Capital Punishment for Apostasy in Islam

Man Baker, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Arab Law Quarterly

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Abstract

Copyright © 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. This article sheds light on the Islamic legal ruling concerning apostasy (riddah). It reviews the verses of the Qur'an and the Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad concerning apostasy, with the aim of reaching a firm conclusion on this topic, particularly because Islam has been accused of being a religion that forces people to embrace it, even against peoples' free will. The article also reviews Muslim scholars' points of view concerning this topic and the historical circumstances and conditions regarding it. The article concludes that Islam never sentences anyone to death for eschewing Islam; it merely does so for riddah.

ISSN

0268-0556

Publisher

Brill Academic Publishers

Volume

32

Issue

4

First Page

439

Last Page

461

Disciplines

Law

Keywords

apostasy, capital punishment, compulsion, freedom of religion

Scopus ID

85062541484

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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