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Islam and Apostasy: Difference between revisions
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===Modern Muslims=== | ===Modern Muslims=== | ||
For almost 1,400 years, the punishment for apostasy has been death. Only recently has this been challenged, mainly by a few | For almost 1,400 years, the punishment for apostasy has been death. Only recently has this been challenged, mainly by a few [[apologists]] from among the tiny 3% of the world's Muslims living in "more-developed regions".<ref>''"As of 2010, about three-quarters of the world’s Muslims (74.1%) live in the 49 countries in which Muslims make up a majority of the population. More than a fifth of all Muslims (23.3%) live in non-Muslim-majority countries in the developing world. About 3% of the world’s Muslims live in more-developed regions, such as Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan."'' - [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.pewforum.org/The-Future-of-the-Global-Muslim-Population.aspx|2=2012-12-02}} The Future of the Global Muslim Population], The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, January 27, 2011</ref> A Pew poll released on December 2, 2010, found that even today “The majority of Muslims would favor changing current laws in their countries to “allow stoning as punishment for adultery, hand amputation for theft, and death for those who convert from Islam as their religion”.<ref>Devonia Smith - [http://www.examiner.com/political-transcripts-in-national/pew-poll-most-muslims-favor-law-to-allow-islam-stoning-amputation-death Pew Poll: Most Muslims favor law to allow Islam stoning , amputation & death] - Examiner, December 8, 2010</ref><ref>Survey Reports - [http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/ Muslim Publics Divided on Hamas and Hezbollah] - Pew Research Center, December 2, 2010</ref> | ||
To give you an idea of the kind of figures we are dealing with, we will use Pakistan as an example; the 2010 poll found that 76% of Pakistanis agree apostates are to be killed. In a country with a population of 172,800,000<ref>[http://www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng.pdf 2008 World Population Data Sheet] - Population Reference Bureau</ref> (96% of whom are Muslim)<ref>[http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_religion.pdf Population By Religion] - Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan</ref> that would be 126,074,880 individuals in a single country. Conversely only a mere 13% of Muslims opposed killing apostates. If we are to assume the position that, Muslims who espouse such views are extremists who misunderstand the teachings of Islam, then we must also concede the fact that [[Are the Overwhelming Majority of Muslims Peaceful Moderates|the majority of Muslims in the world are extremists]]. They are not simply a fringe group. | To give you an idea of the kind of figures we are dealing with, we will use Pakistan as an example; the 2010 poll found that 76% of Pakistanis agree apostates are to be killed. In a country with a population of 172,800,000<ref>[http://www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng.pdf 2008 World Population Data Sheet] - Population Reference Bureau</ref> (96% of whom are Muslim)<ref>[http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_religion.pdf Population By Religion] - Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan</ref> that would be 126,074,880 individuals in a single country. Conversely only a mere 13% of Muslims opposed killing apostates. If we are to assume the position that, Muslims who espouse such views are extremists who misunderstand the teachings of Islam, then we must also concede the fact that [[Are the Overwhelming Majority of Muslims Peaceful Moderates|the majority of Muslims in the world are extremists]]. They are not simply a fringe group. | ||