Died for standing against Sharia. Mahmoud Mohammed Taha was a Sudanese Muslim thinker who watched Sharia being imposed on his country, and refused to accept it. His argument was radical: Islam has two messages. Mecca: peace, coexistence, freedom of belief, a message for every age. Medina: Sharia, jihad, hudud, a legal order suited to the seventh century, not the twentieth. He rejected coercive jihad. He rejected forced faith. He rejected apostasy laws, amputation, and traditional Islamic criminal punishments. He built a group called “the Republican Brothers” around this vision. Sudan did not debate him and defeat his argument. It hanged him. January 18, 1985. He had been convicted of apostasy after publicly opposing the government’s implementation of Sharia. The brutal irony is impossible to miss: Taha challenged sharia and was killed under sharia rule. He stood against Sharia and paid with his life. Stand against sharia while you still have the freedom to do it.