A leading Islamic cleric in Nigeria, Ahmad Gumi, has faulted the assertion by many people that death is the penalty for blasphemy.
According to him, at no time did Prophet Muhammad (SAW) kill anyone despite the fact that he was insulted many times.
Gumi said this during a religious teaching in his Kaduna Juma’at mosque, while reacting to the killing of Deborah Samuel, a female Christian student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, over alleged blasphemy.
In a video clip obtained and translated by PRNigeria, Gumi said that the prophet’s refusal to avenge the insults non-Muslims rained on him while he was alive, was because he did not want to be regarded or tagged a killer.
He said, “Anyone who kills a non-Muslim who they have agreed to live peacefully with will not smell the fragrance of Paradise for 40 years.
“If we think by killing Deborah, people who are not of the same faith with us will stop insulting our prophet, then we are in delusion.”
