Islam and Apostasy: Difference between revisions

==In the Muslim world==

A Pew poll released on April 30, 2013 asked Muslims in 39 countries between 2008 and 2012 questions about religion, politics and society based on 38,000 face-to-face interviews. In one question, asked in 37 of these countries with a combined Muslim population of just over 1 billion people, the survey asked participants whether they favored or opposed the death penalty for leaving Islam. Using the complete dataset for this question on page 219 of the full report<ref>[http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2013/04/worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-full-report.pdf The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society] Pew Research Centre, 30 April 2013, p.219 (responses by country to the question on apostasy)</ref>, and weighing the responses by Muslim population<ref>[http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2011/01/FutureGlobalMuslimPopulation-WebPDF-Feb10.pdf Future Global Muslim Population] Pew Research Centre, 2011, pp.156-163 (Estimated Muslim population by country in 2010)</ref> indicates that overall, 40% of Muslims in these countries favor the death penalty for apostasy from Islam. The percentage was below 10% in Central Asia, Turkey and Balkan countries included in the survey. It was above 50% in Afghanistan (79%), Egypt (88%), Jordan (83%), Malaysia (58%), Pakistan (75%), Palestinian Territories (62%), and Djbouti (62%).  

One noteworthy mistake has frequently been made by commentators on the 2013 Pew poll, likely as a result of neglecting the full dataset made available by Pew at the of the report. The table found in chapter one of the report shows support for the death penalty for apostasy among those who answered that they were 'in favor of Sharia in their country' in an earlier question. Multiplying the percentages in these two tables yields significantly lower percentages compared to those mentioned above (Egypt, for example appears by this calculation to have 64% support for the death penalty, and overall support in the countries surveyed falls to approximately 35% after weighing by Muslim population). This approach fails to accounts, however, for the support for the apostasy death penalty among those who answered that they 'do not support' or 'don't know whether they support' Sharia being the official law in their country, which, perhaps surprisingly, makes a significant difference. Only the table on page 219 of the report reveals support for the apostasy death penalty for all respondents in each country. This was confirmed by an independent analysis of the data and correspondence with Pew's Director of International Survey Research.<ref>[https://uncertaintyblog.com/2015/02/12/check-the-original-source-how-so-many-writers-got-the-facts-wrong-after-the-maher-vs-affleck-islam-debate/ Check the original source! How so many writers got the facts wrong after the Maher vs. Affleck Islam debate] [http://www.webcitation.org/6yi5XIFbb Archive]</ref> Nevertheless, a strong correlation can be seen in the results for the two questions on support for Sharia and support for the death penalty for apostates.<ref>Survey Reports - [http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/#sharia-as-the-official-law-of-the-land The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society - Chapter 1: Beliefs about Sharia] - Pew Research Center, April 30, 2013</ref>

It is possible and even likely that support for the penalty has fallen in the years since the survey was conducted due to near-global outrage at the actions of ISIS and subsequent attempts by leading Muslim figures to distance Islam from the actions of that group. A similar decline in support may also have resulted from generally the negative experience of Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt between 2011 and 2013.

The number recent apostates is unprecedented in the history of Islam.  

According to one estimate made in 2000, In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 6 million Muslims leave Islam every year. In the recent past, Christianity has traded places with Islam as the majority faith of the African continent.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.aljazeera.net/programs/shareea/articles/2000/12/12-12-6.htm|author1=Sheikh Ahmed Katani|author2=Maher Abdullah|publication-date=12/12/2000|publisher=Al Jazeera|trans_chapter=Christianization in Africa|chapter=al-Tansir fi Ifriqiya}}

An English translation of the article has been [https://web.archive.org/web/20080330082127/http://www.formermuslims.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=972 made available here].</ref>  

According to a Pew survey conducted in 2014, "About a quarter of adults who were raised Muslim (23%) no longer identify as members of the faith, roughly on par with the share of Americans who were raised Christian and no longer identify with Christianity (22%)". According to a Pew survey conducted in 2017, "a similar estimate (24%) of the share of those who were raised Muslim but have left Islam". According to the 2017 survey, 55% of these ex-Muslims thereafter identified with no religion, 22% converted to Christianity, 21% became "something else", and 3% said they "didn't know" how to describe themselves.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414092507/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/|chapter=The share of Americans who leave Islam is offset by those who become Muslim|publisher=Pew Research Center|author1=Besheer Mohamed|author2=Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac|publication-date=January 26, 2018}}</ref>

==References==

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[[Category:Apostasy]]

[[Category:Atheism and Islam]]