apostasy
Apostasy, which comes from the Greek word for
“defection” or “revolt,” is the partial or complete
abandonment or rejection of the beliefs and prac-
tices of a religion by a person who is a follower
of that religion. The charge of apostasy is often
used by religious authorities to condemn and
punish skeptics, dissidents, and minorities in
their communities. This is especially so in reli-
gions such as Judaism, Christianity, and islam,
where membership in the religious community
involves publicly making or consenting to formal
statements of belief. Failure to do so may provide
grounds for accusations of apostasy and result in
severe penalties.
In Islam, apostasy is thought of in two ways:
abandoning Islam (irtidad) and deviation in reli-
gious belief (ilhad). In either case, apostasy is
regarded as a kind of disbelief, together with her-
esy and blasphemy (verbally insulting a religion).
The qUran declares that apostasy will result in
punishment in the aFterliFe but takes a relatively
lenient view toward apostasy in this life (Q 9:74;
2:109). This picture changed significantly during
the Umayyad and abbasid caliphates (seventh
century to ninth century), when Muslim jurists
invoked hadith that supported the imposition
of the death penalty for apostasy, except in cases
of coercion. These hadith may well have been
a product of the so-called wars of apostasy (the
Ridda Wars) that shook the early Muslim commu-
nity after the death of mUhammad in 632. Accord-
ing to the sharia, apostasy is identified with a long
list of actions such as conversion to another reli-
gion, denying the existence of God, rejecting the
prophets, mocking God or the prophets, idol wor-
ship, rejecting the sharia, or permitting behavior
that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery.
Muslims disagree over when such actions should
be punished, but in the history of Islam, a variety
of individuals and groups have been accused of
apostasy—atheists, materialists, Sufis, and mem-
bers of Shii sects. The Sufi mystics mansUr al-
hallaJ (d. 922) and Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi
(d. 1191) were among those in the Middle Ages
accused of apostasy and executed, as well many
followers of ismaili shiism. In addition to death,
adult male apostates may also be punished by
forced separation from their spouses and denial
of property and inheritance rights, depending on
the legal school. Punishment of female apostates
involves not death, but confinement. Punishments
may be cancelled if the accused person repents his
or her apostasy in public.
In the modern period, conservative Muslim
authorities and religious radicals have accused
Muslim modernists, intellectuals, and writers
of this “crime.” Among the most famous to be
charged with apostasy or the related crime of
blasphemy are the Anglo-Indian writer salman
rUshdie (b. 1947), the Egyptian intellectual nasr
hamid abU zay d (b. 1943), and the Bangladeshi
writer and human rights advocate Taslima Nasrin
(b. 1962). In some Muslim countries, apostasy
charges have also been leveled against non-Mus-
lims, for example the Bahais in Iran and Chris-
tians in Pakistan. International hUman rights
advocates, Muslims and non-Muslims, have con-
demned Islamic apostasy laws in the name of
justice and “freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion” (Article 18, Universal Declaration of
Human Rights).
See also bahai Faith; christianity and islam;
JUdaism and islam; heresy; kafir.Further reading: Burhan al-Din Al-Marghinani, The
Hedaya: Commentary on the Islamic Laws. Translated
by Charles Hamilton (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 1994;
Rudolph Peters and Gert J. J. De Vries, “Apostasy in
Islam.” Die Welt des Islams 17 (1976–77): 1–25; Abdullah
Saeed and Hassan Saeed, Freedom of Religion, Apostasy
and Islam (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2004).Aqsa Mosque (Arabic: al-Masjid al-aqsa)
Regarded by most Muslims as the third most
sacred mosqUe after those of mecca and medina,
the Aqsa Mosque is situated on the eastern edge ofK 48 apostasy