-
Many may accuse Islam of taking harsh measures against apostasy. In Islam, one cannot change his religion. If anyone does that, he is considered an apostate and, in certain cases, the penalty is death.
The Quran, though not referring to capital punishment as the penalty for apostasy, indicates that grave consequences in the life hereafter await whoever leaves the fold of Islam. If one apostates, all his good deeds will be fruitless and in vein and he will remain in hell forever:
وَمَن يَرْتَدِدْ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِ فَيَمُتْ وَهُوَ كَافِرٌ فَأُولَٰئِكَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
And whoever of you reverts from his religion [to disbelief] and dies while he is a disbeliever - for those, their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the companions of the Fire, they will abide therein eternally.[1]
On the other hand, the Quran emphasizes that there is no compulsion in religion:
أَفَأَنتَ تُكْرِهُ النَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ
Then, [O Muhammad], would you compel the people in order that they become believers?[2]
لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ
There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion.[3]
A few traditions mention death as the penalty for apostasy. It has to be added that capital punishment may be carried out if certain conditions are present. In case of absence of these conditions, capital punishment is not to be carried out. One such condition is that the apostate must be a male who is not willing to repent. The Bible also speaks of apostasy and that the penalty is death, but there is no mention of such limiting conditions. The apostate, according to the Bible, must be killed or in some cases stoned to death, "And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death."[4]
In another place the Bible says, "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you."[5]
According to the Bible, if residents of a city apostatize, all of them should be killed and the city must be set on fire, "If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again."[6]
Elsewhere in the Bible, the punishment for he who sacrifices his child to Moloch is to be stoned to death, "Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones."[7]
As witnessed above, the punishment for apostasy in the Bible is no less harsh than that in the Islamic faith. Rather, Islam has laid down a number of conditions limiting the cases where capital punishment is to be carried out.
References:
[1] 2:217.
[2] 10:99.
[3] 2:256.
[4] Leviticus 24:16.
[5] Deuteronomy 13:6-11.
[6] Ibid, 12-16.
[7] Leviticus 20:2.
... the punishment for apostasy in the Bible is no less harsh than that in the Islamic faith. Rather, Islam has laid down a number of conditions limiting the cases where capital punishment is to be carried out.