Religious Freedom: The Case of Apostasy in Islam

This chapter provides some critical analysis of the prescribed punishment (ḥadd) for apostasy and is divided into three main parts. First, it explains the fiqhī (juristic) sys tem as a basis for the prescription of punishment for apostasy. Second, it explains how this fiqhī ruling can serve as an archetype demonstrating the need to rethink ijtihād (independent legal reasoning) and its mechanisms. Third, it underscores the impact of the change in moral values and the evolution of concepts, such as that of freedom, on the fiqhī reasoning.

Since the late nineteenth century, there were countless attempts to address the issue of apostasy. The approaches to this controversial issue have varied in terms of motives, orientations, and contexts. The concept of religious freedom proved central to orientalist debates as well as the debates of the traditionalist and the reformist.295 Freedom, and specifically religious Page 174 →freedom, is one of the key modern values that is unanimously accepted as a universal human value. It is worth noting that even traditionalist scholars eventually acknowledged the principle of religious freedom. However, their claim was that the prescribed punishment for apostasy does not contradict the value of religious freedom.