The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. The late Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was once the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”
“Christians Beaten, Lose Homes in Separate Attacks,” Morning Star News, October 3, 2022:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslims in Uganda upset with a father of four for converting to Christianity beat him and destroyed his home, and a week later a 52-year-old convert in a neighboring district also suffered injuries that left her unable to walk, sources said.
In Bulumba Sub-County, Kaliro District, 38-year-old Musa Wabwire was praying in his home on Sept. 9 when relatives and other Muslims arrived, he said. Noting his absence at Friday prayers, the mosque leader had sent an assistant who had secretly recorded video of Wabwire listening to a Christian radio program, Wabwire said.
“After hearing it, they all got annoyed and flooded into my home and asked me many questions, which I failed to answer,” said Wabwire, who had secretly put his faith in Christ while serving as treasurer for the mosque. “I only told them to take their money box, and that I be left with Christ, who was enough for me. They became so angry and started beating me up while shouting, ‘Kafir, Kafir [infidel]!’”
When he declined to renounce Christ, they flogged him 40 lashes with sticks, he said. Wabwire’s older brother, an imam in a nearby village, ordered the destruction of his crops and his living quarters on the homestead, he said.
“My belongings were thrown out in the rain and got all wet,” Wabwire said. “My brothers said that I should not be killed but instead leave the homestead.”…
