The Ruling on Stealing from the Funds of the Christians That Are Spent on Building Churches

The Ruling on Stealing from the Funds of the Christians That Are Spent on Building Churches
This is a Christian man in one of the African countries. The Christians were providing him with funds, and he was building churches with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then he embraced Islam three months ago. Before his conversion to Islam, he was stealing from these funds until he had accumulated a large amount of wealth.And he is now, after his conversion to Islam, asking: Should he build mosques with the money he stole, or not?

We say: He should build mosques with it; because he took it in a manner that is not permissible by the Shari'ah, he should spend it in its lawful equivalent. And churches, as you know, are the places of worship for the Christians, and mosques are the places of worship for the Muslims. Spending it on the mosques of the Muslims is better than spending it on the temples of the Christians.

So we say to him: Build mosques for the Muslims with it, and ask Allah for steadfastness upon Islam.