Renouncing Islam is a crime punishable by death in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
In practice, though, the law isn't implemented nowadays. On the rare occasions that an apostasy case comes to court, the accused person is usually allowed to flee the country or imprisoned for some other offence – thus avoiding international embarrassment.
In the eyes of Islamist militants, however, these governments are neglecting their religious duty, and the result is vigilante killings. Such killings may be inspired by the actions of groups like IS but they are also legitimised by national laws against apostasy and by governments which reject the right to freedom of belief.
Around 10pm last Sunday, a young Yemeni called Omar Mohammed Batawil was abducted in front of his home in the Crater district of Aden. [al-bab.com] Read more
