Apostasy ( /əˈpɒstəsi/; Greek: ἀποστασία (apostasia), 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy (or who apostatises) is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday use. The term apostasy is used by sociologists to mean renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, a person's former religion, in a technical sense and without pejorative connotation.

The term is sometimes also used metaphorically to refer to renunciation of a non-religious belief or cause, such as a political party, brain trust, or, facetiously, a sports team.

Apostasy is generally not a self-definition^{[citation needed]}: very few former believers call themselves apostates because of the pejorative implications of the term.

Many religious groups and some states punish apostates. Apostates may be shunned by the members of their former religious group^[1] or subjected to formal or informal punishment. This may be the official policy of the religious group or may be the action of its members. Certain types of churches may in certain circumstances excommunicate the apostate, while some religious scriptures demand the death penalty for apostates.

Sociological definitions[link]

The American sociologist Lewis A. Coser (following the German philosopher and sociologist Max Scheler^{[citation needed]}) defines an apostate to be not just a person who experienced a dramatic change in conviction but “a man who, even in his new state of belief, is spiritually living not primarily in the content of that faith, in the pursuit of goals appropriate to it, but only in the struggle against the old faith and for the sake of its negation."^[2][3]

The American sociologist David G. Bromley defined the apostate role as follows and distinguished it from the defector and whistleblower roles.^[3]

• Apostate role: defined as one that occurs in a highly polarized situation in which an organization member undertakes a total change of loyalties by allying with one or more elements of an oppositional coalition without the consent or control of the organization. The narrative is one which documents the quintessentially evil essence of the apostate's former organization chronicled through the apostate's personal experience of capture and ultimate escape/rescue.
• Defector role: an organizational participant negotiates exit primarily with organizational authorities, who grant permission for role relinquishment, control the exit process, and facilitate role transmission. The jointly constructed narrative assigns primary moral responsibility for role performance problems to the departing member and interprets organizational permission as commitment to extraordinary moral standards and preservation of public trust.
• Whistle-blower role: defined here as one in which an organization member forms an alliance with an external regulatory unit through offering personal testimony concerning specific, contested organizational practices that is then used to sanction the organization. The narrative constructed jointly by the whistle blower and regulatory agency is one which depicts the whistle-blower as motivated by personal conscience and the organization by defense of the public interest.

Stuart A. Wright, an American sociologist and author, asserts that apostasy is a unique phenomenon and a distinct type of religious defection, in which the apostate is a defector "who is aligned with an oppositional coalition in an effort to broaden the dispute, and embraces public claims-making activities to attack his or her former group."^[4]

Law[link]

International law[link]

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, considers the recanting of a person's religion a human right legally protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

The Committee observes that the freedom to 'have or to adopt' a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views [...] Article 18.2^[5] bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to their religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert.^[6]

Countries[link]

This section requires expansion.

In some countries apostasy from the religion supported by the state is explicitly forbidden. This is largely the case in some states where Islam is the state religion; conversion to Islam is encouraged, conversion from Islam penalised.

• Iran – illegal (death penalty)^[7][8][9]
• Egypt – illegal (death penalty)^[9]
• Pakistan – illegal (death penalty^[9] since 2007)
• United Arab Emirates – illegal (death penalty)^[10]
• Somalia – illegal (death penalty)^[11]
• Afghanistan – illegal (death penalty, although the U.S. and other coalition members have put pressure that has prevented recent executions^[12][13])
• Saudi Arabia – illegal (death penalty, although there have been no recently reported executions)^[9][14]
• Sudan – illegal (death penalty, although there have only been recent reports of torture, and not of execution^{[15] [16]})
• Qatar – illegal (death penalty)^[17]
• Yemen – illegal (death penalty)^[17]
• Malaysia – illegal in five of 13 states (fine, imprisonment, and flogging)^[18][19]
• Mauritania – illegal (death penalty)^{[citation needed]}
• Syria – possibly illegal (death penalty) although there is evidence to the contrary^[20]
• Morocco – illegal to proselytise conversion (15 years jail, flogging)^[21]
• Jordan – possibly illegal (fine, jail, child custody loss, marriage annulment) although officials claim otherwise, convictions are recorded for apostasy.^[22][23][24]

Religions[link]

Indian Religions[link]

Indian religions are generally not exclusivist, different beliefs are permitted and there is no clear-cut concept of heresy or apostasy.

Baha'i[link]

Some Muslims often regard adherents of the Bahá'í faith as apostates from Islam,^[25] and there have been cases in some Muslim countries where Baha'is have been harassed and persecuted.^[26]

Christianity[link]

The Christian understanding of apostasy is "a willful falling away from, or rebellion against, Christian truth. Apostasy is the rejection of Christ by one who has been a Christian....", though many believe that Biblically this is impossible ('once saved, forever saved').^[27] "Apostasy is the antonym of conversion; it is deconversion."^[28] The Greek noun apostasia (rebellion, abandonment, state of apostasy, defection)^[29] is found only twice in the New Testament (Acts 21:21; 2 Thessalonians 2:3).^[30] However, "the concept of apostasy is found throughout Scripture."^[31] The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery states that "There are at least four distinct images in Scripture of the concept of apostasy. All connote an intentional defection from the faith."^[32] These images are: Rebellion; Turning Away; Falling Away; Adultery.^[33]

• Rebellion: "In classical literature apostasia was used to denote a coup or defection. By extension the LXX^[34] always uses it to portray a rebellion against God (Joshua 22:22; 2 Chronicles 29:19)."^[33]

• Turning away: "Apostasy is also pictured as the heart turning away from God (Jeremiah 17:5-6) and righteousness (Ezekiel 3:20). In the OT it centers on Israel's breaking covenant relationship with God though disobedience to the law (Jeremiah 2:19), especially following other gods (Judges 2:19) and practicing their immorality (Daniel 9:9-11). . . . Following the Lord or journeying with him is one of the chief images of faithfulness in the Scriptures. . . . The . . . Hebrew root (swr) is used to picture those who have turned away and ceased to follow God ('I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me,' 1 Samuel 15:11). . . . The image of turning away from the Lord, who is the rightful leader, and following behind false gods is the dominant image for apostasy in the OT."^[33]

• Falling away: "The image of falling, with the sense of going to eternal destruction, is particularly evident in the New Testament. . . . In his [Christ’s] parable of the wise and foolish builder, in which the house built on sand falls with a crash in the midst of a storm (Matthew 7:24-27) . . . he painted a highly memorable image of the dangers of falling spiritually."^[35]

• Adultery: One of the most common images for apostasy in the Old Testament is adultery.^[36] "Apostasy is symbolized as Israel the faithless spouse turning away from Yahweh her marriage partner to purse the advances of other gods (Jeremiah 2:1-3; Ezekiel 16). . . . 'Your children have forsaken me and sworn by god that are not gods. I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes' (Jeremiah 5:7, NIV). Adultery is used most often to graphically name the horror of the betrayal and covenant breaking involved in idolatry. Like literal adultery it does include the idea of someone blinded by infatuation, in this case for an idol: 'How I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts . . . which have lusted after their idols' (Ezekiel 6:9)."^[33]

Speaking with specific regards to apostasy in Christianity, Michael Fink writes:

Apostasy is certainly a biblical concept, but the implications of the teaching have been hotly debated.^[37] The debate has centered on the issue of apostasy and salvation. Based on the concept of God's sovereign grace, some hold that, though true believers may stray, they will never totally fall away. Others affirm that any who fall away were never really saved. Though they may have "believed" for a while, they never experienced regeneration. Still others argue that the biblical warnings against apostasy are real and that believers maintain the freedom, at least potentially, to reject God's salvation.^[38]

Islam[link]

In Islam apostasy is called "ridda" ("turning back") and is considered to be a profound insult to God. A person born of Muslim parents who rejects Islam is called a "murtad fitri" (natural apostate), and a person who converted to Islam and later rejects the religion is called a "murtad milli" (apostate from the community).^{[39][unreliable source?]}

According to some scholars, if a Muslim consciously and without coercion declares their rejection of Islam and does not change their mind after the time allocated by a judge for research, then the penalty for male apostates is death, and for women life imprisonment. However, this view has been rejected by modern Muslim scholars (e.g. Hasan al-Turabi), who argue that the hadith in question should be taken to apply only to political betrayal of the Muslim community, rather than to apostasy in general.^[40] These scholars regard apostasy as a serious crime, but argue for the freedom to convert to and from Islam without legal penalty, and consider the aforementioned Hadith quote as insufficient justification for capital punishment. Today apostasy is illegal in most Muslim countries, and subject in some to the death penalty. Executions for apostasy are rare, but allowed in some Muslim countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Apostasy is legal in secular Muslim countries such as Turkey.^[41]

The hadith is quoted both by supporters of the death penalty and critics of Islam. Some Islamic scholars^[who?] point out it is important to understand the hadith in its proper historical context: it was written when the nascent Muslim community in Medina was fighting for its existence, and the enemies of Islam encouraged rebellion and discord within the community.^[42] At that time any defection would have had serious consequences for the Muslims, and the hadith may well be about treason, rather than just apostasy. Under the terms of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah any Muslim who returned to Mecca was not to be returned, terms which the Prophet accepted.

The Qur'an says:

Let there be no compulsion in the religion: Clearly the Right Path (i.e. Islam) is distinct from the crooked path.

—Qur'an, ^{[Quran 2:256]}

A section of the 'People of the Book' (Jews and Christians) says: "Believe in the morning what is revealed to the believers (Muslims), but reject it at the end of the day; perchance they may (themselves) turn back (from Islam).

—Qur'an, ^{[Quran 3:72]}

But those who reject faith after they accepted it, and then go on adding to their defiance of faith, never will their repentance be accepted; for they are those who have (of set purpose) gone astray.

—Qur'an, ^{[Quran 3:90]}

Those who blasphemed and back away from the ways of Allah and die as blasphemers, Allah shall not forgive them.

—Qur'an, ^{[Quran 4:48]}

^{[citation needed]}

Those who believe, then reject faith, then believe (again) and (again) reject faith, and go on increasing in unbelief, – Allah will not forgive them nor guide them on the way.

—Qur'an, ^{[Quran 4:137]}

O ye who believe! If any from among you turn back from his faith, soon will Allah produce a people whom He (Allah) will love as they will love Him lowly with the believers, Mighty against the rejecters, fighting in the way of Allah, and never afraid of the reproachers of such as find fault. That is the Grace of Allah which He will bestow on whom He (Allah) pleases. And Allah encompasses all, and He knows all things.

—Qur'an, ^{[Quran 5:54]}

The Hadith (a collection of sayings attributed to Muhammad and his companions) includes statements taken as supporting the death penalty for apostasy, such as:

• The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I (Muhammad) am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims. Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:83:17

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a Pakistani Islamic scholar, writes that punishment for apostasy was part of Divine punishment for only those who denied the truth even after clarification in its ultimate form by Muhammad (he uses term Itmam al-hujjah), hence, he considers this command for a particular time and no longer punishable.^[43]

In 2006 Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity, attracted worldwide attention about where Islam stood on religious freedom. Prosecutors asked for the death penalty for him. However, the Afghan government claimed he was mentally unfit to stand trial and released him.

Islam Online, a website, contains a fatwa dated 21 March 2004 and ascribed to 'IOL Shariah Researchers' says:

• "If a sane person who has reached puberty voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be punished.‏ In such a case, it is obligatory for the caliph (or his representative) to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does, it is accepted from him, but if he refuses, he is immediately killed."^[44] No one besides the caliph or his representative may kill the apostate. If someone else kills him, the killer is disciplined (for arrogating the caliph's prerogative and encroaching upon his rights, as this is one of his duties).

It should be noted that the website Islam Online has an article by Jamal Badawi arguing against legal punishment of apostasy:

• "The preponderance of evidence from both the Qur'an and Sunnah indicates that there is no firm ground for the claim that apostasy is in itself a mandatory fixed punishment (hadd), namely capital punishment."^[45] References to early capital punishment for apostasy were not due to apostasy itself, but rather other capital crimes that were coupled with it.

Judaism[link]

The term apostasy is also derived from Greek ἀποστάτης, meaning "political rebel," as applied to rebellion against God, its law and the faith of Israel (in Hebrew מרד) in the Hebrew Bible.

Other expressions for apostate as used by rabbinical scholars are "mumar" (מומר, literally "the one that is changed") and "poshea yisrael" (פושע ישראל, literally, "transgressor of Israel"), or simply "kofer" (כופר, literally "denier" and heretic).

The Torah states:

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.

—Deuteronomy 13:6–10^[46]

The prophetic writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah provide many examples of defections of faith found among the Israelites (e.g., Isaiah 1:2–4 or Jeremiah 2:19), as do the writings of the prophet Ezekiel (e.g., Ezekiel 16 or 18). Israelite kings were often guilty of apostasy, examples including Ahab (I Kings 16:30–33), Ahaziah (I Kings 22:51–53), Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:6,10), Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:1–4), or Amon (2 Chronicles 33:21–23) among others. (Amon's father Manasseh was also apostate for many years of his long reign, although towards the end of his life he renounced his apostasy. Cf. 2 Chronicles 33:1–19)

In the Talmud, Elisha Ben Abuyah (known as Aḥer) is singled out as an apostate and epicurean by the Pharisees.

During the Spanish inquisition, a systematic conversion of Jews to Christianity took place, some of which under threats and force. These cases of apostasy provoked the indignation of the Jewish communities in Spain.

Several notorious Inquisitors, such as Tomás de Torquemada, and Don Francisco the archbishop of Coria, were descendants of apostate Jews. Other apostates who made their mark in history by attempting the conversion of other Jews in the 14th century include Juan de Valladolid and Astruc Remoch.

Abraham Isaac Kook,^[47][48] first Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in then Palestine, held that atheists were not actually denying God: rather, they were denying one of man's many images of God. Since any man-made image of God can be considered an idol, Kook held that, in practice, one could consider atheists as helping true religion burn away false images of god, thus in the end serving the purpose of true monotheism.

In practice Judaism does not follow the Torah's prescription on this point: there is no punishment today for leaving Judaism, other than being excluded from participating in the rituals of the Jewish community, including leading worship, being called to the Torah and being buried in a Jewish cemetery.

Other religious movements[link]

Controversies over new religious movements (NRMs) have often involved apostates, some of whom join organizations or web sites opposed to their former religions. A number of scholars have debated the reliability of apostates and their stories, often called "apostate narratives".

One camp that broadly speaking questions apostate narratives includes David G. Bromley,^[49][50] Daniel Carson Johnson,^[51] Dr. Lonnie D. Kliever (1932–2004),^[52] Gordon Melton,^[53] and Bryan R. Wilson.^[54] An opposing camp less critical of apostate narratives as a group includes Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi,^[55] Dr. Phillip Charles Lucas,^[56][57][58] Jean Duhaime,^[59] Mark Dunlop,^[60][61] Michael Langone,^[62] and Benjamin Zablocki.^[63]

Some scholars have attempted to classify apostates of NRMs. James T. Richardson proposes a theory related to a logical relationship between apostates and whistleblowers, using Bromley's definitions,^[64] in which the former predates the latter. A person becomes an apostate and then seeks the role of whistleblower, which is then rewarded for playing that role by groups that are in conflict with the original group of membership such as anti-cult organizations. These organizations further cultivate the apostate, seeking to turn him or her into a whistleblower. He also describes how in this context, apostates' accusations of "brainwashing" are designed to attract perceptions of threats against the well being of young adults on the part of their families to further establish their new found role as whistleblowers.^[65] Armand L. Mauss, define true apostates as those exiters that have access to oppositional organizations which sponsor their careers as such, and which validate the retrospective accounts of their past and their outrageous experiences in new religions, making a distinction between these and whistleblowers or defectors in this context.^[66] Donald Richter, a current member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) writes that this can explain the writings of Carolyn Jessop and Flora Jessop, former members of the FLDS church who consistently sided with authorities when children of the YFZ ranch were removed over charges of child abuse.^[67] However, Donald Richter remains a member in good standing and loyal to the leadership of the fundamentalist sect from which the former members fled and has no apparent training or expertise in psychology or behavioral sciences. Richter has been criticized for his biased and propaganda-style writing.^[68]

Massimo Introvigne in his Defectors, Ordinary Leavetakers and Apostates^[69] defines three types of narratives constructed by apostates of new religious movements:

• Type I narratives characterize the exit process as defection, in which the organization and the former member negotiate an exiting process aimed at minimizing the damage for both parties.
• Type II narratives involve a minimal degree of negotiation between the exiting member, the organization they intend to leave, and the environment or society at large, implying that the ordinary apostate holds no strong feelings concerning his past experience in the group. They may make "comments on the organization’s more negative features or shortcomings" while also recognizing that there was "something positive in the experience."
• Type III narratives are characterized by the ex-member dramatically reversing their loyalties and becoming a professional enemy of the organization they have left. These apostates often join an oppositional coalition fighting the organization, often claiming victimization.

Introvigne argues that apostates professing Type II narratives prevail among exiting members of controversial groups or organizations, while apostates that profess Type III narratives are a vociferous minority.

Notable examples[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

This is a list of some notable persons who have been reportedly labeled as apostates in reliable published sources.

Christianity[link]

• Julian the Apostate the Roman emperor, given a Christian education by those who assassinated his family, rejected his upbringing and declared himself to be a pagan once it was safe to do so.
• Sir Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was declared 'The Great Apostate' by Parliament in 1628 for changing his political support from Parliament to Charles I, thus shifting his religious support from Protestantism to Arminianism.
• Abraham ben Abraham, (Count Valentine (Valentin, Walentyn) Potocki), a Polish nobleman of the Potocki family who is claimed to have converted to Judaism and was burned at the stake in 1749 because he had renounced Catholicism and had become an observant Jew.
• Maria Monk, sometimes considered an apostate of the Catholic Church, though there is little evidence that she ever was a Catholic.
• Lord George Gordon, initially a zealous Protestant and instigator of the Gordon riots of 1780, he finally renounced Christianity and converted to Judaism, for which he was ostracized.
• Brian Moore, spoke strongly about the effect of the Catholic Church on life in Ireland.
• Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism, was considered both an apostate and heretic by the strict definition of apostasy according to the Catholic Church. Most Protestants would naturally disagree, calling him a liberator and revolutionary.

Islam[link]

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali labelled an apostate by Theo van Gogh according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali^[70]
• Tasleema Nasreen from Bangladesh, the author of Lajja, has been declared apostate – "an apostate appointed by imperialist forces to vilify Islam" – by several fundamentalist clerics in Dhaka^[71]
• Younus Shaikh from Pakistan was sentenced to death for his remarks on Muhammad, considered blasphemous; but later on the judge ordered a re-trial.^[72]

See also[link]

• Religious conversion
• Forced conversion
• Religious intolerance
• Apostasia of 1965
• Defection
• Treason

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Look up apostasy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Bromley, David G. 1988. Falling From the Faith: The Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy. Beverly Hills: Sage.
• Dunlop, Mark, The culture of Cults, 2001 [3]
• Introvigne, Massimo Defectors, Ordinary Leavetakers and Apostates: A Quantitative Study of Former Members of New Acropolis in France – paper delivered at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, November 23, 1997 [4]
• The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). The Kopelman Foundation. [5]
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, The Odyssey of a New Religion: The Holy Order of MANS from New Age to Orthodoxy Indiana University press;
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, Shifting Millennial Visions in New Religious Movements: The case of the Holy Order of MANS in The year 2000: Essays on the End edited by Charles B. Strozier, New York University Press 1997;
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, The Eleventh Commandment Fellowship: A New Religious Movement Confronts the Ecological Crisis, Journal of Contemporary Religion 10:3, 1995:229–41;
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, Social factors in the Failure of New Religious Movements: A Case Study Using Stark's Success Model SYZYGY: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture 1:1, Winter 1992:39–53
• Wright, Stuart A. 1988. "Leaving New Religious Movements: Issues, Theory and Research," pp. 143–165 in David G. Bromley (ed.), Falling From the Faith. Beverly Hills: Sage.
• Wright, Stuart A. 1991. "Reconceptualizing Cult Coercion and Withdrawal: A Comparative Analysis of Divorce and Apostasy." Social Forces 70 (1):125–145.
• Wright, Stuart A. and Helen R. Ebaugh. 1993. "Leaving New Religions," pp. 117–138 in David G. Bromley and Jeffrey K. Hadden (eds.), Handbook of Cults and Sects in America. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
• Zablocki, Benjamin et al., Research on NRMs in the Post-9/11 World, in Lucas, Phillip Charles et al. (ed.), NRMs in the 21st Century: legal, political, and social challenges in global perspective, 2004, ISBN 0-415-96577-2

Testimonies, memoirs, and autobiographies

• Babinski, Edward (editor), Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists. Prometheus Books, 2003. ISBN 1-59102-217-7; ISBN 978-1-59102-217-6
• Dubreuil, J. P. 1994 L'Église de Scientology. Facile d'y entrer, difficile d'en sortir. Sherbrooke: private edition (ex-Church of Scientology)
• Huguenin, T. 1995 Le 54^e Paris Fixot (ex-Ordre du Temple Solaire who would be the 54th victim)
• Kaufmann, Inside Scientology/Dianetics: How I Joined Dianetics/Scientology and Became Superhuman, 1995 [6]
• Lavallée, G. 1994 L'alliance de la brebis. Rescapée de la secte de Moïse, Montréal: Club Québec Loisirs (ex-Roch Thériault)
• Pignotti, Monica, My nine lives in Scientology, 1989, [7]
• Wakefield, Margery, Testimony, 1996 [8]
• Lawrence Woodcraft, Astra Woodcraft, Zoe Woodcraft, The Woodcraft Family, Video Interviews [9]

Writings by others

• Carter, Lewis, F. Lewis, Carriers of Tales: On Assessing Credibility of Apostate and Other Outsider Accounts of Religious Practices published in the book The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements edited by David G. Bromley Westport, CT, Praeger Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-275-95508-7
• Elwell, Walter A. (Ed.) Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 1 A–I, Baker Book House, 1988, pages 130-131, "Apostasy". ISBN 0-8010-3447-7
• Malinoski, Peter, Thoughts on Conducting Research with Former Cult Members , Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2001 [10]
• Palmer, Susan J. Apostates and their Role in the Construction of Grievance Claims against the Northeast Kingdom/Messianic Communities [11]
• Wilson, S.G., Leaving the Fold: Apostates and Defectors in Antiquity. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-8006-3675-9; ISBN 978-0-8006-3675-3
• Wright, Stuart. "Post-Involvement Attitudes of Voluntary Defectors from Controversial New Religious Movements". ''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23 (1984):172–182.

The following is a list of notable people who have been Muslims part of their lives, but left Islam for another religion or a non-religious worldview.

Major religions[link]

• Atheism
• Baha'i
• Christianity
• Hinduism
• Sikhism

Judaism[link]

• Reza Jabari – Iranian.^[1]
• Avraham Sinai – Lebanese member of Hezbollah who had an Orthodox conversion and lives as a Haredi Jew in Tsfat.^[2]

Deism[link]

• Ahmad Kasravi – was a notable Iranian linguist, historian, and reformer.^[3]
• Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi or Rhazes (865 – 925), Persian polymath, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher, and scholar.^[4]

[edit] Buddhism

• Main article: List of converts to Buddhism#Islam

Religious founders[link]

Mughal emperor Akbar proclaimed that no single religion possessed the absolute truth. This inspired him to create the Dīn-i Ilāhī in 1581.^[5]

• Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi – founder of the spiritual movements Messiah Foundation International and Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam.^[6][7]
• Akbar the great – Mughal emperor and founder of Dīn-i Ilāhī, a religious movement whose followers never numbered more than 19 adherents.^[5]
• Ariffin Mohammed – Founder of the Sky Kingdom who claimed a unique connection to God. In spite of renouncing Islam in 2001, he stated that there was no restriction on practising your own faith and at the same time belonging to the Sky Kingdom.^[8]
• Báb – the founder of Babism. Most of his followers later accepted Bahá'u'lláh and thus became Baha'is.^[9]
• Bahá'u'lláh – after the Bab's death, claimed to be the prophet the Báb spoke of, thereby founding the Bahá'í Faith.^[10]
• Salih ibn Tarif – Second king of the Berghouata. He proclaimed himself a Prophet/Mahdi and came out with his own Qur'an.^[11]
• Kabir – 15th century mystical poet and founder of the Kabirpanthi. Born to a Hindu Brahmin widow but adopted and raised as Muslim by a childless Muslim couple, later denouncing both Hinduism and Islam.^[12][13]
• Musaylimah – Prophet of the Banu Hanifa tribe who lived during and after the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad.^[14]
• Dwight York – African American author, black supremacist leader, musician, convicted child molester and founder of the religious doctrine called Nuwaubianism.^[15]
• Ha-Mim – religious founder in Morocco
• Ṣāliḥ ibn Tarīf – formed a syncretic religion based in Barghawata
• Sultan Sahak – founded Ahl-e Haqq
• David Myatt – founded the Numinous Way^[16]

American actor Wesley Snipes converted from Christianity to Islam in 1978, but he left the faith in 1988.^[17]

• Undetermined former religion

See also[link]

• Apostasy
• Apostasy in Islam
• Criticism of Islam
• List of converts to Islam
• Religious conversion
• List of former Jews
• List of former atheists and agnostics
• List of former Protestants
• List of former Roman Catholics
• List of former Latter Day Saints
• List of former Christians

References[link]

Ibn Warraq is the pen name of an author most famous for his criticism of Islam. He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS) and a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry,^[1][2] focusing on Quranic criticism.^[3][4] Warraq's commentary on Islam is considered by some to be overly polemical and revisionist,^[5][6][7] while others praise it as well-researched.^[8][9]

Warraq gathered world notice through his historiographies of the early centuries of the Islamic timeline and has published works which question mainstream conceptions of the period. The pen name "Ibn Warraq" (Arabic: ابن وراق‎, most literally "son of a papermaker") is used due to his concerns for his personal safety; Warraq stated, "I had fear to become the second Salman Rushdie."^[10] It is a name that has been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam.^[11] The name refers to 9th century skeptical scholar Muhammad al Warraq.^[12] Warraq adopted the pseudonym in 1995 when he completed his first book, entitled "Why I Am Not a Muslim".^[13]

He is the author of seven books, including Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995), The Origins of the Koran (1998), The Quest for the Historical Muhammad (2000), What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text and Commentary (2002) and Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism (2007). He addressed the United Nations "Victims of Jihad" conference organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, alongside such speakers as Bat Ye'or, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Simon Deng.^[14]

Early life and education[link]

Warraq was born in Pakistan.^[15] He never knew his mother, who died when he was an infant. He stated in an interview that he "studied Arabic and read the Qur'an as a young man in hope of becoming a follower of the Islamic faith.^[16] His father decided to send him to a boarding school in England partly to circumvent a grandmother's effort to push an exclusively religious education on his son at the local Madrasah. After his arrival in Britain, he only saw his father once more, when he was 14. His father died two years later. Warraq claims to have been "pathologically shy" for most of his youth.^[17]

By 19 he had moved to Scotland to pursue his education at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied philosophy and Arabic with Islamic studies scholar W. Montgomery Watt.^[18]

Writing and works[link]

After graduating, Warraq was a primary school teacher in London for five years and moved to France with his wife in 1982, opening an Indian restaurant. He worked as a courier for a travel agent until the Rushdie affair took place. Because of this, Warraq began to write for Free Inquiry Magazine, the American secular humanist publication, on topics such as "Why I am not Muslim."^[18][19]

Ibn Warraq continued writing with several works examining the historiography of the Qur'an and Muhammad, raising a great deal of controversy that allowed certain Islamic leaders to arouse animosity in their communities in the process.^{[clarification needed]} Other books treated the topic of secular humanist values among Muslims. In The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book Ibn Warraq includes some of Theodor Nöldeke's studies.

In 2005, Warraq spent several months working with Christoph Luxenberg, who wrote about Syriac vs. Arabic interpretation of Koranic verse.^[20]

In February 2006, he participated with several other specialists at the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference on Islam in The Hague (17-19 February 2006).^[21][22]

In March 2006, a letter he co-signed entitled MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism with eleven other individuals (most notably Salman Rushdie) was published in response to violent and deadly protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.^{[citation needed]}

Although not a member of any religion,^[16] he has a higher opinion of polytheism than of monotheism.^[23] He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society. Despite his criticisms of Islam, he does not take the view that it cannot be reformed; and he works with liberal Muslims in his group. He has described himself as an atheist^[24] or an agnostic.^[25]

In 2007, he participated in St Petersburg Secular Islam Summit along with other thinkers and self-proclaimed "reformers of Islam" such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, and Irshad Manji.^[26] The group released the St Petersburg Declaration, which urges world governments to, among other things, reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; and to oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, which they believe to be in violation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Warraq's op-ed pieces have appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian in London,^[27] and he has addressed governmental bodies all over the world, including the United Nations in Geneva.^[28]

In October 2007, Warraq participated in the IQ2 debates in London with Douglas Murray, David Aaronovitch, Tariq Ramadan, William Dalrymple (historian), and Charles Glass ^{[29] [30][dead link]}

Seclusion[link]

Prior to 2007, Ibn Warraq refused to show his face in public. This was due to fears for his personal safety and also due to his desire to travel to see his family in Pakistan without being denied access to Muslim countries. His face was blacked out on the ISIS website.^[31] More recently, he has decided to show his face openly and take part in public debates.^[32] However, his presence normally requires extensive policing.

Peer reception[link]

Praise[link]

In 1996, writer Daniel Pipes described Ibn Warraq's book Why I am not a Muslim (1995) as "well-researched and quite brilliant."^[8] Similarly, Warraq himself and his book Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism were praised by Efraim Karsh: "eminent intellectual Ibn Warraq exposes with razor sharp precision the hypocrisy of Said’s writings," wrote Karsh, "as well as the perverted academic culture that has made his great success possible."^[33] Fouad Ajami called the book "a brilliant and luminous book of cultural analysis and intellectual history."^[34]

In 2007, Douglas Murray described him as "the great Islamic scholar, Ibn Warraq, one of the great heroes of our time. Personally endangered, yet unremittingly vocal, Ibn Warraq leads a trend. Like a growing number of people, he refuses to accept the idea that all cultures are equal. Were Ibn Warraq to live in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, he would not be able to write. Or if he did, he would not be allowed to live. Among his work is criticism of the sources of the Qur'an. In Islamic states this constitutes apostasy. It is people like him, who know how things could be, who understand why Western values are not just another way to live, but the only way to live—the only system in human history in which the individual is genuinely free (in the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson) to ‘pursue happiness’."^[35]

Criticism[link]

Conversely, in reviewing Ibn Warraq's compilation The Origins of the Koran, religious studies professor Herbert Berg has labelled him as "polemical and inconsistent" in his writing.^[36] In reviewing Ibn Warraq's essay in his Quest for the Historical Muhammad (2001) Fred Donner, a professor in Near Eastern studies, notes his lack of specialist training in Arabic studies, citing "inconsistent handling of Arabic materials," and unoriginal arguments, and "heavy-handed favoritism" towards revisionist theories and "the compiler’s [i.e. Ibn Warraq's] agenda, which is not scholarship, but anti-Islamic polemic."^[5] Anthropologist and historian Daniel Martin Varisco has criticized Ibn Warraq's book Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism, writing that "This modern son of a bookseller imprints a polemical farce not worth the 500-plus pages of paper it wastes."^[37]

François de Blois in reviewing The origins of the Koran, states that "it is surprising that the editor, who in his Why I am not a Muslim took a very high posture as a critical rationalist and opponent of all forms of obscurantism, now relies so heavily on writings by Christian polemicists from the nineteenth century".^[38] Similarly, Professor As'ad AbuKhalil noted that unlike the medieval Al-Warraq who criticized more than one religion, "Ibn Warraq claims to subscribe to secularism and freethinking, yet he objects to Islam only and aligns himself with Christian fundamentalism, which raises questions about the true thrust of his mission" and added that "the more rigid and biased the Orientalists, the better for Warraq".^[7]

Asma Afsaruddin states that "Ibn Warraq is not interested in debate; he wants nothing less than wholesale conversion to his point of view within the community of scholars of Islam" and added that his work, The Origins of The Koran, "needlessly poisons the atmosphere and stymies efforts to engage in honest scholarly discussion".^[39]

Works[link]

• Why I Am Not a Muslim, Ibn Warraq, foreword by R. Joseph Hoffmann, Prometheus Books, 1995, hardcover, 428 pages, ISBN 0-87975-984-4
• Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2003, hardcover, 320 pages, ISBN 1-59102-068-9
• What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2002, 600 pages, ISBN 1-57392-945-X
• The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2000, hardcover, 554 pages, ISBN 1-57392-787-2
• The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 1998, hardcover, 420 pages, ISBN 1-57392-198-X
• Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism. Prometheus Books 2007 hardcover,: 300 pages ISBN 1-59102-484-6
• Which Koran?: Variants, Manuscripts, and the Influence of Pre-Islamic Poetry . Prometheus Books 1 May 2007 : 450 pages, ISBN 1-59102-429-3, ISBN 978-1-59102-429-3
• Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy. Encounter Books (13 December 2011): 286 pages; ISBN 1-59403-576-8

See also[link]

• Apostasy in Islam
• Criticism of Islam
• Criticism of the Qur'an
• List of former Muslims
• Religious conversion

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Unofficial Ibn Warraq Site
• Stephen Crittenden interviews Ibn Warraq for the ABC, 10 October 2001
• Profile at Islam Watch, contains writings by Warraq
• Ibn Warraq: How to Debate a Muslim
• Holy War, Chris Mooney on Ibn Warraq for The American Prospect, 17 December 2001
• Statement by Ibn Warraq on the World Trade Center Atrocity