Duluth News Tribune: Imran Hayee.
The Quran champions religious freedom in these remarkable words, “There is no compulsion in religion.” It also promotes peaceful coexistence by pronouncing, “For you, your religion, and for me, my religion.” The Quran does not stipulate any secular punishment for apostasy and leaves the matter solely between God and an individual, allowing complete freedom to believe or disbelieve.
Today it is becoming rare to find just and peaceful Muslim leaders without selfish motives. But one such leader, the Khalifa of Islam, is Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who teaches love, tolerance and justice, the true Islamic values. He is the spiritual and administrative head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, comprising tens of millions of Muslims, including myself. Last June 27, during his visit to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to address a group of 150 congressmen, senators and other dignitaries, the Khalifa said, “Peace and justice are inseparable. … You cannot have one without the other.”
Prophet Muhammad never punished anyone for apostasy or blasphemy, not when he was weak during the early days in Mecca and also not when he returned to his native city with a grand army during the bloodless Conquest of Mecca.
At the peak of the Islamic empire in his lifetime, Prophet Muhammad assured minorities of full and equal rights. In his historic charter of privileges to the Christian monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mount Sinai (in today’s Egypt), he ensured no compulsion on them and offered them full protection of life and property. In reality, early Islamic rule was a sigh of relief for Coptic Christians of Egypt who had experienced severe religious persecution under Roman Empire.