Islam: Why Would You Want Apostates in Your Religion

According to multiple studies, most Muslims believe apostasy is punishable by death as in, if a person says that they don’t want to be a Muslim anymore, then it is the duty of a Muslim to kill that person. While this may be a Scientologist’s wet dream, most of us are probably appalled by such a notion. Indeed, I know many Muslims who privately don’t think this makes any sense but are loathe to publicly speak out against this theory lest they be considered an apostate and be put on the head chopping waiting list.

I always thought Islam was an interesting religion because it actually encouraged research and conversation. Indeed, in its early days, the Muslim community was filled with the most learned people who prized intellectual rigor over everything else. However, like most long running plays, such things have become a idyllic pipe-dream and the current face of the religion is a guy who shoots a 14 year old girl for her desire to go to school while his followers malign her name in the public sphere. It, therefore, shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who conducts a critical study of Islam that it’s a religion wanting in many aspects. By the way, this isn’t exclusive to Islam as most religions leave a lot to be desired. A religion’s value doesn’t come from what it teaches but from its community of followers. In terms of differentiating between right and wrong, your local civics class teaches pretty much the same thing, except it does so with a lot less guilt. On the other hand, every religion emphasizes the value of group prayer as if to say, we know you’re miserable with <insert a religion’s name here> but look at how many people in this community are miserable with you; isn’t that great!

Islam is unique in that its followers believe that if you leave the religion, then you are fair game to star in the remake of the great Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Hard Target. What I don’t understand is why Muslims would want someone who doesn’t believe in their religion to be part of their community? Wouldn’t that person just rot the religion from the inside? I can understand the value of this policy in the days of Prophet Muhammad when the religion was just starting out and needed every Hashim, Ismail, and Ali in its corner, and, as we all know, the best way to keep someone in your corner is to threaten them with death if they decide to leave for another corner. However, the Muslim community today is a billion strong and numbers are no longer a problem. Plus, since Islam is alleged to be the fastest growing religion in the world, the new additions would easily make up for a few deserters. Finally, just imagine the great publicity Islam would get if it formally denounced the apostasy policy – and we all know the religion could use some good publicity. So, let’s be smart about this, formally denounce this policy and leave this whole apostasy business to those nutter Scientologists.