Is the Quran or Bible the Word of God? Christianity or Islam?

What is the Islamic position on apostasy?

August 26th, 2010

What is the Islamic position on apostasy? I’ve had a difficult time finding the “official” position. On the one hand, there are many examples of apostates being put to death. Muslims who convert to Christianity live in fear for their lives such as Maher El Gohary and his daughter, Dina. They converted to Christianity and have been denied by the Egyptian government permission to change their identity cards identifiying them as Christians.

Some people, such as Dr. Fathi Osman, claim that Muslims have the freedom to leave Islam, “You cannot say that we have the freedom of being Muslims unless you also secure the freedom of leaving Islam.” (1:57 in the below clip).

• What is the majority opinion about the matter?
• What is the law in Muslim nations?
• What is the practice in Muslim nations and what is the punishment for those who murder apostates?
• Are women apostates treated differently than male apostates?
• If leaving Islam is not punishable by death according to the Qur’an and Sharia law, then who are the Muslim voices denouncing those killing apostates and calling it murder?
• Why is this such a confusing issue in the 21st century seeing that the Qur’an claims to be the final revelation?

I’d like to hear your opinion about the above questions.

Tags: apostasy, apostates, freedom, islam, muslim converts, Religious Freedom

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 6:13 am and is filed under Apostasy, Religious Freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.