I think because there is no definitive law in The Quran which stipulates that those who publicly leave and declare themselves non Muslim should be put to death, we have to look at the Hadith where this comes from. There are millions of Hadith, about 10-15% would be considered legitimate. This is because our standard of grading Hadith is very stringent. Any weak link in the oration and it’s dismissed entirely.
Here is another opinion, which I’d say reflects my stance.
You
must check the Hadith back to the larger rule found in The Qur'an, if The Qur'an
does notdirectly support the injunction found in this Hadith, then that means
without question that the Hadith is for a
very narrow and very explicit situation that
most probably will
never be relevant to you.
Thus, when The Prophet says that those who leave Islam should be put to death, he is talking about a very specific time, when the Muslims were living in Yathrib (Medina) and were being attacked and besieged by the Meccans.
Let us remember that what constituted the community of the early Muslims
was not tribal, blood ties, or ethnic; the community that was established by The Prophet was predicated on belief (among the Muslims) and as a conscious, willing union between those of other faiths (namely Jews, Christians, and Pagans of Yathrib [Medina]).
So, when we think of “religion” today, we think of it as something separate to our nationality, tribe, ethnicity, etc. People can be a German Buddhist, or a Japanese Christian, or a Argentinian Follower of The Church of
Diego, but during the time of The Prophet, a person’s status as a “Muslim” was the equivalent to what we consider our
national identity. The governmental structure that a Muslim was subject and loyal to was that of Islam, just like, an American citizen is subject and loyal to the United States government.
So, within the Hadith that refer to The Prophet sanctioning death as a penalty towards those who leave Islam, this is not an issue of someone saying: “Oohhh yahhhh I’m like, not mazlam any moreeee, just not feelin’ it anymore, lolz, let’s watch Twilight.”
It is not the simplistic notion of leaving a religion, as we understand it today, rather, it should be understood as someone committing high treason, a crime that is punishable by death in the United States, and many other countries. This is different to “regular” treason, or petty treason, which is usually punished with life in prison. The difference between “high treason” and “treason” is whether the nation is at war, and in many countries, high treason is punishable by death, while treason is not.
So, the context of The Prophet saying that those who leave Islam should be put to death, it is not because they are “leaving Islam,” it is because they are betraying their community, which is defined by their acceptance of the tenants of Islam, much like the American community is not defined by any ethnic ties, but by one’s acceptance of the tenants of the US Constitution. Thus, this Hadith is within the context of (1) War time, (2) High Treason, and (3) Does not abrogate The Qur'an, but, is the result of a need deemed necessary by The Prophet, applies to this
very narrow situation that
he was in.
So, it is such a narrow context that it can almost be rendered meaningless. Today we do not organize our states by virtue of religion, we do so by the boundaries of the state, either in a geographic and/or national sense, so by saying that “death is penalty for those who turn to other religions,” we are not really referring to the same thing, which adds to the confusion.