Read a book review by David W. Virtue (added 29 March 2010) here .
This book has been written to accompany and support the Barnabas Aid campaign, Why should they be secret?, for the abolition of the Islamic apostasy law. It is a vital tool for raising awareness and increasing understanding of this important issue. |
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Islam is a one-way street. Non-Muslims can convert to Islam, but Muslims are not allowed to convert from Islam. Those who become Christians, or leave Islam for other reasons, face very serious penalties.
All schools of Islamic law specify the death sentence for an adult male Muslim who chooses to leave his faith. Most give the same punishment for women. The law also imposes many other penalties on apostates, and provokes powerful hostility towards them amongst Muslims.
But change is possible. Some liberal Muslim scholars have argued that the apostasy law should be abandoned, so that people can leave Islam without fear of reprisals. In late 2009 a group of mainstream Muslim leaders in Britain asserted that “people have the freedom to enter the Islamic faith and the freedom to leave it”. These voices will be strengthened by non-Muslims also calling for repeal of the law.
Dr Sookhdeo’s new book promotes the case for abolition. In the first section he sets out the Muslim teaching on apostasy from the Islamic sources, and in the second he looks at the debate amongst contemporary Muslim scholars about the law and related issues. The third section reviews the treatment of converts from Islam in the world today, using country profiles and individual case studies.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali writes in the Foreword,
“Dr Sookhdeo has provided an important handbook for all those who care about and deal with the issue of fundamental freedoms. Many will be grateful to him for this timely volume.”
We would like to encourage supporters not only to read the book, but also to pass it on to people whose influence will promote the case for change. You may like to buy some extra copies and send them to your MP and the leaders of your local mosque.
Freedom to Believe is currently available at the special offer price of £6.99 plus £2.00 postage and packing. You can order copies here. And if you have not yet signed our petition for the abolition of the apostasy law, please do so here.
You can read an extract from the book here or the foreword here.
Further information
For more on this see: British Muslim Group Accepts the Right to Convert from Islam
Summary of the report, Contextualising Islam in Britain (Cambridge: Centre of Islamic Studies, 2009): British Muslims Call for a Modernised Islam
The Application of the Apostasy Law in the World Today - an indepth article published by Barnabas Aid in May 2003.
