
The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam
This talk examines the historic invention and spreads reports attributed to the Prophet in support of a criminal penalty for apostasy in Islamic law. The texts are weak, have no known chain of transmitters, and were often isolated. Furthermore, these texts directly contradict the Quran, which condemns but never mentions any criminal punishment for blasphemy, apostasy, or leaving Islam. This talk explores the process of the creation and dissemination of a serious criminal penalty that seems to be based on authentic Islamic texts, but a close review reveals was not.