Apostasy in Islam

Apostasy is called irtidād or ridda (which means "relapse" or "regress") in Islamic literature. Ridda can also refer to "secession" in a political context. 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. Takfīr () is the act of one Muslim excommunicating another, declaring them a kāfir, an apostate. The act which precipitates takfīr is termed mukaffir. ==Scriptural references==

Quran The Quran references apostasy including the traditional capital punishment. 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 this world – let alone commands to kill apostates – either explicitly or implicitly. Some verses have been cited as emphasizing mercy and a lack of compulsion with respect to religious belief (2:256; 4:137; 10:99; 11:28; 18:29; 88:21–22). 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." 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). The Muwatta of Imam Malik offers a case were Rashidun (rightly guide) Caliph Umar admonishes a Muslim leader for not giving an apostate the opportunity to repent before being executed: 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. As evidence, they point to two hadith, each from a different "authentic" (sahih) Sunni hadith collection 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"): == 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. Conditions 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); • "third, there had to be the omission or failure to repent after the apostate was asked to do so." • Blaspheming (sabb) which can be defined, in practice, as any objection to the authenticity of Islam, its laws or its prophet. • Heresy; or "implicit" apostasy (by a Muslim), – 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). Issues in defining heresy educator and intellectual Ismail Gasprinsky (on the right), leader of the 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 Muslim clerics, are threatening him with takfīr and 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, 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". 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"). Some heretical or blasphemous acts or beliefs listed in classical manuals of 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); • to assert the createdness of the Quran and/or to translate the Quran in any language other than Arabic; • to ridicule Islamic scholars or address them in a derisive manner, to reject the validity of sharīʿah courts; • to make a declaration of prophethood; i.e., for someone to declare that they are a prophet or messenger. In the early history of Islam, following Muhammad's death, this act was automatically deemed to be proof of apostasybecause Islam teaches Muhammad was the last prophet, there could be no more after him. While there are numerous requirements for a Muslim to avoid being an apostate, it is also an act of apostasy, in Shāfiʿī te doctrine and other schools of Islamic jurisprudence, for a Muslim to accuse or describe another devout Muslim of being an unbeliever, based on the hadith where Muhammad is reported to have said: "If a man says to his brother, 'You are an infidel,' then one of them is right." 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. 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." The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), for example, takfired all those who opposed its policy of exterminating and enslaving members of the 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", as ISIL gives fighting alleged apostates a higher priority than fighting self-professed non-MuslimsJews, Christians, Hindus, etc. 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". 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 and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's jihadis – the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has declared in Ordinance XX of the Second Amendment to its Constitution, that Ahmadis are non-Muslims and deprived them of religious rights. Several large riots (1953 Lahore riots, 1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots) and a bombing (2010 Ahmadiyya mosques massacre) have killed hundreds of Ahmadis in that country. Whether this is unjust takfir or applying sharia to collective apostasy is disputed. Overlap with 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") In Islamic literature, the term "blasphemy" sometimes also overlaps with ("unbelief"), (depravity), (insult), and (apostasy). Because blasphemy in Islam included rejection of fundamental doctrines, 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. A Muslim may find himself accused of being a blasphemer, and thus an apostate on the basis of one action or utterance. 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 Sufis, and more recently Ahmadis and Baháʼís (although Baháʼís do not consider themselves Muslims but members of a new religion). 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". Children raised in apostasy Orthodox apostasy fiqh can be problematic for someone who was raised by a non-Muslim(s) but has an absentee Muslim parent, or was raised by an apostate(s) from Islam. A woman born to a Muslim parent is considered an apostate if she marries a non-Muslim, even if her Muslim parent did not raise her and she has always practiced another religion; and even if they know nothing about Islam. A person with an absentee Muslim parent but brought up non-Muslim can also become an apostate simply by practicing the (new) religion of their non-Muslim parent(s) (according to the committee of fatwa scholars at Islamweb.net). Contemporary issues of defining apostasy In the 19th, 20th and 21 century issues affecting shariʿah on apostasy include modern norms of freedom of religion, the status of members of Baháʼí (considered unbeliever/apostates in Iran) and Ahmadi faiths (considered appostates from Islam in Pakistan and elsewhere), those who "refuse to judge or be judged according to the shariʿah," and more recently the status of Muslims authorities and governments that do not implement classical shariʿah law in its completeness. ==Punishment==

)'' 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. From 11th century onwards, apostasy from Islam was forbidden by Islamic law; earlier apostasy law was only applicable if a certain number of witnesses testified that there was apostasy, which for the most part was impractical. Apostasy was punishable by death and also by civil liabilities such as seizure of property, children, annulment of marriage, loss of inheritance rights. Who qualifies for judgement for the crime of apostasy As mentioned above, there are numerous doctrinal fine points outlined in fiqh manuals whose violation should render a (self-proclaimed) Muslim an apostate, but there are also hurdles and exacting requirements that spare violators of doctrine a 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, According to sharia, to be found guilty the accused must at the time of apostasizing be exercising free will (that is did not convert to or from Islam under duress), an adult, and of sound mind, Death penalty In classical Islamic jurisprudence Traditional Sunnī and Shīʿa Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and their respective schools (maḏāhib) agree on some issuesthat 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 sorcery (subhar), treacherous heretics (zanādiqa), and "recidivists". whether apostasy is a violation of "the rights of God", whether apostates who were born Muslims may be spared if they repent, Unlike in other schools, it is not obligatory to call on the apostate to repent. Apostasy from Islam is not sufficient grounds for execution in the Ḥanafī school. Apostates must also be guilty of causing aggravated robbery or grand larceny (ḥirābah). • Mālikī school – allows up to ten days for recantation, after which the apostates must be killed. Apostasy from Islam is considered a hudud crime. 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. 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. In all madhhabs of Islam, the civil penalties include: :(a) the property of the apostate is seized and distributed to his or her Muslim relatives; :(b) his or her marriage annulled (faskh) (as in the case of Nasr Abu Zayd); ::(1) if they were not married at the time of apostasy they could not get married :(c) any children removed and considered ward of the Islamic state. 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. so in addition to penal and civil penalties, loss of employment, 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. Supporters and opponents of death penalty ;Support among contemporary preachers and scholars committee at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, concerning the case of a man who converted to Christianity: "Since he left Islam, he will be invited to express his regret. If he does not regret, he will be killed according to rights and obligations of the Islamic law." The Fatwa also mentions that the same applies to his children if they entered Islam and left it after they reach maturity. "The vast majority of Muslim scholars both past as well as present" consider apostasy "a crime deserving the death penalty", according to Abdul Rashided Omar, writing circa 2007. • Abul A'la Maududi (1903–1979), who "by the time of his death had become the most widely read Muslim author of our time", according to one source. • Mohammed al-Ghazali (1917–1996), considered an Islamic "moderate" and "preeminent" faculty member of Egypt's preeminent Islamic institution – Al Azhar University − as well as a valuable ally of the Egyptian government in its struggle against the "growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism", was "widely credited" with contributing to the 20th century Islamic revival in the largest Arabic country, Egypt. (Al-Ghazali was on record as declaring all those who opposed the 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". chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, who as of 2009 was "considered one of the most influential" Islamic scholars living. • Zakir Naik, Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher, whose Peace TV channel, reaches a reported 100 million viewers, and whose debates and talks are widely distributed, and founder of the fatwa website IslamQA, 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). ;Opposing the death penalty for apostasy • Mahmud Shaltut, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (1958–1963). • Mohsen Kadivar, Director of Department of Philosophy and TheologyCenter of Scientific and Cultural Publishing, Tehran (1998–2003) and Professor Duke University (2009–). • Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Grand Ayatollah and Deputy Supreme Leader of Iran (1985–1989). • Hussein Esmaeel al-Sadr, Grand Ayatollah. • Taha Jabir Alalwani (1935–2016), founder and former chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America. • Intisar Rabb, faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. • Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a Pakistani Muslim theologian, Quran scholar. • Tariq Ramadan, Professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford • Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar of religious studies and writer. • Jonathan A.C. Brown, Associate professor at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University. • Rudolph F. Peters, Professor of Islamic Law at the University of Amsterdam. • Khaled Abou El Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. • S. A. Rahman, 5th Chief Justice of Pakistan (1968). • Yaşar Nuri Öztürk, Professor of Islamic Philosophy at Istanbul University (2008). 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". ;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 schools of fiqh both Sunni and Shia, among scholars of shari'ah "of every century ... available on record", there is unanimous agreement that the punishment for apostate is death, and that "no room whatever remains to suggest" that this penalty has not "been continuously and uninterruptedly operative" through Islamic history; evidence from early texts that Muhammad called for apostates to be killed, and that companions of Muhammad 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). • Verse Q.2:217 – "hindering ˹others˺ from the Path of Allah, rejecting Him, and expelling the worshippers from the Sacred Mosque is ˹a˺ greater ˹sin˺ in the sight of Allah" – indicates the punishment for apostasy from Islam is death (Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqi), Quranic verses in general "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates (Dale F. Eickelman). • It "does not merit discussion" because [the advocates maintain] apostasy from Islam is so rare (Ali Kettani), (Mahmud Brelvi); before the modern era, there was virtually no apostasy from Islam (Syed Barakat Ahmad). • 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). • The verse only forbids compulsion to believe "things that are wrong", when it comes to accepting the truth, compulsion is allowed (Peters and Vries explaining a traditional view). • Others maintain that verse Q.2:256 has been "abrogated", i.e. according to classical Quranic scholars it has been overruled/cancelled by verses of Quran revealed later, (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). • Because "the social order of every Moslem society is Islam", apostasy constitutes "an offense" against that social order, "that may lead in the end to the destruction of this order" (Muhammad Muhiy al-Din al-Masiri). • Apostasy is usually "a psychological pretext for rebellion against worship, traditions and laws and even against the foundations of the state", and so "is often synonymous with the crime of high treason ... " (Muhammad al-Ghazali). ;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 companions of Muhammad and early Islamic scholars (Ibn al-Humam, al-Marghinani, Ibn Abbas, Sarakhsi, Ibrahim al-Nakh'i) opposed the execution of murtadd? (Mirza Tahir Ahmad) • In addition there have been a number of prominent ulema (though a minority) over the centuries who argued against the death penalty for apostasy in some way, such as ... • The Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji (d. 474 AH) held that apostasy was liable only to a discretionary punishment (known as ''ta'zir'') and so might not require execution. • The Hanafi jurist Al-Sarakhsi (d. 483 AH/ 1090 CE) and Imam Ibnul Humam (d. 681 AH/ 1388 CE) and Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i (707–774 CE), all distinguished between non-seditious religious apostasy on the one hand and treason on the other, with execution reserved for treason. • Ibrahim al-Nakhaʿī (50 AH/670 – 95/96 AH/717 CE) and Sufyan al-Thawri (97 AH/716 CE – 161 AH/778 CE) as well as the Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d. 1090), believed that an apostate should be asked to repent indefinitely (which would be incompatible with being sentenced to death). • There are problems with the scriptural basis for sharia commanding the execution of apostates. • Quran (see Quran above) • Compulsion in faith is "explicitly" forbidden by the Quran ('Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi); Quranic statements on freedom of religion – 'There is no compulsion in religion. The right path has been distinguished from error' (Q.2:256) (and also 'Whoever wants, let him believe, and whoever wants, let him disbelieve,' (Q.18:29) – are "absolute and universal" statement(s) (Jonathan A.C. Brown), (Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa), 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). • Neither verse Q.2:217, (Mirza Tahir Ahmad), nor any other Quranic verse say anything to indicate an apostate should be punished in the temporal world, aka dunyā (S. A. Rahman), (W. Heffening), (Wael Hallaq), • 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), • Hadith and Sunnah (see hadith above) • "According to most established juristic schools, a hadith can limit the application of a general Qur'anic statement, but can never negate it", so the hadith calling for execution cannot abrogate the "There is no compulsion in religion" verse (Q.2:256) (Louay M. Safi). • The Prophet Muhammad did not call for the deaths of contemporaries who left Islam (Mohamed Ghilan) – for example, apostates like "Hishâm and 'Ayyash", or converts to Christianity, such as "Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh" – 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). • 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), (Mahmud Shaltut); and in fact, translating the Islamic term ridda as simply "apostasy" – a standard practice – is really an error, as ridda should be defined as "the public act of political secession from the Muslim community" (Jonathan Brown). • 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). 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); and every religion "underpinned the political and social order within ... the states they established" (Jonathan Brown); • 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); • In Islamic history, laws calling for severe penalties against apostasy (and blasphemy) have not been used to protect Islam, but "almost exclusively" to either eliminate "political dissidents" or target "vulnerable religious minorities" (Javaid Rehman), which is hardly something worthy of 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. Zakir Naik, the Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher ==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. Later, sectarian wars caused the split between the two major sects of Islam: Sunnis and Shias, and numerous deaths on both sides. Sunni and Shia sects of Islam have long accused each other of apostasy. The charge of apostasy dates back to the early history of Islam with the emergence of the Kharijites in the 7th century CE. The original schism between Kharijites, Sunnis, and Shias among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community (Ummah) after the death of Muhammad. is venerated in Christianity as one of the Martyrs of Córdoba Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries AD suffered religious persecution and violence multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers, including Christian converts to Islam who reportedly reverted to Christianity following their apostasy from the Islamic religion. 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. Some sources emphasize that executions of apostates have been "rare in Islamic history". 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". 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. Zindīq (often a "blanket phrase" for "intellectuals" under suspicion of having abandoned Islam", or for freethinkers, atheists or heretics who conceal their religion), experienced a wave of persecutions from 779 to 786. A history of those times states: (Previously al-Hallaj had been punished for talking about being at one with God by being shaved, pilloried and beaten with the flat of a sword. He was not executed because the Shafi'ite judge had ruled that his words were not "proof of disbelief.") 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. Colonial era and after From around 1800 up until 1970, there were only a few cases of 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. 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. A series of edicts followed during the Ottoman Reformist period, such as the 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. Christians in 1922, fleeing from their homes in Kharput and moving to Trebizond. In the 1910s and 1920s, the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides were perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey. 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. 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. 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. == In practice in the recent past ==

While as of 2004 apostasy from Islam is a capital offence in only eight majority-Muslim states, Many other Muslim countries impose a prison term for apostasy or they prosecute it under blasphemy or other laws. Background More than 20 Muslim-majority states have laws that punish apostasy by Muslims to be a crime some de facto other de jure. 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. 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. There has also been social persecution for Muslims converting to Christianity. For example, the Christian organisation Barnabas Fund reports: Similar views are expressed by the non-theistic International Humanist and Ethical Union. 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". Contemporary reformist/liberal Muslims such as Quranist Ahmed Subhy Mansour, 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. Apostate communities ;Christian apostates from Islam Regarding Muslim converts to Christianity, Duane Alexander Miller (2016) identified two different categories: • 'Muslim followers of Jesus Christ', 'Jesus Muslims' or 'Messianic Muslims' (analogous to Messianic Jews), who continue to self-identify as 'Muslims', or at least say Islam is (part of) their 'culture' rather than religion, but "understand themselves to be following Jesus as he is portrayed in the Bible". • 'Christians from a Muslim background' (abbreviated CMBs), also known as 'ex-Muslim Christians', who have completely abandoned Islam in favour of Christianity. Miller introduced the term 'Muslim-background believers' (MBBs) to encompass both groups, adding that the latter group are generally regarded as apostates from Islam, but orthodox Muslims' opinions on the former group is more mixed (either that 'Muslim followers of Jesus' are 'heterodox Muslims', 'heretical Muslims' or 'crypto-Christian liars'). ;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. Atheists in the Muslim world maintain a lower profile, but according to the Editor-in-chief of FreeArabs.com: 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. 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. The Governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait) did not permit Pew Research to survey nationwide public opinion on apostasy in 2010 or 2012. The survey also did not include China, India, Syria, or West African countries such as Nigeria. == By country ==

The situation for apostates from Islam varies markedly between Muslim-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." ==Universal Declaration of Human Rights==

Laws prohibiting religious conversion run contrary to Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states the following: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria voted in favor of the Declaration. and by issuing the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islama joint declaration of the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference made in 1990 in Cairo, Egypt. in religion, gender, sexuality, etc. Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in Tafsir al-Minar, argue that the "freedom to apostatize", is different from freedom of religion on the grounds that apostasy from Islam "infringes on the freedom of others" and the respect due the religion of Islam. ==See also==