View source for Apostasy in Islam

{{Short description|Islamic views on renunciation of Islam}}
{{About|a general description and examination of apostasy from Islam|the situation of those accused of apostasy from Islam (ex-Muslims) by country|Apostasy in Islam by country|the sociological perspectives of ex-Muslims|Ex-Muslims|organisations by and for ex-Muslims|List of ex-Muslim organisations}}
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'''Apostasy in Islam''' ({{langx|ar|ردة|translit=ridda}} or {{langx|ar|ارتداد|translit=irtidād|label=none}}) is commonly defined as the abandonment of [[Islam]] by a [[Muslim]], in thought, word, or through deed.<ref name="Lenartowicz 2024">{{cite book |author-last=Lenartowicz |author-first=Weronika |year=2024 |chapter=The phenomenon of "leaving Islam": Theoretical perspectives |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qsf1EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1979 |title=Leaving Islam, Ex-Muslims and Zemiology |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |pages=1–34 |doi=10.4324/9781032631967-2 |isbn=9781032631967}}</ref> It includes not only explicit renunciations of the Islamic faith by [[Religious conversion|converting to another religion]]<ref name="Lenartowicz 2024"/><ref name="Schirrmacher 2020"/> or [[Irreligion|abandoning religion altogether]],<ref name="Lenartowicz 2024"/><ref name="Schirrmacher 2020"/><ref name="jstor-1570336"/><ref>{{Cite news|url= https://www.economist.com/news/international/21567059-ex-muslim-atheists-are-becoming-more-outspoken-tolerance-still-rare-no-god-not |title=No God, not even Allah |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=24 November 2012 |access-date=9 January 2018 |url-status=live |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20171226235142/https://www.economist.com/news/international/21567059-ex-muslim-atheists-are-becoming-more-outspoken-tolerance-still-rare-no-god-not |archivedate=26 December 2017 }}</ref> but also [[Islam and blasphemy|blasphemy]] or heresy by those who consider themselves Muslims,<ref name="Hashemi-2008-21">{{cite book |last1=Hashemi |first1=Kamran |title=Religious Legal Traditions, International Human Rights Law and Muslim States |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9047431534 |page=21 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |access-date=15 January 2021 |chapter=Part A. Apostasy (IRTIDAD) |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123013512/https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> through any action or utterance which implies unbelief, including those who deny a "fundamental tenet or [[Aqidah|creed]]" of Islam.<ref name="jstor-1570336">{{cite journal |author1-last=Peters |author1-first=Rudolph |author2-last=De Vries |author2-first=Gert J. J. |year=1976 |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=[[Die Welt des Islams]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.2307/1570336 |issn=1570-0607 |jstor=1570336 |quote=By the ''murtadd'' or apostate is understood as the Moslem by birth or by conversion, who renounces his religion, irrespective of whether or not he subsequently embraces another faith}}</ref> An '''apostate from Islam''' is known as a ''murtadd'' ({{lang|ar|مرتدّ}}).<ref name="Lenartowicz 2024"/><ref name="Schirrmacher 2020">{{cite book |author-last=Schirrmacher |author-first=Christine |year=2020 |chapter= 7: Leaving Islam |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004331471/BP000008.xml?body=pdf-43180 |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=18 |doi=10.1163/9789004331471_008 |doi-access=free |pages=81–95 |isbn=978-9004330924 |issn=1874-6691 |access-date=29 May 2021 |archive-date=2 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602212521/https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004331471/BP000008.xml?body=pdf-43180 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Adang |author-first=Camilla |year=2001 |title=Belief and Unbelief: choice or destiny? |editor-last=McAuliffe |editor-first=Jane Dammen |editor-link=Jane Dammen McAuliffe |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān]] |volume=I |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00025 |isbn=978-9004147430}}</ref><ref>Frank Griffel, "Apostasy", in (Editor: Gerhard Bowering et al.) ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought'', {{ISBN|978-0691134840}}, pp. 40–41</ref><ref>Diane Morgan (2009), ''Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice'', {{ISBN|978-0313360251}}, pp. 182–183</ref><ref>{{cite web|first = Hebatallah |last=Ghali |date = December 2006|url = http://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/3405/GHALI%20000710037%20RIGHTS%20OF%20CONVERTS%20UPDATE%20FEB%202013.pdf?sequence=3 |title = Rights of Muslim Converts to Christianity |url-status = live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904065937/http://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/3405/GHALI%20000710037%20RIGHTS%20OF%20CONVERTS%20UPDATE%20FEB%202013.pdf?sequence=3 |archivedate=4 September 2014 |format= PhD Thesis|website = Department of Law, School of Humanities and Social Sciences|publisher = The American University in Cairo, Egypt|page =2|quote =Whereas an ''apostate (murtad)'' is the person who commits apostasy ''('rtidad)'', that is the conscious abandonment of allegiance or ... renunciation of a religious faith or abandonment of a previous loyalty.}}</ref>

While [[Fiqh|Islamic jurisprudence]] calls for the [[Capital punishment in Islam|death penalty]] of those who refuse to repent of apostasy from Islam,<ref name="Poljarevic 2021">{{cite book |author-last=Poljarevic |author-first=Emin |year=2021 |chapter=Theology of Violence-oriented Takfirism as a Political Theory: The Case of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) |editor1-last=Cusack |editor1-first=Carole M. |editor1-link=Carole M. Cusack |editor2-last=Upal |editor2-first=M. Afzal |editor2-link=Afzal Upal |title=Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=21 |doi=10.1163/9789004435544_026 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-9004435544 |issn=1874-6691 |pages=485–512}}</ref> what statements or acts qualify as [[apostasy]], and whether and how they should be punished, are disputed among [[Ulama|Muslim scholars]],<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{Cite news|first= Magdi |last= Abdelhadi |date= 27 March 2006 |title= What Islam says on religious freedom |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4850080.stm |work= BBC News |accessdate= 14 October 2009 |url-status= live |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170211123527/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4850080.stm |archivedate= 11 February 2017}}</ref><ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name=Friedmann>{{cite book|last= Friedmann|first= Yohanan|title= Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition|chapter= 4: Apostasy|publisher= Cambridge University Press|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=z-RVkw_fad4C&pg=121|date= 2003|pages= 121–159|isbn= 978-1139440790}}</ref> with [[Liberalism and progressivism within Islam|liberal Islamic movements]] rejecting physical punishment for apostasy.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sudan death penalty reignites Islam apostasy debate |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27433241 |access-date=21 September 2020 |work=BBC News |date=15 May 2014}}</ref> The penalty of killing of apostates is in conflict with international human rights norms which provide for the [[freedom of religion]]s, as demonstrated in human rights instruments such as the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]], and the [[International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights]] provide for the freedom of religion.<ref name=asmi>{{cite book |chapter=8. Apostasy in Islam and the Freedom of Religion in International Law |last1=Wood |first1=Asmi |title=Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights |editor1=Paul Babie |editor2=Neville Rochow |publisher=University of Adelaide Press |year=2012 |page=164 |jstor=10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |isbn=978-0987171801 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |access-date=9 January 2021 |archive-date=14 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114033301/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Brems-2001-210">{{cite book |last1=Brems |first1=Evams |title=Human Rights : Universality and Diversity |date=2001 |publisher=Springer |page=210 |isbn=978-9041116185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&dq=apostasy+and+human+rights&pg=PA210 |access-date=11 December 2020 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407085134/https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&dq=apostasy+and+human+rights&pg=PA210 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=UN rights office deeply concerned over Sudanese woman facing death for apostasy|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47810 |website=UN News Centre|date = 16 May 2014|accessdate=17 April 2017|url-status=live |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170417115144/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47810|archivedate=17 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Saudi Arabia: Writer Faces Apostasy Trial|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/02/13/saudi-arabia-writer-faces-apostasy-trial|publisher=Human Rights Watch|accessdate=17 April 2017|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417114956/https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/02/13/saudi-arabia-writer-faces-apostasy-trial|archivedate=17 April 2017|date=13 February 2012}}</ref>

Until the late 19th century, the majority of [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] and [[Shia Islam|Shia]] jurists held the view that for adult men, apostasy from Islam was a crime as well as a [[Islamic views on sin|sin]], punishable by the [[Capital punishment in Islam|death penalty]],<ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name="Lewis-1995-229">{{cite book|last1= Lewis|first1= Bernard|title= The Middle East, a Brief History of the Last 2000 Years|date= 1995|publisher= Touchstone Books|isbn= 978-0684807126|page= 229|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1ajwK7ejowwC&pg=PT234}}</ref> but with a number of options for leniency (such as a waiting period to allow time for repentance<ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name=aromar/><ref name="KEY">{{cite book|author1= Kecia Ali|author2= Oliver Leaman|title= Islam: the key concepts|publisher= Routledge|year= 2008|page= 10|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=H5-CdzqmuXsC&pg=PA10|isbn= 978-0415396387}}</ref><ref name=johnesposito>{{cite book|author= John L. Esposito|title= The Oxford dictionary of Islam|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2004|page= 22|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&pg=PA22|isbn= 978-0195125597}}</ref> or enforcement only in cases involving politics),<ref name="afsaruddin1">[[Asma Afsaruddin]] (2013), ''Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought'', p. 242. [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0199730938}}.</ref><ref name="Princeton.Enc.2013">{{cite book |editor1=Gerhard Bowering|others=associate editors Patricia Crone, Wadid Kadi, Devin J. Stewart and Muhammad Qasim Zaman; assistant editor Mahan Mirza|title = The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought |date = 2013 |publisher = [[Princeton University Press]] |location = Princeton, N.J. |isbn = 978-0691134840 |page = 40}}</ref><ref name="waelhallaq">{{cite book|first= Wael|last=B. Hallaq |author-link=Wael Hallaq |title= Sharī'a: Theory, Practice and Transformations|date= 2009|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn= 978-0521861472|page= 319}}</ref> depending on the era, the legal standards and the school of law. In the late 19th century, the use of legal criminal penalties for apostasy fell into disuse, although civil penalties were still applied.<ref name=jstor-1570336/>

As of 2021, there were ten [[Muslim-majority countries]] where apostasy from Islam was punishable by death,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-11-16 |title=Death sentence for apostasy in nearly a dozen countries, report says |url=https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2021/11/death-sentence-for-apostasy-in-nearly-a-dozen-countries-report-says |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=National Secular Society |language=en-GB |archive-date=15 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215234832/https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2021/11/death-sentence-for-apostasy-in-nearly-a-dozen-countries-report-says |url-status=live }}</ref> but legal executions are rare.{{#tag:ref|From 1985 to 2006, only four individuals were officially executed for apostasy from Islam by governments, "one in Sudan in 1985; two in Iran, in 1989 and 1998; and one in Saudi Arabia in 1992."<ref name="ELLIOTT-3-26-2006">{{cite news|last1=Elliott|first1=Andrea|title=In Kabul, a Test for Shariah |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/weekinreview/26elliott.html|access-date=28 November 2015|work=The New York Times|date=26 March 2006 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111010040/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/weekinreview/26elliott.html?_r=0|archive-date=11 January 2016}}</ref> These were sometimes charged with unrelated political crimes.
|group=Note}} Most punishment is extrajudicial/vigilante,<ref name=freedom2worship.org>{{Cite web|url=http://freedom2worship.org/images/docs/map-laws-jan2020r.pdf|title=Countries where apostasy and blasphemy laws in Islam are applied|website=Set My People Free|access-date=23 April 2020|archive-date=1 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210101021818/http://freedom2worship.org/images/docs/map-laws-jan2020r.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="(Marshall and Shea 2011: 61)">Marshall, Paul; Shea, Nina. 2011. ''Silenced. How Apostasy & Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 61 {{ISBN?}}</ref> and most executions are perpetrated by [[Jihadism|jihadist]] and "''[[takfiri]]''" insurgents ([[al-Qaeda]], the [[Islamic State]], the [[Armed Islamic Group of Algeria#Antar Zouabri and takfir|GIA]], and the [[Taliban's rise to power#Ethnic massacres and persecution|Taliban]]).<ref name="Poljarevic 2021"/><ref name="Baele 2019">{{cite journal |author-last=Baele |author-first=Stephane J. |date=October 2019 |title=Conspiratorial Narratives in Violent Political Actors' Language |url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/10871/37355/2/ConspiratorialNarratives_MainArticle_Resubmit_FINAL_CLEAN%20.pdf |editor-last=Giles |editor-first=Howard |journal=[[Journal of Language and Social Psychology]] |publisher=Sage Publications |volume=38 |issue=5–6 |pages=706–734 |doi=10.1177/0261927X19868494 |doi-access=free |hdl=10871/37355 |hdl-access=free |issn=1552-6526 |s2cid=195448888 |access-date=3 January 2022 |archive-date=3 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103011030/https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/37355/ConspiratorialNarratives_MainArticle_Resubmit_FINAL_CLEAN%20.pdf;jsessionid=FA9C1098E9A1945CFC0E8C9E8F4D9FC0?sequence=2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Rickenbacher 2019">{{cite journal |last=Rickenbacher |first=Daniel |date=August 2019 |title=The Centrality of Anti-Semitism in the Islamic State's Ideology and Its Connection to Anti-Shiism |editor-last=Jikeli |editor-first=Gunther |journal=[[Religions (journal)|Religions]] |location=[[Basel]] |publisher=[[MDPI]] |volume=10 |issue=8: ''The Return of Religious Antisemitism?'' |page=483 |doi=10.3390/rel10080483 |doi-access=free |issn=2077-1444}}</ref><ref name="Badar-radical-2007">{{cite journal |last1=Badara |first1=Mohamed |last2=Nagata |first2=Masaki |last3=Tueni |first3=Tiphanie |date=June 2017 |title=The Radical Application of the Islamist Concept of ''Takfir'' |url=https://www.geopoldia.org/images/bedas-tueni2.pdf |url-status=live |journal=[[Arab Law Quarterly]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=134–162 |doi=10.1163/15730255-31020044 |issn=1573-0255 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711093513/https://www.geopoldia.org/images/bedas-tueni2.pdf |archive-date=11 July 2019 |access-date=25 October 2021}}</ref> Another thirteen countries have penal or civil penalties for apostates<ref name="(Marshall and Shea 2011: 61)"/>{{snd}}such as imprisonment, the annulment of their marriages, the loss of their rights of inheritance and the loss of custody of their children.<ref name="(Marshall and Shea 2011: 61)"/>

In the contemporary Muslim world, public support for capital punishment varies from 78% in [[Afghanistan]] to less than 1% in [[Kazakhstan]];{{#tag:ref| [[Pew Research Center]] taken from 2008 and 2012.<ref name=pew2013apo/>|group=Note}} among Islamic jurists, the majority of them continue to regard apostasy as a crime which should be [[Capital punishment in Islam|punishable by death]].<ref name=aromar>{{cite book|last= Omar|first= Abdul Rashied|editor1= Mohammed Abu-Nimer|editor2= David Augsburger|title= Peace-Building by, between, and beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HvrDWka4iRgC&pg=186|date= 2009|publisher= Lexington Books|chapter= The Right to religious conversion: Between apostasy and proselytization|isbn= 978-0739135235|pages= 179–194}}</ref> Those who disagree<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/><ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name= bbcsudan>{{cite web|url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064 |title =Sudan woman faces death for apostasy|url-status = live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519054610/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064 |archivedate=19 May 2014 |work = BBC News |date =15 May 2014|quote=There is a long-running debate in Islam over whether apostasy is a crime. Some liberal scholars hold the view that it is not (...), Others say that apostasy is (...). The latter is the dominant view in conservative Muslim states such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (...).}}</ref> argue that its punishment should be less than death and should occur in the [[afterlife]],<ref name= hassanibrahim>{{cite book|first =Hassan|last= Ibrahim |editor-first= Ibrahim M.|editor-last= Abu-Rabi'|date=2006|title= The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought|url =https://archive.org/details/blackwellcompani00abur_835|url-access =limited|publisher= Blackwell Publishing|isbn =978-1405121743|pages= [https://archive.org/details/blackwellcompani00abur_835/page/n181 167]–169}}</ref><ref name=dforte2>Forte, D. F. (1994), Apostasy and Blasphemy in Pakistan, Conn. Journal of Int'l Law, Vol. 10, pp. 27–41</ref><ref name=smz/><ref name=fkazemi/> as human punishment is considered to be inconsistent with [[No compulsion in religion|Quranic injunctions against compulsion in belief]],<ref name="GTWIFE">{{cite book|last1= Abou El Fadl |first1=Khaled |author-link=Khaled Abou El Fadl |title= The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists|date= 2007|publisher= HarperOne|isbn= 978-0061189036|page= 158}}</ref><ref name="auto3">{{cite book|author=John Esposito|year=2011|title=What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam|page=74|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2wSVQI3Ya2EC&pg=PA74|isbn=978-0199794133|author-link=John Esposito}}</ref> or should apply only in cases of [[Fitna (word)|public disobedience and disorder]] (''fitna'').{{#tag:ref|According to the interpretation of [[Turkish Muslims|Turkish Muslim]] [[Islamic studies|scholar]] Ahmet Albayrak regarding apostasy from Islam as a form of wrongdoing, punishment for leaving Islam is not a sign of [[Religious intolerance|intolerance towards other religions]], and it is not aimed at one's freedom to leave Islam and [[Freedom of religion|to choose a different faith]]. In his opinion, it is more correct to say that the punishment is imposed as a safety precaution when conditions warrant the imposition of it; for example, the punishment is imposed if apostasy from Islam becomes a mechanism of [[Fitna (word)|public disobedience and disorder]] (''fitna'').<ref name= "autogenerated526"/>|group=Note}} Despite potentially grave and life-threatening consequences, [[Ex-Muslims|several Muslims do leave the Islamic religion]],<ref name="Lenartowicz 2024"/><ref name="Sherkat 2015">{{cite magazine |last=Sherkat |first=Darren E. |date=22 June 2015 |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/2015-06-22/losing-their-religion |url-status=live |title=Losing Their Religion: When Muslim Immigrants Leave Islam |magazine=[[Foreign Affairs]] |publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]] |issn=0015-7120 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006184914/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2015-06-22/losing-their-religion |archive-date=6 October 2022 |access-date=26 November 2022}}</ref><ref name="h634"/> either by becoming [[Irreligion|irreligious]] ([[atheism]], [[agnosticism]], etc.)<ref name="Sherkat 2015"/> or converting to other religions, mostly to [[Conversion to Christianity|Christianity]].<ref name="h634">{{cite journal |author1-last=Khalil |author1-first=Mohammad H. |author2-last=Bilici |author2-first=Mucahit |year=2007 |title=Conversion Out of Islam: A Study of Conversion Narratives of Former Muslims |url=http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72141/1/j.1478-1913.2007.00161.x.pdf |journal=The Muslim World |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |volume=97 |issue=1 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-1913.2007.00161.x |doi-access=free |issn=0027-4909 |pages=111–124 |hdl=2027.42/72141 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240928123830/https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/72141/j.1478-1913.2007.00161.x.pdf;jsessionid=F63B392A17CD9087894654B06E0308C5?sequence=1 |archive-date=28 September 2024 |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref>

==Etymology and terminology==
Apostasy is called ''irtidād'' or ''ridda'' (which means "relapse" or "regress") in [[Islamic literature]].<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-81">{{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Christine |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |page=81 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=6 January 2021 |chapter=Leaving Islam |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108155642/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref> An apostate is called ''murtadd'', which means 'one who turns back' from Islam.<ref name="EI Murtadd"/> (Another source{{snd}}Oxford Islamic Studies Online{{snd}}defines ''murtadd'' as "not just any [[kāfir]] (non-believer)", but "a particularly heinous type".)<ref name="OISO">{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Charles |last2=Reinhart |first2=A. Kevin |title=Kufr |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0467 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322140305/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0467 |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 March 2019 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |access-date=2 January 2021}}</ref> ''Ridda'' can also refer to ''secession'' in a political context.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lindholm |first1=Charles |title=The Islamic Middle East |page=xxvi}}</ref> A person born to a Muslim father who later rejects Islam is called a ''murtadd fitri'', and a person who converted to Islam and later rejects the religion is called a ''murtadd milli''.<ref>Mousavian, S. A. A. (2005), "A Discussion on the Apostate's Repentance in Shi'a Jurisprudence", ''Modarres Human Sciences'', 8, Tome 37, pp. 187–210, Mofid University (Iran), quote: "Shi'a jurisprudence makes a distinction between an apostate who is born to Muslim parents (murtad-i fitri) and an apostate who is born to non-Muslim parents (murtad-i milli)." (section 1.3)</ref><ref>[http://slovar-vocab.com/english/islamic-vocab/fitri-murtad-8925398.html Advanced Islamic English dictionary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130822170043/http://slovar-vocab.com/english/islamic-vocab/fitri-murtad-8925398.html |date=22 August 2013 }} Расширенный исламский словарь английского языка (2012), see entry for Fitri Murtad</ref><ref>[http://slovar-vocab.com/english/islamic-vocab/milli-murtadd-8925677.html Advanced Islamic English dictionary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022151442/http://slovar-vocab.com/english/islamic-vocab/milli-murtadd-8925677.html |date=22 October 2013 }} Расширенный исламский словарь английского языка (2012), see entry for Milli Murtad</ref> ''[[Takfir]]'' (''takfeer'') ({{langx|ar|تكفير}} ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|takfīr}}'') is the act of one [[Muslim]] excommunicating another, declaring them a ''kafir'', an apostate. The act which precipitates ''takfir'' is termed ''mukaffir''.

==Scriptural references==
{{Original research section|date=May 2024}}

===Quran===
The [[Quran]] references apostasy<ref name="McAuliffe-2020" /> ([https://quran.com/2?startingVerse=108 2:108], [https://quran.com/2?startingVerse=66 66]; [https://quran.com/10?startingVerse=73 10:73]; [https://quran.com/3?startingVerse=90 3:90]; [https://quran.com/4?startingVerse=89 4:89], [https://quran.com/4?startingVerse=137 137]; [https://quran.com/5?startingVerse=54 5:54]; [https://quran.com/9?startingVerse=11 9:11]–[https://quran.com/9?startingVerse=12 12], [https://quran.com/9?startingVerse=66 66]; [https://quran.com/16?startingVerse=6 16:06]; [https://quran.com/88?startingVerse=22 88:22–24]) in the context of attitudes associated with impending punishment, divine anger, and the rejection of repentance for individuals who commit this act. Traditionally, these verses are thought to "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates (according to [[Dale F. Eickelman]]),<ref name="Dale F. Eickelman 2005 68">{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Dale F. Eickelman |title=Social sciences| year= 2005|volume=5|page=68 | encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān|editor=Jane Dammen McAuliffe|quote=Other verses nonetheless appear to justify coercion and severe punishment for apostates, renegades and unbelievers...}}</ref> including the traditional capital punishment.<ref name=DeclanOSullivan>{{cite journal |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Declan |title=The Interpretation of Qur'anic Text to Promote or Negate the Death Penalty for Apostates and Blasphemers |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |date=2001 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=63–93 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2001.3.2.63 |jstor=25728038 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |access-date=21 January 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418172136/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Other scholars, by contrast, have pointed to a lack of any Quranic passage requiring the implementation of force to return apostates to Islam, nor any specific corporal punishment to apply to apostates in [[dunya|''this'' world]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=McAuliffe|first1=Jane Dammen|author-link=Jane Dammen McAuliffe|title=Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an, Vol. 1|publisher=Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers|isbn=978-9004123557|page=120|year=2004}}</ref><ref name="juancampo">{{cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|pages=48, 174|isbn=978-0816054541}}</ref><ref>[[Asma Afsaruddin]] (2013), ''Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought'', p. 242. [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0199730938}}. Quote: "He [Al-Banna] notes that the Qur'ān itself does not mandate any this-worldly punishment for religious apostasy but defers punishment until the next (cf. Qur'ān 2:217)."</ref>{{#tag:ref|Legal historian [[Wael Hallaq]] writes that "nothing in the law governing apostates and apostasy derives from the letter" of the Quran.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|editor=Jane Dammen McAuliffe|editor-link=Jane Dammen McAuliffe|title=Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an|volume= 1|chapter=Apostasy|author=Wael Hallaq|publisher=Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers|isbn=978-9004123557|page=122|year=2004}}</ref>|group=Note}} – let alone commands to kill apostates – either explicitly or implicitly.{{sfn|Jabir Alalwani|2011|pp=32–33}}<ref name="jacb" /><ref name="ReferenceA">[[Taha Jabir Alalwani]] (2003), ''La 'ikraha fi al-din: 'ichkaliyat al-riddah wa al-murtaddin min sadr al-Islam hatta al-yawm'', pp. 93–94. {{ISBN|9770909963}}.</ref>{{sfn|Jabir Alalwani|2011|pp=35–39}} Some verses have been cited as emphasizing mercy and a lack of compulsion with respect to religious belief ([https://quran.com/2?startingVerse=256 2:256]; [https://quran.com/4?startingVerse=137 4:137]; [https://quran.com/10?startingVerse=99 10:99]; [https://quran.com/11?startingVerse=28 11:28]; [https://quran.com/18?startingVerse=29 18:29]; [https://quran.com/88?startingVerse=21 88:21–22]).<ref name="SAFI-2006" />

{{Excerpt|Al-Baqara 256|paragraphs=1|only=paragraphs}}

===Hadith===
{{Original research section|date=May 2024}}
{{See also|Malik ibn Nuwayrah|Criticism of Hadith|Abdullah ibn Saad|Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh}}
The classical shariah punishment for apostasy comes from [[Sahih]] ("authentic") [[Hadith]] rather than the Quran.<ref name=sherazadhamit>Sherazad Hamit (2006), "Apostasy and the Notion of Religious Freedom in Islam", ''Macalester Islam Journal'', Volume 1, Spring 2006 Issue 2, pp. 32–38</ref><ref>David Forte (1994), "Apostasy and Blasphemy in Pakistan", ''Conn. Journal Int'l Law'', Vol. 10, pp. 43–45, 27–47</ref> Writing in the ''[[Encyclopedia of Islam]]'', Heffening holds that contrary to the Quran, "in traditions [i.e. hadith], there is little echo of these punishments in the next world... and instead, we have in many traditions a new element, the death penalty."<ref name="EI Murtadd"/>

{{Blockquote|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." |{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|83|17}}, see also {{hadith-usc|usc=yes|Muslim|16|4152}}, {{hadith-usc|usc=yes|Muslim|16|4154}}}}

{{Blockquote|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.'"|{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|4|52|260}}{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|84|57}}{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|89|271}}{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|84|58}}{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|84|64}}}}

{{Blockquote|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."|{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|89|271}}}}

Other hadith give differing statements about the fate of apostates;<ref name=smz>{{cite journal |last1=Zwemer |first1=Samuel M. |title=The Law of Apostasy |journal= The Muslim World |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages= 36–37, chapter 2 |issn= 0027-4909}}</ref><ref>Frank Griffel (2007), '"Apostasy", in ''Encyclopedia of Islam'', 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, Eds: Gudrun Kramer et al, Vol. 1, p. 132</ref> that they 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).<ref>Dr. M. E. Subhani (2005), ''Apostasy in Islam'', pp. 23–24. New Delhi, India: Global Media Publications. Quote: "This was an open case of apostasy. But the Prophet neither punished the Bedouin nor asked anyone to do it. He allowed him to leave Madina. Nobody harmed him."</ref>

{{Blockquote|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<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sunnah.com/nasai:4068|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115001645/https://sunnah.com/nasai/37/103|url-status=dead|title=Sunan an-Nasa'i 4068 – The Book of Fighting [The Prohibition of Bloodshed] |website= Sunnah.com – Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)|archivedate=15 January 2018}}</ref>}}

{{Blockquote|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.|{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|4|56|814}}}}

{{Blockquote| 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." |{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|89|316}}}}

The [[Muwatta Imam Malik|Muwatta]] of [[Malik ibn Anas|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:

{{Blockquote|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!'|{{Hadith-usc|muwatta|usc=yes|36|18|16}}}}

The argument has been made (by the [[Fiqh Council of North America]], among others) that the hadiths above – traditionally cited as proof that apostates from Islam should be punished by death – have been misunderstood. In fact (the council argues), the victims were executed for changing their allegiances to the armies fighting the Muslims (i.e. for treason), not for their personal beliefs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/node/34|title=Is Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam?|last=Badawi|first=Dr. Jamal|publisher=[[Fiqh Council of North America]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322112530/http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/node/34|archive-date=22 March 2017|access-date=30 October 2017}}</ref> As evidence, they point to two hadith, each from a different "authentic" (''[[Hadith terminology#Sahih|sahih]]'') Sunni hadith collection{{#tag:ref|(two of the [[Kutub al-Sittah]] or the six most important collections of hadith for Sunni Muslims)|group=Note}} 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 another way of saying "fighting Allah and His Apostle"):

{{Blockquote|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." |{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|9|83|17}}}}

{{Blockquote|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." |{{Hadith-usc|abudawud|usc=yes|38|4339}}}}

== Definition of apostasy in Islam ==
Scholars of Islam differ as to what constitutes apostasy in that religion and under what circumstances an apostate is subject to the death penalty. [note?]

===Conditions of apostasy in classical Islam===
{{Further|Takfir#Characteristics of apostasy in classical Islam}}
[[Al-Shafi'i]] listed three necessary conditions to pass capital punishment on a Muslim for apostasy in his ''Kitab al-Umm''. (In the words of Frank Griffel) these are:
* "first, the apostate had to once have had faith (which, according to Al-Shafi'i's definition, means publicly professing all tenets of Islam);
* secondly, there had to follow unbelief (meaning the public declaration of a breaking-away from Islam), (having done these two the Muslim is now an unbeliever but not yet an apostate and thus not eligible for punishment);{{#tag:ref|for example [[Ibn Taymiyya]] wrote "not everyone who falls into unbelief becomes an unbeliever" ''Laysa kull man waqaʿa fi l-kufr ṣāra kāfir''.<ref name="Adang-2015-219">{{cite book |last1=Adang |first1=Camilla |last2=Ansari |first2=Hassan |last3=Fierro |first3=Maribel |title=Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |page=11 |isbn=978-9004307834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |access-date=25 December 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231020133820/https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |url-status=live }}</ref>
|group=Note}}
* "third, there had to be the omission or failure to repent after the apostate was asked to do so."<ref>Griffel, Frank, ''Toleration and exclusion: al-Shāfi'ī and al-Ghazālī on the treatment of apostates'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 348</ref><ref name="Adang-2015-219"/>
Three centuries later, [[Al-Ghazali]] wrote that one group, known as "secret apostates" or "permanent unbelievers" (aka ''[[zandaqa]]''), should not be given a chance to repent, eliminating Al-Shafi'i's third condition for them although his view was not accepted by his Shafi'i madhhab.<ref>Al-Ghazali, ''Fayasl al-tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-zandaqa'', p. 222</ref><ref name="Adang-2015-219"/>

===Characteristics===

Describing what qualifies as apostasy Christine Schirrmacher writes
<blockquote> 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;<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-81-2">{{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Christine |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |pages=81–82 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=6 January 2021 |chapter=Leaving Islam |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108155642/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

Kamran Hashemi classifies apostasy or unbelief in Islam into three different "phenomena":<ref name="Hashemi-2008-23"/>
* [[Religious conversion|Converting from Islam to another religion]] (or [[irreligious|abandoning religion altogether]]),<ref name="Hashemi-2008-23"/><ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.economist.com/news/international/21567059-ex-muslim-atheists-are-becoming-more-outspoken-tolerance-still-rare-no-god-not |title=No God, not even Allah |newspaper=The Economist |date=24 November 2012 |access-date=9 January 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171226235142/https://www.economist.com/news/international/21567059-ex-muslim-atheists-are-becoming-more-outspoken-tolerance-still-rare-no-god-not |archive-date=26 December 2017 }}</ref><ref name="Morgan 2010 p.183">{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Diane|url=https://archive.org/details/essentialislamco0000morg|title=Essential Islam : a comprehensive guide to belief and practice|publisher=Praeger|year=2010|isbn=978-0313360251|location=Santa Barbara, California|pages=[https://archive.org/details/essentialislamco0000morg/page/183 183–184]|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="jstor-1570336"/> also described as "explicit" apostasy.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> (Hashemi gives the example of [[Abdul Rahman (convert)|Abdul Rahman]], an Afghan who was arrested in February 2006 and threatened with the death penalty in a lower court in [[Kabul]] for converting to Christianity).<ref>{{cite news |first=Sultan M. |last=Munadi |title=Afghan Case Against Christian Convert Falters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/international/asia/26cnd-afghan.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 26, 2006 |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-date=16 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216143357/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/international/asia/26cnd-afghan.html?ex=1301029200&en=c9ed4e6797ef87a8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Islam and blasphemy|Blaspheming]] (''sabb'')<ref name="Hashemi-2008-23"/> (by a Muslim) against God, Islam, its laws or its prophet,<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-81" /><ref name=freedom2worship>{{cite web|url=http://freedom2worship.org/images/docs/map-laws-jan2020r.pdf|title=Countries where apostasy and blasphemy laws are applied.|website=Set My People Free|access-date=23 April 2020|archive-date=1 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210101021818/http://freedom2worship.org/images/docs/map-laws-jan2020r.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> which can be defined, in practice, as any objection to the authenticity of Islam, its laws or its prophet.<ref name="Hashemi-2008-23"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Henkel |first=Heiko |title=Fundamentally Danish? The Muhammad Cartoon Crisis as Transitional Drama |journal=Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-knowledge |date=Fall 2010 |volume=VIII |series=2 |url=http://www.okcir.com/Articles%20VIII%202/Henkel-FM.pdf |access-date=25 November 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029194639/http://www.okcir.com/Articles%20VIII%202/Henkel-FM.pdf |archive-date=29 October 2013}}</ref>
* Heresy;<ref name="Hashemi-2008-23">{{cite book |last1=Hashemi |first1=Kamran |title=Religious Legal Traditions, International Human Rights Law and Muslim States |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9047431534 |page=23 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |access-date=15 January 2021 |chapter=Part A. Apostasy (IRTIDAD) |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123013512/https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> or "implicit" apostasy (by a Muslim),<ref name=jstor-1570336/> where the alleged apostate does not formally renounce Islam,<ref name="Morgan 2010 p.183"/> 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'').<ref name="Morgan 2010 p.183"/> (Accusations of heresy, or ''[[takfir]]'', often involve public thinkers and theologians – [[Mahmoud Mohammed Taha]], [[Nasr Abu Zayd]], [[Hashem Aghajari]] – but can involve the collective takfir of a large group and mass killings<ref name="Hashemi-2008-26">{{cite book |last1=Hashemi |first1=Kamran |title=Religious Legal Traditions, International Human Rights Law and Muslim States |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9047431534 |page=26 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |access-date=15 January 2021 |chapter=Part A. Apostasy (IRTIDAD) |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123013512/https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> – [[Takfir#GIA in Algeria|takfir of Algerians who did not support the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria]] in 1997, takfir of Shia by [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]] in 2005).<ref name="Zarqawi's-hudson-2006">{{cite web |title=Zarqawi's Anti-Shi'a Legacy: Original or Borrowed? |url=https://www.hudson.org/research/9908-zarqawi-s-anti-shi-a-legacy-original-or-borrowed |website=Hudson Institute |access-date=12 February 2021 |date=1 November 2006 |archive-date=7 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207074831/https://www.hudson.org/research/9908-zarqawi-s-anti-shi-a-legacy-original-or-borrowed |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Issues in defining heresy===
{{Main|Takfir}}
{{Further|Takfiri}}
[[File:Ismail Gasprinski of Crimea. Molla Nasreddin № 17.jpg|thumb|230px|right|Caricature of the [[Crimean Tatars|Crimean Tatar]] educator and intellectual [[Ismail Gasprinsky]] (on the right), leader of the [[Jadid|Jadid movement]], depicted holding the newspaper ''Terjuman'' ("The Translator") and the textbook ''Khoja-i-Sübyan'' ("The Teacher of Children") in his hand. Two men, respectively Tatar and Azerbaijani [[Ulama|Muslim clerics]], are threatening him with ''[[Takfir|takfīr]]'' and ''[[Sharia|sharīʿah]]'' decrees (on the left). From the satirical magazine ''Molla Nasreddin'', N. 17, 28 April 1908, [[Tbilisi]] (illustrator: [[Oskar Schmerling]]).]]

While identifying someone who publicly converted to another religion as an apostate was straightforward, determining whether a diversion from orthodox doctrine qualified as heresy, blasphemy, or something permitted by God could be less so. Traditionally, [[Fiqh|Islamic jurists]] did not formulate general rules for establishing unbelief, instead, compiled sometimes lengthy lists of statements and actions which in their view implied apostasy or were incompatible with Islamic "theological consensus".<ref name=jstor-1570336/> [[Al-Ghazali]],<ref>{{cite book | last=Ess | first=Josef | title=The flowering of Muslim theology | publisher=Harvard University Press | location=Cambridge, MA | year=2006 | isbn=978-0674022089 | quote=But, added al-Ghazali, that applies only to Muslim apostates, and one commits apostasy only when one denies the essential dogmas: monotheism, Muhammad's prophecy, and the Last Judgment. | page=[https://archive.org/details/floweringofmusli00essj/page/40 40] | url=https://archive.org/details/floweringofmusli00essj/page/40 }}</ref> for example, devoting "chapters to dealing with takfir and the reasons for which one can be accused of unbelief" in his work ''Faysal al-Tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-Zandaqa'' ("The Criterion of Distinction between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief").<ref>Al-Ghazali, ''Faysal al-Tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-Zandaqa'', pp. 53–67</ref><ref name="Adang-2015-220">{{cite book |last1=Adang |first1=Camilla |last2=Ansari |first2=Hassan |last3=Fierro |first3=Maribel |title=Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |page=220 |isbn=978-9004307834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |access-date=25 December 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231020133820/https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some heretical or blasphemous acts or beliefs listed in classical manuals of [[Fiqh|Islamic jurisprudence]] and other scholarly works (i.e. works written by Islamic scholars) that allegedly demonstrate apostasy include:
* to deny the obligatory character of something considered obligatory by ''[[ijma]]'' (legal consensus of Islamic scholars);<ref name= "relianceA1"/><ref name = "relianceA2"/>
* revile, question, wonder, doubt, mock, and/or deny the [[existence of God]] or [[Muhammad]], or that Muhammad was sent by God;<ref name= "relianceA1"/><ref name = "relianceA2"/>
* belief that things in themselves or by their nature have a cause independent of the will of God;<ref name= "relianceA1">{{cite web |url=http://www.catheyallison.com/Reliance_of_the_Traveller.pdf |title=Reliance of the Traveller |author=[[Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri]], [[Nuh Ha Mim Keller]] |year=1368 |work=Amana Publications |access-date=14 May 2020 |archive-date=19 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819082808/http://www.catheyallison.com/Reliance_of_the_Traveller.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "relianceA2">{{cite web |url=http://dailyrollcall.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/the-reliance-of-the-traveller.pdf |title=A Classic Manual of Islamic Scared Law |author=[[Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri]], [[Nuh Ha Mim Keller]] |year=1368 |page=Chapter O8.0: Apostasy from Islam (Ridda) |work=Shafiifiqh.com |access-date=14 May 2020 |archive-date=10 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710183042/http://dailyrollcall.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/the-reliance-of-the-traveller.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
* to assert the [[Quranic createdness|createdness of the Quran]] and/or to translate the Quran in any language other than [[Arabic]];<ref name=shaykhzadeh>Shaykhzadeh, ''Madjma' al-anhur'' (1, pp. 629–637); cited in {{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |pages=1–25 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref>
* According to some to ridicule Islamic scholars or address them in a derisive manner, to reject the validity of ''[[Sharia|sharīʿah]]'' courts;<ref name=shaykhzadeh/>
* Some also say to pay respect to non-Muslims, to celebrate [[Nowruz]] the Iranian New Year;<ref name=shaykhzadeh/>
* Though disputed to express uncertainty such as "'I do not know why God mentioned this or that in the Quran'...";<ref name="Adang-2015-10"/>
* Some also say include for the wife of an Islamic scholar to curse her husband;<ref name="Adang-2015-10">{{cite book |last1=Adang |first1=Camilla |last2=Ansari |first2=Hassan |last3=Fierro |first3=Maribel |title=Accusations of Unbelief in Islam |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |page=10 |isbn=978-9004307834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |access-date=25 December 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231020133820/https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |url-status=live }}</ref>
* to make a declaration of [[prophethood]]; i.e., for someone to declare that they are a [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|prophet or messenger]]. In the [[early history of Islam]], following [[Death of Muhammad|Muhammad's death]], this act was automatically deemed to be proof of apostasy{{snd}}because Islam teaches Muhammad was the last prophet, there could be no more after him.<ref name="Siddiq 1995 pp. 275-328"/> This view is alleged to be the basis of the [[Persecution of Ahmadis|rejection of Ahmadi Muslims as apostates from Islam]].<ref name="Siddiq 1995 pp. 275-328">Siddiq & Ahmad (1995), "Enforced Apostasy: Zaheeruddin v. State and the Official Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan", ''Law & Inequality'', Vol. 14, pp. 275–289, 321–324</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Minahan |first=James |title=Ethnic groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |year=2012 |isbn=978-1598846591 |pages=6, 8}}</ref><ref name="Burhani A. N. 2013 pp. 285-301">Burhani A. N. (2013), "Treating minorities with fatwas: a study of the Ahmadiyya community in Indonesia", ''Contemporary Islam'', Vol. 8, Issue 3, pp. 286–288, 285–301</ref>

While there are numerous requirements for a Muslim to avoid being an apostate, it is also an act of apostasy, in [[Shafi'i|Shāfiʿī te doctrine]] and other schools of Islamic jurisprudence, for a Muslim [[Takfir|to accuse or describe another devout Muslim of being an unbeliever]],<ref name="rottrav">Nuh Ha Mim Keller (1997), Umdat as-Salik by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, ''Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law'', {{ISBN|978-0915957729}}, pp. 596–598, Section O-8.7</ref> 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."<ref name=sunnah>{{cite web|title=The Book of the Prohibited actions. Sunnah.com reference: Book 18, Hadith 222|url=http://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/18/222|website=Sunnah.com|quote=The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, 'When a person calls his brother (in Islam) a disbeliever, one of them will certainly deserve the title. If the addressee is so as he has asserted, the disbelief of the man is confirmed, but if it is untrue, then it will revert to him.'|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208133856/http://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/18/222|archive-date=8 December 2015}}</ref><ref>In Saheeh al-Bukhaari (6104) and Saheeh Muslim (60) it is narrated from 'Abd-Allaah ibn 'Umar ... that the Prophet ... said: "If a man declares his brother to be a kaafir, it will apply to one of them." According to another report: "Either it is as he said, otherwise it will come back to him."</ref> Historian [[Bernard Lewis]] writes that in "religious polemic" of early Islamic times, it was common for one scholar to accuse another of apostasy, but attempts to bring an alleged apostate to justice (have them executed) were very rare.<ref name="Lewis-229"/>

The tension between desire to cleanse Islam of heresy and fear of inaccurate takfir is suggested in the writings of some of the leading Islamic scholars. [[Al-Ghazali]] "is often credited with having persuaded theologians", in his ''Fayal al-tafriqa'', "that takfir is not a fruitful path and that utmost caution is to taken in applying it", but in other writing, he made sure to condemn as beyond the pale of Islam "philosophers and Ismaili esotericists". [[Ibn Hazm]] and [[Ibn Taymiyyah]] also "warned against unbridled takfir" while takfiring "specific categories" of theological opponents as "unbelievers".<ref name="Hashemi-2008-8">{{cite book |last1=Hashemi |first1=Kamran |title=Religious Legal Traditions, International Human Rights Law and Muslim States |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9047431534 |page=8 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |access-date=15 January 2021 |chapter=Part A. Apostasy (IRTIDAD) |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123013512/https://brill.com/view/book/9789047431534/Bej.9789004165557.vii-286_003.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> [[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."<ref name=KepelJihad>Kepel, Gilles; ''Jihad: the Trail of Political Islam'', London: I.B. Tauris, 2002, p. 31 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

The [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] (ISIL), for example, takfired all those who opposed its policy of [[Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL#Sexual slavery|exterminating and enslaving]] members of the [[Yazidism|Yazidi religion]]. According to one source, Jamileh Kadivar, the majority of the "27,947 terrorist deaths" ISIL has been responsible for (as of 2020) have been Muslims it regards "as kafir",{{#tag:ref|killings have been directly by ISIL or through affiliated groups, from its inception in 2014 to 2020 according to Jamileh Kadivar based on estimates from Global Terrorism Database, 2020; Herrera, 2019; Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights & United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Office, 2014; Ibrahim, 2017; Obeidallah, 2014; 2015<ref name="Kadivar-2020">{{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free }}</ref>|group=Note}} as ISIL gives fighting alleged apostates a higher priority than fighting self-professed non-Muslims{{snd}}Jews, Christians, Hindus, etc.<ref>This is our aqidah and this is our methodology [Hazih Aqidatuna Wa Haza Manhajuna] . (2015). Al-Himmah Publications; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free }}</ref> An open letter to ISIL by 126 Islamic scholars includes as 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".<ref name="open-letter-by-scholars-2014">{{cite web |title=Open Letter to 'Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi', To the fighters and followers of the self-declared 'Islamic State' ... |url=https://operationpakistan.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/letter-to-baghdadi.pdf |website=operation pakistan |access-date=2 January 2021 |date=4 July 2014 |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413212546/https://operationpakistan.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/letter-to-baghdadi.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

There is general agreement among Muslims that the takfir and mass killings of alleged apostates perpetrated not only by ISIL but also by the [[Armed Islamic Group of Algeria#Antar Zouabri and takfir|Armed Islamic Group of Algeria]] and [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]]'s jihadis<ref name="Zarqawi's-hudson-2006"/> were wrong, but there is less unanimity in other cases, such as 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. (Ahmadi quote a Muslim journalist, Abdul-Majeed Salik, claiming that, "all great and eminent Muslims in the history of Islam as well as all the sects in the Muslim world are considered to be disbelievers, apostates, and outside the pale of Islam according to one or the other group of religious leaders".){{#tag:ref|according to one "well known Muslim journalist of the Indo-Pak subcontinent, Maulana Abdul-Majeed Salik", "All great and eminent Muslims in the history of Islam as well as all the sects in the Muslim world are considered to be disbelievers, apostates, and outside the pale of Islam according to one or the other group of religious leaders. In the realm of the ''Shariah'' [religious law] and ''tariqat'' [path of devotion], not a single sect or a single family has been spared the accusations of apostasy."<ref>(Musalmanon ki Takfir ka Mas'alah, by Maulana Abdul-Majeed Salik, pp. 7–8, printed by Naqoosh Press Lahore, Anjuman Tahaffuz-e-Pakistan Lahore); quoted in {{cite book |last1=Musa |first1=A.S. |title=Are Ahmadis Not True Muslims? |date=2016 |publisher=Islam International Publications LTD. |isbn=978-1848800700 |url=https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Are-Ahmadis-Not-True-Muslims.pdf |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-date=10 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610164300/https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Are-Ahmadis-Not-True-Muslims.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> |group=Note}} In the case of the [[Ahmadiyya]] – who are accused by mainstream Sunni and Shia of denying the basic tenet of [[Prophethood (Ahmadiyya)|the Finality of Prophethood]] (Ahmadis state they believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a [[mahdi]] and a [[messiah]])<ref name="Promised Messiah">{{cite web |title=The Promised Messiah – Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (peace be on him) |url=https://www.alislam.org/articles/promised-messiah-hazrat-mirza-ghulam-ahmad/ |website=Al Islam |access-date=15 February 2021 |archive-date=12 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012190034/https://www.alislam.org/articles/promised-messiah-hazrat-mirza-ghulam-ahmad/ |url-status=live }}</ref> – the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has declared in [[Ordinance XX]] of the [[Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan|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.<ref name="Musa-2016">{{cite book |last1=Musa |first1=A.S. |title=Are Ahmadis Not True Muslims? |date=2016 |publisher=Islam International Publications Ltd. |isbn=978-1848800700 |url=https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Are-Ahmadis-Not-True-Muslims.pdf |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-date=10 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610164300/https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Are-Ahmadis-Not-True-Muslims.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Overlap with blasphemy
{{Main|Islam and blasphemy}}
The three types (conversion, blasphemy and heresy) of apostasy may overlap – for example some "heretics" were alleged not to be actual self-professed Muslims, but (secret) members of another religion, seeking to destroy Islam from within. (Abdullah ibn Mayun al-Qaddah, for example, "fathered the whole complex development of the Ismaili religion and organisation up to Fatimid times," was accused by his different detractors of being (variously) "a Jew, a Bardesanian and most commonly as an Iranian dualist")<ref name="Lewis-1953-43">{{cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Bernard |title=Some Observations on the Significance of Heresy in the History of Islam |journal=Studia Islamica |date=1953 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=43–44 |doi=10.2307/1595009 |jstor=1595009 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1595009 |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305124706/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1595009 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In Islamic literature, the term "blasphemy" sometimes also overlaps with {{transliteration|ar|[[Kafir|kufr]]}} ("unbelief"), {{transliteration|ar|fisq}} (depravity), {{transliteration|ar|isa'ah}} (insult), and {{transliteration|ar|ridda}} (apostasy).<ref>Talal Asad, in Hent de Vries (ed.). ''Religion: Beyond a Concept''. Fordham University Press (2008). {{ISBN|978-0823227242}}. pp. 589–592</ref><ref name="lutz-wiederhold-1997">{{cite journal
| last = Wiederhold
| first = Lutz
| date = 1 January 1997
| title = Blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad and his companions (sabb al-rasul, sabb al-sahabah): The introduction of the topic into shafi'i legal literature and its relevance for legal practice under Mamluk rule.
| url = https://academic.oup.com/jss/article-abstract/XLII/1/39/1629341?redirectedFrom=PDF
| journal = [[Journal of Semitic Studies]]
| volume = 42
| issue = 1
| pages = 39–70
| doi = 10.1093/jss/XLII.1.39
| access-date = 22 June 2020
| url-access = subscription
}}</ref> Because blasphemy in Islam included rejection of fundamental doctrines,<ref name=McAuliffe-2020>{{cite book |title=The Qur'an: What Everyone Needs to Know® |last1=McAuliffe |first1=Jane |year=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=What does the Quran say about Blasphemy? |isbn=978-0190867706 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SDLNDwAAQBAJ&dq=connection+between+blasphemy+and+apostasy&pg=PT215 |access-date=2 January 2021 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407085135/https://books.google.com/books?id=SDLNDwAAQBAJ&dq=connection+between+blasphemy+and+apostasy&pg=PT215 |url-status=live }}</ref> blasphemy has historically been seen as an evidence of rejection of Islam, that is, the religious crime of [[apostasy]]. Some jurists believe that blasphemy automatically implies a Muslim has left the fold of Islam.{{sfn|Saeed|Saeed|2004|pp=38–39}} A Muslim may find himself accused of being a blasphemer, and thus an apostate on the basis of one action or utterance.{{sfn|Saeed|Saeed|2004|p=48}}<ref name="Encyclopedia of Religion">{{cite encyclopedia |title = Blasphemy: Islamic Concept |encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Religion |volume = 2 |pages = 974–976 |publisher = Thomson Gale |location = Farmington Hills, MI |year = 2005 }}</ref>

;Collective apostasy
In collective apostasy, a self-proclaimed Islamic group/sect are declared to be heretics/apostates. Groups treated as collective apostates include [[zindiq]], sometimes [[Sufi]]s, and more recently [[Ahmadi]]s and [[Baháʼí Faith|Baháʼís]].<ref name="Parolin-2009-52-3">{{cite book |last1=Parolin |first1=Gianluca P. |title=Citizenship in the Arab World |date=2009 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |pages=52–53 |isbn=978-9089640451 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSDE7LgTFvUC&q=apostasy |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406221920/https://books.google.com/books?id=xSDE7LgTFvUC&q=apostasy |url-status=live }}</ref> As described above, the difference between legitimate Muslim sects and illegitimate apostate groups can be subtle and Muslims have not agreed on where the line dividing them lies. According to Gianluca Parolin, "collective apostasy has always been declared on a case-by-case basis".<ref name="Parolin-2009-52-3"/>

;Fetri and national apostates
Among Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini]] and others in [[Jaʽfari jurisprudence|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.<ref name=IaRF-2014-Khomeini>{{cite book |last1=Khomeini |first1=Ruhollah |editor1-last=Anderson |editor1-first=Matthew |editor2-last=Taliaferro |editor2-first=Karen |title=Islam and Religious Freedom: A Sourcebook of Scriptural, Theological, and Legal Texts |date=2014 |publisher=The Religious Freedom Project Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs Georgetown University |pages=77–78 |chapter= The Modern Period: Sources. Theological and Philosophical Texts. On Apostasy and Non-Muslims Author: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: 1981 Source: J. Borujerdi, trans., A Clarification of Questions: An Unabridged Translation of Resaleh Towzih al-Masael}}</ref>

;Children raised in apostasy

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,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/marriage/interfaith-prohibition.php|title=Prohibition of Interfaith Marriage|date=September 2016|website=loc.gov|access-date=23 April 2020|archive-date=19 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019141717/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/marriage/interfaith-prohibition.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064|title=Sudan woman faces death for apostasy|date=15 May 2014|work=BBC News|access-date=23 April 2020|language=en-GB|archive-date=19 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519054610/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064|url-status=live}}</ref> even if her Muslim parent did not raise her and [[Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag|she has always practiced another religion]]; 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.net).<ref name="child of an apostate">{{cite web |title=The child of an apostate Muslim remains Muslim. Fatwa No: 272422 |url=https://www.islamweb.org/en/fatwa/272422/the-child-of-an-apostate-muslim-remains-muslim |website=Islamweb.net |access-date=1 February 2021 |date=8 November 2014 |archive-date=5 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505142725/https://www.islamweb.org/en/fatwa/272422/the-child-of-an-apostate-muslim-remains-muslim |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Contemporary issues of defining apostasy
In the 19th, 20th and 21 century issues affecting shariʿah on apostasy include modern norms of freedom of religion,<ref name=jstor-1570336/> the status of members of [[Persecution of Baháʼís|Baháʼí]] (considered unbeliever/apostates in Iran) and [[Persecution of Ahmadis|Ahmadi]] faiths (considered appostates from Islam in Pakistan and elsewhere),<ref name=jstor-1570336/> those who "refuse to judge or be judged according to the ''shariʿah,''"<ref name=jstor-1570336/> and more recently the status of Muslims authorities and governments that do not implement classical ''shariʿah'' law in its completeness.

==Punishment{{anchor|Retaliation for apostasy|Punishment for apostasy}}==
{{Censorship sidebar |expanded=Contexts}}
[[File:Execution of a Moroccan Jewess by Alfred Dehodencq.jpg|thumb|''Execution of a Moroccan Jewess ([[Sol Hachuel]])'' a painting by [[Alfred Dehodencq]]]]

There are differences of opinion among Islamic scholars about whether, when and especially how apostasy in Islam should be punished.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" /><ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name="EI Murtadd">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1993 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |editor1=C.E. Bosworth |volume=7 |pages=635–636 |isbn=978-9004094192 |author=Heffening, W. |title=Murtadd |editor2=E. van Donzel |editor3=W.P. Heinrichs |display-editors=etal|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5554|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5554|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

From 11th century onwards, apostasy of Muslims from Islam was forbidden by Islamic law, earlier apostasy law was only applicable if a certain number of witnesses testify which for the most past was impossible.<ref name="Esposito 1996 p72">{{cite book | last=Esposito | first=John | title=Islam and democracy | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford, UK | year=1996 | isbn=978-0195108163 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamdemocracy0000espo/page/72 72–73] | url=https://archive.org/details/islamdemocracy0000espo/page/72 }}</ref><ref name="auto5">{{cite book | last=Morgan | first=Diane | title=Essential Islam : a comprehensive guide to belief and practice | url=https://archive.org/details/essentialislamco0000morg | url-access=registration | publisher=Praeger | location=Santa Barbara, California| year=2010 | isbn=978-0313360251 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/essentialislamco0000morg/page/87 87], 182–184}}</ref><ref name="Hackett 2008">{{cite book | last=Hackett | first=Rosalind | title=Proselytization revisited | publisher=Routledge | location=London | year=2008 | isbn=978-1845532284 | pages=139–140}}</ref> Apostasy was punishable by death and also by civil liabilities such as seizure of property, children, annulment of marriage, loss of inheritance rights.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> (A subsidiary law, also applied throughout the history of Islam, forbade non-Muslims from proselytizing Muslims to leave Islam and join another religion,<ref>J. Sperber (2000), ''Christians and Muslims: The Dialogue Activities'', Theologische Bibliothek Topelmann, Walter de Gruyter, p. 66</ref><ref>[[David Kerr (religion scholar)|David Kerr]] (2000), "Islamic Da 'wa and Christian Mission: Towards a comparative analysis", ''International Review of Mission'', Volume 89, Issue 353, pp. 150–171</ref><ref name="Esposito 1996 p72"/><ref name="auto5"/><ref name="Hackett 2008"/> because it encouraged Muslims to commit a crime). Starting in the 19th century the legal code of many Muslim states no longer included apostasy as a capital crime, and to compensate some Islamic scholars called for vigilante justice of [[hisbah]] to execute the offenders (see [[Apostasy in Islam#Colonial era and after]]).

In contemporary times the majority of Islamic jurists still regard apostasy as a crime deserving the [[Capital punishment in Islam|death penalty]], (according to Abdul Rashied Omar),<ref name=aromar/> although "a growing body of Islamic jurists" oppose this,{{#tag:ref|More recently, a growing body of Islamic jurists have relied on Quranic verses which advocate absolute freedom of religion.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}|group=Note}} (according to Javaid Rehman)<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/><ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name= bbcsudan/> as inconsistent with "freedom of religion" as expressed in the Quranic injunctions {{Cite Quran|88|21|expand=yes|style=nosup}}-{{Cite Quran|88|22|expand=no|style=nosup}}<ref name="GTWIFE"/> and {{Cite Quran|2|256|expand=yes|style=nosup}} ("there is no compulsion in religion");<ref name="ELLIOTT-3-26-2006"/> and a relic of the early Islamic community when apostasy was desertion or treason.<ref name="auto3"/>

Still others support a "centrist or moderate position" of executing only those whose apostasy is "unambiguously provable" such as if two just Muslim eyewitnesses testify; and/or reserving the death penalty for those who make their apostacy public. According to Christine Schirrmacher, "a majority of theologians" embrace this stance.<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-86">{{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Christine |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |page=86 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=6 January 2021 |chapter=Leaving Islam |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108155642/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Who qualifies for judgement for the crime of apostasy===
{{Further|Takfir#Exemptions and extenuating circumstances}}
As mentioned [[#Issues in defining heresy|above]], there are numerous doctrinal fine points outlined in fiqh manuals whose violation should render the violator an apostate, but there are also hurdles and exacting requirements that spare (self-proclaimed) Muslims conviction for apostasy in classical [[fiqh]].

One motive for caution is that it is an act of apostasy (in Shafi'i and other fiqh) for a Muslim to accuse or describe another innocent Muslim of being an unbeliever,<ref name="rottrav"/> 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."<ref name=sunnah2>{{cite web|title=The Book of the Prohibited actions. Sunnah.com reference: Book 18, Hadith 222|website=Sunnah.com|quote=The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, 'When a person calls his brother (in Islam) a disbeliever, one of them will certainly deserve the title. If the addressee is so as he has asserted, the disbelief of the man is confirmed, but if it is untrue, then it will revert to him.'|url=https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1732|access-date=10 February 2021|archive-date=20 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220175628/https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1732|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Hassan-4-2017-danger-CTTaA">{{cite journal |last1=Hassan |first1=Muhammad Haniff |title=The Danger of Takfir (Excommunication): Exposing IS' Takfiri Ideology |journal=Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses |date=April 2007 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=3–12 |jstor=26351508 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26351508 |access-date=10 February 2021 |archive-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902085553/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26351508 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to sharia, to be found guilty the accused must at the time of apostasizing be exercising free will, an adult, and of sound mind,<ref name=jstor-1570336/> and have refused to repent when given a time period to do so (not all schools include this last requirement). The free will requirement excludes from judgement those who embraced Islam under conditions of duress and then went back to their old religion, or Muslims who converted to another religion involuntarily, either force or as concealment ([[Taqiya|Taqiyya]] or [[Kitman]]) out of fear of [[Persecution of Muslims|persecution]] or during [[War in Islam|war]].<ref name="R. Ibrahim 2009">{{cite book|first =R. |last =Ibrahim |date = 2009 |editor1-first= J.|editor1-last = Gallagher |editor2-first= E.|editor2-last=Patterson|title= Debating the War of Ideas |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8aS_AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA67|publisher =Springer|isbn = 978-0230101982| quote=Muslims who were forced to choose between recanting Islam or suffering persecution were, and still are, permitted to lie by feigning apostasy|page = 68}}</ref><ref name="J.T. Munroe 2004">J.T. Munroe (2004), ''Hispano-Arabic Poetry'', Gorgias Press, {{ISBN|978-1593331153}}, p. 69.</ref>

Some of these requirements have served as "loopholes" to exonerate apostates (apostasy charges against [[Abdul Rahman (convert)|Abdul Rahman]], were dropped on the grounds he was "mentally unfit").<ref name="Afghan convert1">{{cite news |date=28 March 2006 |title=Afghan convert freed from prison |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4851666.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=13 October 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418072720/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4851666.stm |archive-date=18 April 2012}}</ref>

===Death penalty===
{{main|Capital punishment in Islam}}
{{further|Hudud|Violence in Islam}}

====In classical Islamic jurisprudence====
Traditional Sunnī and Shīʿa [[Fiqh|Islamic jurisprudence]] (''fiqh'') and their respective [[Madhhab|schools]] (''maḏāhib'') agree on some issues{{snd}}that male apostates should be executed, and that most but not all perpetrators should not be given a chance to repent; among the excluded are those who practice [[witchcraft|sorcery]] (''subhar''), [[Zandaqa|treacherous heretics]] (''zanādiqa''), and "recidivists".<ref name=jstor-1570336/> They disagree on issues such as whether [[Women in Islam|women]] can be executed,<ref name=fgriffel>Frank Griffel (2001), "Toleration and exclusion: al-Shafi 'i and al-Ghazali on the treatment of apostates", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', 64(03), pp. 348–349</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zwemer|first1=Samuel M.|title=The Law of Apostasy|journal=The Muslim World|volume=14|issue=4|pages=41–42, Chapter 2|issn=0027-4909}}</ref><ref name=dforte>David F Forte (2011), [http://www.cepos.eu/pdf/revista%20de%20stiinte%20politice%20nr%2029.pdf Islam's Trajectory] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903101606/http://www.cepos.eu/pdf/revista%20de%20stiinte%20politice%20nr%2029.pdf |date=3 September 2014 }}, Revue des Sciences Politiques, No. 29, pp. 93, 97–98, 92–101</ref> whether apostasy is a violation of "the rights of God",<ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name=meap168>Mohamed El-Awa (1993), Punishment in Islamic Law, American Trust Publications, {{ISBN|978-0892591428}}, pp. 53–54, 1–68</ref> whether apostates who were born Muslims may be spared if they repent,<ref name=jstor-1570336/> whether conviction requires the accused be a practicing Muslim,<ref name=jstor-1570336/> or whether it is enough to simply intend to commit apostasy rather than actually doing it.<ref name=jstor-1570336/>
* [[Hanafi|Ḥanafī]] school – recommends three days of [[imprisonment]] before the [[Capital punishment in Islam|execution]], although the delay before killing the apostates is not mandatory. Apostasy from Islam is not considered a ''[[hudud]]'' crime.<ref name="Parolin-2009-55">{{cite book |last1=Parolin |first1=Gianluca P. |title=Citizenship in the Arab World |date=2009 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |page=55 |isbn=978-9089640451 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSDE7LgTFvUC&q=apostasy |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406221920/https://books.google.com/books?id=xSDE7LgTFvUC&q=apostasy |url-status=live }}</ref> Unlike in other schools, it is not obligatory to call on the apostate to repent.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> Apostate males are to be killed, while apostate females are to be held in [[solitary confinement]] and [[Corporal punishment|beaten every three days]] till they recant and return to Islam.<ref name="rudolph p65">{{cite book | last=Peters | first=Rudolph | title=Crime and punishment in Islamic law | url=https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738 | url-access=limited | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location=Cambridge, UK | year=2005 | isbn=978-0521796705 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738/page/n76 64]–65}}</ref> The [[Capital punishment in Islam|death penalty for apostasy from Islam]] is limited for those who cause [[Hirabah|aggravated robbery or grand larceny]] (''ḥirābah'') after leaving Islam, not for converting to another religion.<ref>Marie-Luisa Frick, Andreas Th. Müller ''Islam and International Law: Engaging Self-Centrism from a Plurality of Perspectives'' Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 2013 {{ISBN|978-9004233362}} p. 95</ref>
* [[Maliki|Mālikī]] school – allows up to ten days for recantation, after which the apostates must be killed. Apostasy from Islam is considered a ''[[hudud]]'' crime.<ref name="Parolin-2009-55"/> Both male and female apostates deserve the [[Capital punishment in Islam|death penalty for leaving Islam]], according to the traditional view of the Mālikī school.<ref name=dforte/> Unlike other schools, the apostates must have a history of being "good" (i.e., practicing) Muslims.<ref name=jstor-1570336/>
* [[Shafiʽi school|Shāfiʿī]] school – waiting period of three days is required to allow the apostates time to repent and return to Islam. Failing repentance, [[Capital punishment in Islam|death penalty is the recommended form of punishment]] for both male and female apostates for leaving Islam.<ref name=dforte/> Apostasy from Islam is not considered a ''[[hudud]]'' crime.<ref name="Parolin-2009-55"/>
* [[Hanbali|Ḥanbalī]] school – waiting period not necessary, but may be granted. Apostasy from Islam is considered a ''[[hudud]]'' crime.<ref name="Parolin-2009-55"/> [[Capital punishment in Islam|Death penalty is the traditional form of punishment]] for both male and female apostates for leaving Islam.<ref name=dforte/>
* [[Ja'fari jurisprudence|Jaʿfari]] or Imāmī school – Male apostates must be executed, while female apostates must be held in [[solitary confinement]] until they repent and return to Islam.<ref name=dforte/><ref name="rudolph p65"/> Apostasy from Islam is considered a ''[[hudud]]'' crime.<ref name="Parolin-2009-55"/> The "mere intention of unbelief" without expression qualifies as apostasy.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> Unlike the other schools, repentance will not save a defendant from [[Capital punishment in Islam|execution]], unless they are "national apostates" who were not born Muslims but converted to Islam before apostasizing, although it is disputed by some [[Ulama|Muslim scholars]]. "Innate" apostates, who grew up Muslims and remained Muslim after puberty and until converting to another religion, should be executed.<ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name=IaRF-2014-Khomeini/>

====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 in some countries for "vigilante" Muslims to kill or attempt to kill apostates or alleged apostates (or force them to flee the country).<ref name="Brems-2001-210"/> 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 the technical "legal basis" for his killing was another crime or crimes,<ref name="Brems-2001-210"/> namely "heresy, opposing the application of Islamic law, disturbing public security, provoking opposition against the government, and re-establishing a banned political party."<ref name=wright-2003>{{cite book |title=Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam |last=Wright |first=Robin |page=203}}</ref> When post-modernist professor [[Nasr Abu Zayd]] was found to be an apostate by an Egyptian court, it meant only an involuntary divorce from his wife (who did not want to divorce), but it put the proverbial target on his back and he fled to Europe.<ref name="Brems-2001-210"/><ref name="obit-abuzaid">[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-nasr-hamed-abu-zaid-modernist-islamic-philosopher-who-was-forced-into-exile-by-fundamentalists-2025754.html Professor Nasr Hamed Abu Zaid: Modernist islamic philosopher who was forced into exile by fundamentalists ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925115825/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-nasr-hamed-abu-zaid-modernist-islamic-philosopher-who-was-forced-into-exile-by-fundamentalists-2025754.html |date=25 September 2015 }}|By Adel Darwish | 14 July 2010 |The Independent</ref>

===Civil liabilities===
In Islam, apostasy has traditionally had both criminal and civil penalties. In the late 19th century, when the use of criminal penalties for apostasy fell into disuse, civil penalties were still applied.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> The punishment for the criminal penalties such as murder includes death or prison, while <ref name=jstor-1570336/><ref name=emon-2012-229>{{cite book | last=Emon | first=Anver | title=Islamic law and international human rights law | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford | year=2012 | isbn=978-0199641444 | pages=229–231}}</ref> In all [[madhhab]]s 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 [[Annulment|annulled]] (''faskh'') (as in the case of [[Nasr Abu Zayd]]);
::(1) if they were not married at the time of apostasy they could not get married<ref name="Brems-2001-209">{{cite book |last1=Brems |first1=Eva |title=Human Rights: Universality and Diversity |date=2001 |publisher=Springer |page=209 |isbn=978-9041116185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&dq=apostasy+and+human+rights&pg=PA210 |access-date=12 December 2020 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407085134/https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&dq=apostasy+and+human+rights&pg=PA210 |url-status=live }}</ref>
:(c) any children removed and considered ward of the Islamic state.<ref name=jstor-1570336/>
:(d) In case the entire family has left Islam, or there are no surviving Muslim relatives recognized by Sharia, the apostate's inheritance rights are lost and 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.<ref name=smz/><ref name=fkazemi>Kazemi F. (2000), [https://web.archive.org/web/20020909222846/http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/HST451/Readings/Kazemi1.html "Gender, Islam, and politics"], ''Social Research'', Vol. 67, No. 2, pp. 453–474</ref>{{nonspecific|date=November 2015}} Hanafi Sunni school of jurisprudence allows waiting till execution, before children and property are seized; other schools do not consider this wait as mandatory but mandates time for repentance.<ref name=jstor-1570336/>

;Social liabilities
The conversion of a Muslim to another faith is often considered a "disgrace" and "scandal" as well as a sin,<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-85">{{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Christine |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |page=85 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=6 January 2021 |chapter=Leaving Islam |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108155642/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref> so in addition to penal and civil penalties, loss of employment,<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-85"/> ostracism and proclamations by family members that they are "dead", is not at all "unusual".<ref name=cook-2006-JSAI-277>{{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Cook |date=2006 |title=Apostasy from Islam – A Historical Perspective |journal=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies |volume=31 |page=277 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203830/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Adang-2015-14">{{cite book |last1=Adang |first1=Camilla |last2=Ansari |first2=Hassan |last3=Fierro |first3=Maribel |title=Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |page=14 |isbn=978-9004307834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |access-date=25 December 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231020133820/https://books.google.com/books?id=nf_dCgAAQBAJ&q=takfir+in+islam |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Supporters and opponents of death penalty===
;Support among contemporary preachers and scholars
[[File:Rechtsgutachten betr Apostasie im Islam.jpg|thumb|Legal opinion on apostasy by the [[Fatwa]] committee at [[Al-Azhar University]] in [[Cairo]], concerning the case of a man who [[Conversion to Christianity|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 [[Islam and children|children]] if they entered Islam and left it after they reach [[Baligh|maturity]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rechtsgutachten_betr_Apostasie_im_Islam.jpg |title=English: This Fatawa describes how an Egyptian man turned apostate and the subsequent punishment prescribed for him by the Al-Azhr Fatawa council |accessdate=16 November 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117101115/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rechtsgutachten_betr_Apostasie_im_Islam.jpg |archivedate=17 November 2015 }} Description Section</ref>]]

"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.<ref name=aromar/> Some notable contemporary proponents include:
* [[Ahmed el-Tayeb]], [[Grand Imam of Al-Azhar]] (2010–Present) and [[Grand Mufti]] of Egypt (2002–2003).<ref>{{cite web |title=Muslims in the West must reject al-Azhar imam's apostasy views |url=https://rationalist.com.au/muslims-in-the-west-must-reject-al-azhar-imams-apostasy-views/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Egypt's Top “Moderate” Cleric: Apostasy a “Crime” Punishable by Death |url=https://www.meforum.org/egypt-top-moderate-cleric-apostasy-a-crime}}</ref>
* [[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"<ref name=brown-108>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Daniel W. |title=Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521570778 |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/116836545/Rethinking-Traditions-in-Modern-Islamic-Thought-Daniel-w-Brown |ref=DWBRTMIT1996 |page=108 |access-date=10 May 2018 |archive-date=21 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321033206/https://www.scribd.com/document/116836545/Rethinking-Traditions-in-Modern-Islamic-Thought-Daniel-w-Brown |url-status=live }}</ref> 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",<ref name="murphy-1993">{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Caryle |title=Killing Apostates Condoned |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/07/22/killing-apostates-condoned/68d0d42a-958f-4f42-8ad2-666a1629e2a0/ |accessdate=15 May 2018 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 22, 1993 |archive-date=16 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516014956/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/07/22/killing-apostates-condoned/68d0d42a-958f-4f42-8ad2-666a1629e2a0/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was "widely credited" with contributing to the 20th century Islamic revival in the largest Arabic country, [[Egypt]].<ref name="NYTGhazali">{{cite news |author=Douglas Jehl |date=March 14, 1996 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/14/world/mohammed-al-ghazali-78-an-egyptian-cleric-and-scholar.html |title=Mohammed al-Ghazali, 78, An Egyptian Cleric and Scholar |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=9 December 2020 |archive-date=8 April 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20130408201816/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/14/world/mohammed-al-ghazali-78-an-egyptian-cleric-and-scholar.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (Al-Ghazali was on record as declaring all those who opposed the implementation 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".<ref>Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), [http://www.rubincenter.org/2007/06/soage-2007-06-03/#_edn63 "Faraj Fawda, or the cost of Freedom of Expression"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314002158/http://www.rubincenter.org/2007/06/soage-2007-06-03/#_edn63 |date=14 March 2009 }}</ref><ref name="NYTGhazali"/>
* [[Yusuf al-Qaradawi]] (b. 1926), another "moderate" Islamist,<ref name="Halverson-OBib">{{cite web |last1=Halverson |first1=Jeffry R. |title=Yusuf al-Qaradawi |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0098.xml |website=Oxford Bibliographies |access-date=6 December 2020 |date=24 May 2018 |archive-date=14 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414173455/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0098.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> chairman of the [[International Union of Muslim Scholars]],<ref name="chair">{{Cite news|title=Qatar-based cleric calls for Egypt vote boycott|date=11 May 2014|author=AFP (news agency) |newspaper=Yahoo News|url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/qatar-based-cleric-calls-egypt-vote-boycott-192234858.html#9K9eVKw|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140616031315/https://uk.news.yahoo.com/qatar-based-cleric-calls-egypt-vote-boycott-192234858.html|archive-date=16 June 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> who as of 2009 was "considered one of the most influential" Islamic scholars living.<ref name="Influential 500">No.9 Sheikh Dr Yusuf al Qaradawi, Head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars – "The 500 most influential Muslims in the world 2009", Prof John Esposito and Prof Ibrahim Kalin – Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Product Description: The Global Mufti: The Phenomenon of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (Paperback)by Bettina Graf (Author, Editor), Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (Editor) C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd |date=2009 |id= {{ASIN|1850659397|country=uk}} }}</ref><ref>Raymond William Baker, ''Islam Without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists'' (2003), p. 4</ref>
* [[Zakir Naik]], Indian [[Islamic televangelist]] and [[Da'i|preacher]],<ref name="Shukla">
Shukla, Ashutosh. [http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_muslim-group-welcomes-ban-on-preacher_1399601 "Muslim group welcomes ban on preacher"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113101139/http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_muslim-group-welcomes-ban-on-preacher_1399601 |date=13 January 2012}}. ''[[Daily News and Analysis]]''. 22 June 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 7 August 2011.</ref> whose [[Peace TV]] channel, reaches a reported 100 million viewers,<ref name=AFP-1-3-15>{{cite news|title=Saudi Arabia gives top prize to cleric who blames George Bush for 9/11|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/02/saudi-arabia-gives-top-prize-to-cleric-who-blames-george-bush-for-911|accessdate=1 July 2015|agency=Agence France-Presse|publisher=Guardian|date=1 March 2015|archive-date=2 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702150713/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/02/saudi-arabia-gives-top-prize-to-cleric-who-blames-george-bush-for-911|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=bad-news>{{cite web |url=http://scroll.in/article/712341/why-a-saudi-award-for-televangelist-zakir-naik-is-bad-news-for-indias-muslims |title=Why a Saudi award for televangelist Zakir Naik is bad news for India's Muslims |last1=Daniyal |first1=Shoaib |date=10 March 2015 |accessdate=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401045229/http://scroll.in/article/712341/why-a-saudi-award-for-televangelist-zakir-naik-is-bad-news-for-indias-muslims |archive-date=1 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> and whose debates and talks are widely distributed,<ref name="Mazumdar">[http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/30405 "Maldivian renounces Islam, gets attacked by Zakir Naik audience"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827113937/http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/30405 |date=27 August 2013}} May 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2011. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110810011235/http://www.haveeru.com.mv/english/details/30855 Archived] 7 August 2011.
</ref><ref>[http://minivannews.com/files/2010/05/Dr_Zakir_Naik_and_Nazim-1.pdf Minivan News] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130908221122/http://minivannews.com/files/2010/05/Dr_Zakir_Naik_and_Nazim-1.pdf |date=8 September 2013 }} 's response to Mohamed Nazim; Location: Maafaanu stadium, Male', 10:30 pm Friday 28 May 2010, p. 4.</ref><ref name=bad-news/> supports the death penalty only for those apostates who "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam" as he considers it treason.<ref name="hp10">
{{cite web|last1=Huffington Post|title=10 Times Zakir Naik Proved That He Promoted Anything But Peace|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/07/07/zakir-naik_n_10851550.html|accessdate=16 July 2016|date=7 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720061722/http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/07/07/zakir-naik_n_10851550.html|archive-date=20 July 2016|url-status=live|df=dmy-all|author1-link=Huffington Post}}
</ref><ref name="Mazumdar"/>
* [[Muhammad Al-Munajjid|Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid]], a Syrian Islamic scholar, considered a respected scholar in the [[Salafi]] movement (according to [[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]);<ref>[http://studies.aljazeera.net/ResourceGallery/media/Documents/2014/12/10/2014121095530494580Arab-World-Journalism.pdf Al Jazeera Studies: "Arab World Journalism in a Post-Beheading Era" by Thembisa Fakude] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323195238/http://studies.aljazeera.net/ResourceGallery/media/Documents/2014/12/10/2014121095530494580Arab-World-Journalism.pdf |date=23 March 2019 }} 2013 |''"Al-Munajjid is considered one of the respected scholars of the Salafist movement)."''</ref> and founder of the [[fatwa]] website [[IslamQA.info|IslamQA]],<ref>Richard Gauvain, ''Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God'', p. 355. {{ISBN|978-0710313560}}</ref> one of the most popular Islamic websites, and (as of November 2015 and according to Alexa.com) the world's most popular website on the topic of Islam generally (apart from the website of an Islamic bank).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/topsites/category|title=Alexa – Top Sites by Category: Top|website=www.alexa.com|access-date=5 March 2021|archive-date=3 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303024243/https://www.alexa.com/topsites/category|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Gauvain>{{cite book |last1=Gauvain |first1=Richard |title=Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCL5fElYbnYC&q=al-Munajjid&pg=PA335| date=2012| publisher=Routledge|page=335|isbn=978-0710313560|quote=''...participants generally refer to the established Saudi scholars. In this case, the most common source of reference was Muhammad Salih al-Munajid's well-known website: Islam Question and Answer which provides normative Saudi Arabian Salafi responses.''}}</ref><ref name=DWSlave>[http://www.dw.com/en/women-in-islam-behind-the-veil-and-in-front-of-it/a-18969819 Deutsche Welle: "Women in Islam: Behind the veil and in front of it"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505000449/http://www.dw.com/en/women-in-islam-behind-the-veil-and-in-front-of-it/a-18969819 |date=5 May 2016 }} retrieved September 2, 2016</ref>

;Opposing the death penalty for apostasy
* [[Mahmud Shaltut]], [[Grand Imam of Al-Azhar]] (1958–1963).<ref name=Kamali/>
* [[Ali Gomaa]], [[Grand Mufti]] of Egypt (2003–2013).<ref name=Gomaa>[[Grand Mufti]] [[Ali Gomaa]], [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/muslims_speak_out/2007/07/gomaas_statement_on_apostasy.html Gomaa's Statement on Apostasy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224161053/http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/muslims_speak_out/2007/07/gomaas_statement_on_apostasy.html |date=24 December 2008 }}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 25 July 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Whosoever will, let him disbelieve|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2007/857/eg9.htm|quote="...the essential question before us is can a person who is Muslim choose a religion other than Islam? The answer is yes, they can because the Quran says, 'Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion,' [Quran, 109:6], and, 'Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve,' [Quran, 18:29], and, 'There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is distinct from error,' [Quran, 2:256].... [thus] the matter is left until the Day of Judgement, and it is not to be dealt with in the life of this world. It is an issue of conscience, and it is between the individual and Allah."|access-date=7 September 2017|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908111441/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2007/857/eg9.htm|archivedate=8 September 2017}}</ref>
* [[Mohsen Kadivar]], Director of Department of Philosophy and Theology{{snd}}Center of Scientific and Cultural Publishing, Tehran (1998–2003) and [[Professor]] Duke University (2009–).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kadivar |first1=Mohsen |title=Biography |url=https://english.kadivar.com/biography-mohsen-kadivar/ |website=Kadivar.com English |access-date=27 October 2023 |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021140123/https://english.kadivar.com/biography-mohsen-kadivar/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kadīvar |first1=Moḥsen |title=Blasphemy and apostasy in Islam: debates on Shi'a jurisprudence |date=2021 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781474457576}}</ref>
* [[Hossein-Ali Montazeri]], [[Grand Ayatollah]] and [[Supreme Leader of Iran|Deputy Supreme Leader of Iran]] (1985–1989).<ref name=Jami>{{Cite news |first=Mahdi |last=Jami |date=2 February 2005 |script-title=fa:آيت الله منتظری: هر تغيير مذهبی ارتداد نيست |trans-title=Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: 'Not Every Conversion is Apostasy' |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/02/050202_mj-montzari-renegade.shtml |work=[[BBC Persian]] |language=Persian |accessdate=14 October 2009 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528113827/http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/02/050202_mj-montzari-renegade.shtml |archivedate=28 May 2014 }}</ref>
* [[Hussein Esmaeel al-Sadr]], [[Grand Ayatollah]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.shafaqna.com/report-definition-of-islamic-law-and-the-crime-of-apostasy-in-islam/|title=Report – Definition of Islamic Law and the Crime of Apostasy in Islam|date=19 May 2015|access-date=7 September 2017|quote="Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Sadr, a Shi'a cleric based in Iraq, has also stated that Verse 2:256 was revealed to the Prophet Mohammad regarding Muslims who had converted to Christianity, and that the Prophet Mohammad advised against forcing them to return to Islam."|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908112725/https://en.shafaqna.com/report-definition-of-islamic-law-and-the-crime-of-apostasy-in-islam/|archivedate=8 September 2017}}</ref>
* [[Taha Jabir Alalwani]] (1935–2016), founder and former chairman of the [[Fiqh Council of North America]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Apostasy in Islam|author-link=Taha Jabir Alalwani|url=http://www.iiit.org/uploads/4/9/9/6/49960591/books-in-brief_apostasy_in_islam_a_historical_and_scriptural_analysis.pdf|quote="Freedom of belief is protected and preserved in the Qur'an. Moreover, given that this is the stance of the Qur'an, it is likewise the stance of the Sunnah. The Qur'an makes clear that the punishment for a change in belief is one that will take effect in the life to come, while the Sunnah likewise makes clear that although a change in belief unaccompanied by anything else may have been interpreted to imply hostility against the Ummah and as a threat to its citizens and interests, there is, never-theless, no prescribed punishment for it in this earthly life|access-date=7 September 2017|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908111140/http://www.iiit.org/uploads/4/9/9/6/49960591/books-in-brief_apostasy_in_islam_a_historical_and_scriptural_analysis.pdf|archivedate=8 September 2017}}</ref>
* Intisar Rabb, faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at [[Harvard Law School]]. {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Javed Ahmad Ghamidi]], a [[Pakistan]]i [[Muslim]] theologian, [[Quran]] scholar. {{Citation |last=Ghamidi |first=Javed |title=ارتداد اور توہین رسالت کا قانون |date=26 March 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGjfnEFvYCg }}
* [[Tariq Ramadan]], [[Professor (highest academic rank)|Professor]] of contemporary Islamic studies at [[St Antony's College, Oxford]] and the [[Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford]] {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Reza Aslan]], an Iranian-American scholar of religious studies and writer. {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Jonathan A.C. Brown]], [[Associate professor]] at [[Georgetown University]]'s [[Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service]] and [[Alwaleed Philanthropies|Alwaleed bin Talal]] Chair of Islamic Civilization at [[Georgetown University]]. {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Rudolph F. Peters]], [[Professor (highest academic rank)|Professor]] of [[Islamic Law]] at the [[University of Amsterdam]]. {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Khaled Abou El Fadl]], Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at the [[UCLA School of Law]].
* [[S. A. Rahman]], [[Chief Justice of Pakistan|5th Chief Justice of Pakistan]] (1968). {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Yaşar Nuri Öztürk]], [[Professor (highest academic rank)|Professor]] of [[Islamic Philosophy]] at [[Istanbul University]] (2008). {{Citation |last=Öztürk |first=Yaşar Nuri |title=Allah ile Aldatmak |date=26 March 2023 |url=http://www.altinicizdiklerim.com/resimler/AllahIleAldatmak.pdf}}

===Rationale, arguments, criticism for and against killing apostates===
The question of whether apostates should be killed, has been "a matter for contentious dispute throughout Islamic history".<ref name="Parolin-2009-121">{{cite book |last1=Parolin |first1=Gianluca P. |title=Citizenship in the Arab World |date=2009 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |page=121 |isbn=978-9089640451 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSDE7LgTFvUC&q=apostasy |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406221920/https://books.google.com/books?id=xSDE7LgTFvUC&q=apostasy |url-status=live }}</ref>
;For the death penalty
Throughout Islamic history the Muslim community, scholars, and schools of fiqh have agreed that scripture prescribes this penalty; scripture must take precedence over reason or modern norms of human rights, as Islam is the one true religion; "no compulsion in religion" (Q.2:256) does not apply to this punishment; apostasy is "spiritual and cultural" treason; it hardly ever happens and so is not worth talking about.
* [[Abul A'la Maududi]] said that among early Muslims, among the [[madhhab|schools of fiqh]] both [[Madhhab#Sunni|Sunni]] and [[Madhhab#Shia|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; 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 and has never been declared invalid over the course of the history of Islamic theology (Christine Schirrmacher).<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-85"/>
** "Many [[hadith]]s", not just "one or two", call for the killing of apostates ([[Yusuf al-Qaradawi]]).<ref name="youtube-al-Qaradawi">{{cite AV media | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMu8ihDlVA | title=Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Killing Of Apostates Is Essential For Islam To Survive | language=ar | access-date=8 January 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212002151/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMu8ihDlVA | archive-date=12 February 2018 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="auto4">{{cite book | title=After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East | first=Elizabeth |last=Kendal | date= 2016 | isbn=978-1498239868 | publisher=Wipf and Stock | page=36 |chapter=Hasten to Success }}</ref>
** 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),<ref>Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqi, The Penal Law of Islam (International Islamic Publishers, New Delhi: 1991) p. 96; quoted in {{cite journal |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Declan |title=The Interpretation of Qur'anic Text to Promote or Negate the Death Penalty for Apostates and Blasphemers |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |date=2001 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=63 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2001.3.2.63 |jstor=25728038 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |access-date=21 January 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418172136/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Quranic verses in general "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates ([[Dale F. Eickelman]]).<ref name="Dale F. Eickelman 2005 68"/>
** If this doctrine is called into question, what's next? Ritual prayer ([[salat]])? Fasting ([[sawm]])? Even Muhammad's mission? (Abul A'la Maududi).<ref name="Ali-2014-69">{{cite book |last1=Ali |first1=Cheragh |editor1-last=Anderson |editor1-first=Matthew |editor2-last=Taliaferro |editor2-first=Karen |title=Islam and Religious Freedom : A Sourcebook of Scriptural, Theological and Legal Texts |year=2014 |publisher=The Religious Freedom Project Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs Georgetown University |pages=69–70 |chapter=The Modern Period: Sources |url=https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/islam-and-religious-freedom-a-sourcebook-of-scriptural-theological-and-legal-texts |access-date=2 February 2021 |archive-date=28 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228154925/https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/islam-and-religious-freedom-a-sourcebook-of-scriptural-theological-and-legal-texts |url-status=live }}</ref>
* It "does not merit discussion" because [the advocates maintain] apostasy from Islam is so rare (Ali Kettani),<ref>{{cite book | first1=Ali |last1=Kettani |title= Muslim Minorities in the World Today |location=London |date=1986 | pages= 10, 113}}</ref> (Mahmud Brelvi);<ref>{{cite book |first1= Mahmud |last1=Brelvi |title= Islam on the March |location=Karachi |date= 1968 |page=ix}}</ref><ref>cited in {{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Cook |date=2006 |title=Apostasy from Islam – A Historical Perspective |journal=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies |volume=31 |page=249 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |accessdate=6 January 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203830/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> before the modern era, there was virtually no apostasy from Islam (Syed Barakat Ahmad).<ref>Syed Barakat Ahmad, "Conversion from Islam," in C.E. Bosworth, ed. ''The Islamic World from Classical to Modern Times: Essays in honor of Bernard Lewis'' (Princeton, 1989), pp. 3–25; cited in {{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Cook |date=2006 |title=Apostasy from Islam – A Historical Perspective |journal=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies |volume=31 |page=250 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |accessdate=6 January 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203830/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
** The punishment is "rarely invoked" because 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.) (Religious Tolerance website).<ref name="RelTor">{{cite web |title=Arguments for and against the death penalty |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos3.htm |website=Religious Tolerance |access-date=10 February 2021 |archive-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303050704/http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos3.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** 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).{{#tag:ref|"Finally the argument is put forward that killing an apostate must be considered as compulsion in religion, which has been forbidden in K 2:256, though this verse was traditionally interpreted in a different way." Footnote 38: "According to some classical scholars this verse had been abrograted by later verses. The current interpretation of this verse, however, was that it forbids compulsion to things that are wrong (batil) but not compulsion to accept the truth"<ref>Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn 'Abd Allah Ibn al-'Arabi, ''Ahkam al-Qura'an. Tahqiq 'Ali Muhammad al-Badjawi'', 2nd imprint al-Qahirah: 'Isa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1387–88/1967–68, 4 volumes; v. 1 p. 233; quoted in {{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=15, note 38 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref>|group=Note}}
** Others maintain that verse Q.2:256 has been "[[Naskh (tafsir)|abrogated]]", i.e. according to classical Quranic scholars it has been overruled/cancelled by verses of Quran revealed later, (in other words, compulsion was not allowed in the very earliest days of Islam but this was changed by divine revelation a few years later) (Peters and Vries explaining traditional view).<ref name=pdv2256>{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336 |quote=Finally the argument is put forward that killing an apostate must be considered as compulsion in religion, which has been forbidden in K 2:256, though this verse was traditionally interpreted in a different way. Footnote 38: According to some classical scholars this verse had been abrograted by later verses. The current interpretation of this verse, however, was that it forbids compulsion to things that are wrong (batil) but not compulsion to accept the truth" (p. 15).}}</ref>
** 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).<ref>Muhammad Muhiy al-Din al-Masiri, ''al-Nuzum allati yaqum 'alayha kiyan al-mudhtama' al-Islami. Madjallat al-Azhar,'' 1374, pp. 859–868; quoted in {{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=17 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref>
** 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).<ref>Muhammad al-Ghazali, ''Huquq al-Insan bayn ta'alim al-ISlam wa-i'lan al-Umam al-Muttahidah.'' al-Qahirah: al-Maktabah al-Tidjariyyah. 1383/1963, 272 p. 102; quoted in {{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=17 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref>

;Against death penalty
Arguments against the death penalty include: that some scholars throughout Islamic history have opposed that punishment for apostasy; that it constitutes a form of compulsion in faith, which the Quran explicitly forbids in Q.2.256 and other verses, and that these override any other scriptural arguments; and especially that the death penalty in hadith and applied by Muhammad was for treasonous/seditious behavior, not for a change in 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 [[Sahabah|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]])<ref name="ahmad-2005-139-142">{{cite book|author=Mirza Tahir Ahmad|title=The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wnHnLcw_OQsC&pg=PA139|year=2005|publisher=Islam International|isbn=978-1853728501|pages=139–142}}</ref>
** 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 [[Hijri year|AH]]) held that apostasy was liable only to a discretionary punishment (known as ''[[Tazir|ta'zir]]'') and so might not require execution.<ref name="Kamali">{{Cite journal |doi=10.1163/026805598125826102 |jstor=3382008 |title=Punishment in Islamic Law: a Critique of The Hudud Bill of Kelantan, Malaysia |year=1998 |last1=Kamali |first1=Mohammad Hashim |author-link=Mohammad Hashim Kamali |journal=[[Arab Law Quarterly]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=203–234}}</ref>
*** The Hanafi jurist [[Al-Sarakhsi]] (d. 483 AH/ 1090 CE)<ref name=Saeed>{{Cite book| publisher= Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.| isbn = 978-0754630838| last = Saeed| first = Abdullah| author2 = Hassan Saeed| title = Freedom of religion, apostasy and Islam| year = 2004|page=85}}</ref><ref name=QAE>{{Cite encyclopedia| edition = 1st| last=Saeed | first=Abdullah |publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-0415775298|editor= Oliver Leaman |display-editors=etal | encyclopedia = The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia| year = 2005| title = Ridda and the case for decriminalization of apostasy| page=551}}</ref> and Imam Ibnul Humam (d. 681 [[Hijri year|AH]]/ 1388 CE)<ref name="ahmad-2005-139">{{cite book|author=Mirza Tahir Ahmad|title=The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wnHnLcw_OQsC&pg=PA139|year=2005|publisher=Islam International|isbn=978-1853728501|pages=139–140}}</ref> and [[Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i]] (707–774 CE),<ref name=asmi-2012-169>{{cite book |chapter=8. Apostasy in Islam and the Freedom of Religion in International Law |last1=Wood |first1=Asmi |title=Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights |editor1=Paul Babie |editor2=Neville Rochow |publisher=University of Adelaide Press |year=2012 |page=169 |jstor=10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |isbn=978-0987171801 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |access-date=9 January 2021 |archive-date=14 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114033301/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 [[Hijri year|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 would be incompatible with being sentenced to death).<ref name=Kamali/><ref name=Saeed122>{{Cite book| publisher = Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.| isbn = 978-0754630838| last = Saeed| first = Abdullah| author2 = Hassan Saeed| title = Freedom of religion, apostasy and Islam| year = 2004| page = 122| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MrhBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT122| access-date = 19 August 2017| archive-date = 23 February 2024| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201505/https://books.google.com/books?id=MrhBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT122#v=onepage&q&f=false| url-status = live}}</ref>
* There are problems with the scriptural basis for sharia commanding the execution of apostates.
** Quran (see [[#Quran|Quran above]])
*** Compulsion in faith is "explicitly" forbidden by the Quran ('Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi);<ref>'Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi, ''al-Hurriyyah al-diniyyah fi al-Islam'', 2nd imprint al-Qahirah: Dar al-Fikr al-Arabi, [circa 1955–1959], pp. 158–160; quoted in {{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=14 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref> 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),<ref name=jacb>{{cite book|last1=A.C. Brown|first1=Jonathan|title=Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy|date=2014|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1780744209|pages=[https://archive.org/details/misquotingmuhamm0000brow/page/186 186–89]|url=https://archive.org/details/misquotingmuhamm0000brow/page/186}}</ref> ([[Grand Mufti]] [[Ali Gomaa]]),<ref name=Gomaa/> "general, overriding principle(s)" (Khaled Abou El Fadl)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abou El Fadl|first1=Khaled |author-link=Khaled Abou El Fadl |title=The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists|date=2007|publisher=HarperOne|isbn=978-0061189036|pages=158–159}}</ref> of Islam, and not abrogated by hadith or the [[Sword Verse]] (Q.9:5), and there can be little doubt capital punishment for apostasy is incompatible with this principle – 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).<ref name=tariq-ramadan-on-apostasy>[http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/quotes/tariq-ramadan-on-apostasy Tariq Ramadan on Apostasy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150615020040/http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/quotes/tariq-ramadan-on-apostasy |date=15 June 2015 }} (25 July 2007)</ref>
*** Neither verse Q.2:217, (Mirza Tahir Ahmad),<ref>Mirza Tahir Ahmad, ''Mazhab ke Nam per Khoon'' (''Bloodshed in the Name of Religion''), circa late 1950s, English Translation entitled Murder in the Name of Allah, translated by Syed Barakat Ahmad (Lutterworth Press, Cambridge: 1989) p. 75; quoted in {{cite journal |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Declan |title=The Interpretation of Qur'anic Text to Promote or Negate the Death Penalty for Apostates and Blasphemers |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |date=2001 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=63 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2001.3.2.63 |jstor=25728038 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |access-date=21 January 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418172136/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> nor any other Quranic verse say anything to indicate an apostate should be punished ''in the temporal world'', aka ''[[Dunya|dunyā]]'' ([[S. A. Rahman]]),<ref name=pakrahman>{{cite book|author=S. A. Rahman|author-link=S. A. Rahman|title=Punishment of Apostasy in Islam|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4fsYtFf5AoC|year=2007|publisher=The Other Press|isbn=978-9839541496|pages=132–142|chapter=Summary and Conclusions}}</ref> (W. Heffening),<ref name=":2">Muhammad S. Al-Awa (1993), ''Punishment in Islamic Law'', p. 51. US American Trust Publications. {{ISBN|978-0892591428}}.</ref> ([[Wael Hallaq]]),<ref name="EoQ">{{Cite book|chapter=Apostasy |title=Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an |isbn=978-9004114654 |year=2001 |volume=1 |editor1-first=Jane Dammen |editor1-last=McAuliffe |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden | page=120|title-link=Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an }}</ref><ref name="auto"/> (Grand Ayatollah [[Hussein-Ali Montazeri]]);<ref name=Jami/> the verses only indicate that dangerous, aggressive apostates should be killed ([[Mahmud Shaltut]])<ref name=Kamali/> (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).<ref name=peters-apostasy-14>{{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=14 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref><ref name="Zwemer-1916-485">1 Samuel M. Zwemer, ''The Law of Apostasy in Islam: Answering the Question Why There are so Few Moslem Converts, and Giving Examples of Their Moral Courage and Martyrdom'',
 (Amarko Book Agency, New Delhi: 1975. First edn. published by Marshall Bros. Ltd., London: 1924) p. 9. Zwemer cites from 'Apostasy and its Consequences under Islam and Christianity' in ''Islamic Review'', November 1916, pp. 485ff, in his own Bibliography p.163. cited in {{cite journal |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Declan |title=The Interpretation of Qur'anic Text to Promote or Negate the Death Penalty for Apostates and Blasphemers |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |date=2001 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=63 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2001.3.2.63 |jstor=25728038 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |access-date=21 January 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418172136/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728038 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*** Another verse 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),<ref name="SAFI-2006"/> ([[Sisters in Islam]]).<ref name="SiI">{{cite web |last1=Sisters in Islam |title=Arguments for and against the death penalty |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos3.htm |website=religious tolerance |access-date=10 December 2020 |archive-date=28 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128044438/http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos3.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** Hadith and Sunnah (see [[#Hadith|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).{{#tag:ref|See for example al-Shatibi, al-Muafaqat (Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Ma'rifah, n.d.), vol. 3, pp. 15–26; quoted in <ref name="SAFI-2006">{{cite web |last1=Safi |first1=Louay M. |title=Apostasy and Religious Freedom |url=https://www.islamicity.org/2845/apostasy-and-religious-freedom/ |website=Islamicity |access-date=13 December 2020 |date=31 March 2006 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112014253/https://www.islamicity.org/2845/apostasy-and-religious-freedom/ |url-status=live }}</ref>|group=Note}}
*** The Prophet Muhammad did not call for the deaths of contemporaries who left Islam (Mohamed Ghilan)<ref name="Ghilan-2014">{{cite news |last1=Ghilan |first1=Mohamed |title=Islam, Saudi and apostasy |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/5/10/islam-saudi-and-apostasy/ |access-date=14 December 2020 |agency=aljazeera |date=10 May 2014 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112022743/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/5/10/islam-saudi-and-apostasy/ |url-status=live }}</ref> – for example, apostates like "Hishâm and 'Ayyash", or converts to Christianity, such as "Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh" – and 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]]).<ref name=tariq-ramadan-on-apostasy/>
*** 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));<ref name="Ghilan-2014"/> as their authenticity is not certain ([[Wael Hallaq]]);<ref name="EoQ" /> the hadith are in a category 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 tolerance (Peters and Vries describing argument of Islamic Modernists).<ref name=peters-apostasy-15>{{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=15 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref>
*** 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),<ref name="Ghilan-2014"/> (Adil Salahi),{{#tag:ref|"The sunnah, which is consistent with the Qur'an, reserves the death penalty for those who apostatised ''and'' treasonously fought against the Muslims"<ref>Adil Salahi, Muhammad: Man and the Prophet (2002) 603–632.;quoted in {{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Asimi |chapter=8. Apostasy in Islam and the Freedom of Religion in International Law |pages=152–171 |title=Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights |year=2012 |publisher=University of Adelaide Press |jstor=10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |isbn=9780987171801 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=14 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114033301/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13 |url-status=live }}</ref>|group=Note}} or collective conspiracy and treason against the government (Enayatullah Subhani),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Subhani|first1=M E Asad|title=apostasy in islam|date=2005|publisher=Global Media|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-8188869114|pages=65|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9awNGOO9QoC&pg=PA21|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=23 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201538/https://books.google.com/books?id=K9awNGOO9QoC&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> ([[Mahmud Shaltut]]);{{#tag:ref|the prescription of death penalty for apostasy found in hadith was aimed at prevention of aggression against Muslims and sedition against the state<ref name=Kamali/>|group=Note}} 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).<ref name="Brown-issue">{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Jonathan |title=The Issue of Apostasy in Islam |url=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam |website=yaqeen institute |access-date=8 December 2020 |date=5 July 2017 |archive-date=12 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212130948/https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The punishment or lack for apostasy should reflect the circumstances of the Muslim community which is very different now then 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).<ref name="Brown-issue"/>
** 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.);<ref>{{cite book |first1=Abdullahi Ahmed |last1=An-Na'im |chapter=Islamic Foundations of Religious Human Rights |editor1=John Witte |editor2=Johan D. Van Der Vyver |title=Religious Human Rights in global perspective: religious perspectives |location=The Hague |publisher=Kluwer Law International |date=1996 |pages=356–357 |isbn=9041116184 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&q=premise+and+reasoning+underlying+the+sunna+rule+of+death+penalty+for+apostasy&pg=PA212 |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201506/https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&q=premise+and+reasoning+underlying+the+sunna+rule+of+death+penalty+for+apostasy&pg=PA212#v=snippet&q=premise%20and%20reasoning%20underlying%20the%20sunna%20rule%20of%20death%20penalty%20for%20apostasy&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Brems-2001-212">{{cite book |last1=Brems |first1=Eva |title=Human Rights: Universality and Diversity |date=2001 |publisher=Springer |page=212 |isbn=978-9041116185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&dq=apostasy+and+human+rights&pg=PA210 |access-date=12 December 2020 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407085134/https://books.google.com/books?id=INlkqsHpIFEC&dq=apostasy+and+human+rights&pg=PA210 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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]]);<ref name=Kamali/> it's a man-made rule enacted in the early Islamic community to prevent and punish the equivalent of desertion or treason (John Esposito);<ref name="auto3"/> it is probable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad during early Islam to combat political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims, those who desert Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim community, and is not intended for those who simply change their belief, converting to another religion after investigation and research (Ayatollah [[Hussein-Ali Montazeri]]).<ref name=Jami/>
** 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]]);<ref name="Aslan-81">{{cite book|last1=Aslan|first1=Reza|title=No god but God (Updated Edition): The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam|date=2011|publisher=Random House|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VRmSGOjiE2oC|isbn=978-0679643777|access-date=25 November 2015|archive-date=23 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201507/https://books.google.com/books?id=VRmSGOjiE2oC|url-status=live}}</ref> and every religion "underpinned the political and social order within ... the states they established" (Jonathan Brown);<ref name="Brown-issue"/> "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."<ref name="Aslan-81"/>
*** 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]]);<ref name="Aslan-81"/> Jews who abandoned the God of Israel to worship other deities "were condemned to stoning" (Jonathan Brown).<ref name="Brown-issue"/>
** Transcending tribalism with religious (Islamic) unity could mean prevention of civil war in Muhammad's era, so to violate religious unity meant violating civil peace (Mohamed Ghilan).<ref name="Ghilan-2014"/>
** Capital punishment for apostasy is a time-bound command, applying only to those Arabs who denied the truth even after having Muhammad himself explain and clarify it to them ([[Javed Ahmad Ghamidi]]).<ref name=Ghamidi>{{Cite journal |first=Javed Ahmad |last=Ghamidi |author-link=Javed Ahmad Ghamidi |date=November 1996 |title=The Punishment for Apostasy |url=http://www.renaissance.com.pk/novsps966.html |journal=Renaissance |volume=6 |issue=11 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705140814/http://www.renaissance.com.pk/novsps966.html |archivedate=5 July 2008 }}</ref>
** 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);<ref name="ahmad-2005-139"/> these days, the number of apostates is small, and does not politically threaten the Islamic community (Christine Schirrmacher describing the "liberal" position on apostasy);<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-86"/> it should be enforced only if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder (''[[Fitna (word)|fitna]]'') (Ahmet Albayrak).<ref name= "autogenerated526">{{cite book |editor-last=Leaman |editor-first=Oliver |editor-link=Oliver Leaman |year=2006 |title=The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isDgI0-0Ip4C |location=London and New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |pages=526–527 |isbn=9780415775298}}</ref>
* 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),<ref name="Rehman-3-2010-4">{{cite journal |last1=Rehman |first1=Javaid |title=Freedom of expression, apostasy, and blasphemy within Islam: Sharia, criminal justice systems, and modern Islamic state practices |url=https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/09627250903569841.pdf |journal=Centre for Crime and Justice Studies |access-date=8 January 2021 |page=4 |date=March 2010 |archive-date=9 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109193322/https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/09627250903569841.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> which is hardly something worthy of imitating.
* 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 apostatize from their current faith and convert to Islam (Non-Muslims and liberal Muslims).

===Middle way===
At least some conservative jurists and preachers have attempted to reconcile following the traditional doctrine of death for apostasy while addressing the principle of freedom of religion. Some of whom argue apostasy should have a lesser penalty than death.<ref name= hassanibrahim/><ref name= dforte2/><ref name=smz/><ref name=fkazemi/>

At a 2009-human rights conference at Mofid University in [[Qom]], Iran, Ayatollah [[Mohsen 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".<ref name="kadri-249">{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia|date=2012|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0099523277|page=249|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC|access-date=27 November 2015|archive-date=23 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201507/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Zakir Naik]], the Indian [[Islamic televangelist]] and [[Da'i|preacher]]<ref name="Shukla"/> takes a less strict line (mentioned above), stating that only those Muslims who "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam" after converting from Islam should be put to death.<ref name="hp10"/><ref name="Mazumdar"/>

While not speaking to the issue of executing apostates, [[Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah]], an Egyptian Islamic advisory, justiciary and governmental body, issued a fatwa in the case of an Egyptian Christian convert to Islam but "sought to return to Christianity", stating: "Those who embraced Islam voluntarily and without coercion cannot later deviate from the public order of society by revealing their act of apostasy because such behavior would discourage other people from embracing Islam." (The Egyptian court followed the fatwa.)<ref name="Ezzat-2020">Administrative court, judicial year 61, case 1318, decision 8 January 2008; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Ezzat |first1=Ahmed |title=Law and Moral Regulation in Modern Egypt: Hisba from Tradition to Modernity |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |date=November 2020 |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=665–684 |doi=10.1017/S002074382000080X |s2cid=224988970 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==In practice: historical impact==
===From the Middle Ages to the early modern period===
The charge of apostasy has often been used by religious authorities to condemn and punish skeptics, dissidents, and minorities in their communities.<ref name=juancampo/> From the earliest times of the [[history of Islam]], the crime of apostasy and execution for apostasy has driven major events in the development of the Islamic religion. For example, the [[Ridda wars]] (civil wars of apostasy) shook the Muslim community in 632–633 AD, immediately after the [[death of Muhammad]].<ref name=juancampo/><ref>Silverman, A. L. (2002), "Just War, jihad, and terrorism: a comparison of Western and Islamic norms for the use of political violence", Journal Ch. & State, 44, pp. 73–89</ref> These [[First Fitna|sectarian wars]] caused the [[Shia–Sunni relations|split between the two major sects of Islam]]: [[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]] and [[Shia Islam|Shias]], and numerous deaths on both sides.<ref>Wilferd Madelung, ''The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0521646963}}</ref><ref>Barnaby Rogerson (2007), ''The Heirs of Muhammad: Islam's First Century and the Origins of the Sunni-Shia Split'', {{ISBN|978-1585678969}}</ref> Sunni and Shia sects of Islam have long accused each other of apostasy.<ref>Lesley Hazleton, ''After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam'', {{ISBN|978-0385523943}}, pp. 76–78</ref>

The charge of apostasy dates back to the [[early history of Islam]] with the emergence of the [[Kharijites]] in the 7th century CE.<ref name="Izutsu 2006">{{cite book |last=Izutsu |first=Toshihiko |author-link=Toshihiko Izutsu |year=2006 |orig-date=1965 |title=The Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology: A Semantic Analysis of Imān and Islām |chapter=The Infidel (''Kāfir''): The Khārijites and the origin of the problem |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDxHG5MtLawC&pg=PA1 |location=[[Tokyo]] |publisher=Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies at [[Keio University]] |pages=1–20 |isbn=9839154702 |access-date=26 July 2022 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220134/https://books.google.com/books?id=PDxHG5MtLawC&pg=PA1 |url-status=live }}</ref> The original schism between [[Kharijites]], [[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]], and [[Shia Islam|Shias]] among [[Muslims]] was disputed over the [[Succession to Muhammad|political and religious succession]] to the guidance of the [[Ummah|Muslim community]] (''Ummah'') after the death of Muhammad.<ref name="Izutsu 2006"/> From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims.<ref name="Izutsu 2006"/> Shias believe [[Ali|ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib]] is the true successor to Muhammad, while Sunnis consider [[Abu Bakr]] to hold that position. The Kharijites broke away from both the Shias and the Sunnis during the [[First Fitna]] (the first Islamic Civil War);<ref name="Izutsu 2006"/> they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to ''[[Takfir|takfīr]]'' (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunni and Shia Muslims to be either [[Kafir|infidels]] (''kuffār'') or [[Munafiq|false Muslims]] (''munāfiḳūn''), and therefore deemed them [[Capital punishment in Islam|worthy of death]] for their perceived apostasy (''ridda'').<ref name="Izutsu 2006"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/another-battle-with-islams-true-believers/article20802390/|title=Another battle with Islam's 'true believers'|last=Khan|first=Sheema|date=12 May 2018|website=The Globe and Mail|publisher=The Globe and Mail Opinion|access-date=19 April 2020|archive-date=19 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119055307/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/another-battle-with-islams-true-believers/article20802390/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-balance-of-islam-in-challenging-extremism.pdf|title=The Balance of Islam in Challenging Extremism|last=Hasan|first=Usama|date=2012|website=Quiliam Foundation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140802045255/http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-balance-of-islam-in-challenging-extremism.pdf|archive-date=2 August 2014|access-date=2015-11-17}}</ref>

[[File:Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo 009.jpg|thumb|upright=1.24|[[Saint Roderick|Roderick]] is venerated in Christianity as one of the [[Martyrs of Córdoba]]]]
Modern historians recognize that the Christian populations living in the [[Early Muslim conquests|lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies]] between the 7th and 10th centuries AD suffered [[Persecution of Christians|religious persecution]], [[religious violence]], and [[Martyrdom in Christianity|martyrdom]] multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers;<ref name="Runciman 1987">{{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |year=1987 |orig-year=1951 |chapter=The Reign of Antichrist |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDj9sNezWzEC&pg=PA20 |title=[[A History of the Crusades|A History of the Crusades, Volume 1: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem]] |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=20–37 |isbn=978-0521347709 |access-date=26 July 2022 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201507/https://books.google.com/books?id=uDj9sNezWzEC&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Sahner 2020">{{cite book |last=Sahner |first=Christian C. |year=2020 |orig-year=2018 |title=Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World |chapter=Introduction: Christian Martyrs under Islam |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] and [[Woodstock, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=1–28 |isbn=978-0691179100 |lccn=2017956010 |access-date=26 July 2022 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201512/https://books.google.com/books?id=TZqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Fierro 2008">{{cite journal |author-last=Fierro |author-first=Maribel |date=January 2008 |title=Decapitation of Christians and Muslims in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula: Narratives, Images, Contemporary Perceptions |journal=[[Comparative Literature Studies]] |volume=45 |issue=2: ''Al-Andalus and Its Legacies'' |location=[[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] |publisher=[[Penn State University Press]] |pages=137–164 |doi=10.2307/complitstudies.45.2.0137 |issn=1528-4212 |jstor=25659647 |s2cid=161217907|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Trombley 1996">{{cite journal |author-last=Trombley |author-first=Frank R. |date=Winter 1996 |title=''The Martyrs of Córdoba: Community and Family Conflict in an Age of Mass Conversion'' (review) |journal=[[Journal of Early Christian Studies]] |volume=4 |issue=4 |location=[[Baltimore, Maryland]] |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |pages=581–582 |doi=10.1353/earl.1996.0079 |issn=1086-3184 |s2cid=170001371 }}</ref> many [[Capital punishment in Islam|were executed under the Islamic death penalty]] for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent [[Conversion to Christianity|reconversion to Christianity]], and [[Islam and blasphemy|blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs]].<ref name="Sahner 2020"/><ref name="Fierro 2008"/><ref name="Trombley 1996"/> Notable Christian converts to Islam who reportedly reverted to Christianity and were executed under the Islamic death penalty for this reason include "Kyros", who was [[Death by burning|executed by burning]] in 769 CE, "Holy Elias" in 795 CE, and "Holy Bacchus" in 806 CE.<ref name="Khoury 1994: 101–192">Khoury, Adel Theodoro. 1994. Christen unterm Halbmond. Religiöse Minderheiten unter der Herrschaft des Islams. Freiburg: Herder, pp. 101–192; quoted in {{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Christine |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |page=82 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=6 January 2021 |chapter=Leaving Islam |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108155642/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref> The martyrdoms of forty-eight Christian martyrs that took place in the [[Emirate of Córdoba]] between 850 and 859 CE<ref name="Graves 1964">{{cite journal |author-last=Graves |author-first=Coburn V. |date=November 1964 |title=''The Martyrs of Cordoba, 850–859. A Study of the Sources'' (review) |journal=[[The Hispanic American Historical Review]] |volume=44 |issue=4 |location=[[Durham, North Carolina]] |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] on behalf of the [[Conference on Latin American History]] |page=644 |doi=10.1215/00182168-44.4.644 |doi-access=free |issn=1527-1900 |s2cid=227325750}}</ref> are recorded in the [[Hagiography|hagiographical treatise]] written by the Iberian Christian and Latinist scholar [[Eulogius of Córdoba]].<ref name="Sahner 2020"/><ref name="Fierro 2008"/><ref name="Trombley 1996"/> The [[Martyrs of Córdoba]] were executed under the rule of [[Abd al-Rahman II]] and [[Muhammad I of Córdoba|Muhammad I]], and Eulogius' hagiography describes in detail the executions of the martyrs for capital violations of Islamic law, including apostasy and [[Islam and blasphemy|blasphemy]].<ref name="Sahner 2020"/><ref name="Fierro 2008"/><ref name="Trombley 1996"/>

Historian [[David Cook (historian)|David Cook]] writes that "it is only with the [[Abbasid|'Abbasi]] caliphs al-Mu'taṣim (218–28 AH/833–42 CE) and al-Mutawakkil (233–47 /847–61) that we find detailed accounts" of apostates and what was done with them. Prior to that, in the [[Umayyad]] and early Abbasid periods, measures to defend Islam from apostasy "appear to have mostly remained limited to intellectual debates"<ref name=cook-2006-JSAI-256-276-277>{{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Cook |date=2006 |title=Apostasy from Islam – A Historical Perspective |journal=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies |volume=31 |pages=256, 276–277 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203830/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> He also states that "the most common category of apostates" – at least of apostates who converted to another religion – "from the very first days of Islam" were "Christians and Jews who converted to Islam and after some time" reconverted back to their former faith.<ref name=cook-2006-JSAI-256>{{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Cook |date=2006 |title=Apostasy from Islam – A Historical Perspective |journal=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies |volume=31 |page=256 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203830/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some sources emphasize that executions of apostates have been "rare in Islamic history".<ref name="ELLIOTT-3-26-2006"/> According to historian [[Bernard Lewis]], in "religious polemic" in the "early times" of Islam, "charges of apostasy were not unusual", but the accused were seldom prosecuted, and "some even held high offices in the Muslim state". Later, "as the rules and penalties of the Muslim law were systematized and more regularly enforced, charges of apostasy became rarer."<ref name="Lewis-229">{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Bernard|title=The Middle East: a Brief History of the Last 2000 Years|date=1995|publisher=Touchstone|isbn=978-0684832807|page=229}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Lewis-229"/> Another source, legal historian [[Sadakat Kadri]], argues execution was rare because "it was widely believed" that any accused apostate "who repented by articulating the ''[[shahada]]'' [...] had to be forgiven" and their punishment delayed until after Judgement Day. This principle was upheld "even in extreme situations", such as when an offender adopted Islam "only for fear of death" and their sincerity seemed highly implausible. It was based on the hadith that Muhammad had upbraided a follower for killing a raider who had uttered the ''[[shahada]]''.{{#tag:ref|Muhammad had been unimpressed by claims that the dead man had adopted Islam only for fear of death. 'Who will absolve you, Usama,` he asked the killer repeatedly, for ignoring the confession of faith?`" source: ibn Ishaq, ''Life of Muhammad'', p. 667; al-Bukhari, 5.59.568; Muslim 1.176<ref>[http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/forty_hadith_merits_tahlil.htm#_ftnref28 Forty Hadiths on the Merit of Saying La Ilaha Illallah] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904045814/http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/forty_hadith_merits_tahlil.htm |date=4 September 2015 }}| Compiled by Dr. G.F. Haddad| (Hadith 26, Narrated by Bukhari, Muslim, Ahmad, Tayalisi, Abu Dawud, Nasa'i, al-'Adni, Abu 'Awana, al-Tahawi, al-Hakim, and Bayhaqi.)</ref><ref name="kadri-239">{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia|date=2012|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0099523277|page=239|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC|access-date=27 November 2015|archive-date=23 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201507/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC|url-status=live}}</ref>|group=Note}}

''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'' also 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.<ref name=Glasse>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=focLrox-frUC&pg=PA492|title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam|author1=Cyril Glassé|author2-link=Huston Smith|author2=Huston Smith|publisher=[[Rowman Altamira]]|page=492|isbn=978-0759101906|year=2003}}</ref>

In contrast, historian David Cook maintains the issue of apostasy and punishment for it was not uncommon in Islamic history. However, he also states that prior to 11th century execution seems rare he gives an example of a Jew who had converted to Islam and used the threat of reverting to Judaism in order to gain better treatment and privilege.<ref name=cook-2006-JSAI>{{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Cook |date=2006 |title=Apostasy from Islam – A Historical Perspective |journal=J Studies Arabic Islam |volume=31 |pages=254–255, 267–268, 277, 248–279 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203830/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10180565.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[Zindīq]]'' (often a "blanket phrase" for "intellectuals" under suspicion of having abandoned Islam" or [[freethought|freethinker]], atheist or heretic who conceal their religion),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stroumsa |first1=Sarah |author1-link=Sarah Stroumsa|title=Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn Al-Rāwandī, Abū Bakr Al-Rāzī, and Their Impact on Islamic Thought |date=1999 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-9004315471|doi=10.1163/9789004452848}}</ref> experienced a wave of persecutions from 779 to 786. A history of those times states:<ref name=Glasse/>

{{Blockquote|"Tolerance is laudable", the Spiller (the Caliph [[As-Saffah|Abu al-Abbās]]) had once said, "except in matters dangerous to religious beliefs, or to the Sovereign's dignity."<ref name=Glasse/>

[[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.<ref name=Glasse/>}}

The famous Sufi mystic of 10th-century Iraq, [[Al-Hallaj|Mansur Al-Hallaj]] was officially executed for possessing a heretical document suggesting [[hajj]] pilgrimage was not required of a pure Muslim (i.e. killed for heresy which made him an apostate), but 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.<ref name="kadri-237">{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia|date=2012|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780099523277|page=237|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC|access-date=27 November 2015|archive-date=23 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223201507/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC|url-status=live}}</ref> (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'i]]te judge had ruled that his words were not "proof of disbelief."<ref name="kadri-237"/>)

In 12th-century Iran, [[Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi|al-Suhrawardi]] along with followers of Ismaili sect of Islam were killed on charges of being apostates;<ref name=juancampo/> in 14th-century Syria, [[Ibn Taymiyyah]] declared Central Asian Turko-Mongol Muslims as apostates due to the invasion of Ghazan Khan;<ref>Robert Burns (2011), ''Christianity, Islam, and the West'', University Press, {{ISBN|978-0761855590}}, pp. 61–67</ref> 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 although historians agree it was more political than a religious execution.<ref>{{cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|page=183|isbn=978-0816054541}}</ref>

===Colonial era and after===
{{See also|Anti-Christian sentiment in the Middle East|Christianity in the Middle East|Conversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosques|Persecution of Christians by ISIL}}

From around 1800 up until 1970, there were only a few cases of [[Capital punishment in Islam|executions of apostates in the Muslim world]], including the strangling of a woman in [[Ottoman Egypt]] (sometime between 1825 and 1835), and the beheading of an Armenian youth in the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1843.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> [[Western world|Western powers]] campaigned intensely for a prohibition on the execution of apostates in the Ottoman Empire.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=October 2024}} British envoy to the court of Sultan [[Abdulmejid I]] (1839–1861), Stratford Canning, led diplomatic representatives from Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France in a "tug of war" with the Ottoman government.<ref name="Schirrmacher-2020-83">{{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Christine |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |page=83 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=6 January 2021 |chapter=Leaving Islam |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108155642/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/43466/external_content.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref> In the end (following the execution of the Armenian), the Sublime Porte agreed to allow "complete freedom of Christian missionaries" to try to convert Muslims in the Empire.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> The death sentence for apostasy from Islam was abolished by the [[Edict of Toleration 1844|Edict of Toleration]], and substituted with other forms of punishment by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman government]] in 1844. The implementation of this ban was resisted by religious officials and proved difficult.<ref name=selimderingi>Selim Deringi (2012), Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-1107004559}}, Chapter 1 and 2</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Cyril |last=Glassé |year=2001 |title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam |publisher=AltaMira |page=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopediao0000glas/page/54 54] |location=[[Walnut Creek, California]] |isbn=978-0759101890 |oclc=48553252 |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopediao0000glas/page/54 }}</ref> A series of edicts followed during the [[Tanzimat|Ottoman Reformist period]], such as the [[Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856|1856 Reform Edict]].

This was also the time that Islamic modernists like [[Muhammad Abduh]] (d. 1905) argued that to be executed, it was not enough to be an apostate, the perpetrator had to pose a real threat to public safety.<ref name="Parolin-2009-121"/> Islamic scholars like [[Rashid Rida|Muhammad Rashid Rida]] (d. 1935) and [[Mohammed al-Ghazali|Muhammad al-Ghazzali]] (d. 1996), on the other hand, asserted that public, explicit apostasy automatically tened public order, and hence, punishable by death.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=October 2024}} These scholars reconciled the Qur'anic verse [[Al-Baqara 256|"There is no compulsion in religion"]] by arguing that freedom of religion in Islam doesn't extend for Muslims who seek to change their religion.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=October 2024}} Other authors like 'Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi, [[S. A. Rahman]], etc. assert that capital punishment for apostasy is contradictory to freedom of religion and need to be banished.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Peters, J. J. De Vries|first=Rudolph, Gert|date=1976–1977|title=Apostasy in Islam|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1570336|journal=Die Welt des Islams|publisher=Brill Publishers|volume=17|issue=1/4|pages=21–22|doi=10.2307/1570336|jstor=1570336|quote="The first method is used by those who are of the opinion that freedom of religion, as guaranteed by Islam, is embodied in the right of unbelievers to practise their religion freely without being forced to give it up or change it, excluding,....the freedom for Moslems to change their religion. Muhammad Rashid Rida excludes freedom to apostatize expressis verbis with the argument that apostasy infringes on the freedom of others and on the respect due to the religion of the State. Muhammad al-Ghazali does the same, using the reductio ad absurdum as an argument: "Must Islam allow rebellion against itself? No religion of a similar nature will readily answer in the affirmative... 'Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi and S.A. Rahman, follow the other method of escaping from the contradiction. They state unequivocally that capital punishment for the apostate is not compatible with freedom of religion and... must therefore be abolished"|access-date=29 August 2014|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312104058/http://www.jstor.org/stable/1570336|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[File:Kharput Greek-Orthodox refugees - C.D.Morris - National Geographic, Nov. 1925.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|[[Greeks|Greek]] [[Greek Orthodox Church|Christians]] in 1922, fleeing from their homes in [[Elazığ|Kharput]] and moving to [[Trabzon|Trebizond]]. In the 1910s and 1920s, the [[Armenian genocide|Armenian]], [[Greek genocide|Greek]], and [[Seyfo|Assyrian]] [[Genocides in history#Ottoman Empire/Turkey|genocides]] were perpetrated by the [[Ottoman Empire]] and its successor state, the [[Republic of Turkey]].{{refn|<ref name="Bulut 2024">{{cite magazine |last=Bulut |first=Uzay |date=30 August 2024 |title=Turkey: Ongoing Violations against Greek Christians |url=https://europeanconservative.com/articles/analysis/turkey-ongoing-violations-against-greek-christians/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[The European Conservative]] |location=[[Budapest]], [[Brussels]], [[Rome]], [[Vienna]] |publisher=[[Center for European Renewal]] |issn=2590-2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240830090504/https://europeanconservative.com/articles/analysis/turkey-ongoing-violations-against-greek-christians/ |archive-date=30 August 2024 |access-date=30 August 2024}}</ref><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2021">{{cite news |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |author1-link=Benny Morris |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |author2-link=Dror Ze'evi |date=4 November 2021 |title=Then Came the Chance the Turks Have Been Waiting For: To Get Rid of Christians Once and for All |url=https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-then-came-the-chance-the-turks-have-been-waiting-for-to-get-rid-of-christians-1.10354739 |url-status=live |work=[[Haaretz]] |location=[[Tel Aviv]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104172307/https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-then-came-the-chance-the-turks-have-been-waiting-for-to-get-rid-of-christians-1.10354739 |archive-date=4 November 2021 |access-date=5 November 2021}}</ref><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2019">{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |year=2019 |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |pages=3–5 |isbn=978-0-674-24008-7}}</ref><ref name="Gutman 2019">{{cite journal |author-last=Gutman |author-first=David |year=2019 |title=The thirty year genocide: Turkey's destruction of its Christian minorities, 1894–1924 |journal=[[Turkish Studies]] |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] on behalf of the Global Research in International Affairs Center |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1080/14683849.2019.1644170 |eissn=1743-9663 |issn=1468-3849 |s2cid=201424062}}</ref><ref name="Smith 2015">{{cite journal |author-last=Smith |author-first=Roger W. |date=Spring 2015 |title=Introduction: The Ottoman Genocides of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks |journal=Genocide Studies International |location=[[Toronto]] |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |doi=10.3138/GSI.9.1.01 |issn=2291-1855 |jstor=26986011 |s2cid=154145301}}</ref><ref name="Roshwald 2013">{{cite book |author-last=Roshwald |author-first=Aviel |author-link=Aviel Roshwald |year=2013 |chapter=Part II. The Emergence of Nationalism: Politics and Power – Nationalism in the Middle East, 1876–1945 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlNoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 |editor-last=Breuilly |editor-first=John |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=220–241 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199209194.013.0011 |isbn=9780191750304 |access-date=January 2, 2023 |archive-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115215620/https://books.google.com/books?id=IlNoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Üngör 2008">{{cite journal |author-last=Üngör |author-first=Uğur Ümit |author-link=Uğur Ümit Üngör |date=June 2008 |title=Seeing like a nation-state: Young Turk social engineering in Eastern Turkey, 1913–50 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=15–39 |doi=10.1080/14623520701850278 |issn=1469-9494 |oclc=260038904 |s2cid=71551858}}</ref><ref name="İçduygu 2008">{{cite journal |last1=İçduygu |first1=Ahmet |last2=Toktaş |first2=Şule |last3=Ali Soner |first3=B. |date=February 2008 |title=The politics of population in a nation-building process: Emigration of non-Muslims from Turkey |url=https://www.academia.edu/761694 |journal=[[Ethnic and Racial Studies]] |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=358–389 |doi=10.1080/01419870701491937 |issn=1466-4356 |oclc=40348219 |s2cid=143541451 |via=[[Academia.edu]] |access-date=August 2, 2020 |archive-date=March 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325053206/https://www.academia.edu/761694/The_Politics_of_Population_in_a_Nation_Building_Process_Emigration_of_Non-Muslims_from_Turkey |url-status=live |hdl=11729/308 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>}}]]
Efforts to convert Muslims to other religions were extremely unpopular with the Muslim community.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=October 2024}} Despite these edicts on apostasy, 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]].<ref name=selimderingi/> 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 the [[Hamidian massacres]] and [[late Ottoman genocides]] in 1894 against Christians,{{refn|<ref name="Bulut 2024"/><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2021"/><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2019"/><ref name="Gutman 2019"/><ref name="Smith 2015"/><ref name="Roshwald 2013"/><ref name="Üngör 2008"/><ref name="İçduygu 2008"/>}} particularly the [[Genocides in history#Ottoman Empire/Turkey|genocides of]] [[Armenian genocide|Armenians]], [[Greek genocide|Greeks]], [[Assyrian genocide|Assyrians]], and [[Crypto-Christianity|crypto-Christian]] apostates from Islam in Turkey (Stavriotes, Kromlides).{{refn|<ref name="Bulut 2024"/><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2021"/><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2019"/><ref name="Gutman 2019"/><ref name="Smith 2015"/><ref name="Roshwald 2013"/><ref name="Üngör 2008"/><ref name="İçduygu 2008"/>}}<ref>Angold, Michael (2006), "Eastern Christianity", in Editor: O'Mahony, ''Cambridge History of Christianity'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0521811132}}, pp. 510–517</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1896/12/18/archives/fifty-thousand-orphans-made-so-by-the-turkish-massacres-of.html Fifty Thousand Orphans – Made So by the Turkish Massacres of Armenians] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109202655/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C00EED7103BEE33A2575BC1A9649D94679ED7CF |date=9 November 2012 }} New York Times (17 December 1895)</ref><ref>William Cleveland (2000), ''A History of the Modern Middle East'' (2nd ed.), {{ISBN|0813334896}}, pp. 108–127</ref>{{nonspecific|date=July 2015}}

In the colonial era, the death penalty for apostasy was abolished in Islamic countries that had come under Western rule or in places, such as the Ottoman Empire, Western powers could apply enough pressure to abolish it.<ref name=jstor-1570336/> Writing in the mid-1970s, Rudolph Peters and Gert J. J. De Vries stated that "apostasy no longer falls under criminal law"<ref name=jstor-1570336/> in the Muslim world, but that some Muslims (such as 'Adb al-Qadir 'Awdah) were preaching that "the killing of an apostate" had "become a duty of individual Moslems" (rather than a less important collective duty in ''[[hisbah]]'' doctrine) and giving advice on how to plead in court after being arrested for such a murder to avoid punishment.<ref name="Apostasy in Islam">'Abd al-Qadir 'Awdah, ''al-tashri al-djina'i al-Islam muqaran bi-al-qanun al-wadi'', Bayrut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi, n.d. 2 volumes; v. 1 pp. 535–538; quoted in {{cite journal|last1=Peters |first1=Rudolph |last2=Vries |first2=Gert J. J. De |title=Apostasy in Islam |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |page=17 |doi= 10.2307/1570336 |jstor=1570336}}</ref>

Some (Louay M. Safi), have argued that this situation, with the adoption of "European legal codes ... enforced by state elites without any public debate", created an identification of tolerance with foreign/alien control in the mind of the Muslim public, and rigid literalist interpretations (such as the execution of apostates), with authenticity and legitimacy. Autocratic rulers "often align themselves with traditional religious scholars" to deflect grassroots discontent, which took the form of angry pious traditionalists.<ref name="SAFI-2006"/>

== In practice in the recent past ==
While as of 2004 apostasy from Islam is a capital offence in only eight majority-Muslim states,<ref name="locapo" /> in other states that do not directly execute apostates, apostate killing is sometimes facilitated through [[honor killing|extrajudicial killings performed by the apostate's family]], particularly if the apostate is vocal.{{#tag:ref| examples of countries where the government does not facilitate extra-judicial killings are [[Turkey]], [[Israel]], and parts of [[India]].<ref>{{Citation |last1= Miller |first1= Duane Alexander |title= Living among the Breakage: Contextual Theology-Making and Ex-Muslim Christians |publisher= PhD Thesis, School of Divinity, University of Edingburg |place= Edinburg, UK |year= 2014}}, p. 59.</ref>|group=Note}} In some countries, it is not uncommon for "vigilante" Muslims to kill or attempt to kill apostates or alleged apostates, in the belief they are enforcing sharia law that the government has failed to.
[[File:Apostasy laws world map.svg|thumb|350px|Penalties for apostasy in Muslim-majority countries as of 2020.<ref name="locapo">[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/apostasy/apostasy.pdf Laws Criminalizing Apostasy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011180050/http://www.loc.gov/law/help/apostasy/apostasy.pdf|date=11 October 2017}} Library of Congress (2014)</ref> Many other Muslim countries impose a prison term for apostasy or they prosecute it under [[Blasphemy law|blasphemy]] or other laws.<ref>[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/ Which countries still outlaw apostasy and blasphemy?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160725201505/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/ |date=25 July 2016 }} Pew Research Center, United States (May 2014)</ref>]]

=== Background ===
More than 20 Muslim-majority states have laws that punish apostasy by Muslims to be a crime some de facto other de jure.<ref name=locapo/> As of 2014, apostasy was a capital offense in Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.<ref name=locapo/> 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.<ref name=locapo/><ref name="ELLIOTT-3-26-2006"/> In Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen apostasy laws have been used to charge persons for acts other than conversion.<ref name=locapo/> In addition, some predominantly Islamic countries without laws specifically addressing apostasy have prosecuted individuals or minorities for apostasy using broadly-defined blasphemy laws.<ref name="pewresearch.org">[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/ Which countries still outlaw apostasy and blasphemy?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006183139/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/ |date=6 October 2014 }} Pew Research Center, United States (May 2014)</ref> 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, i.e. violate the norms of [[sharia]] (Islamic law). This principle has been used in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and others to bring blasphemy charges against apostates.<ref>Nancy Gallagher (2005), ''Apostasy, Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures: Family, Law and Politics'', Editors: Suad Joseph and Afsāna Naǧmābādī, {{ISBN|978-9004128187}}, pp. 7–9</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40580196|title=Pakistan's secret atheists|work=BBC News|date=12 July 2017|access-date=19 April 2021|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419141342/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40580196|url-status=live}}</ref>

The source of most violence or threats of violence against apostate has come from outside of state judicial systems in the Muslim world in recent years, either from extralegal acts by government authorities or from other individuals or groups operating unrestricted by the government.<ref name=marshall20080410>Paul Marshall and Nina Shea (2011), ''Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy codes are choking freedom worldwide'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0199812288}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2015}} There has also been social persecution for Muslims converting to Christianity. For example, the Christian organisation [[Barnabas Fund]] reports:
{{Blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Barnabas Fund]] |title=The Application of the Apostasy Law in the World Today |url=http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/The-Application-of-the-Apostasy-Law-in-the-World-Today.html |date=3 July 2007 |access-date=15 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028161516/http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/The-Application-of-the-Apostasy-Law-in-the-World-Today.html |archive-date=28 October 2010}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=October 2009}}}}

Similar views are expressed by the non-theistic [[International Humanist and Ethical Union]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Azam |last=Kamguian |date=21 June 2005 |title=The Fate of Infidels and Apostates under Islam |url=http://www.iheu.org/node/1540 |publisher=[[International Humanist and Ethical Union]] |access-date=15 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927070417/http://www.iheu.org/node/1540 |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref> Author [[Mohsin Hamid]] points out that the logic of widely accepted claim that anyone helping an apostate is themselves an apostate, is a powerful weapon in spreading fear among those who oppose the killings (in at least the country of Pakistan). It means that a doctor who agrees to treat an apostate wounded by attacker(s), or a police officer who has agreed to protect that doctor after they have been threatened is also an apostate – "and on and on".<ref name="fear">{{cite news |last1=Hamid |first1=Mohsin |title=Fear and silence |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/844186 |access-date=10 December 2020 |agency=Dawn |date=27 Jun 2010 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803225901/https://www.dawn.com/news/844186 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Contemporary [[Liberalism and progressivism within Islam|reformist/liberal Muslims]] such as [[Quranism|Quranist]] [[Ahmed Subhy Mansour]],<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-169138045 |title=Anti-al Qaeda base envisioned; Exiled Egyptian cleric seeking to reclaim Islam in 'war of ideas' |work=The Washington Times |date=26 September 2007 |access-date=6 February 2010}}</ref> [[Edip Yuksel]], and [[Mohammed Shahrour]] have suffered from accusations of apostasy and demands to execute them, issued by Islamic clerics such as Mahmoud Ashur, Mustafa Al-Shak'a, Mohammed Ra'fat Othman and Yusif Al-Badri.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=17&article=433774&issueno=10495|title=علماء أزهريون: القرآنيون مرتدون.. والأدلة من الكتاب المقدس تدينهم|work=Asharq Al-Awsat|access-date=12 November 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112041202/http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=17&article=433774&issueno=10495|archive-date=12 November 2013}}</ref>

===Apostate communities===
;Christian apostates from Islam
Regarding Muslim converts to Christianity, Duane Alexander Miller (2016) identified two different categories:
# 'Muslims followers of Jesus Christ', 'Jesus Muslims' or 'Messianic Muslims' (analogous to [[Messianic Judaism|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".
# '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 '[[heterodoxy|heterodox]] Muslims', '[[heresy|heretical]] Muslims' or '[[Crypto-Christianity|crypto-Christian]] liars').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Duane Alexander |date=2016 |title=Living among the Breakage: Contextual Theology-Making and Ex-Muslim Christians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WeE3DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |pages=49–52 |isbn=978-1498284165}}</ref>

;Atheist apostates from Islam
Writing in 2015, Ahmed Benchemsi argued that while Westerners have great difficulty even conceiving of the existence of an Arab atheist, "a generational dynamic" is underway with "large numbers" of young people brought up as Muslims "tilting away from ... rote religiosity" after having "personal doubts" about the "illogicalities" of the Quran and Sunnah.<ref name=TNR-Benchemsi-2015/> Immigrant apostates from Islam in Western countries "converting" to Atheism have often gathered for comfort in [[List of ex-Muslim organisations|groups]] such as Women in Secularism, [[Ex-Muslims of North America]], [[Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain]],<ref name="Leaving Oppenheimer NYT 23-5-2014"/> sharing tales of the tension and anxieties of "leaving a close-knit belief-based community" and confronting "parental disappointment", "rejection by friends and relatives", and charges of "trying to assimilate into a Western culture that despises them", often using terminology first uttered by the LGBT community – "'coming out,' and leaving 'the closet'".<ref name="Leaving Oppenheimer NYT 23-5-2014">{{cite news |last1=Oppenheimer |first1=Mark |title=Leaving Islam for Atheism, and Finding a Much-Needed Place Among Peers |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/24/us/leaving-islam-for-atheism-and-finding-a-much-needed-place-among-peers.html |access-date=16 February 2021 |agency=New York Times |date=23 May 2014 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223202036/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/24/us/leaving-islam-for-atheism-and-finding-a-much-needed-place-among-peers.html?searchResultPosition=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Atheists in the Muslim world maintain a lower profile, but according to the Editor-in-chief of FreeArabs.com:
<blockquote>
When I recently searched Facebook in both Arabic and English, combining the word 'atheist' with names of different Arab countries I turned up over 250 pages or groups, with memberships ranging from a few individuals to more than 11,000. And these numbers only pertain to Arab atheists (or Arabs concerned with the topic of atheism) who are committed enough to leave a trace online.<ref name=TNR-Benchemsi-2015>{{cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/121559/rise-arab-atheists |title=Invisible Atheists |first1=Ahmed |last1=Benchemsi |magazine=The New Republic |date=24 April 2015 |access-date=15 February 2021 |archive-date=18 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218034511/https://newrepublic.com/article/121559/rise-arab-atheists |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

=== 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.<ref name=pew2013apo/> 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.<ref name=pew2013apo/> 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.)<ref name=pew2013apo/>

{|
|-
| style="vertical-align:top; width:31%;"|
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"
|-
|+ Middle East and North Africa
!Country
!Group&nbsp;A: % Muslims support sharia
!Group B: Support death for apostasy as a % of Group A
!Group&nbsp;C: Group B as % of all Muslims
|-
| align=left|[[Egypt]] || 74 || 86 || 63.6
|-
| align=left|[[Palestinian territories|Palestine]] || 89 || 66 || 58.7
|-
| align=left|[[Jordan]] || 71 || 82 || 58.2
|-
| align=left|[[Iraq]] || 91 || 42 || 38.2
|-
| align=left|[[Tunisia]] || 56 || 29 || 16.2
|-
| align=left|[[Lebanon]] || 29 || 46 || 13.3
|}
| style="vertical-align:top; width:31%;"|
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"
|-
|+ South and Southeast Asia
!Country
!Group&nbsp;A: % Muslims support sharia
!Group B: Support death for apostasy as a % of Group A
!Group&nbsp;C: Group B as % of all Muslims
|-
| align=left|[[Afghanistan]] || 99 || 79 || 78.2
|-
| align=left|[[Pakistan]] || 84 || 76 || 63.8
|-
| align=left|[[Malaysia]] || 86 || 62 || 53.3
|-
| align=left|[[Bangladesh]] || 82 || 44 || 36.1
|-
| align=left|[[Thailand]] || 77 || 27 || 20.8
|-
| align=left|[[Indonesia]] || 72 || 18 || 13.0
|}
| style="vertical-align:top; width:38%;"|
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"
|-
|+ Southeast Europe and Central Asia
!Country
!Group&nbsp;A: % Muslims support sharia
!Group B: Support death for apostasy as a % of Group A
!Group&nbsp;C: Group B as % of all Muslims
|-
| align=left|[[Russia]] || 42 || 15 || 6.3
|-
| align=left|[[Tajikistan]] || 27 || 22 || 5.9
|-
| align=left|[[Kyrgyzstan]] || 35 || 14 || 4.9
|-
| align=left|[[Bosnia-Herzegovina|Bosnia]] || 15 || 15 || 2.3
|-
| align=left|[[Kosovo]] || 20 || 11 || 2.2
|-
| align=left|[[Turkey]] || 12 || 17 || 2.0
|-
| align=left|[[Albania]] || 12 || 8 || 1.0
|-
| align=left|[[Kazakhstan]] || 10 || 4 || 0.4
|}
|}
[[File:Muslim beliefs on death penalty for leaving Islam (Pew Research Center 2013).svg|thumb|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).<ref name=pew2013apo>{{cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/ |title=Beliefs about Sharia |publisher=Pew Research Center |date=30 April 2013 |access-date=30 August 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140830232031/http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/ |archive-date=30 August 2014 }}</ref> 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 Africa]]n countries such as [[Nigeria]].

== By country ==
{{Main|Apostasy in Islam by country}}
The situation for apostates from Islam varies markedly between Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority regions. In Muslim-minority countries "any violence against those who abandon Islam is already illegal". But in Muslim-majority countries, violence is sometimes "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."<ref name="Eteraz-supporting-guardian-13-2-2021">{{cite news |last1=Eteraz |first1=Ali |title=Supporting Islam's apostates |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/17/supportingislamsapostates |access-date=13 February 2007 |agency=The Guardian |date=17 September 2007 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223202025/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/17/supportingislamsapostates |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Universal Declaration of Human Rights==
{{Main|Human rights in Muslim-majority countries|Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam}}
Laws prohibiting [[religious conversion]] run contrary<ref>Nisrine Abiad (2008), ''Sharia, Muslim States and International Human Rights Treaty Obligations'', British Institute of International Comparative Law, {{ISBN|978-1905221417}}, pp. 25–31</ref> to Article 18 of the United Nations' [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], which states the following:

<blockquote>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.<ref name="Un.org">{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a18 |title=The Universal Declaration of Human Rights |publisher=United Nations |access-date=2013-11-29 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131128084554/http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a18 |archive-date=28 November 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria voted in favor of the Declaration.<ref name="Un.org"/> 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,<ref>{{cite book | last=Monteiro | first=A | title=Ethics of human rights | publisher=Springer | year=2014 | isbn=978-3319035666 | pages=414–416}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Said |first1=Abdul Aziz |title=Precept and Practice of Human Rights in Islam |journal=Universal Human Rights |year=1979 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=63–79 |doi=10.2307/761831 |jstor=761831}}</ref> and by issuing the [[Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam]]{{snd}}a joint declaration of the member states of the [[Organisation of the Islamic Conference]] made in 1990 in [[Cairo]], Egypt.<ref name = Brems>{{cite book | last = Brems | first = E | isbn = 978-9041116185 | title = Human rights: universality and diversity: Volume 66 of International studies in human rights | publisher = Martinus Nijhoff Publishers | year = 2001 | pages = 241–242, 259, 260–263 | chapter = Islamic Declarations of Human Rights }}</ref><ref name="Cismas p254"/> The Cairo Declaration differs from the Universal Declaration in affirming [[Sharia]] as the sole source of rights, and in limits of equality and behavior<ref>David Boersema, ''Philosophy of Human Rights: Theory and Practice'', Westview Press, {{ISBN|978-0813344928}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2010}}<ref>Denny F. M. (2005)," Muslim ethical trajectories in the contemporary period", in ''The Blackwell companion to religious ethics'' (Editor: William Schweiker), {{ISBN|978-1405177580}}, Chapter 28, pp. 268–269, 272–277</ref><ref>Monshipouri (1998), "Muslim World Half a Century after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Progress and Obstacles", The Netherlands Quarterly Hum. Rts., 16(3), pp. 289–290, 287–314</ref> in [[Islam and other religions|religion]], [[Women in Islam|gender]], [[LGBT in Islam|sexuality]], etc.<ref name="Cismas p254">{{cite book | last=Cismas | first=Ioana | title=Religious actors and international law | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford, UK| year=2014 | isbn=978-0198712824 | pages=254, 258}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Cotran | first=Eugene | title=Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern law, Volume 10 | publisher=Brill Academic Publishers | location=Boston | year=2006 | isbn=978-9004144446 | page=17}}</ref> 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 [[Islamophobia|respect due the religion of Islam]].<ref name=jstor-1570336/>

==See also==
{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|
* [[List of former Muslims]]
* [[Al-Baqara 256]]
* [[Apostasy in Christianity]]
* [[Apostasy in Judaism]]
* [[Ex-Muslims of North America]]
* [[Islam and blasphemy]]
* [[List of ex-Muslim organisations]]
* [[Anwar Shaikh (critic of Islam)|Anwar Shaikh]]
* [[Superstitions in Muslim societies]]
* [[Takfir]]
* [[Zandaqa]]
}}

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|2}}

== Literature and film ==
=== Films and documentaries ===
{{refbegin|2}}
* ''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 [[Humanistische Omroep|HUMAN]]
* ''[[Non-believers: Freethinkers on the Run]]'' (2016) – Dorothée Forma for [[Humanistische Omroep|HUMAN]]
* ''Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam'' (2016) – Poppy Begum for [[Vice News]]
* ''Diary of a Pakistani Atheist'' (2017) – Mobeen Azhar for [[BBC World Service]]<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/islam-conversions.html |title=Conversions From Islam in Europe and Beyond |author=Faisal Devji |work=The New York Times |date=15 August 2017 |access-date=12 September 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816111621/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/islam-conversions.html |archive-date=16 August 2017 }}</ref>
* ''Becoming Ex-Muslim: The secret group for Aussies who've left their faith'' (2017) – Patrick Abboud for ''[[The Feed (Australian TV series)|The Feed]]''
{{refend}}

=== Books by individuals who left Islam ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Qureshi |first=Nabeel |author-link=Nabeel Qureshi (author) |date=2014 |title=Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0310515029 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Ham |first1=Boris van der |author-link=Boris van der Ham |last2=Benhammou |first2=Rachid |date=2018 |title=Nieuwe Vrijdenkers: 12 voormalige moslims vertellen hun verhaal (New Freethinkers: 12 Former Muslims Tell Their Story) |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Prometheus |page=209 |isbn=978-9044636840 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hirsi Ali |first=Ayaan |author-link=Ayaan Hirsi Ali |date=2007 |title=Infidel: My Life (Mijn Vrijheid) |publisher=Simon & Schuster UK |isbn=978-0743295031|title-link=Infidel: My Life |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book |last=Hirsi Ali |first=Ayaan |date=2011 |title=Nomad: From Islam to America |publisher=Simon & Schuster UK |isbn=978-1847398185|title-link=Nomad: From Islam to America |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Al-Husseini |first=Waleed |author-link=Waleed Al-Husseini |date=2017 |title=The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam (Blasphémateur ! : les prisons d'Allah) |location=New York |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |isbn=978-1628726756 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Jami |first=Ehsan |author-link=Ehsan Jami |date=2007 |title=Het recht om ex-moslim te zijn (The Right to Be an Ex-Muslim) |location=Kampen |publisher=Uitgeverij Ten Have |isbn=978-9025958367 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Mohammed |first=Yasmine |author-link=Yasmine Mohammed |date=2019 |title=From Al Qaeda to Atheism: The Girl Who Would Not Submit |publisher=Free Hearts Free Minds |isbn=978-1724790804 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rizvi |first=Ali Amjad |author-link=Ali A. Rizvi |date=2016 |title=The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason |location=New York |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-1250094445 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Saleem |first1=Aliyah |author1-link=Aliyah Saleem |last2=Mughal |first2=Fiyaz |date=2018 |title= Leaving Faith Behind: The journeys and perspectives of people who have chosen to leave Islam |location=London |publisher=Darton, Longman & Todd |pages=192 |isbn=978-0232533644|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sultan |first=Harris |date=2018 |title=The Curse of God: Why I Left Islam |location=Gordon Centre, Australia |publisher=Xilbris |isbn=978-1984502124 |ref=none}}<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.newsgram.com/harris-sultan-know-why-he-left-islam | title=Harris Sultan: Know Why He Left Islam | date=3 June 2021 | access-date=28 October 2021 | archive-date=28 October 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028081847/https://www.newsgram.com/harris-sultan-know-why-he-left-islam | url-status=live }}
</ref>
* {{Cite book |last=Warraq |first=Ibn |author-link=Ibn Warraq |date=2003 |title=Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out |location=Amherst, New York |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=978-1591020684|title-link=Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out |ref=none}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|first=Mirza Tahir |last=Ahmad |author-link=Mirza Tahir Ahmad |year=1968 |title=Murder in the Name of Allah |url=http://www.alislam.org/library/books/mna/index.html |publisher=[[Lutterworth Press]] |location=[[Guildford]] |isbn=978-0718828059 |oclc=243438689 |ref=none |language=en}}
* {{cite book| last =Cottee| first =Simon| title =The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam| publisher =Hurst| date =2015| page =288| url =http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/apostates/| isbn =978-1849044691 |ref=none |language=en}}
* {{cite journal|journal=Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion |year=2015 |volume=11 |title=Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census |first1=Patrick |last1=Johnstone |first2=Duane Alexander |last2=Miller |pages=3–19| url =https://www.academia.edu/16338087 |ref=none |language=en}}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1163/157006076X00017 |jstor=1570336 |journal=Die Welt des Islams |year=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1/4 |title=Apostasy in Islam |first1=Rudolph |last1=Peters |first2=Gert J. J. |last2=De Vries |pages=1–25|s2cid=162376591 |url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1472322/95409_apostasy_in_islam.pdf |ref=none |language=en}}
* {{cite book |author-last=Schirrmacher |author-first=Christine |year=2020 |chapter=Chapter 7: Leaving Islam |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004331471/BP000008.xml?body=pdf-43180 |editor1-last=Enstedt |editor1-first=Daniel |editor2-last=Larsson |editor2-first=Göran |editor3-last=Mantsinen |editor3-first=Teemu T. |title=Handbook of Leaving Religion |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=18 |doi=10.1163/9789004331471_008 |doi-access=free |pages=81–95 |isbn=978-9004330924 |issn=1874-6691 |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last=Juferi |first=Mohd Elfie Nieshaem |title=When Apostates Become Shaykhs: A Systematic Analysis of Their Dominant Ideas on the World Wide Web |publisher=Perniagaan Jahabersa |year=2006 |location=[[Johor Bahru]] |url=https://archive.org/details/when-apostates-become-shaykhs |isbn=9831709179 |language=en}}
* {{cite book|first1=Taha|last1=Jabir Alalwani|translator=Nancy Roberts|author-link=Taha Jabir Alalwani|date=2011|title=Apostasy in Islam: A Historical and Scriptural Analysis|publisher=[[International Institute of Islamic Thought|International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)]]|isbn=978-1565643635 |language=en}}
* {{cite book|first=M. E. Asad|last=Subhani| title =Apostasy in Islam| publisher =Global Media| date =2005| page =65| isbn =978-8188869114 |ref=none |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last1 = Saeed |first1 = Abdullah |last2 = Saeed |first2 = Hassan |title = Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam |publisher = Ashgate Publishing Company |year = 2004 |location = Burlington VT |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sjQKAQAAMAAJ|pages = 38–39 |isbn = 978-0754630838 |language=en}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}
* [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1514019 Apostasy, Freedom and Da'wah: Full Disclosure in a Business-Like Manner] by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
* {{cite web|first=Sheikh Muhammed Salih |last=Al-Munajjid |title=Why should a person who disbelieves after becoming Muslim be executed? |url=http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/12406 |access-date=15 October 2009 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite news|first=Mona |last=Eltahawy |author-link=Mona Eltahawy |date=20 October 1999 |title=Lives torn apart in battle for the soul of the Arab world |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/oct/20/1 |work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=15 October 2009 | location=London |ref=none}}
* {{cite web |title=Punishment for Apostasy |url=http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/text.aspx?type=question&qid=286 |date=6 December 1998 |publisher=Understanding Islam |access-date=15 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090101164342/http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/text.aspx?type=question&qid=286 |archive-date=1 January 2009 |url-status=dead |ref=none}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=dVtE60LlujAC Apostasy: Oxford Bibliographies, Islamic Studies] Andrew March (2010), Oxford University Press

{{Islam topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Religious persecution}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Apostasy in Islam| ]]
[[Category:Disengagement from religion]]
[[Category:Islamic criminal jurisprudence]]
[[Category:Persecution of atheists]]
[[Category:Persecution of Christians by Muslims]]
[[Category:Islam and capital punishment]]