Comment: Apostasy - a test of religious tolerance
“Abandonment of one’s religious faith, a political party, one’s principles, or a cause.”
http://answers.com - online encyclopedia
Article 18.
“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.”
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
However many religious leaders and followers see apostasy as a criminal offence and even punishable by death. It is particularly so in Islamic countries even democracies like Malaysia. From a recent Economist article:
In Malaysia, people who try to desert Islam can face compulsory “re-education”. Under the far harsher regime of Afghanistan, death for apostasy is still on the statute book, despite the country’s American-backed “liberation” from the tyranny of the Taliban. The Western world realised this when Abdul Rahman, an Afghan who had lived in Germany, was sentenced to die after police found him with a Bible. After pressure from Western governments, he was allowed to go to Italy. What especially startled Westerners was the fact that Afghanistan’s parliament, a product of the democracy for which NATO soldiers are dying, tried to bar Mr Rahman’s exit, and that street protests called for his execution.
Economist: “Islam and apostasy, In death’s shadow” Jul 24th 2008
And another story from Iran:
Iran – Saeed Salman
“The Salman family’s five-year fight to stay in the United States ended on March 3, 2005, when the United States Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review in Chicago granted the family political asylum.
“In this case, I am persuaded that apostasy in Iran is punishable by death,” Judge Craig Zerbe said in the ruling. “As far as the sincerity of their conversion, I note that the respondents are found to be credible.””
story posted at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty website
Finally some useful links:
Promoting Islamic religious tolerance
Detailed analysis on apostasy in Islam
Apostates of Islam - from the perspectives of those who have left
Qur’anic interpretation by Dr. Ahmad Shafaat
Alex McCullie
