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is it true that those who refuse to acknowledge apostasy from islam of apostates are themselves apostates (look for fatwa) Have found nothing

Apostasy in Islam (Arabic: ردة, riddah or ارتداد, irtidād) is commonly defined as the conscious abandonment of Islam by a Muslim in word or through deed. It includes the act of converting to another religion or non-acceptance of faith to be irreligious, by a person who was born in a Muslim family or who had previously accepted Islam, or heresy. While classical Islamic law calls for the execution of those who refuse to repent of apostasy from Islam, the definition this act and whether and how it should be punished, are matters of controversy and opinions of Islamic scholars differ on these questions.

According to the classical legal doctrine, apostasy in Islam includes not only an explicit renunciation of the Islamic faith (whether for another religion or irreligiosity), but also any deed or utterance implying unbelief, such as one denying a "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam. Those who were originally forced to embrace Islam, or who repented of their apostasy, should not be subject to execution.

Until the late 19th century, the vast majority of Sunni and Shia jurists held that for adult men, apostasy from Islam was a crime as well as a sin, an act of treason punishable with the death penalty, typically after a waiting period to allow the apostate time to repent and to return to Islam. The kind of apostasy which the jurists generally deemed punishable was of the political kind, although there were considerable legal differences of opinion on this matter. Wael Hallaq states that "[in] a culture whose lynchpin is religion, religious principles and religious morality, apostasy is in some way equivalent to high treason in the modern nation-state". Early Islamic jurists developed legal institutions to circumvent this harsh punishment and the standard for apostasy from Islam was set so high that practically no apostasy verdict could be passed before the 11th century. However, later jurists lowered the bar for applying the death penalty, allowing judges to interpret the apostasy law in different ways, which they did sometimes leniently and sometimes strictly. In the late 19th century, the use of criminal penalties for apostasy fell into disuse, although civil penalties were still applied.

In modern times the majority of modern Islamic jurists continue to regard apostasy not only as a sin but as a crime deserving the death penalty (according to Abdul Rashied Omar), although others argue its punishment should not be death, or should just be left to God, punishment being inconsistent with Quranic injunctions against compulsion in belief. and should be enforced only if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder (fitna). Critics argue that the death penalty or other punishment for apostasy in Islam is a violation of universal human rights and an issue of freedom of faith and conscience.

As of 2019, there are 12 Muslim-majority countries with a death penalty for apostasy, whereas in 13 other countries apostasy is illegal and the government prescribes some form of punishment for apostasy including: torture, imprisonment, annulment of marriage, loss of inheritance rights or custody rights, amongst others. From 1985 to 2006, three governments executed four individuals for apostasy from Islam: "one in Sudan in 1985; two in Iran, in 1989 and 1998; and one in Saudi Arabia in 1992." The Tunisian Constitution of 2014 stipulates protection from attacks based on accusations of apostasy. In a Pew Research Center poll, public support for capital punishment for apostasy among Muslims ranged from 78% in Afghanistan to less than 1% in Kazakhstan.

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An apostasy in Islam (Arabic: ردة, riddah or ارتداد, irtidād, an apostate from Islam is a murtad (Arabic: مرتد) is commonly defined as the abandonment of Islam by a Muslim, in word or through deed. It includes not only explicit renunciations of the Islamic faith by converting to another religion (or abandoning religion altogether), but also blasphemy or heresy, through any action or utterance implying unbelief, including those denying a "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam.

While classical Islamic law calls for execution of those who refuse to repent of apostasy from Islam, the definition of this act and whether and how it should be punished, are disputed among Islamic scholars and international supporters of the universal human right to freedom of faith and conscience.

As of 2019, there were twelve Muslim-majority countries where apostasy from Islam was punishable by death, and another thirteen where there were penal or civil penalties. From 1985 to 2006, only four individuals were officially executed by governments for apostasy from Islam, but apostates have suffered from other legal and vigilante punishments -- imprisonment, annulment of marriage, loss of rights of inheritance and custody of children, and even torture. Mainly loss of life has come from killings by "takfiri" insurgents (ISIL, GIA, Taliban) and secret executions (in Iran) that are thought to have numbered in the thousands.

Until the late 19th century, the vast majority of Sunni and Shia jurists held that for adult men, apostasy from Islam was a crime as well as a sin, an act of treason punishable with the death penalty, often (depending on the school of law) after a waiting period to allow the apostate time to repent and to return to Islam. But to protect against abuse, exemption was granted to those who were originally forced to embrace Islam, or who apostasized out of fear, or (according to the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i schools) who repented. In addition, early Islamic jurists developed legal standards to limit the harsh punishment to apostasy of the political kind, which in a religious culture was "in some way equivalent to high treason".

Later jurists lowered the bar for applying the death penalty, allowing judges to interpret the apostasy law in different ways, which they did sometimes leniently and sometimes strictly. In the late 19th century, the use of legal criminal penalties for apostasy fell into disuse, although civil penalties were still applied.

In the contemporary world, public (Muslim) support for capital punishment varies from 78% in Afghanistan to less than 1% in Kazakhstan; among Islamic jurists the majority continue to regard apostasy as a crime whose punishment is death. Those who disagree argue its punishment should be less than death, should be left to God, (human punishment being inconsistent with Quranic injunctions against compulsion in belief), or should be enforced only if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder (fitna). Secular critics argue that the death penalty or other punishment for apostasy in Islam is a violation of universal human rights and an issue of freedom of faith and conscience.

Issues and criticisms

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Apostasy can be applied narrowly or broadly.

In the case of a self-professed apostates, traditional, conservative and revivalist Muslim are in agreement -- depending upon the school of fiqh -- that punishment should be applied to the apostate after precautions have been taken (they was been educated of their error, given a chance to repent, evaluated for mental soundness, etc.), as a matter of obedience to sharia and to protect the faith. (In modern times capital punishment has usually been applied in Muslim majority countries by vigilantes or insurgent groups rather than the state.)

(see Apostasy_in_Islam#Apostasy_in_the_recent_past)

Non-Muslims and liberals Muslims disagree, arguing it is a violation of the human right to freedom of religion, and somewhat hypocritical for a religion that enthusiastically encourages non-Muslims to apostacize from their current faith and convert to Islam.

Etymology and terminology

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Apostasy is called irtidād (which literally means relapse or regress) or ridda in Islamic literature; an apostate is called murtadd, which means 'one who turns back' from Islam. A person born to a Muslim father who later rejects Islam is called a murtad fitri, and a person who converted to Islam and later rejects the religion is called a murtad milli.

Scriptural references

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Quran

See also: Criticism of the Quran and Quran and violence

The Quran mentions apostasy in many of its verses, expressing anger towards those who have left the faith. For example:

But those who reject Faith after they accepted it, and then go on adding to their defiance of Faith, – never will their repentance be accepted; for they are those who have (of set purpose) gone astray.

— Quran 3:90

You will find others who desire that they should be safe from you and secure from their own people; as often as they are sent back to the mischief they get thrown into it headlong; therefore if they do not withdraw from you, and (do not) offer you peace and restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them; and against these We have given you a clear authority.

— Quran 4:91

Make ye no excuses: ye have rejected Faith after ye had accepted it. If We pardon some of you, We will punish others amongst you, for that they are in sin.

— Quran 9:66

He who disbelieves in Allah after his having believed, not he who is compelled while his heart is at rest on account of faith, but he who opens (his) breast to disbelief-- on these is the wrath of Allah, and they shall have a grievous chastisement.

— Quran 16:106

Other Qur'anic verses (4:137, 2:217, 5:54, 2:108, 88:23–24) also refer to apostasy.

While talk of God's wrath, punishment, and not accepting repentance in some verses may "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates (according to Dale F. Eickelman), others have pointed out there is no mention in the verses of any specific corporal punishment which apostates are to be subjected to in this world, nor do Qur'anic verses refer, whether explicitly or implicitly, to the need to force an apostate to return to Islam or to kill him if he refuses to do so. Legal historian Wael Hallaq writes that "nothing in the law governing apostates and apostasy derives from the letter" of the Quran.

In fact, other verses give no indication that apostasy is considered a crime to be punished by execution: There should be "no compulsion in religion" (2:256), "let him who will, reject" the truth of Islam (18:29), "your Lord" could have forced everyone to believe but did not (Quran 10:99), Muhammad was "only a reminder" and "not a watcher" of his people (88:21–22), "my Lord" has sent "mercy" to Arab pagans (11:28). (see below)

Hadith

See also: Malik ibn Nuwayrah and Criticism of Hadith

Sahih ("authentic") Hadith literature gives differing statements about punishments for apostasy:

Allah's Apostle said, "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims."

— Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:83:17, see also Sahih Muslim, 16:4152, Sahih Muslim, 16:4154

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.'"

— Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:260Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:84:57Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:89:271Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:84:58Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:84:64

A man embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism. Mu'adh bin Jabal came and saw the man with Abu Musa. Mu'adh asked, "What is wrong with this (man)?" Abu Musa replied, "He embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism." Mu'adh said, "I will not sit down unless you kill him (as it is) the verdict of Allah and His Apostle."

— Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:89:271

Other hadith state apostates were spared execution by repenting, by dying of natural causes or by leaving their community (the last case sometimes cited as an example of open apostasy that was left unpunished).

A man from among the Ansar accepted Islam, then he apostatized and went back to Shirk. Then he regretted that, and sent word to his people (saying): 'Ask the Messenger of Allah [SAW], is there any repentance for me?' His people came to the Messenger of Allah [SAW] and said: 'So and so regrets (what he did), and he has told us to ask you if there is any repentance for him?' Then the Verses: 'How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after their Belief up to His saying: Verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful' was revealed. So he sent word to him, and he accepted Islam.

— Al-Sunan al-Sughra 37:103

There was a Christian who became Muslim and read the Baqarah and the Al Imran, and he used to write for the Prophet. He then went over to Christianity again, and he used to say, Muhammad does not know anything except what I wrote for him. Then Allah caused him to die and they buried him.

— Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:56:814

A bedouin gave the Pledge of allegiance to Allah's Apostle for Islam and the bedouin got a fever where upon he said to the Prophet "Cancel my Pledge." But the Prophet refused. He came to him (again) saying, "Cancel my Pledge.' But the Prophet refused. Then (the bedouin) left (Medina). Allah's Apostle said: "Medina is like a pair of bellows (furnace): It expels its impurities and brightens and clears its good."

— Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:89:316

The Muwatta of Imam Malik offers a case were Rashidun (rightly guide) Caliph Umar admonishes a muslim leader for not giving an apostate the opportunity to repent before being executed:

Malik related to me from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Qari that his father said, "A man came to Umar ibn al-Khattab from Abu Musa al-Ashari. Umar asked after various people, and he informed him. Then Umar inquired, 'Do you have any recent news?' He said, 'Yes. A man has become a kafir after his Islam.' Umar asked, 'What have you done with him?' He said, 'We let him approach and struck off his head.' Umar said, 'Didn't you imprison him for three days and feed him a loaf of bread every day and call on him to tawba that he might turn in tawba and return to the command of Allah?' Then Umar said, 'O Allah! I was not present and I did not order it and I am not pleased since it has come to me!'

— Al-Muwatta, 36 18.16

The argument has been made (by the Fiqh Council of North America and Mohamed Ghilan) that the above hadiths -- traditionally cited as proof that apostates from Islam should be punished by death -- have been misunderstood. In fact (the council argues), the victims were actually executed for changing their allegiances to the armies fighting the Muslims, i.e.for treason. As evidence they point to two hadith from two different "authentic" (sahih) Sunni hadith collections where Muhammad calls for the death of apostates or traitors. The wording of the hadith are almost identical, but in one, the hadith ends with the phrase "one who reverts from Islam and leaves the Muslims", and in the other it ends with "one who goes forth to fight Allah and His Apostle" (in other words, the council argues the hadith were likely reports of the same incident but had different wording because "reverting from Islam" was just another way of saying "fighting Allah and His Apostle"):

Allah's Apostle said, "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims."

— Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:83:17

Allah's Apostle said: "The blood of a Muslim man who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle should not lawfully be shed except only for one of three reasons: a man who committed fornication after marriage, in which case he should be stoned; one who goes forth to fight Allah and His Apostle, in which case he should be killed or crucified or exiled from the land; or one who commits murder for which he is killed."

— Sunan Abu Dawood, 38:4339

What constitutes apostasy in Islam?

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Scholars differ as to what constitutes apostasy in Islam and what kind of apostate is subject to the death penalty.

Describing what qualifies as apostasy Christine Schirrmacher writes

there is widespread consensus that apostasy undoubtedly exists where the truth of the Koran is denied, where blasphemy is committed against God, Islam, or Muhammad, and where breaking away from the Islamic faith in word or deed occurs. The lasting, willful non-observance of the five pillars of Islam, in particular the duty to pray, clearly count as apostasy for most theologians. Additional distinguishing features are a change of religion, confessing atheism, nullifying the Sharia as well as judging what is allowed to be forbidden and judging what is forbidden to be allowed. Fighting against Muslims and Islam (Arabic: muḥāraba) also counts as unbelief or apostasy;

Kamran Hashemi identifies three different acts by a Muslim that qualify:

• Converting from Islam to another religion (or abandoning religion altogether), also described as "explicit" apostasy;
• blaspheming (sabb) (by a Muslim) against God, Islam, its laws or its prophet. An example being the drawing/publishing images of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad;
• heresy; or "implicit" apostasy (by a Muslim), where the alleged apostate does not formally renounce Islam, but has (in the eyes of their accusers) verbally denied some principle of belief prescribed by Qur'an or a Hadith; deviated from approved Islamic tenets (ilhad).

Overlap with blasphemy

Main article: Islam and blasphemy

In Islamic law (Sharia) and literature, apostasy and blasphemy are "treated separately", but there is "often considerable overlap" between them (according to Javaid Rehman). Because blasphemy in Islam includes rejection of fundamental doctrines, blasphemy has historically been seen as an evidence of rejection of Islam, i.e. apostasy. Some jurists believe that blasphemy automatically implies a Muslim has left the fold of Islam. A Muslim may find himself accused of being a blasphemer, and thus an apostate on the basis of a single action or utterance.

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Collective apostasy

In collective apostasy, a self-proclaimed Islamic group/sect are declared to be heretics/apostates. The difference between legitimate Muslim sects and illegitimate apostate groups can be subtle and Muslims have not agreed on were the line dividing them lies. According to Gianluca Parolin, "collective apostasy has always been declared on a case-by-case basis". Groups treated as collective apostates include zindiq, sometimes Sufis, and more recently Ahmadis and Bahais.

Fetri and national apostates

Among Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and others in Ja'fari fiqh a distinction is made between "fetri" or "innate" apostates who grew up Muslims and remained Muslim after puberty until converting to another religion, and "national apostates" -- essentially people who grew up non-Muslim and converted to Islam. "National apostates" are given a chance to repent, but "innate apostates are not.

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Children raised in apostacy

Orthodox apostasy fiqh can be problematic for someone who was raised by a non-Muslim (or non-Muslims) but has an absentee Muslim parent, or was raised by an apostate (or apostates) from Islam. A woman born to a Muslim parent is considered an apostate if she marries a non-Muslim, even if her Muslim parent did not raise her and she has always practiced another religion. Someone born to an apostate from Islam, raised in their parent's new religion and who stays within that religion, is also an apostate. This is because if one of their parents was born a Muslim their offspring are considered Muslim ("according to scholarly consensus"), and whether or not they know anything about Islam, by simply practicing the (new) religion of their parent(s) they become apostates (according to the committee of fatwa scholars at Islamweb).

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On the other hand, there are provisions in classical fiqh to prevent unfair punishment of alleged apostates. Those individuals who were forced to embrace Islam under conditions of duress or acts against Islam and then leave Islam, or convert to another religion involuntarily, by force or as concealment out of fear of persecution or during war (Taqiyya or Kitman), are not subject to execution. Nor are those who mistreat a copy of a Quran or do not pray Salat out of ignorance and misunderstanding (if they continue to do so after being warned not to they are subject to punishment).

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Characteristics of apostasy in classical Islam

Traditionally, Islamic jurists did not formulate general rules for establishing unbelief, instead compiling sometimes lengthy lists of statements and actions which in their view implied apostasy.

Evidence of apostasy in Islam, according to Reliance of the Traveller, a 14th-century manual of the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence (Fiqh), includes:

(a) bowing before sun, moon, objects of nature, idols, cross or any images symbolically representing God whether in mere contrariness, sarcastically or with conviction;

(b) intention to commit unbelief, even if one hesitates to do so;

(c) speak words that imply unbelief such as "Allah is the third of three" or "I am Allah";

(d) revile, question, wonder, doubt, mock or deny the existence of God or Prophet of Islam or that the Prophet was sent by God;

(e) revile, deny, or mock any verse of the Quran, or the religion of Islam;

(f) to deny the obligatory character of something considered obligatory by Ijma (consensus of Muslims);

(g) believe that things in themselves or by their nature have cause independent of the will of God;

Al-Ghazali held that apostasy occurs when a Muslim denies the essential dogmas: monotheism, Muhammad's prophecy, and the Last Judgment.

In early Islamic history, after Muhammad's death, a declaration of Prophethood (i.e. the declaration by someone that they were a prophet) was automatically deemed to be proof of apostasy (because Islam teaches Muhammad was the last prophet, there could be no more). This view has continued to the modern age in the rejection of the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam as apostates by mainstream Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, because Ahmadis consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of Ahmadiyya, as a modern-day Prophet.

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While there were numerous doctrinal fine points whose violation could render someone an apostate in fiqh manuals on apostasy, this was compensated for by hurdles and exacting requirements for convicting a Muslim of apostasy.

It is also an act of apostasy (in Shafi'i and other fiqh) for a Muslim to accuse or describe another devout Muslim of being an unbeliever, based on the hadith where Muhammad is reported to have said: "If a man says to his brother, 'You are an infidel,' then one of them is right."

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Who can be judged for the crime of apostasy

There are disagreements among Islamic scholars, and Islamic schools of jurisprudence, as to who can be judged for the crime of apostasy in Islam. Some in Shafi'i fiqh scholars such as Nawawi and al-Misri state that the apostasy code applies to a Muslim who

(a) has understood and professed that "there is no God but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God" (shahada),

(b) knows the shariah necessarily known by all Muslims,

(c) is of sound mind at the time of apostasy,

(d) has reached or passed puberty, and

(e) has consciously and deliberately rejected or consciously and deliberately intends to reject any part or all of Quran or of Islam (Sharia).

Maliki scholars additionally require that the person in question has publicly engaged in the obligatory practices of the religion. In contrast, Hanafi, Hanbali and Ja'fari fiqh set no such screening requirements; a Muslim's history has no bearing on when and on whom to apply the sharia code for apostasy.

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Before they can be convicted

Because a false accusation of apostasy is itself anact of apostasy, Muslim must be careful in finding someone guilty of being a murtad.

In Saheeh al-Bukhaari (6104) and Saheeh Muslim (60) it is narrated from ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “If a man declares his brother to be a kaafir, it will apply to one of them.”

The transgression that renders the accused a kaafir or faasiq

• must be explained to him, if he (she) is new to Islam.
• or if they have some confusion and some misinterpretation, or he ma"y have grown up in a remote region"
• He cannot have been forced to do the transgression
• another exemption is if they were "not thinking straight" (said something in extreme joy or fear)
• they must be "one who understands the message brought by the Messenger, but deliberately goes against the way of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) after true guidance has become clear to him"

Judgement should be left to knowledgable Muslims (according to Islam Question and Answer) not lay Muslims

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Issues in defining heresy

In deciding to declare a self-professed Muslim an apostate and punish them, Muslims agree it is important not to accuse (takfir) a believing Muslim of apostasy because this itself an act of apostasy. One conservative source (Islam Question and Answer) states that "No one may be judged to be a kafir or fasiq except the one whom the Qur’an and Sunnah indicate is a kafir or fasiq". Gilles Kepel writes that "used wrongly or unrestrainedly, this sanction would quickly lead to discord and sedition in the ranks of the faithful. Muslims might resort to mutually excommunicating one another and thus propel the Ummah to complete disaster." ISIL, for example, tafiring all those who oppose it policy of enslaving Yazidis. The open letter to ISIL by 126 Islamic scholars includes one of its points of opposition to ISIL: "It is forbidden in Islam to declare people non-Muslim unless he (or she) openly declares disbelief".

What to do in a situation where self-professed Muslim(s) -- post-modernist academic Nasr Abu Zayd or the Ahmadiyya movement -- disagree with their accusers on an important doctrinal point, is more controversial. In the case of the Ahmadiyya -- who are accused of denying the basic tenet of the Finality of Prophethood -- the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has declared in Ordinance XX of the Second Amendment to its Constitution, that Ahmadis are non-Muslims and deprived them of religious rights. Several large riots (1953 Lahore riots, 1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots) and a bombing (2010 Ahmadiyya mosques massacre) have killed hundreds of Ahmadis in that country. Whether this is unjust takfir or applying sharia to collective apostasy is disputed.

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Christian apostates

Regarding Muslim converts to Christianity, Duane Alexander Miller (2016) identified two different categories:

1. 'Muslims followers of Jesus Christ', 'Jesus Muslims' or 'Messianic Muslims' (analogous to Messianic Jews), who continue to self-identify as 'Muslims', or at least say Islam is (part of) their 'culture' rather than religion, but "understand themselves to be following Jesus as he is portrayed in the Bible".
2. 'Christians from a Muslim background' (abbreviated CMBs), also known as 'ex-Muslim Christians', who have completely abandoned Islam in favour of Christianity.

Miller introduced the term 'Muslim-background believers' (MBBs) to encompass both groups, adding that the latter group are generally regarded as apostates from Islam, but orthodox Muslims' opinions on the former group is more mixed (either that 'Muslim followers of Jesus' are 'heterodox Muslims', 'heretical Muslims' or 'crypto-Christian liars').

Punishment

Execution of a Moroccan Jewess (Sol Hachuel) a painting by Alfred Dehodencq

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There are differences of opinion among Islamic scholars about whether, when and how apostasy in Islam should be punished.

Throughout the history of Islam, apostasy of Muslims from Islam was forbidden by Islamic law, punishable by death and also by civil liabilities such as seizure of property, children, annulment of marriage, loss of inheritance rights. (A subsidiary law forbade non-Muslims from proselytizing Muslims because it encouraged Muslims to commit a crime.) When the legal code of a Muslim state no longer includes the death penalty for apostasy, some Islamic scholars have called for vigilante justice of hisbah to be applied. (see Apostasy_in_Islam#Colonial_era_and_after)

In modern times the majority of Islamic jurists still regard apostasy as a crime deserving the death penalty, (according to Abdul Rashied Omar), although "a growing body of Islamic jurists" oppose this, (according to Javaid Rehman) as inconsistent with "freedom of religion" as expressed in the Quranic injunctions (Quran 88:21-88:22) and Quran 2:256 ("there is no compulsion in religion"); and a relic of the early Islamic community when apostasy was desertion or treason.

Apostasy of Muslims from Islam to another religion and the proselytizing of Muslim to do so, is considered a religious crime by many writers.

Still others suggest a "centrist or moderate position" opposing "calls for execution of those whose apostasy is not unambiguously provable"; and reserving the death penalty for those who make their apostacy public. According to Christine Schirrmacher, "a majority of theologians" embrace this stance.

In classical fiqh

Traditional Sunni and Shia Islamic fiqhs, or schools of jurisprudence (maḏāhib) agree on some issues -- that male apostates should be executed, and that most but not all perpetrators should not be given a chance to repent (the excluded include those who practice magic "(subhar), treacherous heretics (zanādiqa and recidivists"). They disagree on issues such as whether women can be executed, whether apostasy is a violation of the rights of God, whether apostates who were born Muslim may be spared if they repent, whether conviction requires the accused be a practicing Muslim, or whether it is enough to simply intend to commit apostasy rather than actually doing it.

• Hanafi – recommends three days of imprisonment before execution, although the delay before killing the Muslim apostate is not mandatory. Unlike in other schools it is not obligatory to call on the apostate to repent. Apostates men must be killed, while women must be held in solitary confinement and beaten every three days till they recant and return to Islam. Penalty for Apostasy limited for those who cause Hirabah after leaving Islam, not for personal religion change.
• Maliki – allows up to ten days for recantation, after which the apostate must be killed. Both men and women apostates deserve death penalty according to the traditional view of Sunni Maliki fiqh. Unlike other schools, the apostate must have a history of being "good" (i.e. practicing) Muslim.
• Shafi'i – waiting period of three days is required to allow the Muslim apostate time to repent and return to Islam, failing repentance execution is the recommended punishment for both men and women.
• Hanbali – waiting period not necessary, but may be granted. Execution is traditional recommended punishment for both genders of Muslim apostates.
• Ja'fari – Male apostates must be executed, states the Jafari fiqh, while a female apostate must be held in solitary confinement till she repents and returns to Islam. The "mere intention of unbelief" without expression qualifies as apostasy. Unlike the other schools only "national apostates" who were not born Muslims but converted to Islam before apostasizing can be spared execution by repenting. "Innate" apostates, who grew up Muslims and remained Muslim after puberty and until converting to another religion, should be executed whether or not they return to Islam.

Civil liabilities

In Islam, apostasy has traditionally had both criminal and civil penalties. In the late 19th century, when criminal penalties -- death or prison -- fell into disuse, civil penalties were still applied. In all madhhabs of Islam, the civil penalties include:

(a) the property of the apostate is seized and distributed to his or her Muslim relatives;

(b) his or her marriage annulled (faskh);

(1) if they were not married at the time of apostasy they could not get married

(c) any children removed and considered ward of the Islamic state.

(d) In case the entire family has left Islam, or there are no surviving Muslim relatives recognized by Sharia, the apostate's property is liquidated by the Islamic state (part of fay, الْفيء).

(e) In case the apostate is not executed -- such as in case of women apostates in Hanafi school -- the person also loses all inheritance rights. Hanafi Sunni school of jurisprudence allows waiting till execution, before children and property are seized; other schools do not consider this wait as mandatory.

Social liabilities

The conversion of a Muslim to another faith is often considered a "disgrace" and "scandal" as well as a crime, so in addition to penal and civil penalties, loss of employment, ostracism and proclamations by family members that they are "dead", is not at all "unusual". For those who wish to remain in the Muslim community but who are considered unbelievers by other Muslims, there are also "serious forms of ostracism". These include the refusal of other Muslims to pray together with or behind a person accused of kufr, the denial of the prayer for the dead and burial in a Muslim cemetery, boycott of whatever books they have written, etc.

 ADD MORE

Vigilante application

In contemporary situations where apostates, (or alleged apostates), have ended up being killed, it is usually not be through the formal criminal justice system, especially when "a country's law does not punish apostasy." It is not uncommon for "vigilante" Muslims to kill or attempt to kill apostates or alleged apostates (or force them to flee the country). In at least one case, (the high profile execution of Mahmud Muhammad Taha), the victim was legally executed and the government made clear he was being executed for apostasy, but not the technical "legal basis" for his killing was another crime or crimes "heresy, opposing the application of Islamic law, disturbing public security, provoking opposition against the government, and re-establishing a banned political party." Post-modernist professor Nasr Abu Zayd loss of his case for apostasy in the Giza Lower Personal Status Court meant only forcable divorce from his wife (who did not want to divorce), but it put the proverbial target on his back and he fled to Europe.

Supporters and opponents of death penalty

Support among contemporary Preachers and scholars

Legal opinion on apostasy by the Fatwa committee at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, concerning the case of a man who converted to Christianity: "Since he left Islam, he will be invited to express his regret. If he does not regret, he will be killed according to rights and obligations of the Islamic law." The Fatwa also mentions that the same applies to his children if they entered Islam and left it after they reach maturity.

"The vast majority of Muslim scholars both past as well as present" consider apostasy "a crime deserving the death penalty", according to Abdul Rashided Omar writing circa 2007. Some of the leading lights include:

Abul A'la Maududi (1903-1979), who "by the time of his death had become the most widely read Muslim author of our time", according to one source.

Mohammed al-Ghazali (1917–1996), considered an Islamic "moderate" and "preeminent" faculty member of Egypt's preeminent Islamic institution—Al Azhar University− as well as a valuable ally of the Egyptian government in its struggle against the "growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism", was "widely credited" with contributing to the 20th century Islamic revival in the largest Arabic country, Egypt. (Al-Ghazali was on record as declaring all those who opposed the implimentation of sharia law to be apostates who should ideally be punished by the state, but "when the state fails to punish apostates, somebody else has to do it"; he also called on the government to appoint a committee to measure the faith of the population and give wayward Egyptian Muslims time to repent, but "those who did not should be killed".)

Yusuf al-Qaradawi (b.1926), another "moderate" Islamist, chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, who is "considered one of the most influential" Islamic scholars living today,

Zakir Naik, Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher, whose Peace TV channel, reaches a reported 100 million viewers, and whose debates and talks are widely distributed, supports killing apostates from Islam but only those who "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam".

Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, a Shia scholar born in India, studied in Qum, Iran, and as of 2021 the Imam-e Jum‘a and Resident ‘Ãlim of the Jaffari Islamic Center in Canada.

Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid, a Syrian Islamic scholar, considered a respected scholar in the Salafi movement (according to Al Jazeera); and founder of the fatwa website IslamQA, one of the most popular Islamic websites, and (according to Alexa.com as of November 2015) the world's most popular website on the topic of Islam generally (apart from the website of an Islamic bank).

===Applying punishment===

MOVED and ADDED

Some of whom argue apostasy should have a lesser penalty than death, and/or that the death penalty for apostasy was a man-made rule enacted in the early Islamic community to prevent and punish the equivalent of desertion or treason,

MAIN REWRITING

Rationale, arguments, criticism

The question of whether apostates should be killed, has been "a matter for contentious dispute throughout Islamic history". (p.121)

for death penalty

Some arguments offered for a death penalty for those who leave Islam:

• The issue should be decided not by "reasoning" or ones "whims and desires", but "before all else" by following Islamic scripture (Quran and Hadith) and "the texts and rulings of shariʿah", which all call for killing apostates (Islam Question and Answer).

• Among early Muslims, among the schools of fiqh both Sunni and Shia, among scholars of shari'ah "of every century ... available on record", there is unanimous agreement that the punishment for apostate is death, and that "no room whatever remains to suggest" that this penalty has not "been continuously and uninterruptedly operative" through Islamic history (Abul Ala Mawdudi); evidence from early texts that Muhammad called for apostates to be killed, and that companions of the Prophet and early caliphs ordered beheadings and crucifixions of apostates has never been declared invalid over the course of the history of Islamic theology (Christine Schirrmacher).

• • "Many hadiths", not just "one or two", call for the killing of apostates (Yusuf al-Qaradawi);

• • Verse Q.2:217 — "hindering ˹others˺ from the Path of Allah, rejecting Him, and expelling the worshippers from the Sacred Mosque is ˹a˺ greater ˹sin˺ in the sight of Allah" — indicates the punishment for apostasy from Islam is death (Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqi), Quranic verses in general "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates (Dale F. Eickelman).

• • If this doctrine is called into question, what's next? — ritual prayer (salat)? fasting (sawm)? even Muhammad's mission? (Abul Ala Mawdudi);

• It "does not merit discussion" because [the advocates maintain] apostasy from Islam is so rare, (Ali Kettani), (Mahmud Brelvi); there was virtually no apostasy from Islam (Syed Barakat Ahmad);

• • there are numerous qualifications or ways for the apostate to avoid death (to be found guilty they must openly reject Islam, have made their decision without coercion, be aware of the nature of their statements, be an adult, be completely sane, refused to repent, etc.) so the punishment is "rarely invoked" (Religious Tolerance website).

• While it is true that the Quranic states there is "no compulsion in religion" (Q.2:256), this "does not contradict the command to execute the apostate" (Islam Question and Answer);

• • because the verse applies only to entering Islam, when it comes to leaving Islam, "the rules change"; Q.33:36 states: "No believing man and no believing woman has a choice in their own affairs when Allāh and His Messenger have decided on an issue" (Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi); (Islam Question and Answer).

• • or because the verse only forbids compulsion to believe "things that are wrong", when it comes to accepting the truth, compulsion is allowed (Peters and Vries explaining a traditional view);

• • Others maintain that verse Q.2:256 has been "abrogated", i.e according to classical Quranic scholars it has been overruled/cancelled by verses of Quran revealed later, (IOW, compulsion was not allow in the very earliest days of Islam but this was changed by devine revelation a few years later) (Peters and Vries explaining traditional view);

• The issue should not considered through the lens of freedom of belief for individuals. Islam is the one true religion, and not one religion among many competing in a marketplace of beliefs. It is not limited to persuasion to keep its adherents in the fold.

• • "Those who bleat about personal freedom and freedom of belief" should consider that apostasy is "leaving the true religion and rejecting the shariʿah". Islam was revealed by Allah to "bring justice and fairness to all" (Islam Question and Answer); Islam can "not allow its followers to lower themselves from the sublime status of 'surrendering to the will of Allah--Islam'" to that of willful ignorance (Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi).

• • The apostate provides a terrible example to other Muslims, opening "the way for everyone who wants to leave the faith, thus spreading apostasy and encouraging it" (Islam Question and Answer). If early Muslims "had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn't exist today." (Yusuf al-Qaradawi b.1926)

• • To allow "any other religion to spread its message as competition to the religion of God" is wrong, and leaving apostates alive gives "evil ... an opportunity to raise its head against" Islam (Abul Ala Mawdudi).

• • While the death penalty may seem harsh, the apostate is "casting doubt on the truth and honesty of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the Messenger of God," which is worse (Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi);

• • Islam should "be judged on its own terms, and not by the secular ideals ... the western powers" keep the "cards of human rights, democracy, and minority rights ... up their sleeves" to play "against any country that they do not like" (Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi).

• Apostasy should not be thought of as a personal choice of belief, but as treason -- not military treason as the term is used in the West, but as "spiritual and cultural" treason (Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi);

• • Because "the social order of every Moslem society is Islam", apostasy constitutes "an offense" against that social order, "that may lead in the end to the destruction of this order" (Muhammad Muhiy al-Din al-Masiri);

• • Apostasy is usually "a psychological pretext for rebellion against worship, traditions and laws and even against the foundations of the state", and so "is often synonymous with the crime of high treason ... " (Muhammad al-Ghazali);

• • A person who has "known the religion which Allaah revealed" yet rejects it, has demonstrated such monumental ingratitude that they do "not deserve to live on the earth of Allah and eat from the provision of Allah" (IslamQA).

GONE THROUGH
RAW MATERIAL, PRO-DEATH PENALTY

Islam QA

• Some supporters of the death penalty for apostasy emphasize obedience to scripture rather than offering a rationale for the punishment, stating for example, "It is essential to put the texts and rulings of sharia before all else," and not to follow one "whims and desires" or his "reasoning".

• The argument that the death penalty is in violation of the Quranic verse that there is "no compulsion in religion" is answered with the claim that this applies only to entering Islam and not leaving it.

IslamQA

• A person who has "known the religion which Allaah revealed" yet rejects it, "despises it" .... "does not deserve to live on the earth of Allaah and eat from the provision of Allaah"

*"By leaving Islaam, the apostate opens the way for everyone who wants to leave the faith, thus spreading apostasy and encouraging it."

• "Is espionage or shedding blood worse than leaving the religion of the Lord of mankind and rejecting it?" Missionaries would be able to convert Muslims to Christianity. (Egyptian delegates to the United Nations)

• " those who bleat about personal freedom and freedom of belief" should consider that apostasy is "leaving the true religion and rejecting the sharee’ah which Allaah revealed to teach mankind about His unity and bring justice and fairness to all"

Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi

• Shia cleric Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi agrees, "There is no compulsion in (accepting) the religion (of Islam), ... no one can be forcefully brought into the fold of Islam", but "Once a person enters into the fold of Islam, the rules change," because as the Quran says: "No believing man and no believing woman has a choice in their own affairs when Allāh and His Messenger have decided on an issue." (Q.33:36)

• Islam can "not allow its followers to lower themselves from the sublime status of 'surrendering to the will of Allah--Islam'" to willful ignorance and
• Furthermore, "irtidād (apostasy) in Islam is equal to treason." Though not military treason as in the West, it is "spiritual and cultural" treason.

• While the death penalty may seem harsh, the apostate is "casting doubt on the truth and honesty of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the Messenger of God, ... "

• Islam should be judged on its own terms, and not by the secular ideals." the "cards of human rights, democracy, and minority rights", are cards "the western powers" keep "up their sleeves" to play "against any country that they do not like".

Maududi

• the unanimity among early Muslims, scholars of sharia "of every century are available on record", that the punishment "has been continuously and uninterruptedly operative and that no room whatever remains to suggest that perhaps the punishment of the apostate is not execution". Consequently doubting it would also open the door to doubts about from doubt, be it the Qur'an or ritual prayer (salat) or fasting (sawm), and even Muhammad's mission.

• When a Muslim to allowed to leave Islam, Muhammad's mission "to ensure the victory of the guidance and Religion of Truth" is obstructed, and "evil" has been provided "an opportunity to raise its head against" Islam. To allow "any other religion to spread its message as competition to the religion of God" is wrong, and is what happens when apostasy is allowed.

WORK ON THIS

Support among contemporary Preachers and scholars

• Intisar Rabb, faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School.
• Shafi`i jurists Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa of Egypt
• Fiqh scholar Taha Jabir Alalwani
• Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri
• Grand Ayatollah Hussein Esmaeel al-Sadr
• Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a Pakistani Muslim theologian, Quran scholar
• Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies
• Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar of religious studies, writer
• Jonathan A.C. Brown, a Muslim American scholar of Islamic studies
• Rudolph F. Peters, Gert Vries, scholars of Islam
• Khaled Abou El Fadl, scholar of Islamic law
• S. A. Rahman, a former Chief Justice of Pakistan
• Mahmud Shaltut, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, 1958–1963)
• Mirza Tahir Ahmad, head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from 1982-2003

AGAINST DEATH PENALTY, SEMI-FINISHED PRODUCT

against death penalty

Arguments against the death penalty contradict those in favor of it, most popular one seems to be that the death penalty was actually intended for treasonous behavior; that it is a misinterpretation of scripture to apply the punishment to those who only change their personal belief.

• How can it be claimed that there was a consensus among scholars or community (ijma) from the beginning of Islam in favor of capital punishment, when a number of companions of Muhammad and early Islamic scholars (Ibn al-Humam, al-Marghinani, Ibn Abbas, Sarakhsi, Ibrahim al-Nakh'i), opposed the execution of murtadd? (Mirza Tahir Ahmad);

• • in addition there have been a number of prominent ulema (though a minority) over the centuries who argued against the death penalty for apostasy in some way, such as ...

• • • The Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji (d. 474 AH) held that apostasy was liable only to a discretionary punishment (known as ta'zir) and so might not require execution.

• • • The Hanafi jurist Al-Sarakhsi (d. 483 AH/ 1090 CE) and Imam Ibnul Humam (d. 681 AH/ 1388 CE) and Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i (707–774 CE), all distinguished between non-seditious religious apostasy on the one hand and treason on the other, with execution reserved for treason.

• • • Ibrahim al-Nakhaʿī (50 AH/670 - 95/96 AH/717 CE) and Sufyan al-Thawri (97 AH/716 CE - 161 AH/778 CE) as well as the Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d. 1090), believed that an apostate should be asked to repent indefinitely (which implies he would not be sentenced to death).

• There are problems with the scriptural basis for sharia commanding the execution of apostates

• • Quran (see Quran above)

• • • Compulsion in faith is "explicitly" forbidden by the Quran ('Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi), Quranic statements on freedom of religion -- 'There is no compulsion in religion. The right path has been distinguished from error' (Q.2:256) (and also 'Whoever wants, let him believe, and whoever wants, let him disbelieve,' (Q.18:29) -- are "absolute and universal" statement(s) (Jonathan A.C. Brown), (Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa), "general, overriding principle(s)" (Khaled Abou El Fadl) of Islam, and not abrogated by hadith or the Sword Verse (Q.9:5); After all, if someone has the threat of death hanging over their head in a matter of faith, it cannot be said that there is "no compulsion or coercion" in their belief (Tariq Ramadan).

• • • Neither verse Q.2:217, (Mirza Tahir Ahmad), or any other Quranic verse says anything to indicate an apostate should be punished in the temporal world, aka dunyā (S. A. Rahman), (W. Heffening), (Wael Hallaq), (Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri), the verses only indicate that dangerous, aggressive apostates should be killed, (Mahmud Shaltut), (e.g. "If they do not withdraw from you, and offer you peace, and restrain their hands, take them and kill them wherever ye come upon them" Q.4:90), (Peters and Vries describing argument of Islamic Modernists).

• • • Another verses condemning apostasy — Q.4:137, "Those who believe then disbelieve, then believe again, then disbelieve and then increase in their disbelief -- God will never forgive them nor guide them to the path" — makes no sense if apostasy is punished by death, because killing apostates "would not permit repeated conversion from and to Islam" (Louay M. Safi), (Sisters in Islam);

• • • Another

• • Hadith and Sunnah (see hadith above)

• • • "According to most established juristic schools, a hadith can limit the application of a general Qur'anic statement, but can never negate it", so the hadith calling for execution cannot abrogate the "There is no compulsion in religion" verse (Q.2:256) (Louay M. Safi);

• • • The Prophet Muhammad did not call for the deaths of contemporaries who left Islam (Mohamed Ghilan), for example, apostates like "Hishâm and 'Ayyash", or converts to Christianity, such as "Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh"; since what The Prophet did is by definition part of the Sunnah of Islam, this indicates "that one who changes her/his religion should not be killed" (Tariq Ramadan);

• • • another reason not to use the hadith(s) stating “whoever changes his religion kill him” as the basis for law is that it is not among the class of hadith eligible to be used as the basis for "legal rulings binding upon all Muslims for all times" (Muhammad al-Shawkani (1759–1834 CE));

• • • The hadith(s) "calling for apostates to be killed are actually referring to "what can be considered in modern terms political treason", not change in personal belief (Mohamed Ghilan), (Adil Salahi); punishment of collective conspiracy and treason against the government (Enayatullah Subhani); (Mahmud Shaltut); and in fact, translating the Islamic term ridda as simply "apostasy" — a standard practice — is really an error, as ridda should be defined as "the public act of political secession from the Muslim community" (Jonathan Brown).

• • • another argument casts doubts on their authenticity, noting the hadith "belong to the category of Traditions [i.e. hadith] relying on only one authority (khadar al-ahad) and were not widely known amongst the Companions of the Prophet," and so ought not abrogate Quranic verses of tollerance. (Peters and Vries describing argument of Islamic Modernists) Wael Hallaq questions the authenticity of the hadith calling for death for apostates.

• The punishment or lack for apostasy should reflect the circumstances of the Muslim community which were very different when the death penalty was established.

• • Unlike some other sharia laws, those on how to deal with apostates from Islam are not set in stone but should be adjusted according to circumstances based on what best serves the interests of society. In the past, the death penalty for leaving Islam "protected the integrity of the Muslim community", but today this goal is no longer met by punishing apostasy. (Jonathan Brown)

• • the "premise and reasoning underlying the sunna rule of death penalty for apostasy were valid in the historical context" where 'disbelief is equated with high treason' because citizenship was 'based on belief in Islam', but doesn't apply today. (Abdullahi An-Na'im, et.al.) the prescription of death penalty for apostasy found in hadith was aimed at prevention of aggression against Muslims and sedition against the state. (Mahmud Shaltut) it's a man-made rule enacted in the early Islamic community to prevent and punish the equivalent of desertion or treason (John Esposito), it is probable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad during early Islam to combat political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims, and is not intended for those who simply change their belief or express a change in belief. Montazeri defines different types of apostasy; he argues that capital punishment should be reserved for those who desert Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim community, and not those who convert to another religion after investigation and research. (Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri)

• • the concept of apostasy as treason is not so much part of Islam, as part of the pre-modern era when classical Islamic fiqh was developed, and when "every religion was a 'religion of the sword'". (Reza Aslan) and every religion "underpinned the political and social order within ... the states they established" (Jonathan Brown); “…the premodern period was an era in which citizenship was defined by religion. In the worlds of Islam and Christendom alike, to declare allegiance to another religion while continuing to reside in the land where one’s original religion was dominant, was to renounce allegiance to one’s co-religionists in a way tantamount to treason.” (Intisar Rabb)

This was also an era in which religion and the state were one unified entity. ... no Jew, Christian, Zoroastrian, or Muslim of this time would have considered his or her religion to be rooted in the personal confessional experiences of individuals. ... Your religion was your ethnicity, your culture, and your social identity... your religion was your citizenship.

• • • For example, the Holy Roman Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Christianity; the Sasanian Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Zoroastrianism; in China at that time, Buddhist rulers fought Taoist rulers for political ascendancy, (Reza Aslan); Jews who abandoned the God of Israel to worship other deities "were condemned to stoning". (Jonathan Brown)

• • transcending tribalism with religious (Islamic) unity could mean prevention of civil war in Muhammad's era.(Mohamed Ghilan)

• • capital punishment for apostasy is a time-bound command, applying only to those Arabs who denied the truth even after having Muhammad himself explained and clarified it to them. (Javed Ahmad Ghamidi)

• • now the only reason to kill an apostate is to eliminate the danger of war, not because of their disbelief (Al-Kamal ibn al-Humam 861 AH/1457 CE) these days, the number of apostates is small, and does not politically threaten the Islamic community (Christine Schirrmacher describing the "liberal" postition on apostasy). it should be enforced only if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder (fitna) (Ahmet Albayrak).

• In Islamic history, laws calling for severe penalties against apostasy (and blasphemy) have not been used to protect Islam, but "almost exclusively" to either eliminate "political dissidents" or target "vulnerable religious minorities", (Javaid Rehman) which is hardly something worthy of immitating.

• Executing apostates is a violation of the human right to freedom of religion, and somewhat hypocritical for a religion that enthusiastically encourages non-Muslims to apostacize from their current faith and convert to Islam. (Non-Muslims and liberals Muslims)

RAW MATERIAL

only treason, translation

LOT OF REPETIION BELOW, SO COMBINE

Only treason, hadith

Old day, now apostates aren't dangerous

only treason, hadith

only treason, man-made

TO DO

• google books "apostasy and human rights"
• *http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos3.htm
• Al-Sarakhsi on apostasy
• google why must murtads be put to death?
• https://www.islamicity.org/2845/apostasy-and-religious-freedom/
• https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam johathan brown
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
• https://islamqa.info/en/answers/14231/some-of-the-rulings-on-apostasy-and-apostates Some of the rulings on apostasy and apostates
• https://www.answering-islam.org/Hahn/Mawdudi/index.htm maududi
• https://islamqa.info/en/answers/244191/refutation-of-those-who-claim-that-the-hadiths-which-speak-of-executing-the-apostate-are-contrary-to-the-quran Refutation of those who claim that the hadiths which speak of executing the apostate are contrary to the Qur’an

RAW MATERIAL, ANTI-DEATH PENALTY

The jurist Al-Kamal ibn al-Humam (861 AH/1457 CE ) wrote in his book Fathul Qadir:

The reason to kill an apostate is only with the intent to eliminate the danger of war, and not for the reason of his disbelief. The punishment of disbelief is far greater with God. Therefore, only such an apostate shall be killed who is actively engaged in war; and usually it is a man, and not a woman. For the same reason, the Holy Prophet has forbidden to kill women. And for this very reason, an apostate female could be killed if she in fact instigates and causes war by her influence and armed force at her disposal. She is not killed because of her apostasy, but for her creating disorder (through war) on earth.

— Imam Ibnul Humam

Intisar Rabb, faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. ... concluded that death was only mandated even in the case of apostasy when it was combined with war against the community. “…the premodern period was an era in which citizenship was defined by religion. In the worlds of Islam and Christendom alike, to declare allegiance to another religion while continuing to reside in the land where one’s original religion was dominant, was to renounce allegiance to one’s co-religionists in a way tantamount to treason.”

• Clash with modern norms of tolerance and freedom of expression
• Modern norms which are in part a product of greater knowledge of and inter mixing of adherents of religions.
• While Islam is an evangelizing religion and welcomes and works to bring new adherents who are often apostasizing from the religion of their upbringing, it calls for a punishment of death for Musllims who do the same to another religion.
• Because the definition of apostasy is traditionally very broad to catch those who try to avoid being found out and punished, it runs the risk of being caught up in doctrinal disputes and in some cases calling for the death of practicing, believing Muslims of another sect or movement. (giveIslamqa as an example)

BELOW IS COPIED FROM ===Opposition to execution===

Over the centuries a number of prominent ulema, including the Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji (d. 474 AH) held that apostasy is not a hadd crime and thus is liable only to a discretionary punishment (ta'zir). The Hanafi jurist Al-Sarakhsi (483 AH/ 1090 CE) called for a difference in punishments between non-seditious religious apostasy on the one hand and the more serious seditious and political nature, or high treason, on the other.

Some early authorities, such as Ibrahim al-Nakhai and Sufyan al-Thawri, as well as the Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d. 1090), believed that an apostate should be asked to repent indefinitely and never condemned to death. According to Sarakhsi, apostasy from Islam is a great offense, but its punishment is postponed until the Day of Judgement.

The view that the Quran speaks only of otherworldly punishment for apostasy was also held by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (1958–1963) Mahmud Shaltut, who held that the prescription of death penalty for apostasy found in hadith was aimed at prevention of aggression against Muslims and sedition against the state.

Contemporary scholar Mirza Tahir Ahmad quotes a number of companions of Muhammad or early Islamic scholars (Ibn al-Humam, al-Marghinani, Ibn Abbas, Sarakhsi, Ibrahim al-Nakh'i) to argue that there was not an ijma (consensus among scholars or community) in favor of execution of murtadd in early Islam.

Contemporary Islamic Shafi`i jurists such as the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and fiqh scholar Taha Jabir Alalwani

along with Shi'a jurists such as Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Hussein Esmaeel al-Sadr and some jurists, scholars and writers of other Islamic sects, have argued or issued fatwas that the changing of religion is not punishable,

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi writes that punishment for apostasy was part of divine punishment for only those who denied the truth even after clarification in its ultimate form by Muhammad (Itmaam-i-hujjat), hence, he considers it a time-bound command and no longer punishable.

Tariq Ramadan states that given "the way the Prophet behaved with the people who left Islam (like Hishâm and 'Ayyash) or who converted to Christianity (such as Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh), it should be stated that one who changes her/his religion should not be killed". He further states that "there can be no compulsion or coercion in matters of faith not only because it is explicitly forbidden in the Qur'an but also because free conscious and choice and willing submission are foundational to the first pillar (declaration of faith) and essential to the very definition of Islam. Therefore, someone leaving Islam or converting to another religion must be free to do so and her/his choice must be respected."

Reza Aslan argues that the idea that apostasy is treason rather than exercise of freedom of religion is not so much part of Islam, as part of the pre-modern era when classical Islamic fiqh was developed, and when "every religion was a 'religion of the sword'".

This was also an era in which religion and the state were one unified entity. ... no Jew, Christian, Zoroastrian, or Muslim of this time would have considered his or her religion to be rooted in the personal confessional experiences of individuals. ... Your religion was your ethnicity, your culture, and your social identity... your religion was your citizenship.

• The Holy Roman Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Christianity
• The Sasanian Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Zoroastrianism.
• while in China, Buddhist rulers fought Taoist rulers for political ascendancy.

The minority sect Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose 10-20 million members are found primarily in South and Southeast Asia, rejects any form of punishment for apostasy whatsoever in this world, citing hadith, Quran, and the opinions of classical Islamic jurists to justify its views. (However, Ahmadiyya Muslims are widely considered as non-Muslim apostates and persecuted by mainstream Islam, because of their beliefs.)

In the contemporary Islamic Republic of Iran, at least one conservative jurist, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, has attempted to reconcile following the traditional doctrine while addressing the principle of freedom of religion enshrined in the Islamic Republic's constitution. At a 2009 human rights conference at Mofid University in Qom, Araki stated that "if an individual doubts Islam, he does not become the subject of punishment, but if the doubt is openly expressed, this is not permissible." As one observer (Sadakat Kadri) noted, this "freedom" has the advantage that "state officials could not punish an unmanifested belief even if they wanted to".

MY ISSUES

• Clash with modern norms of tolerance and freedom of expression
• Modern norms which are in part a product of greater knowledge of and inter mixing of adherents of religions.
• While Islam is an evangelizing religion and welcomes and works to bring new adherents who are often apostasizing from the religion of their upbringing, it calls for a punishment of death for Muslims who do the same to another religion.
• Because the definition of apostasy is traditionally very broad to catch those who try to avoid being found out and punished, it runs the risk of being caught up in doctrinal disputes and in some cases calling for the death of practicing, believing Muslims of another sect or movement. (giveIslamqa as an example)

MAKE SURE THIS IS TRIMMED TO BE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WITH ONLY BREIF MENTION OF ARGUMENTS WHICH SHOULD BE ABOVE

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Apostasy law can be narrowed or expanded. for example it can be narrowed by using loopholes to keep perpetrators from being executed as was the guy in Afghanistan who was found not guilty by way of being mentally unsound. It can be "expanded" by adding similar laws for example laws against the preaching of any non-Muslim religion in Dar al-ISlam (because it would make no sense to allow preaching something that if it succeeded would lead to someone getting killed) as Mawdudi proposed

Opposition to execution

Over the centuries a number of prominent ulema, including the Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji (d. 474 AH) held that apostasy is not a hadd crime and thus is liable only to a discretionary punishment (ta'zir). The Hanafi jurist Al-Sarakhsi (483 AH/ 1090 CE) called for a difference in punishments between non-seditious religious apostasy on the one hand and the more serious seditious and political nature, or high treason, on the other.

Some early authorities, such as Ibrahim al-Nakhai and Sufyan al-Thawri, as well as the Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d. 1090), believed that an apostate should be asked to repent indefinitely and never condemned to death. According to Sarakhsi, apostasy from Islam is a great offense, but its punishment is postponed until the Day of Judgement. The view that the Quran speaks only of otherworldly punishment for apostasy was also held by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (1958–1963) Mahmud Shaltut, who held that the prescription of death penalty for apostasy found in hadith was aimed at prevention of aggression against Muslims and sedition against the state. Contemporary scholar Mirza Tahir Ahmad quotes a number of companions of Muhammad or early Islamic scholars (Ibn al-Humam, al-Marghinani, Ibn Abbas, Sarakhsi, Ibrahim al-Nakh'i) to argue that there was not an ijma (consensus among scholars or community) in favor of execution of murtadd in early Islam.

'Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi wrote Religious Freedom In Islam, al-Hurriyyah al-diniyyah fi al-Islam, "a very detailed plea against capital punishment of the apostate".

Mohamed Ghilan (a student of Islamic jurisprudence and a neuroscience PhD candidate).

Contemporary Islamic Shafi`i jurists such as the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and fiqh scholar Taha Jabir Alalwani along with Shi'a jurists such as Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Hussein Esmaeel al-Sadr and some jurists, scholars and writers of other Islamic sects, have argued or issued fatwas that the changing of religion is not punishable, but these minority opinions have not found broad acceptance among the majority of Islamic scholars. However others have argued that the majority view, in both the past and the present, wasn't a severe punishment for mere apostasy.

According to Khaled Abou El Fadl, moderate Muslims do not believe that apostasy requires punishment.

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi writes that punishment for apostasy was part of divine punishment for only those who denied the truth even after clarification in its ultimate form by Muhammad (Itmaam-i-hujjat), hence, he considers it a time-bound command and no longer punishable.

Tariq Ramadan states that given "the way the Prophet behaved with the people who left Islam (like Hishâm and 'Ayyash) or who converted to Christianity (such as Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh), it should be stated that one who changes her/his religion should not be killed". He further states that "there can be no compulsion or coercion in matters of faith not only because it is explicitly forbidden in the Qur'an but also because free conscious and choice and willing submission are foundational to the first pillar (declaration of faith) and essential to the very definition of Islam. Therefore, someone leaving Islam or converting to another religion must be free to do so and her/his choice must be respected."

Reza Aslan argues that the idea that apostasy is treason rather than exercise of freedom of religion is not so much part of Islam, as part of the pre-modern era when classical Islamic fiqh was developed, and when "every religion was a 'religion of the sword'".

This was also an era in which religion and the state were one unified entity. ... no Jew, Christian, Zoroastrian, or Muslim of this time would have considered his or her religion to be rooted in the personal confessional experiences of individuals. ... Your religion was your ethnicity, your culture, and your social identity... your religion was your citizenship.

• The Holy Roman Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Christianity
• The Sasanian Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Zoroastrianism.
• while in China, Buddhist rulers fought Taoist rulers for political ascendancy.

The minority sect Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose 10-20 million members are found primarily in South and Southeast Asia, rejects any form of punishment for apostasy whatsoever in this world, citing hadith, Quran, and the opinions of classical Islamic jurists to justify its views. (However, Ahmadiyya Muslims are widely considered as non-Muslim apostates and persecuted by mainstream Islam, because of their beliefs.)

Quran

The basis for an opposition to execution for mere apostasy in the Qur'an stems from the following:

There is no compulsion in religion; truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error; therefore, whoever disbelieves in the Shaitan and believes in Allah he indeed has laid hold on the firmest handle, which shall not break off, and Allah is Hearing, Knowing.

— Quran 2:256

Say, "The truth is from your Lord": Let him who will believe, and let him who will, reject (it): for the wrong-doers We have prepared a Fire whose (smoke and flames), like the walls and roof of a tent, will hem them in: if they implore relief they will be granted water like melted brass, that will scald their faces, how dreadful the drink! How uncomfortable a couch to recline on!

— Quran 18:29

And if your Lord had pleased, surely all those who are in the earth would have believed, all of them; will you then force men till they become believers?

— Quran 10:99

Therefore do remind, for you are only a reminder. You are not a watcher over them;

— Quran 88:21–22

He said: "O my people! See ye if (it be that) I have a Clear Sign from my Lord, and that He hath sent Mercy unto me from His own presence, but that the Mercy hath been obscured from your sight? shall we compel you to accept it when ye are averse to it?

— Quran 11:28

Jonathan A.C. Brown explains that "According to all the theories of language elaborated by Muslim legal scholars, the Qur'anic proclamation that 'There is no compulsion in religion. The right path has been distinguished from error' is as absolute and universal a statement as one finds. The truth had been made clear, and now, 'Whoever wants, let him believe, and whoever wants, let him disbelieve,' the holy book continues (2:256, 18:29). ", and hence the Qur'an granted religious freedom.

Peters and Vries, in contrast, write that verse 2:256 was traditionally interpreted in different ways. It was considered abrogated (suspended and overruled) by later verses of Quran by some classical scholars. Some interpreted the verse to mean that it "forbids compulsion to things that are wrong but not compulsion to accept the truth". However, other scholars do not consider it to be among the abrogated verses,

Khaled Abou El Fadl claims that the verses (88:21–22) emphasizes that even Muhammad does not have the right to think of himself as a warden who has the power to coerce people. This is reaffirmed by many of the historical reports regarding the Qur'anic revelation that emphasize that belief and conviction cannot be coerced. He further states that moderates consider the verse (2:256) to be enunciating a general, overriding principle that cannot be contradicted by isolated traditions attributed to the Prophet. He concludes that moderates do not believe that there is any punishment that attaches to apostasy.

S. A. Rahman, a former Chief Justice of Pakistan, argues that there is no indication of the death penalty for apostasy in the Qur'an. W. Heffening states that "in the Qur'an the apostate is threatened with punishment in the next world only." Wael Hallaq holds that nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of Quran. The late dissenting Shia jurist Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri stated that the Quranic verses do not prescribe an earthly penalty for apostasy.

Islamist author Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi argued that verses ^{[Quran 9:11]} of the Qur'an sanction death for apostasy. In contrast, Pakistan's jurist S. A. Rahman states "that not only is there no punishment for apostasy provided in the Book but that the Word of God clearly envisages the natural death of the apostate. He will be punished only in the Hereafter…" Rahman also highlights that there is no reference to the death penalty in any of the 20 instances of apostasy mentioned in the Qur'an. Ahmet Albayrak explains in The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia that regarding apostasy as a wrongdoing is not a sign of intolerance of other religions, and is not aimed at one's freedom to choose a religion or to leave Islam and embrace another faith, but that on the contrary, it is more correct to say that the punishment is enforced as a safety precaution when warranted if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder (fitna). At this point, what is punished is the action of ridiculing the high moral flavour of Islam and posing a threat to public order. Otherwise, Islam prohibits spying on people and investigating their private lives, beliefs and personal opinions.

Historical impact

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The charge of apostasy is often used by religious authorities to condemn and punish skeptics, dissidents, and minorities in their communities.

From the earliest history of Islam, the crime of apostasy and execution for apostasy has driven major events in Islam. For example, the Ridda wars (ḥurūb ar-ridda) (civil wars of apostasy) shook the Muslim community in 632–633 AD, immediately after the death of Muhammad. Allegedly fought against Arabs who saw their oath of allegance only to Muhammad and not Islam and would not . These apostasy wars split the two major sects of Islam – Sunni and Shia, and caused numerous deaths. Sunni and Shia sects of Islam have long called each other as apostates of Islam.

The term Zindīq refers to a freethinker, atheist or a heretic. Originally it referred to a dualist and also the Manichaeans, whose religion for a time threatened to become the dominant religion of the educated class and who experienced a wave of persecutions from 779 to 786. A history of those times states:

"Tolerance is laudable", the Spiller (the Caliph Abu al-Abbās) had once said, "except in matters dangerous to religious beliefs, or to the Sovereign's dignity." Al-Mahdi (d. 169/785) persecuted Freethinkers, and executed them in large numbers. He was the first Caliph to order composition of polemical works to in refutation of Freethinkers and other heretics; and for years he tried to exterminate them absolutely, hunting them down throughout all provinces and putting accused persons to death on mere suspicion.

The New Encyclopedia of Islam states that after the early period, with some notable exceptions, the practice in Islam regarding atheism or various forms of heresy, grew more tolerant as long as it was a private matter. However heresy and atheism expressed in public may well be considered a scandal and a menace to a society; in some societies they are punishable, at least to the extent the perpetrator is silenced. In particular, blasphemy against God and insulting Muhammad are major crimes.

From the 7th century through the 18th century, atheists, materialists, Sufi, and Shii sects were accused and executed for apostasy in Islam. In the 8th century, apostates of Islam were killed in West Asia and Sind. 10th-century Iraq, Sufi mystic Al-Hallaj was executed for apostasy; in 12th-century Iran, al-Suhrawardi along with followers of Ismaili sect of Islam were killed on charges of being apostates; in 14th-century Syria, Ibn Taymiyyah declared Central Asian Turko-Mongol Muslims as apostates due to the invasion of Ghazan Khan; in 17th-century India, Dara Shikoh and other sons of Shah Jahan were captured and executed on charges of apostasy from Islam by his brother Aurangzeb.

Other sources say that executions of apostates have been "rare in Islamic history". While Al-Hallaj was officially executed for possessing a heretical document suggesting hajj pilgrimage was not required of a pure Muslim, it is thought he would have been spared execution except that the Caliph at the time Al-Muqtadir wished to discredit "certain figures who had associated themselves" with al-Hallaj. (Previously al-Hallaj had been punished for talking about being at one with God by being shaved, pilloried and beaten with the flat of a sword. He was not executed because the Shafi'ite judge had ruled that his words were not "proof of disbelief.") According to historian Bernard Lewis, in the "early times" of Islam, "charges of apostasy were not unusual, and ... the terms 'unbeliever' and 'apostate' were commonly used in religious polemic ... in fact such accusations had little practical effect. The accused were for the most part unmolested, and some even held high offices in the Muslim state. As the rules and penalties of the Muslim law were systematized and more regularly enforced, charges of apostasy became rarer." When action was taken against an alleged apostate, it was much more likely to be "quarantine" than execution, unless the innovation was "extreme, persistent and aggressive".

During the colonial era, death for apostasy was abolished in many Muslim-majority colonies. Similarly, under intense European pressure, death sentence for apostasy from Islam was abolished by the Edict of Toleration, and substituted with other forms of punishment by the Ottoman government in 1844; the implementation of this ban was resisted by religious officials and proved difficult. A series of edicts followed during Ottoman's Tanzimat period, such as the 1856 Reform Edict. Despite these edicts, there was constant pressure on non-Muslims to convert to Islam, and apostates from Islam continued to be persecuted, punished and threatened with execution, particularly in eastern and Levant parts of the then Ottoman Empire. The Edict of Toleration ultimately failed when Sultan Abdul Hamid II assumed power, re-asserted pan-Islamism with sharia as Ottoman state philosophy, and initiated Hamidian massacres in 1894 against Christians, particularly the Genocides of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and crypto-Christian apostates from Islam in Turkey (Stavriotes, Kromlides).

In "recent decades" before 2006, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom listed four cases of execution for apostasy in the Muslim world: one in Sudan in 1985; two in Iran, in 1989 and 1998; and one in Saudi Arabia in 1992.

Apostasy in the recent past

Penalties (actual or proposed) for apostasy in some Muslim-majority countries as of 2020.

  Death penalty

  Prison

  Converting a Muslim is a crime

  Loss of child custody/marriage

Background

More than 20 Muslim-majority states have laws that declare apostasy by Muslims to be a crime. As of 2014, apostasy was a capital offense in Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Executions for religious conversion have been infrequent in recent times, with four cases reported since 1985: one in Sudan in 1985; two in Iran, in 1989 and 1998; and one in Saudi Arabia in 1992. In Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen apostasy laws have been used to charge persons for acts other than conversion. In addition, some predominantly Islamic countries without laws specifically addressing apostasy have prosecuted individuals or minorities for apostasy using broadly-defined blasphemy laws. In many nations, the Hisbah doctrine of Islam has traditionally allowed any Muslim to accuse another Muslim or ex-Muslim for beliefs that may harm Islamic society. This principle has been used in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and others to bring blasphemy charges against apostates.

The violence or threats of violence against apostates in the Muslim world in recent years has derived primarily not from government authorities but from other individuals or groups operating unrestricted by the government. There has also been social persecution for Muslims converting to Christianity. For example, the Christian organisation Barnabas Fund reports:

The field of apostasy and blasphemy and related "crimes" is thus obviously a complex syndrome within all Muslim societies which touches a raw nerve and always arouses great emotional outbursts against the perceived acts of treason, betrayal and attacks on Islam and its honour. While there are a few brave dissenting voices within Muslim societies, the threat of the application of the apostasy and blasphemy laws against any who criticize its application is an efficient weapon used to intimidate opponents, silence criticism, punish rivals, reject innovations and reform, and keep non-Muslim communities in their place.

Similar views are expressed by the non-theistic International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Public opinion

A survey based on face-to-face interviews conducted in 80 languages by the Pew Research Center between 2008 and 2012 among thousands of Muslims in many countries, found varied views on the death penalty for those who leave Islam to become an atheist or to convert to another religion. In some countries (especially in Central Asia, Southeast Europe, and Turkey), support for the death penalty for apostasy was confined to a tiny fringe; in other countries (especially in the Arab world and South Asia) majorities and large minorities support the death penalty.

In the survey, Muslims who favored making Sharia the law of the land were asked for their views on the death penalty for apostasy from Islam. The results are summarized in the table below. Note that values for Group C have been derived from the values for the other two groups and are not part of the Pew report.

Middle East and North Africa Country Group A:  % Muslims support sharia Group B: Support death for apostasy as a % of Group A Group C: Group B as % of all Muslims Egypt 74 86 63.6 Palestine 89 66 58.7 Jordan 71 82 58.2 Iraq 91 42 38.2 Tunisia 56 29 16.2 Lebanon 29 46 13.3

South and Southeast Asia Country Group A:  % Muslims support sharia Group B: Support death for apostasy as a % of Group A Group C: Group B as % of all Muslims Afghanistan 99 79 78.2 Pakistan 84 76 63.8 Malaysia 86 62 53.3 Bangladesh 82 44 36.1 Thailand 77 27 20.8 Indonesia 72 18 13.0

Southeast Europe and Central Asia Country Group A:  % Muslims support sharia Group B: Support death for apostasy as a % of Group A Group C: Group B as % of all Muslims Russia 42 15 6.3 Tajikistan 27 22 5.9 Kyrgyzstan 35 14 4.9 Bosnia 15 15 2.3 Kosovo 20 11 2.2 Turkey 12 17 2.0 Albania 12 8 1.0 Kazakhstan 10 4 0.4

Visualisation of the total % of Muslims per country who support the death penalty for apostasy according to the 2013 Pew report's values.

Overall, the figures in the 2012 survey suggest that the percentage of Muslims in the countries surveyed who approve the death penalty for Muslims who leave Islam to become an atheist or convert to another religion varies widely, from 0.4% (in Kazakhstan) to 78.2% (in Afghanistan). The Governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait) did not permit Pew Research to survey nationwide public opinion on apostasy in 2010 or 2012. The survey also did not include China, India, Syria, or West African countries such as Nigeria.

By country

The situation for apostates from Islam varies markedly between Muslim and non-Muslim regions. In non-Muslim countries "any violence against those who abandon Islam is already illegal". But in Muslim-majority countries, violence is "institutionalised", and (at least in 2007) "hundreds and thousands of closet apostates" live in fear of violence and are compelled to live lives of "extreme duplicity and mental stress."

Afghanistan

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Afghanistan and Human rights in Afghanistan

See also: Talibanization, Islam in Afghanistan, and Religion in Afghanistan

Article 130 of the Afghan Constitution requires its courts to apply provisions of Hanafi Sunni fiqh for crimes of apostasy in Islam. Article 1 of the Afghan Penal Code requires hudud crimes be punished per Hanafi religious jurisprudence. Prevailing Hanafi jurisprudence, per consensus of its school of Islamic scholars, prescribes death penalty for the crime of apostasy. The apostate can avoid prosecution and/or punishment if he or she confesses of having made a mistake of apostasy and rejoins Islam. In addition to death, the family of the accused can be deprived of all property and possessions, and the individual's marriage is considered dissolved in accordance with Hanafi Sunni jurisprudence.

In March 2006, an Afghan citizen Abdul Rahman who had "lived outside Afghanistan for 16 years and is believed to have converted to Christianity during a stay in Germany", was charged with apostasy and threatened with the death penalty. His case sparked international protest from many Western countries. Charges against Abdul Rahman were dismissed on technical grounds of being "mentally unfit" (an exemption from execution under sharia law) to stand trial, by the Afghan court after intervention by the president Hamid Karzai. He was released and left the country after the Italian government offered him political asylum.

In Afghanistan, I've seen how someone
was nearly beaten to death for blasphemy.
In Kabul they are stoning apostates.

– Fareed (pseudonym)

Two other Afghan converts to Christianity, Sayed Mussa and Shoaib Assadullah, were arrested back in March 2006. In February 2006, the homes of yet other converts were raided by police. After serving five years in jail, Sayed Mussa was released in 2011, and Shoaib Assadullah was released in March 2011.

In 2012, secular university teacher from Ghazni Province named Javeed wrote an article criticising the Taliban in English. The Taliban tried to seize him, but he and his wife Marina, a well-known Afgan television host, decided to flee to the Netherlands. When in 2014 it was translated to Pashto by powerful warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's son-in-law, this led to an uproar on social media with many accusations of apostasy and death threats directed at Javeed, and a large public demonstration in Kabul calling for his execution.

In late 2015, 21-year-old student and ex-Muslim atheist Morid Aziz had a religious argument with his girlfriend Shogofa, once a liberal Muslim, but radicalised whilst studying Sharia. She secretly recorded the conversation, during which he criticised Islam, and begged her to 'forsake the darkness and embrace science', but she called him a kafir and said he would burn in hell. The next day, she played the recording at the Friday prayer in a full mosque. Aziz was inundated with questions from relatives about how he had dared to say what he said, and he quickly went into hiding just before angry men armed with Kalashnikovs showed up at his house. 23 days later, he fled across several countries and ended up in the Netherlands, where he obtained permanent residency on 30 May 2017.

Algeria

Main article: Freedom of religion in Algeria

Djemila Benhabib: "Freedom of conscience has never been recognised", and Islam is not separated from the state.

Freedom of religion in Algeria is regulated by the Algerian Constitution, which declares Sunni Islam to be the state religion (Article 2) but also declares that "freedom of creed and opinion is inviolable" (Article 36); it prohibits discrimination, Article 29 states "All citizens are equal before the law. No discrimination shall prevail because of birth, race, sex, opinion or any other personal or social condition or circumstance".

According to Pew Research Center in 2010, 97.9% of Algerians were Muslim, 1.8% were unaffiliated, with the remaining 0.3% comprising adherents of other religions.

By law, children follow the religion of their fathers, even if they are born abroad and are citizens of their (non-Muslim-majority) country of birth. The study of Islam is a requirement in the public and private schools for every Algerian child, irrespective of his/her religion. Although the educational reform of 2006 eliminated "Islamic sciences" from the baccalaureate, Islamic studies are mandatory in public schools at primary level and followed by Sharia studies at secondary level. Concerns have been expressed that requests by non-Muslim religious students to opt out of these classes would result in discrimination.

Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslim men (Algerian Family Code I.II.31), and Muslim men may not marry women of non-monotheistic religious groups. Prior to the 2005 amendments, family law stated that if it is established that either spouse is an "apostate" from Islam, the marriage will be declared null and void (Family Code I.III.32). The term "apostate" was removed with the amendments, however those determined as such still cannot receive any inheritance (Family Code III.I.138).

People without religious affiliation tend to be particularly numerous in Kabylie (a Kabyle-speaking area) where they are generally tolerated and sometimes supported. Notably, Berber civil rights, human rights and secular activist and musician Lounès Matoub (assassinated in 1998) is widely seen as a hero among Kabyles, despite (or because of) his lack of religion. In most other areas of the country, the non-religious tend to be more discreet, and often pretend to be pious Muslims to avoid violence and lynching.

The majority of cases of harassment and security threats against non-Muslims come from the now nearly destroyed Armed Islamic Group, an organization fighting the government who are determined to rid the country of those who do not share their extremist interpretation of Islam. However, a majority of the population subscribes to Islamic precepts of tolerance in religious beliefs. Moderate Islamist religious and political leaders have criticized publicly acts of violence committed in the name of Islam.

The "blasphemy" law is stringent and widely enforced. The non-religious are largely invisible in the public sphere, and although not specifically targeted through legislation, significant prejudice towards non-Muslim religions can be presumed to apply equally if not more so to non-believers. The crime of "blasphemy" carries a maximum of five years in prison and the laws are interpreted widely. For example, several arrests have been made under the blasphemy laws in the last few years for failure to fast during Ramadan, even though this is not a requirement under Algerian law. Non-fasting persons ("non-jeûneurs") repeatedly face harassment by the police and civil society. Eating in public during Ramadan (particularly for people who "look Muslim") is legal, but attracts public hostility in most areas, except for some areas of Kabylie. Most restaurants close during Ramadan.

In general, non-citizens who practice faiths other than Islam enjoy a high level of tolerance within society; however, citizens who renounce Islam generally are ostracized by their families and shunned by their neighbors. Those who "renounce" Islam may be imprisoned, fined, or co-erced to re-convert. The Government generally does not become involved in such disputes. Converts also expose themselves to the risk of attack by radical extremists.

Bangladesh

Bonya Ahmed speaking about the attack on her and Avijit Roy (18:54), and putting it in a broader context.

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Bangladesh and Human rights in Bangladesh

See also: Islam in Bangladesh, Religion in Bangladesh, and Attacks by Islamic extremists in Bangladesh

Bangladesh does not have a law against apostasy and its Constitution ensures secularism and freedom of religion, but incidences of persecution of apostates have been reported. The radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, founded in 2010, created a hit list which included 83 outspoken atheist or secularist activists, including ex-Muslim bloggers and academics. Dozens of atheist and secularist Bangladeshis on this list have been targeted for practicing free speech and "disrespecting" Islam, such as Humayun Azad, who was the target of a failed machete assassination attempt, and Avijit Roy, who was killed with meat cleavers; his wife Bonya Ahmed survived the attack. Since 2013, 8 of the 83 people on the hit list have been killed; 31 others have fled the country. However majority of the people criticised the killings and the Government took strict measures and banned Islamist groups from politics. On 14 June 2016 approximately 100,000 Bangladeshi Muslim clerics released a fatwa, ruling that the murder of "non-Muslims, minorities and secular activists…forbidden in Islam".

Belgium

Movement of Ex-Muslims of Belgium.

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Belgium, Irreligion in Belgium, and Organized secularism

In the Western European country of Belgium, Muslims made up about 5 to 7% of the total population as of 2015. Although legally anyone is free to change their religion, there is a social taboo on apostatising from Islam. Moroccan-Belgian stand-up comedian Sam Touzani is a rare example an outspoken ex-Muslim; he was condemned by several fatwas and has received hundreds of death threats online, but persists in his criticism of Islam and Islamism.

A Movement of Ex-Muslims of Belgium exists to support apostates from Islam, and to 'fight Islamic indoctrination'. As of 2014, it had a dozen members, who had to operate carefully and often anonymously. Additionally, Belgian academics such as Maarten Boudry and Johan Leman have led efforts to try to normalise leaving Islam in Belgium. On 16 November 2017, 25-year-old Hamza, shunned by his family (except for his supportive sister), came out as an ex-Muslim on television. He was seconded by philosopher and ex-Catholic Patrick Loobuyck, who argued that secularisation in the West gives Western Muslims such as the opportunity to embrace religious liberalism and even atheism. In December 2018, De Morgen reported that Belgian ex-Muslims had been holding secret regular meetings in secure locations in Brussels since late 2017, supported by deMens.nu counselors.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Main article: Religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina

During the Ottoman Turkish Muslim rule of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1463–1878), a large minority of the Southern Slavic-speaking inhabitants converted to Islam for various reasons, whilst others remained Roman Catholics (later known as Croats) or Orthodox Christians (later known as Serbs). These converts and their descendants were simply known as "Bosnian Muslims" or just "Muslims", until the term Bosniaks was adopted in 1993. Not all Bosniaks (still) practice Islam nowadays; some may just be "Muslim" by name or cultural background, but not by conviction, profession or practice. In a 1998 public opinion poll, just 78.3% of Bosniaks in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared themselves to be religious.

The Ottomans punished apostasy from Islam with the death penalty until the Edict of Toleration 1844; subsequently, apostates could be imprisoned or deported instead. When Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, this practice was abolished. The Austrian government held that any mature citizen was free to convert to another religion without having to fear any legal penalty, and issued a directive to its officials to keep their involvement in religious matters to a minimum. This clashed with the rigorous hostility to conversion exhibited by traditional Bosnian Muslims, who perceived it as a threat to the survival of Islam. During the four decades of Habsburg rule, several apostasy controversies occurred, most often involving young women with a low socio-economic status who sought to convert to Christianity.

In August 1890, during the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a sixteen-year-old Bosnian girl called Uzeifa Delahmatović claimed to have voluntarily converted from Islam to Catholicism, the Habsburg state's official and majority religion. This stirred up controversy about whether she was forced, or whether a Muslim was even allowed to change her or his religion. Subsequent debates resulted in the Austrian Conversion Ordinance of 1891, which made religious conversion of subjects a matter of state. A strict procedure required the convert to be an adult and mentally healthy, and the conversion should be recognised by all parties involved; if not, the state would intervene and set up a commission for arbitration.

In the 20th century, religion became highly politicised in Bosnia, and the basis for most citizens' national identity and political loyalty, leading to numerous conflicts culminating in the Bosnian War (1992–95). The resulting violence and misery has caused a group of Bosnians to reject religion (and nationalism) altogether. This atheist community faces discrimination, and is frequently verbally attacked by religious leaders as "corrupt people without morals".

Brunei

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Brunei and Human rights in Brunei

See also: Religion in Brunei

Brunei is the latest Muslim-majority country to enact a law that makes apostasy a crime punishable with death. In 2013, it enacted Syariah (Sharia) Penal Code. Section 112(1) of the new law states that a Muslim who declares himself non-Muslim commits a crime punishable with death, or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding thirty years, depending on evidence. Under the required wait period between notification of law and its validity under Brunei's constitution, its new apostasy law and corporal punishment will be applied starting October 2014, and capital punishment will be imposed starting October 2015.

Egypt

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Egypt and Human rights in Egypt

See also: Religion in Egypt

Legal situation

Kareem Amer, a few days after his release from 4 years in jail.

Stencil graffiti depicting Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, in the form of the nude blog photo of herself.

The blasphemy laws and Article 98(f) of Egyptian Penal Code, as amended by Law 147, has been used to prosecute Muslims who have converted to Christianity. For example, in May 2007, Bahaa El-Din El-Akkad, a former Egyptian Muslim and someone who worked on Dawah to spread Islam, was imprisoned after he converted to Christianity, under the charge of "blasphemy against Islam". He was freed in 2011.

Egypt's penal code is silent about any punishment for apostasy from Islam. Contemporary Egyptian jurisprudence prohibits apostasy from Islam, but has also remained silent about the death penalty. Article 2 of the Constitution of Egypt enshrines sharia. Both Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt have ruled that, "it is completely acceptable for non-Muslims to embrace Islam but by consensus Muslims are not allowed to embrace another religion or to become of no religion at all [in Egypt]." The silence about punishment for apostasy along with the constitutional enshrinement of Sharia, means the death sentence for apostasy is a possibility. In practice, Egypt has prosecuted apostasy from Islam under its blasphemy laws using the Hisbah doctrine; and non-state Islamic groups have taken the law into their own hands and executed apostates.

A 2010 Pew Research Center poll showed that 84% of Egyptian Muslims believe those who leave Islam should be punished by death.

Cases and incidents

In 1992, Islamist militants gunned down Egyptian secularist and sharia law opponent Farag Foda. Before his death he had been declared an apostate and foe of Islam by the ulama at Al Azhar. During the trial of the murderers, Al-Azhar scholar Mohammed al-Ghazali testified that when the state fails to punish apostates, somebody else has to do it.

In 1993, a liberal Islamic theologian, Nasr Abu Zayd was denied promotion at Cairo University after a court decision of apostasy against him. Following this an Islamist lawyer filed a lawsuit before the Giza Lower Personal Status Court demanding the divorce of Abu Zayd from his wife, Dr. Ibtihal Younis, on the grounds that a Muslim woman cannot be married to an apostate – notwithstanding the fact his wife wished to remain married to him. The case went to the Cairo Appeals Court where his marriage was declared null and void in 1995. After the verdict, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization (which had assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981) declared Abu Zayd should be killed for abandoning his Muslim faith. Abu Zayd was given police protection, but felt he could not function under heavy guard, noting that one police guard referred to him as "the kafir". On 23 July 1995, he and his wife flew to Europe, where they lived in exile but continued to teach.

In April 2006, after a court case in Egypt recognized the Baháʼí Faith, members of the clergy convinced the government to appeal the court decision. One member of parliament, Gamal Akl of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, said the Baháʼís were infidels who should be killed on the grounds that they had changed their religion, although most living Baháʼí have not, in fact, ever been Muslim.

In October 2006, Kareem Amer became the first Egyptian to be prosecuted for their online writings, including declaring himself an atheist. He was imprisoned until November 2010.

In 2007 Mohammed Hegazy, a Muslim-born Egyptian who had converted to Christianity based on "readings and comparative studies in religions", sued the Egyptian court to change his religion from "Islam" to "Christianity" on his national identification card. His case caused considerable public uproar, with not only Muslim clerics, but his own father and wife's father calling for his death. Two lawyers he had hired or agreed to hire both quit his case, and two Christian human rights workers thought to be involved in his case were arrested. As of 2007, he and his wife were in hiding. In 2008, the judge trying his case ruled that according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot convert to an older belief. Hegazy kept trying to officially change his religion until he was arrested in 2013 for "spreading false rumours and incitement". He was released in 2016, after which he published a video on YouTube claiming he had reverted to Islam, and asked to be left alone.

In February 2009, another case of a convert to Christianity (Maher Ahmad El-Mo'otahssem Bellah El-Gohary), came to court. El-Gohary's effort to officially convert to Christianity triggered state prosecutors charging him of "apostasy," or leaving Islam, and seeking a sentence of death penalty.

"Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals," El-Gohary said. "We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us." El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.

Some commentators have reported a growing trend of abandoning religion following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, reflected through emergence of support groups on social media, although openly declared apostates still face ostracism and danger of prosecution and vigilante violence. A well-known example is the Internet activist Aliaa Magda Elmahdy (then-girlfriend of Kareem Amer), who protested the oppression of women's rights and sexuality in Islam by posting a nude photo of herself online. In 2011, the Muslim woman Abeer allegedly converted to Christianity, and was given protection by the Church of Saint Menas in Imbaba. Hundreds of angry salafists beleaguered the church and demanded her return; during the resulting clashes, ten people were killed and hundreds were wounded.

Activist Ahmed Harqan's televised debates attracted hostility.

On 21 October 2014, ex-Muslim atheist activist Ahmed Harqan featured in a debate on the popular Egyptian talk show Taht al Koubry ("Under the Bridge"). He explained why he had become an atheist and said that Islam is a "harsh religion", which was being implemented by Islamic State (ISIS) and Boko Haram. They are doing "what the Prophet Muhammad and his companions did," said Harqan. Four days later, in the evening of 25 October, he and his pregnant wife Nada Mandour (Saly) Harqan (also an atheist), were attacked by a lynch mob and escaped assassination when they fled to a nearby police station. Instead of taking action to help Harqan and his wife, the police officers further assaulted them and they were imprisoned, charged with blasphemy and "defamation of religion" under article 98 in the Egyptian penal code for asking "What has ISIS done that Muhammad did not do?" on the talk show. Harqan's appearance provoked weeks of outcry from Islamic religious broadcasters and prompted much-watched follow-up shows.

Eritrea

See also: Religion in Eritrea

Muslims constitute approximately 36.5–37% to 48–50% of the Eritrean population; more than 99% of Eritrean Muslims are Sunnis. Although there are no legal restrictions on leaving Sunni Islam, there are only three other officially recognised religions in Eritrea, all of them Christian: the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Catholic Church (in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea. Despite other religious groups applying for original recognition since 2002, the Eritrean government has failed to implement the relevant rights established in the constitution. It is illegal or unrecognised to identify as an atheist or as non-religious, and illegal to register an explicitly humanist, atheist, secularist or other non-religious NGO or other human rights organisation, or such groups are persecuted by authorities. Members of "unrecognised" religions are arrested, detained in oppressive conditions, and there have been reports that people have been tortured in order for them to recant their religious affiliation. Reports of the harassment and arrest of members of religious minority groups is widespread and frequent. Open Doors reported that Muslims who become Christians in Muslim-majority areas are frequently rejected, mistreated or even disowned by their families. Additionally, the Orthodox Church considers itself the only true Christian denomination in the country and puts its ex-members who convert to a Protestant faith under pressure to return.

India

According to the 2011 census, there were about 172 million Muslims living in India, accounting for approximately 14.2% of the total population. In the early 21st century, an un-organised ex-Muslim movement started to emerge in India, typically amongst young (in their 20s and 30s) well-educated Muslim women and men in urban areas. They are often troubled by religious teachings and practices (such as shunning of and intolerance and violence towards non-Muslims), doubting their veracity and morality, and started to question them. Feeling that Islamic relatives and authorities failed to provide them with satisfactory answers, and with access to alternative interpretations of and information about Islam on the Internet, and the ability to communicate with each other through social media, these people resolved to apostatise.

Indonesia

Main articles: Blasphemy law in Indonesia, Freedom of religion in Indonesia, and Human rights in Indonesia

See also: Religion in Indonesia

Albertus Soegijapranata, an ex-Muslim and a National Hero of Indonesia, was the first native Indonesian Catholic bishop.

Indonesia does not have a law against apostasy, and the constitution provides for freedom of religion, accords "all persons shall be free to choose and to practice the religion of his/her choice". But Indonesia has as a broad blasphemy law that protects all six official religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism) (Article 156) and a Presidential Decree (1965) that permits prosecution of people who commit blasphemy. The Decree prohibits every Indonesian from "intentionally conveying, endorsing or attempting to gain public support in the interpretation of a certain religion; or undertaking religious based activities that resemble the religious activities of the religion in question, where such interpretation and activities are in deviation of the basic teachings of the religion." These laws have been used to arrest and convict atheist apostates in Indonesia, such as the case of 30-year-old Alexander Aan who declared himself to be an atheist, declared "God does not exist", and stopped praying and fasting as required by Islam. He received death threats from Islamic groups and in 2012 was arrested and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

Iran

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Iran, Human rights in Iran, Blasphemy law in Iran, and Capital punishment in Iran

See also: Islamization of Iran and Religion in Iran

The 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, starting near the end of the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), were carried out by "Special Commissions with instructions to execute members of People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran as moharebs (those who wage war against Allah) and leftists as mortads (apostates from Islam)." It is unclear how many prisoners were killed (estimates vary from almost 4,500 to more than 30,000), how many of them actually were ex-Muslims or were falsely accused of having left Islam, and the exact motivations behind this massacre. Great care was taken to keep the killings undercover, and the government of Iran currently denies their having taken place. Justifications offered for the alleged executions vary, but one of the most common theories advanced is that they were in retaliation for the 1988 attack on the western borders of Iran by the PMOI Mujahedin. However, this does not fully account for the targeting of other leftist groups who opposed the Mujahedin invasion.

Hossein Soodmand, who converted from Islam to Christianity when he was 13 years old, was executed by hanging in 1990 for apostasy.

According to US think tank Freedom House, since the 1990s the Islamic Republic of Iran has sometimes used death squads against converts, including major Protestant leaders. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the regime has engaged in a systematic campaign to track down and reconvert or kill those who have changed their religion from Islam.

15 ex-Muslim Christians were incarcerated on 15 May 2008 under charges of apostasy. They may face the death penalty if convicted. A new penal code is being proposed in Iran that would require the death penalty in cases of apostasy on the Internet.

Ex-Muslim Armin Navabi, founder of Atheist Republic, escaped Iran.

At least two Iranians – Hashem Aghajari and Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari – have been arrested and charged with apostasy in the Islamic Republic (though not executed), not for self-professed conversion to another faith, but for statements and/or activities deemed by courts of the Islamic Republic to be in violation of Islam, and that appear to outsiders to be Islamic reformist political expression. Hashem Aghajari, was found guilty of apostasy for a speech urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics; Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari was charged with apostasy for attending the 'Iran After the Elections' Conference in Berlin Germany which was disrupted by anti-regime demonstrators.

The Baháʼís in Iran, the nation of origin of the Baháʼí Faith and Iran's largest religious minority, were accused of apostasy in the 19th century by the Shi'a clergy because of their adherence to religious revelations by another prophet after those of Muhammad. These allegations led to mob attacks, public executions and torture of early Baháʼís, including the Báb. More recently, Musa Talibi was arrested in 1994, and Dhabihu'llah Mahrami was arrested in 1995, then sentenced to death on charges of apostasy.

In July 2017, an activist group that spread atheistic articles and books Iranian universities, published a video on YouTube titled "Why we must deny the existence of God", featuring famous atheist thinkers Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett. An hour before the group would meet to discuss the production of a new video, their office was raided by the police. Group member Keyvan (32), raised as a Sunni Muslim but confusingly educated in a Shia school, long had doubts about religion, and became an apostate after reading atheist literature. He and his wife had to flee after the police raid, and flew to the Netherlands three days later.

Iraq

Ex-Muslim Faisal Saeed al Mutar, founder of Global Secular Humanist Movement (2010), fled Iraq in 2013.

Main article: Freedom of religion in Iraq

See also: Religion in Iraq

Although the Constitution of Iraq recognises Islam as the official religion and states that no law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam, it also guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief and practice. While the Government generally endorses these rights, unsettled conditions have prevented effective governance in parts of the country, and the Government's ability to protect religious freedoms has been handicapped by insurgency, terrorism, and sectarian violence. Since 2003, when the government of Saddam Hussein fell, the Iraqi government has generally not engaged in state-sponsored persecution of any religious group, calling instead for tolerance and acceptance of all religious minorities.

In October 2013, 15-year-old Ahmad Sherwan from Erbil said he no longer believed in God and was proud to be an atheist to his father, who had the police arrest him. He was imprisoned for 13 days and tortured several times, before being released on bail; he faced life imprisonment for disbelief in God. Sherwan tried to contact the media for seven months, but all refused to run his story until the private newspaper Awene published it in May 2014. It went viral, and human rights activists came to his aid.

The 2014 uprising of the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) has led to violations of religious freedom in certain parts of Iraq. ISIS follows an extreme anti-Western interpretation of Islam, promotes religious violence and regards those who do not agree with its interpretations as infidels or apostates.

Islam has given me nothing,
no respect, no rights as a woman.

– Huda Mohammed

In the 2010s, an increasing number of Iraqis, especially young people in the capital city of Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, were leaving Islam for a variety of reasons. Some cite the lack of women's rights in Islam, others the political climate, which is dominated by conflicts between Shia Muslim parties who seek to expand their power more than they try to improve citizens' living conditions. Many young ex-Muslims sought refuge in the Iraqi Communist Party, and advocated for secularism from within its ranks. The sale of books on atheism by authors such as Abdullah al-Qasemi and Richard Dawkins has risen in Baghdad. In Iraqi Kurdistan, a 2011 AK-News survey asking whether respondents believed God existed, resulted in 67% replying 'yes', 21% 'probably', 4% 'probably not', 7% 'no' and 1% had no answer. The subsequent harsh battle against Islamic State and its literalist implementation of Sharia caused numerous youths to dissociate themselves from Islam altogether, either by adopting Zoroastrianism or secretly embracing atheism.

When Sadr al-Din learned about natural selection in school, he began questioning the relationship between Islam and science, studying the history of Islam, and asking people's opinions on both topics. At the age of 20, he changed his first name to Daniel, after atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett. He came into conflict with his family, who threatened him with death, and after his father found books in his room denying the existence of God and miracles, he tried to shoot his son. Daniel fled Iraq, and obtained asylum in the Netherlands.

Jordan

Jordanian Atheists Group founder Mohammed AlKhadra encouraging ex-Muslims to be 'out, loud and proud'.

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Jordan, Human rights in Jordan, Blasphemy law in Jordan, and Capital punishment in Jordan

See also: Religion in Jordan

Islam in Jordan does not explicitly ban apostasy in its penal code; however, it permits any Jordanian to charge another with apostasy and its Islamic courts to consider conversion trials. If an Islamic court convicts a person of apostasy, it has the power to sentence a prison term, annul that person's marriage, seize property and disqualify him or her from inheritance rights. The Jordanian poet Islam Samhan was accused of apostasy for poems he wrote in 2008, and sentenced to a prison term in 2009.

Kosovo

Main article: Religion in Kosovo

Crypto-Catholics

Kosovo was conquered by the Ottoman Empire along with the other remnants of the Serbian Empire in the period following the Battle of Kosovo (1389). Although the Ottomans didn't force the Catholic and Orthodox Christian population to convert to Islam, there was strong social pressure (such as not having to pay the jizya) as well as political expediency to do so, which ethnic Albanians did in far greater numbers (including the entire nobility) than Serbs, Greeks and others in the region. Many Albanian Catholics converted to Islam in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite attempts by Roman Catholic clergy to stop them, including a strict condemnation of conversion – especially for opportunistic reasons such as jizya evasion – during the Concilium Albanicum, a meeting of Albanian bishops in 1703. Whilst many of these converts stayed crypto-Catholics to a certain extent, often helped by pragmatic lower clerics, the higher Catholic clergy ordered them to be denied the sacraments for their heresy. Efforts to convert the laraman community of Letnica back to Catholicism began in 1837, but the effort was violently suppressed – the local Ottoman governor put laramans in jail. After the Ottoman Empire abolished the death penalty for apostasy from Islam by the Edict of Toleration 1844, several groups of crypto-Catholics in Prizren, Peja and Gjakova were recognised as Catholics by the Ottoman Grand Vizier in 1845. When the laramans of Letnica asked the district governor and judge in Gjilan to recognise them as Catholics, they were refused however, and subsequently imprisoned, and then deported to Anatolia, from where they returned in November 1848 following diplomatic intervention. In 1856, a further Tanzimat reform improved the situation, and no further serious abuse was reported. The bulk of conversion of laramans, almost exclusively newly-borns, took place between 1872 and 1924.

Kuwait

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Kuwait, Human rights in Kuwait, and Blasphemy law in Kuwait

See also: Islamization of Kuwait and Religion in Kuwait

According to a 2002 journal paper, Kuwait does not have a law that criminalizes apostasy. In practice, Kuwait's family law prosecutes apostates. If an Islamic family court convicts a Muslim of apostasy, the court has the power to annul that person's marriage and disqualify him/her from property and inheritance rights. For example, the prosecution of Hussein Qambar ‘Ali in an Islamic family court, on charges of apostasy, after he converted from Islam to Christianity. Theoretically, death penalty can also be pronounced.

Blasphemy is criminalized. Law 111 of Kuwait's Penal Code allows usage of statements posted on internet as evidence of blasphemy.

Libya

Magdulien Abaida, Libyan human rights activist and ex-Muslim, on 'murtad under Islamic Sharia'.

Main article: Religion in Libya

Atheism is prohibited in Libya and can come with a death penalty, if one is charged as an atheist.

In June 2013, Libya's General National Council assembly (GNC) voted to make Islamic Sharia law the basis for all legislation and for all state institutions, a decision having an impact in banking, criminal, and financial law. In February 2016, Libya's General National Council assembly (GNC) released adecree No.20 Changing on provisions of the Libyan Penal Code.

Malaysia

Minister Shahidan Kassim: "The Federal Constitution does not recognise people without religion (...).
I suggest we hunt them down."

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Malaysia, Human rights in Malaysia, Blasphemy law in Malaysia, and Capital punishment in Malaysia

See also: Religion in Malaysia

Malaysia does not have a national law that criminalizes apostasy and its Article 11 grants freedom of religion to its diverse population of different religions. However, Malaysia's constitution grants its states (Negeri) the power to create and enforce laws relating to Islamic matters and Muslim community. State laws in Kelantan and Terengganu make apostasy in Islam a crime punishable with death, while state laws of Perak, Malacca, Sabah, and Pahang declare apostasy by Muslims as a crime punishable with jail terms. In these states, apostasy is defined as conversion from Islam to another faith, but converting to Islam is not a crime. The central government has not attempted to nullify these state laws, but stated that any death sentence for apostasy would require review by national courts. Ex-Muslims can be fined, jailed or sent for counselling.

National laws of Malaysia require Muslim apostates who seek to convert from Islam to another religion to first obtain approval from a sharia court. The procedure demands that anyone born to a Muslim parent, or who previously converted to Islam, must declare himself apostate of Islam before a Sharia court if he or she wants to convert. The Sharia courts have the power to impose penalties such as jail, caning and enforced "rehabilitation" on apostates – which is the typical practice. In the states of Perak, Malacca, Sabah, and Pahang, apostates of Islam face jail term; in Pahang, caning; others, confinement with rehabilitation process.

The state laws of Malaysia allow apostates of other religion to become Muslim without any equivalent review or process. The state laws of Perak, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak, and Malacca allow one parent to convert children to Islam even if the other parent does not consent to his or her child's conversion to Islam.

In a highly public case, the Malaysian Federal Court did not allow Lina Joy to change her religion status in her I/C in a 2–1 decision.

In August 2017, a picture from a gathering of the Atheist Republic Consulate of Kuala Lumpur was posted on Atheist Republic's Facebook page. Deputy Minister of Islamic Affairs Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki ordered an inquiry into whether anyone in the picture had committed apostasy or had 'spread atheism' to any Muslims present, both of which are illegal in Malaysia. The next day, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim stated atheists should be "hunted down", as there was no place for groups like this under the Federal Constitution. Atheist Republic (AR) members present at the gathering reportedly received death threats on social media. Canada-based AR leader Armin Navabi asked: "How is this group harming anyone?", warning that such actions by the government damaged Malaysia's reputation as a "moderate" Muslim-majority (60%) country. The uploads sparked violent protests from some Malaysians calling Navabi an 'apostate' and threatening to behead him. A Kuala Lumpur AR Consulate admin told BBC OS that such meetings are just socialising events for 'people who are legally Muslim, and atheists, and people from other religions as well'. In November 2017, it was reported that Facebook had rejected a joint government and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission demand to shut down Atheist Republic's page and similar atheist pages, because the pages did not violate any of the company's community standards.

Maldives

Zakir Naik: "If the person who becomes a non-Muslim propagates his faith and speaks against Islam [where] there is Islamic rule, then the person is to be put to death."

Main article: Irreligion in the Maldives

See also: Freedom of religion in the Maldives and Islam in the Maldives

The Constitution of the Maldives designates Islam as the official state religion, and the government and many citizens at all levels interpret this provision to impose a requirement that all citizens must be Muslims. The Constitution states the president must be a Sunni Muslim. There is no freedom of religion or belief. This situation leads to institutionally sanctioned religious oppression against non-Muslims and ex-Muslims who currently reside in the country.

On 27 April 2014, the Maldives ratified a new regulation that revived the death penalty (abolished in 1953, when the last execution took place) for a number of hudud offences, including apostasy for persons from the age of 7 and older. The new regulation was strongly criticised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the EU's High Representative, pointing out that they violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Maldives have ratified, that ban the execution of anyone for offences committed before the age of 18.

During a question-and-answer session at one of Indian Muslim orator Zakir Naik's lectures 29 May 2010 on the Maldives, 37-year-old Maldivian citizen Mohamed Nazim stated that he was struggling to believe in any religion, and did not consider himself to be a Muslim. He further asked what his verdict would be under Islam and in the Maldives. Zakir responded that he considers the punishment for apostasy not necessarily to mean death, since Muhammed was reported in the Hadith scriptures to have shown clemency towards apostates on some occasions, but added that "If the person who becomes a non-Muslim propagates his faith and speaks against Islam [where] there is Islamic rule, then the person is to be put to death." Mohamed Nazim was subsequently reported to have been arrested and put in protective custody by the Maldivian Police. He later publicly reverted to Islam in custody after receiving two days of counseling by two Islamic scholars, but was held awaiting possible charges.

On 14 July 2010, Maldivian news site Minivan News reported that 25-year-old air traffic controller Ismail Mohamed Didi had sent two e-mails, dated 25 June, to an international human rights organisation, declaring that he was an atheist ex-Muslim and that he desired help with his asylum application (directed to the United Kingdom). This came after he had "foolishly admitted my stance on religion" to his colleagues at work two years earlier, word of which had "spread like wildfire", and led to increased repression from colleagues, family, and even his closest friends shunning him, and anonymous death threats over the telephone. The same day that the report was posted, Didi was found hanged at his workplace in the aircraft control tower at Malé International Airport in an apparent suicide.

Mauritania

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Mauritania and Human rights in Mauritania

See also: Religion in Mauritania

Blogger Ould Mkhaitir, accused of apostasy, overturned his death sentence in 2017.

Article 306 of the criminal code of Mauritania declares apostasy in Islam as illegal and provides a death sentence for the crime of leaving Islam. Its law provides a provision where the guilty is given the opportunity to repent and return to Islam within three days. Failure to do so leads to a death sentence, dissolution of family rights and property confiscation by the government. The Mauritanian law requires that an apostate who has repented should be placed in custody and jailed for a period for the crime. Article 306 reads:

All Muslims guilty of apostasy, either spoken or by overt action will be asked to repent during a period of three days. If he does not repent during this period, he is condemned to death as an apostate, and his belongings confiscated by the State Treasury.

In 2014, Jemal Oumar, a Mauritanian journalist, was arrested for apostasy, after he posted a critique of Mohammad online. While local law enforcement agencies held him in prison for trial, local media announced offers by local Muslims of cash reward to anyone who would kill Jemal Oumar.
In a separate case, Mohamed Mkhaitir, a Mauritanian engineer, was arrested with the accusation of apostasy and blasphemy in 2014 as well, for publishing an essay on the racist caste system in Mauritanian society with criticism of Islamic history and a claim that Mohammad discriminated in his treatment of people from different tribes and races. Supported by pressure from human rights activists and international diplomats, Mkhaitir's case was reviewed several times, amid public civilian protests calling for him to be killed. On 8 November 2017 the Court of Appeals decided to convert his death sentence into a two-year jail term, which he had already served, so he was expected to be released soon. However, by May 2018 he still had not been released according to human rights groups. In July 2019, he was finally released and eventually able to start a new life in exile in Bordeaux, France.

Morocco

Imad Iddine Habib on blasphemy and apostasy in Morocco.

Main articles: Religion in Morocco § Freedom of religion, Irreligion in Morocco, and Human rights in Morocco

The penal code of Morocco does not impose the death penalty for apostasy. However, Islam is the official state religion of Morocco under its constitution. Article 41 of the Moroccan constitution gives fatwa powers (habilitée, religious decree legislation) to the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars, which issued a religious decree, or fatwa, in April 2013 that Moroccan Muslims who leave Islam must be sentenced to death. However, Mahjoub El Hiba, a senior Moroccan government official, denied that the fatwa was in any way legally binding. This decree was retracted by the Moroccan High Religious Committee in February 2017 in a document titled "The Way of the Scholars." It instead states that apostasy is a political stance rather than a religious issue, equatable to 'high treason'.

When he was 14, Imad Iddine Habib came out as an atheist to his family, who expelled him. Habib stayed with friends, got a degree in Islamic studies and founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of Morocco in 2013. Secret services started investigating him after a public speech criticising Islam, and Habib fled to England, after which he was sentenced to seven years in prison in absentia.

Netherlands

See also: Religion in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, a country in Western Europe, Muslims made up about 4.9% of the total population as of 2015; the rest of its inhabitants were either non-religious (50.1%), Christian (39.2%) or adherents of various other religions (5.7%). Although the freedom of expression, thought and religion is guaranteed by law in the Netherlands, there is doubt concerning the reality of this individual freedom within the small orthodox Christian minorities and within Muslim communities. The social and cultural pressure for those raised in a conservative religious family not to change or 'lose' religion can be high. This lack of 'horizontal' freedom (the freedom in relation to family, friends and neighborhood) remains a concern. Ex-Muslims often keep their views hidden from family, friends and the wider community.

Among Nonbelievers, a 2015 Dutch–English film about ex-Muslims.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali deconverted from Islam after seeing the September 11 attacks being justified by Al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden with verses from the Quran that she verified personally, and subsequently reading Herman Philipse's Atheïstisch manifest ("Atheist Manifesto"). She soon became a prominent critic of Islam amidst an increasing number of death threats from Islamists and thus a need for security. She was elected to Parliament in 2003 for the VVD, and co-producing Theo van Gogh's short film Submission (broadcast on 29 August 2004), which criticised the treatment of women in Islamic society. This led to even more death threats, and Van Gogh was assassinated on 2 November 2004 by jihadist terrorist Hofstad Network leader Mohammed Bouyeri. He threatened Hirsi Ali and other nonbelievers by writing that her "apostasy had turned her away from the truth", "only death can separate truth from lies", and that she would "certainly perish". Gone into hiding and heavily protected, she received a string of international awards, including one of Time's 100 most influential people of the world, for her efforts at highlighting Islam's violation of human rights, especially women's rights, before moving to the United States in 2006 following a Dutch political crisis over her citizenship.

Ehsan Jami, co-founder of the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims in the Netherlands in 2007, has received several death threats, and due to the amount of threats its members received, the Committee was dismantled in 2008. To fill this lacuna, the Dutch Humanist Association (HV) launched the Platform of New Freethinkers in 2015. There is a Dutch-speaking group for Muslim apostates born and/or raised in the Netherlands, and an English-speaking one for ex-Muslims who recently arrived in the Netherlands as refugees. The latter fled their country because they were discriminated against or confronted with threats, violence or persecution because of their humanist or atheist life-stance. The HV and Humanistische Omroep cooperated under the direction of Dorothée Forma to produce two documentaries on both groups: Among Nonbelievers (2015) and Non-believers: Freethinkers on the Run (2016).

Nigeria

Status of sharia in Nigerian states (in 2013):

  Sharia applies in full, including criminal law

  Sharia applies only in personal status issues

  No sharia

See also: Religion in Nigeria, Islamic extremism in Northern Nigeria, Religious violence in Nigeria, Blasphemy law in Nigeria, and Human rights in Nigeria

In Nigeria, there is no federal law that explicitly makes apostasy a crime. The Federal Constitution protects freedom of religion and allows religious conversion. Section 10 of the constitution states, 'The Government of the Federation of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.'.

However, 12 Muslim-majority states in northern Nigeria have laws invoking Sharia, which have been used to persecute Muslim apostates, particularly Muslims who have converted to Christianity. Although the states of Nigeria have a degree of autonomy to adopt their own laws, the first paragraph of the Federal Constitution stipulates that any law inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution shall be void. The Sharia penal code does contradict the Constitution, yet the federal government has not made a move to restore this breach of the constitutional order, letting the northern Muslim-dominated states have their way and not protecting the constitutional rights of citizens violated by Sharia.

Governor Ahmad Sani Yerima of Zamfara State, the first Nigerian Muslim-majority state to introduce Sharia in 2000, stated that because capital punishment for apostasy was unconstitutional, citizens themselves should do the killing, effectively undermining the rule of law:

If you change your religion from Islam, the penalty is death. We know it. And we didn't put it in our penal code because it is against the constitutional provision. It is the law of Allah, which now is a culture for the entire society. So if a Muslim changes his faith or religion, it is the duty of the society or family to administer that part of the justice to him.

Sani further added that whoever opposed 'the divine rules and regulations (...) is not a Muslim', confirmed by Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs Lateef Adegbite, who was quoted as saying:

Once you reject sharia, you reject Islam. So, any Muslim that protests the application of sharia is virtually declaring himself non-Muslim.

In December 2005, Nigerian pastor Zacheous Habu Bu Ngwenche was attacked for allegedly hiding a convert.

Oman

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Oman and Human rights in Oman

See also: Religion in Oman

Oman does not have an apostasy law. However, under Law 32 of 1997 on Personal Status for Muslims, an apostate's marriage is considered annulled and inheritance rights denied when the individual commits apostasy. The Basic Law of Oman, since its enactment in 1995, declares Oman to be an Islamic state and Sharia as the final word and source of all legislation. Omani jurists state that this deference to Sharia, and alternatively the blasphemy law under Article 209 of Omani law, allows the state to pursue death penalty against Muslim apostates, if it wants to.

Palestine

Maryam Namazie interviews Palestinian ex-Muslim Waleed Al-Husseini (2016).

Main article: Freedom of religion in the State of Palestine

The State of Palestine does not have a constitution; however, the Basic Law provides for religious freedom. The Basic Law was approved in 2002 by the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and signed by then-President Yasir Arafat. The Basic Law states that Islam is the official religion, but also calls for respect and sanctity for other "heavenly" religions (such as Judaism and Christianity) and that the principles of Shari'a (Islamic law) shall be the main source of legislation.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) requires Palestinians to declare their religious affiliation on identification papers. Either Islamic or Christian ecclesiastical courts handle legal matters relating to personal status. Inheritance, marriage, and divorce are handled by such courts, which exist for Muslim and Christians.

Citizens living in the West Bank found to be guilty of 'defaming religion' under the old Jordanian law, run the risk of years of imprisonment, up to for life. This happened to 26-year-old blogger Waleed Al-Husseini in October 2010, who was arrested and charged with defaming religion after openly declaring himself an atheist and criticising religion online. He was detained for ten months. After being released, he eventually fled to France, as the PA continued to harass him, and citizens called for him to be lynched. He later found out he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison in absentia.

Pakistan

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Pakistan, Human rights in Pakistan, Blasphemy law in Pakistan, and Capital punishment in Pakistan

See also: Islamization of Pakistan and Religion in Pakistan

Ex-Muslim Fauzia Ilyas, co-founder of Atheist and Agnostic Alliance Pakistan, tells her story (15:53–19:02).

Inheritance and property rights for apostates were prohibited by Pakistan in 1963. In 1991, Tahir Iqbal, who had converted to Christianity from Islam, was arrested on charges of desecrating a copy of the Qur'an and making statements against Muhammad. While awaiting trial, he was denied bail on the presumption by a Sessions Court and the appeals Division of the Lahore High Court that conversion from Islam was a "cognizable offense". This decision was upheld by the High Court. The judge hearing the case, Saban Mohyuddin, rejected the idea that Iqbal should be sentenced to death for conversion, saying that Iqbal could only be sentenced if it could be proven he had committed blasphemy. The case was then transferred away from Mohyuddin.

While there was no specific formal law prohibiting apostasy, the laws against apostasy have been effectuated through Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Under Article 295 of its penal code, any Pakistani Muslim who feels his or her religious feelings have been hurt, directly or indirectly, for any reason or any action of another Pakistani citizen can accuse blasphemy and open a criminal case against anyone. According to the Federal Shariat Court, the punishment for any type of blasphemy is death. AbdelFatteh Amor has observed that the Pakistani judiciary has tended to hold apostasy to be an offence, although Pakistanis have claimed otherwise. The UN expressed concern in 2002 that Pakistan was still issuing death sentences for apostasy.

The Apostasy Act 2006 was drafted and tabled before the National Assembly on 9 May 2007. The Bill provided an apostate with three days to repent or face execution. Although this Bill has not officially become law yet, it was not opposed by the government which sent it to the parliamentary committee for consideration. The principle in Pakistani criminal law is that a lacuna in the statute law is to be filled with Islamic law. In 2006 this had led Martin Lau to speculate that apostasy had already become a criminal offence in Pakistan.

In 2010 the Federal Shariat Court declared that apostasy is an offence covered by Hudood under the terms of Article 203DD of the Constitution. The Federal Shariat Court has exclusive jurisdiction over Hudood matters and no court or legislation can interfere in its jurisdiction or overturn its decisions. Even though apostasy is not covered in statutory law, the Court ruled that it had jurisdiction over all Hudood matters regardless of whether there is an enacted law on them or not.

Qatar

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Qatar, Human rights in Qatar, and Blasphemy law § Qatar

See also: Religion in Qatar

Apostasy in Islam is a crime in Qatar. Its Law 11 of 2004 specific traditional Sharia prosecution and punishment for apostasy, considering it a hudud crime punishable by death penalty.

Proselytizing of Muslims to convert to another religion is also a crime in Qatar under Article 257 of its law, punishable with prison term. According to its law passed in 2004, if proselytizing is done in Qatar, for any religion other than Islam, the sentence is imprisonment of up to five years. Anyone who travels to and enters Qatar with written or recorded materials or items that support or promote conversion of Muslims to apostasy are to be imprisoned for up two years.

Casual discussion or "sharing one's faith" with any Muslim resident in Qatar has been deemed a violation of Qatari law, leading to deportation or prison time. There is no law against proselytizing non-Muslims to join Islam.

Saudi Arabia

The 2016 Vice News film Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam documents the case of Saudi ex-Muslim Rana Ahmad fleeing to Germany.

Rahaf Mohammed رهف محمد

@rahaf84427714

based on the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, I'm rahaf mohmed, formally seeking a refugee status to any country that would protect me from getting harmed or killed due to leaving my religion and torture from my family.

6 January 2019

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia, Human rights in Saudi Arabia, Blasphemy law in Saudi Arabia, and Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia

See also: Wahhabism, Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Saudi Arabia), and Religion in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has no penal code, and defaults its law entirely to Sharia and its implementation to religious courts. The case law in Saudi Arabia, and consensus of its jurists is that Islamic law imposes the death penalty on apostates.

Apostasy law is actively enforced in Saudi Arabia. For example, Saudi authorities charged Hamza Kashgari, a Saudi writer, in 2012 with apostasy based on comments he made on Twitter. He fled to Malaysia, where he was arrested and then extradited on request by Saudi Arabia to face charges. Kashgari repented, upon which the courts ordered that he be placed in protective custody. Similarly, two Saudi Sunni Muslim citizens were arrested and charged with apostasy for adopting the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. As of May 2014, the two accused of apostasy had served two years in prison awaiting trial.

In 2012, the US Department of State alleged that Saudi Arabia's school textbooks included chapters which justified the social exclusion and killing of apostates.

In 2015, Ahmad Al Shamri was sentenced to death for apostasy.

In January 2019, 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed fled Saudi Arabia after having renounced Islam and being abused by her family. On her way to Australia, she was held by Thai authorities in Bangkok while her father tried to take her back, but Rahaf managed to use social media to attract significant attention to her case. After diplomatic intervention, she was eventually granted asylum in Canada, where she arrived and settled soon after.

IslamQA which provides, "information regarding Islam in accordance with the Salafi school of thought", (which in 2020 was listed as the world's most popular website on the topic of Islam according to Alexa), has responded to a question, "What are the actions which, if a Muslim does them, he will be an apostate from Islam?" IslamQA answered saying, "a Muslim may apostatize from his religion by doing many acts that nullify Islam, which makes it permissible to shed his blood and seize his wealth".

Somalia

Ex-Muslim Amal Farah on Somali attitudes to apostasy.

Main articles: Human rights in Somalia and Capital punishment in Somalia

See also: Religion in Somalia

Apostasy is a crime in Somalia. Articles 3(1) and 4(1) of Somalia's constitution declare that religious law of Sharia is the nation's highest law. The prescribed punishment for apostasy is the death penalty.

There have been numerous reports of executions of people for apostasy, particularly Muslims who have converted to Christianity. However, the reported executions have been by extra-state Islamist groups and local mobs, rather than after the accused has been tried under a Somali court of law.

Sri Lanka

See also: Religion in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, 9.7% of the population is Muslim. Due to the social taboo on leaving Islam, the Council of Ex-Muslims of Sri Lanka (CEMSL) was founded in secret in 2016. Members of the organisation hold meetings in hiding. In June 2019, Rishvin Ismath decided to come forward as spokesperson for the Council in order to denounce government-approved and distributed textbooks for Muslim students which stated that apostates from Islam should be killed. Ismath subsequently received several death threats.

Sudan

Sudanese human rights activist Nahla Mahmoud and Maryam Namazie discuss ex-Muslims in Sudan.

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Sudan, Human rights in Sudan, Blasphemy law in Sudan, and Capital punishment in Sudan

See also: Islamization of Sudan and Religion in Sudan

In Sudan, apostasy was punishable with the death penalty until July 2020. Article 126.2 of the Penal Code of Sudan (1991) read,

Whoever is guilty of apostasy is invited to repent over a period to be determined by the tribunal. If he persists in his apostasy and was not recently converted to Islam, he will be put to death.

Some notable cases of apostasy in Sudan included: Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, a Sudanese religious thinker, leader, and trained engineer, who was executed for "sedition and apostasy" in 1985 at the age of 76, as thousands of demonstrators protested against his execution, by the regime of Gaafar Nimeiry. Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Christian Sudanese woman was sentenced to death for apostasy in May 2014, but allowed to leave the country in July after an international outcry.

Sudanese ex-Muslim and human rights activist Nahla Mahmoud estimated that during the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, there were between 120 and 170 Sudanese citizens who had been convicted for apostasy, most of whom repented to avoid a death sentence.

In July 2020, Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari announced that the punishment for apostasy had been scrapped a few days earlier, as the declaration that someone was an apostate was "a threat to the security and safety of society". The move was part of a wider scrapping of "all the laws violating the human rights in Sudan" during the 2019–2021 Sudanese transition to democracy.

Tunisia

Following the 2010–11 Tunisian Revolution, a Constituent Assembly worked for 2.5 years to written a new Constitution, approved in January 2014, contained a provision in Article 6 granting freedom of conscience. It also stipulates that '[a]ccusations of apostasy and incitement to violence are prohibited'. With it, Tunisia became the first Arab-majority country to protect its citizens from prosecution for renouncing Islam. Critics have pointed out alleged flaws of this formulation, namely that it violates the freedom of expression.

The highest profile cases of apostasy in Tunisia were of the two atheist ex-Muslims Ghazi Beji and Jabeur Mejri, sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on 28 March 2012. They were prosecuted for expressing their views on Islam, the Quran and Muhammad on Facebook, blogs and in online books, which allegedly 'violated public order and morality'. Mejri wrote a treatise in English on Muhammad's supposedly violent and sexually immoral behaviour. When Mejri was arrested by police, he confessed under torture that his friend Beji had also authored an antireligious book, The Illusion of Islam, in Arabic. Upon learning he, too, was sought by the police, Beji fled the country and reached Greece; he obtained political asylum in France on 12 June 2013. Mejri was pardoned by president Moncef Marzouki and left prison on 4 March 2014 after several human rights groups campaigned for his release under the slogan "Free Jabeur". When Mejri wanted to accept Sweden's invitation to move there, he was again imprisoned for several months, however, after being accused of embezzling money from his former job by his ex-colleagues (who started bullying him as soon as they found out he was an atheist), a rumour spread by his former friend Beji (who felt betrayed by Mejri because he had outed him as an atheist).

Turkey

See also: Freedom of religion in Turkey

Although there is no punishment for apostasy from Islam in Turkey, there are several formal and informal mechanisms in place that make it hard for citizens not to be Muslim. Non-Muslims, especially non-religious people, are discriminated against in a variety of ways. Article 216 of the penal code outlaws insulting religious belief, a de facto blasphemy law obstructing citizens from expressing irreligious views, or views critical of religions. A well-known example is that of pianist Fazıl Say in 2012, who was charged with insulting religion for publicly mocking Islamic prayer rituals (though the conviction was reversed by the Turkish Supreme Court, which determined Say's views were a protected expression of his freedom of conscience). Irreligious Turks are also often discriminated against in the workplace, because people are assumed to be Muslim by birth, and terms such as 'atheist' or 'nonbeliever' are frequently used insults in the public sphere.

In 2014, the Turkish atheist association Ateizm Derneği was founded for nonreligious citizens, many of whom have left Islam. The association won the International League of non-religious and atheists's Sapio Award 2017 for being the first officially recognised organisation in the Middle East defending the rights of atheists.

An early April 2018 report of the Turkish Ministry of Education, titled "The Youth is Sliding to Deism", observed that an increasing number of pupils in İmam Hatip schools was abandoning Islam in favour of deism. The report's publication generated large-scale controversy amongst conservative Muslim groups in Turkish society. Progressive Islamic theologian Mustafa Ozturk noted the deist trend a year earlier, arguing that the "very archaic, dogmatic notion of religion" held by the majority of those claiming to represent Islam was causing "the new generations [to get] indifferent, even distant, to the Islamic worldview." Despite lacking reliable statistical data, numerous anecdotes appear to point in this direction. Although some commentators claim the secularisation is merely a result of Western influence or even a "conspiracy", most commentators, even some pro-government ones, have come to conclude that "the real reason for the loss of faith in Islam is not the West but Turkey itself: It is a reaction to all the corruption, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, bigotry, cruelty and crudeness displayed in the name of Islam." Especially when the AKP Islamists are in power to enforce Islam upon society, this is making citizens turn their back on it.

United Arab Emirates

Main articles: Freedom of religion in the United Arab Emirates, Human rights in United Arab Emirates, Blasphemy law in the United Arab Emirates, and Capital punishment in the United Arab Emirates

See also: Religion in the United Arab Emirates

Apostasy is a crime in the United Arab Emirates. In 1978, UAE began the process of Islamising the nation's law, after its council of ministers voted to appoint a High Committee to identify all its laws that conflicted with Sharia. Among the many changes that followed, UAE incorporated hudud crimes of Sharia into its Penal Code – apostasy being one of them. Article 1 and Article 66 of UAE's Penal Code requires hudud crimes to be punished with the death penalty.

UAE law considers it a crime and imposes penalties for using the Internet to preach against Islam or to proselytize Muslims inside the international borders of the nation. Its laws and officials do not recognize conversion from Islam to another religion. In contrast, conversion from another religion to Islam is recognized, and the government publishes through mass media an annual list of foreign residents who have converted to Islam.

United Kingdom

Main articles: Freedom of religion in the United Kingdom, Human rights in United Kingdom, Blasphemy law in the United Kingdom, and Capital punishment in United Kingdom

See also: Islamization of Europe and Religion in United Kingdom

CEMB's #ExMuslimBecause campaign, late 2015.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) is the British branch of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, who represent former Muslims who fear for their lives because they have renounced Islam. It was launched in Westminster on 22 June 2007. The Council protests against Islamic states that still punish Muslim apostates with death under the Sharia law. The Council is led by Maryam Namazie, who was awarded Secularist of the Year in 2005 and has faced death threats. The British Humanist Association and National Secular Society sponsored the launch of the organisation and have supported its activities since. A July 2007 poll by the Policy Exchange think-tank revealed that 31% of British Muslims believed that leaving the Muslim religion should be punishable by death.

CEMB assists about 350 ex-Muslims a year, the majority of whom have faced death threats from Islamists or family members. The number of ex-Muslims is unknown due to a lack of sociological studies on the issues and the reluctance of ex-Muslims to discuss their status openly. Writing for The Observer Andrew Anthony argued that ex-Muslims had failed to gain support from other progressive groups, due to caution about being labelled by other progressive movements as Islamophobic or racist.

In November 2015, the CEMB launched the social media campaign #ExMuslimBecause, encouraging ex-Muslims to come out and explain why they left Islam. Within two weeks, the hashtag had been used over a 100,000 times. Proponents argued that it should be possible to freely question and criticise Islam, opponents claimed the campaign was amongst other things 'hateful', and said the extremist excrescences of Islam were unfairly equated with the religion as a whole.

Besides the CEMB, a new initiative for ex-Muslims, Faith to Faithless, was launched by Imtiaz Shams and Aliyah Saleem in early 2015.

United States

See also: Freedom of religion in the United States and Irreligion in the United States

Sarah Haider introduces Ex-Muslims of North America.

According to Pew Research Center estimate in 2016, there were about 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States, comprising about 1% of the total U.S. population. A 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 23% of Americans who were raised as Muslims no longer identify with Islam. However, many of them are not open about their deconversion, in fear of endangering their relationships with their relatives and friends.

David B. Barrett, co-author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, estimated around 2000 that in the United States annually 50,000 Christians converted to Islam while 20,000 Muslims adopted Christianity. A 2002 article in The Washington Times by Julia Duin described the precarious situation of U.S. Muslim converts to Christianity: "Some have simply been shunned by their families. Others have been kidnapped by family members and friends, and put on a plane back home. All are reluctant to ask for protection from U.S. law enforcement, especially those converts with Arabic surnames who are leery of getting their names on a U.S. police report. However, there are no known instances of converts from Islam to Christianity who have been killed in the United States for their decision to leave their faith." Ibn Warraq, author of Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995) and Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out (2003), stressed the importance of this fact as a reason for 'not exaggerating' the fate of former Muslims in America, noting however: "They are threatened. They are attacked physically. I cite [in Leaving Islam] instances of young students who have converted and who were attacked but were rescued just in time."

Well-known organisations who support ex-Muslims in the United States include Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA, co-founded by Muhammad Syed, Sarah Haider and others), Former Muslims United and Muslimish.

Yemen

Main articles: Freedom of religion in Yemen, Human rights in Yemen, Blasphemy law in Yemen, and Capital punishment in Yemen

See also: Religion in Yemen

Apostasy is a crime in Yemen. Articles 12 and 259 of the Yemen Penal Code address apostasy, the former requires Sharia sentence be used for apostasy and the latter specifies death penalty for apostates of Islam. Yemeni law waives the punishment to an apostate if he or she recants, repents and returns to Islam while denouncing his or her new faith.

In 2012, Yemeni citizen Ali Qasim Al-Saeedi was arrested and charged with apostasy by Yemeni law enforcement agency after he posted his personal views questioning the teachings of Islam, on a Yemeni blogging site and his Facebook page.

Other countries

Main article: Freedom of religion by country

Apostasy is also a crime in smaller Muslim-majority countries such as Maldives and Comoros. In January 2006, in Turkey, Kamil Kiroglu was beaten unconscious and threatened with death if he refused to reject his Christian religion and return to Islam.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Main articles: Human rights in Muslim-majority countries and Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam

Laws prohibiting religious conversion run contrary to Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states the following:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria voted in favor of the Declaration. The governments of other Muslim-majority countries have responded by criticizing the Declaration as an attempt by the non-Muslim world to impose their values on Muslims, with a presumption of cultural superiority, and by issuing the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam—a joint declaration of the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference made in 1990 in Cairo, Egypt. The Cairo Declaration differs from the Universal Declaration in affirming Sharia as the sole source of rights, and in limits of equality and behavior in religion, gender, sexuality, etc. Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in Tafsir al-Minar, argue that the "freedom to apostatize", is different from freedom of religion on the grounds that apostasy from Islam infringes on the freedom of others and the respect due the religion of Islamic states.

Literature and film

Islam's Non-Believers by Deeyah Khan

Films and documentaries

• Leaving the Faith – Former Muslims (2014) – for Deutsche Welle
• Ex-Muslim: Leaving Religion (2015) – Benjamin Zand for BBC News
• Islam's Non-Believers (2016) – Deeyah Khan for Fuuse
• Among Nonbelievers (2015) – Dorothée Forma for HUMAN
• Non-believers: Freethinkers on the Run (2016) – Dorothée Forma for HUMAN
• Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam (2016) – Poppy Begum for Vice News
• Diary of a Pakistani Atheist (2017) – Mobeen Azhar for BBC World Service
• Becoming Ex-Muslim: The secret group for Aussies who've left their faith (2017) – Patrick Abboud for The Feed

Books by ex-Muslims

• Ham, Boris van der; Benhammou, Rachid (2018). Nieuwe Vrijdenkers: 12 voormalige moslims vertellen hun verhaal (New Freethinkers: 12 Former Muslims Tell Their Story). Amsterdam: Prometheus. p. 209. ISBN 9789044636840.
• Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (2007). Infidel: My Life (Mijn Vrijheid). Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 9780743295031.
• Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (2011). Nomad: From Islam to America. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 9781847398185.
• Al-Husseini, Waleed (2017). The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam (Blasphémateur ! : les prisons d'Allah). New York City: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 9781628726756.
• Jami, Ehsan (2007). Het recht om ex-moslim te zijn (The Right to Be an Ex-Muslim). Kampen: Uitgeverij Ten Have. ISBN 978-9025958367.
• Mohammed, Yasmine (2019). From Al Qaeda to Atheism: The Girl Who Would Not Submit. Free Hearts Free Minds. ISBN 978-1724790804.
• Rizvi, Ali Amjad (2016). The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason. New York City: St Martin's Press. ISBN 9781250094445.
• Saleem, Aliyah; Mughal, Fiyaz (2018). Leaving Faith Behind: The journeys and perspectives of people who have chosen to leave Islam. London: Darton, Longman & Todd. p. 192. ISBN 978-0232533644. ASIN 0232533644.
• Warraq, Ibn (2003). Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1591020684.

See also

• Al-Baqara 256
• Apostasy in Christianity
• Apostasy in Judaism
• Islam and blasphemy
• List of former Muslims
• List of ex-Muslim organisations
• Superstitions in Muslim societies
• Takfir
• Ex-Muslims of North America
• Anwar Shaikh
• Zandaqa

Further reading

• Ahmad, Mirza Tahir (1968). Murder in the Name of Allah. Guildford: Lutterworth Press. ISBN 978-0-7188-2805-9. OCLC 243438689.
• Cottee, Simon (2015). The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam. Hurst. p. 288. ISBN 9781849044691.
• Johnstone, Patrick; Miller, Duane Alexander (2015). "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census". Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. 11: 3–19.
• Peters, Rudolph; De Vries, Gert J. J. (1976). "Apostasy in Islam" (PDF). Die Welt des Islams. 17 (1/4): 1–25. doi:10.1163/157006076X00017. JSTOR 1570336.
• Jabir Alalwani, Taha (2011). Apostasy in Islam: A Historical and Scriptural Analysis. Translated by Nancy Roberts. International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). ISBN 978-1565643635.
• Subhani, M.E.Asad (2005). Apostasy in Islam. Global Media. p. 65. ISBN 978-8188869114.

External links

• Apostasy, Freedom and Da’wah: Full Disclosure in a Business-Like Manner by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
• Al-Munajjid, Sheikh Muhammed Salih. "Why should a person who disbelieves after becoming Muslim be executed?". Retrieved 15 October 2009.
• Eltahawy, Mona (20 October 1999). "Lives torn apart in battle for the soul of the Arab world". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
• "Punishment for Apostasy". Understanding Islam. 6 December 1998. Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
• Apostasy: Oxford Bibliographies, Islamic Studies Andrew March (2010), Oxford University Press

Category:Disengagement from religion Category:Islamic criminal jurisprudence Category:Persecution of atheists Category:Persecution of Christians by Muslims Category:Islam and capital punishment