Let There be no Compulsion in Religion

Given that verse 2:256 in the Qur'an states:-

Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error:

it is very surprising to me to see the number of cases where Muslims have tortured Christians to try to get them to convert to Islam.

Apostates are another matter; Islamic law clearly states that apostates should be killed. Often they end up getting tortured as well, or as an attempt to get them to return to Islam. The above verse is understood to refer only to conversion to Islam.

A quick search of the internet came up with the following examples:-

In May 2004 a Christian student was kidnapped and tortured inside a Pakistani madrassah:-

On his hospital deathbed, Anjum declared in his formal statement to the police that he was tortured specifically because he refused to convert to Islam. According to his testimony videotaped by his family, Anjum had been seized by people from the madrasseh when he stopped to get a drink of water from the school's water tap.

When they learned he was a Christian, they pressured him "from night until morning" to convert to Islam. When he resisted, he said, he was subjected to barbaric forms of torture.

His abuse included repeated electric shocks to his ears, a broken right arm and fingers, some of his fingernails pulled out, skin burns, severe beatings on his feet, and serious injuries to his kidneys and bladder. Reportedly 26 wounds were found on his body in the official post mortem report issued May 6.

Anjum said he was finally forced under torture to repeat the words of the Muslim creed, an act which according to Islamic law constitutes conversion to Islam. But he told his family he had not renounced his Christian faith.

In December 2006 two Christian women were released after being held and tortured for months by their Pakistani employer:-

However, after they had been working there for one month, Muhammad “refused to pay their salary and together with his wife, kidnapped the two women. They tore the crosses from their necks and forbade them to pray. They demanded that the women change their faith and convert to Islam and when they refused, they tortured them.”

At night, “they were chained to prevent them from escaping. Razia’s right foot was injured with the shards of a broken bottle and both had burns on their bodies. One day, Muhammad threatened to kill their relatives if they continued to be hard headed and to refuse to change religion or if they tried to escape.”

He even brought a bottle of acid and a syringe: “You will die with this in your body”. Nasreen responded: “You may kill us but we will not convert.”

In January 2007 a very similar story emerged about two brother who had worked at a brick kiln:-

"When Shahzad and Saraj refused to convert, the brick kiln owner took them away," according to a VOM source within Pakistan. "He put them in a small, empty room with a mud floor without a bed, chair or mattress."

The source continued: "He kept them there for a month. He gave them food once a day and beat them with a stick when they refused to convert back to Islam. He also threw acid on their arms, but they remained true to their Christ."

In June 2007 a young Christian was tortured and gang-raped for refusing to convert to Islam:-

According to CLAAS, the Christian was invited to a game of cricket. A quarrel broke out and he was beaten up. Later that evening, the father of one of the Muslims asked the Christian over to his house.

Joseph Francis, the National Director of CLAAS, explained: “When he entered the drawing room, he found it filled with unknown people. They began to beat him severely. They threatened him with dire consequences if he did not accept Islam. After his refusal, they committed sodomy with him one by one for the whole night.”

In July 2007, 23 Korean Christian volunteer aid workers were seized by the Taliban in Afghanistan. There were seven men and 16 women in this group. Two of the men were killed but the remainder were released over a period of several days at the end of August. The Korean government denied that a ransom had been paid.

Subsequently it emerged that one of those who died was killed for refusing to convert to Islam:-

The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.

“Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten,” reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church, Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital Seoul.

“I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death,” he added, according to Christian Today Korea. “Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert.”

A hospital chief also said on Monday that some of the five South Korean men freed from captivity last week reported being beaten by their Taliban abductors for refusing to convert to Islam and for protecting their female colleagues.

The verse from the Qur'an which I quoted at the start of this post is not the last word on how Muslims should treat "people of the book" (Christians, Jews, etc.). That can be found in verse 9:29 (Sura 9 is believed to have been the last one revealed to Mohammed):-

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Extremist Muslims like the Taliban and Hamas are known to have tried to extract the jizya from Christians. However, the Qur'an does not tell Muslims to torture Christians (or anybody else) to convert to Islam.

Perhaps it is the general intolerance shown in the Qur'an towards unbelievers that causes these Muslims to resort to torture; e.g. verse 5:73:-

They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them.