Hans Kung has rightly observed, ‘there shall be no peace between or within nations without peace within and between religions.’ Lina Joy who has been disowned by her family, shunned by friends and forced into hiding because she renounced Islam and embraced Christianity in Muslim-majority Malaysia has revived the debate about the highly contentious topic of apostasy in Islam though the Malaysia’s highest court has ruled yesterday that the matter will be decided by the Sharia (Islamic) court and her argument that after conversion to the Christianity, she is no more a Muslim and thus under Sharia court’s jurisdiction has been rejected.

It is indeed shocking that Islam’s emphasis on religious freedom and tolerance has received little support in the otherwise plural Muslim countries. There is no direct evidence in Quran which lays down capital punishment for apostasy in this world. Apostasy, or riddah in Arabic, literally means defection or backsliding.1 As an Islamic legal term, it means denouncing Islam as one’s religion by a Muslim. In fact Quran clearly lays down golden principles of freedom of religion in the following verses:
There shall be no compulsion in matters of faith. (2:256)
And say [O Muhammad]: ‘The truth [has now come] you’re your Sustainer: let, then, him or her who wills, believe in it, and let him or her who wills, reject it. (18:29)
And so, [O Prophet,] exhort them; your task is only to exhort. You cannot compel them [to believe]. ( 88:21-22)

Similarly, the traditions of the Prophet quoted in favor of such a punishment are weak. The critics have not been able to understand that the fundamental principle of Islam is ‘there is no compulsion in region.’ Moreover, Islam does recognize Judaism and Christianity as sacred and even permits valid marriages between Muslim males and Jew and Christian females. Prophet of Islam did allow even sale of pork in the city of Madina which was an Islamic state. Saturdays and Sundays were the holidays for the Jews and Christians respectively during the life of the Prophet. They were also allowed to produce and sell wines etc.

It seems that since an Islamic state was an ideological state, rebellion against Islam was treated as sedition and punished accordingly. In any case, there is no such threat to any Muslim state if some Muslims turn to other religions today, and therefore a liberal approach needs to be adopted. We cannot anymore live with such ideas as Islam does not need Muslims who are feeling suffocated within the fold of Islam, let them go and experience other religions if they so desire. At the same time, the critics of Islam should also give their fair judgments on the discriminatory blasphemy laws in the western world.