Apostasy
![Logo of The Campaign for Collective Apostasy in Spain, calling for defection from the Catholic Church.](/Images/godic/202412/21/Apostasialogo5859.jpg")
![Countries that criminalize apostasy from Islam as of 2013.[14] Many Muslim countries impose the death penalty or a prison sentence for apostasy from Islam, or prosecute it under blasphemy or other laws.[15]](/Images/godic/202412/21/Apostasy_laws_in_2013.SVG5859.png")
![A ruling by Al-Azhar, the Egyptian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and chief centre of Islamic and Arabic learning in the world.[63] The case examined an Egyptian Muslim man marrying a German Christian woman, and then the man converting to Christianity. Al-Azhar ruled that the man committed the crime of apostasy, he should be given a chance to repent and return to Islam, and if he refuses he must be killed. Al-Azhar issued the same sentence for his children once they reach the age of puberty, in this September 1978 ruling.](/Images/godic/202412/21/Rechtsgutachten_betr_Apostasie_im_Islam5859.jpg")
![Mattathias killing a Jewish apostate](/Images/godic/202412/21/141.Mattathias_and_the_Apostate5859.jpg")
Apostasy (/əˈpɒstəsi/; Greek:ἀποστασία (apostasia), "a defection or revolt") is the formal disaffiliation from, or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion contrary to one's previous beliefs. One who commits apostasy (or who apostatizes) is known as an apostate. The term apostasy is used by sociologists to mean renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, a person's former religion, in a technical sense and without pejorative connotation.