I simply want to make people aware of those rituals that are not in the Quran. I did not say that it is wrong to fast, but ritual fasting is not decreed,” Mustafa told the Sunday Herald.
“I have a contact at Police Scotland who told me I must report this immediately. Security services are now involved and they’re taking measures to find out who these people are,” he added. “They are also offering additional protection at my home and at my work.”
Mustafa also criticized those who issued death threats and called into question the nature of their faith in Islam.
“I am happy to have an open discussion [with critics], but death threats are not decreed in the Quran and those who make such threats need to question whether they are following Quranic values,” Mustafa said, according to Sunday Herald.
Police have not charged anyone in connection with the death threats. Their investigation is ongoing.
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