page_title: Apostasy in Islam
section_title: Saudi Arabia
hierarchical_section_title: Apostasy in Islam / Apostasy in the recent past / Saudi Arabia
caption_attribution_description: English: Titlecard of Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam (2016). VICE News has gained access to an underground network in London, Faith to Faithless (represented by co-founder Imtiaz Shams), who help rescue ex-Muslims. First, a few Muslim apostates living in the UK under difficult circumstances are interviewed. They next followed the network as it helped the young atheist Rana Ahmad escape Saudi Arabia via Turkey, and provides support and shelter for young British people on the run from their families and communities.
context_page_description: Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined as the conscious abandonment of Islam by a Muslim in word or through deed. It includes the act of converting to another religion or non-acceptance of faith to be irreligious, by a person who was born in a Muslim family or who had previously accepted Islam. The definition of apostasy from Islam and whether and how it should be punished, are matters of controversy and Islamic scholars differ in their opinions on these questions.
  According to the classical legal doctrine, apostasy in Islam includes not only an explicit renunciation of the Islamic faith, but also any deed or utterance implying unbelief, such as one denying a "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam. Islamic jurists did not formulate general rules for establishing unbelief, instead compiling sometimes lengthy lists of statements and actions which in their view implied apostasy. Apostasy does not include individuals who were forced to embrace Islam under conditions of duress or acts against Islam or conversion to another religion that is involuntary, forced or done as concealment out of fear of persecution or during war.
context_section_description: Saudi Arabia has no penal code, and defaults its law entirely to Sharia and its implementation to religious courts. The case law in Saudi Arabia, and consensus of its jurists is that Islamic law imposes the death penalty on apostates.
  Apostasy law is actively enforced in Saudi Arabia.  For example, Saudi authorities charged Hamza Kashgari, a Saudi writer, in 2012 with apostasy based on comments he made on Twitter. He fled to Malaysia, where he was arrested and then extradited on request by Saudi Arabia to face charges. Kashgari repented, upon which the courts ordered that he be placed in protective custody. Similarly, two Saudi Sunni Muslim citizens were arrested and charged with apostasy for adopting the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. As of May 2014, the two accused of apostasy had served two years in prison awaiting trial.
  In 2012, the US Department of State alleged that Saudi Arabia's school textbooks included chapters which justified the social exclusion and killing of apostates.
  In 2015, Ahmad Al Shamri was sentenced to death for apostasy.
  In January 2019, 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed fled Saudi Arabia after having renounced Islam and being abused by her family. On her way to Australia, she was held by Thai authorities in Bangkok while her father tried to take her back, but Rahaf managed to use social media to attract significant attention to her case. After diplomatic intervention, she was eventually granted asylum in Canada, where she arrived and settled soon after.
  IslamQA which provides, "information regarding Islam in accordance with the Salafi school of thought", (which in 2020 was listed as the world's most popular website on the topic of Islam according to Alexa), has responded to a question, "What are the actions which, if a Muslim does them, he will be an apostate from Islam?"  IslamQA answered saying, "a Muslim may apostatize from his religion by doing many acts that nullify Islam, which makes it permissible to shed his blood and seize his wealth".
caption: The 2016 Vice News film Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam documents the case of Saudi ex-Muslim Rana Ahmad fleeing to Germany.[324]
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