Apostasy in Islam

repudiation of Islam

Apostasy in Islam is when a follower of Islam tries to change or reject their religion. When someone tries to reject their religion, this is called apostasy. The three traits listed below are what is needed for apostasy to be taken seriously.

  • The follower of Islam must be an adult, the rules usually do not apply to children.
  • The follower of Islam must be sane. Insane people cannot make decisions in Islam.
  • The follower must change their religion because they want to. Being forced to change their religion is not apostasy.[1][2]

This means if a Muslim is a child, insane, or being forced, their action does not count as apostasy.

Most Sunni Islam and the Twelvers Shi'a Islamic schools of thought agree that apostasy is a sin. There is a difference between harmful apostasy and harmless apostasy[3] (also known as major and minor apostasy).[1] According to Wael Hallaq, none of the apostasy laws are based on the Qur'an,[4] although the jurist al-Shafi'i interpreted the Qu'ranic verse 2:217 as proof that apostasy is outlawed. This provided the main evidence for apostasy being a capital crime in Islam.[5] Sharia --Islamic law-- says the punishment for apostasy should be death, but the Qu'ran does not have any instructions for punishing apostasy.

Some Islamic jurists[6][7][8][9][10] argued or issued fatwas that the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances.[11][12][13][14] Some groups within Islam, such as the Shi'a Ismaili, reject death for apostasy altogether.

Examples change

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Is Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam?" Archived 2009-10-04 at the Wayback Machine Islam Online, 26 April 2006
  2. "Should an Apostate Be Put to Death?" Archived 2007-03-19 at the Wayback Machine www.islam.ca, 27 March, 2006
  3. "Apostasy Major and Minor" Archived 2009-08-25 at the Wayback Machine, Qaradawi, 13 April 2006
  4. Encyclopedia of the Quran, Apostasy
  5. W. Heffening, in Encyclopedia of Islam
  6. Abdullah Saeed and Hassan Saeed (2004), Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam, p. 85, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 0754630838.
  7. Mohammad Hashim Kamali (1998), "Punishment in Islamic Law: A Critique of the Hudud Bill of Kelantan, Malaysia", Arab Law Quarterly 13 (3): 203-234, Brill Publishers.
  8. Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, Gomaa's Statement on Apostasy Archived 2008-12-24 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, July 25, 2007.
  9. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab, 'Whosoever will, let him disbelieve' Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue No. 857, 9-15 August 2007.
  10. Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: "Not Every Conversion is Apostasy", by Mahdi Jami, In Persian, BBC Persian, February 2, 2005, retrieved April 25, 2006
  11. What Islam says on religious freedom, by Magdi Abdelhadi, BBC Arab affairs analyst, 27 March 2006, retrieved April 25, 2006
  12. Fatwa on Intellectual Apostasy Archived 2009-04-25 at the Wayback Machine, Text of the fatwa by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
  13. S. A. Rahman in "Punishment of Apostasy in Islam", Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, 1972, pp. 10-13
  14. The punishment of apostasy in Islam Archived 2009-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, View of Dr. Ahmad Shafaat on apostasy.
  15. On this day: February 14, 1989; BBC News, accessed March 17, 2009
  16. "Afghan convert freed from prison", BBC News, March 28, 2006, retrieved April 11, 2006