Apostasy

A criminal offense, codified in the law of a number of countries, primarily those applying a form of Islamic law, consisting of the formal renunciation or abandonment of one's religion, distinguished as a matter of secular criminal law from the theological concept of apostasy as understood within a religious tradition itself. Apostasy remains a capital offense under the law of a small number of countries, including, as documented by human rights organizations, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, although a formal death sentence for apostasy is rarely carried out in practice and is instead documented as more frequently resulting in an extrajudicial killing, social ostracism, loss of child custody, or forced divorce; international human rights bodies including the United Nations Human Rights Committee have criticized the criminalization of apostasy as incompatible with the freedom of religion and belief.