Apostasy and consequences on family life in Jewish, Christian and Islamic laws

Amongst the different contents of freedom of religion or belief, the freedom to convert remains the most controversial issue in Abrahamic religions and in all religions, in general. The right to religious freedom, as a right to change religion, challenges those religious traditions in ways that directly affect family issues. Where religious laws still have public relevance, apostasy, as the negative face of conversion, has legal consequences on family life. This chapter explores how religions deal with apostasy and how this choice made by individual believers can affect their life outside of the strictly religious sphere, particularly their status and life within their families. This issue is particularly crucial in the Muslim context, where freedom of religion or belief has not the same extent as in international law. Nevertheless, the case studies examined here – one concerning Judaism and two Islam – aim at showing that the problem does not exist only in Muslim contexts. Christianity, too, is uncomfortable with the idea of its members converting to another religion, but nowadays the related sanctions are merely spiritual, thus easing the accommodation of Christian denominations’ tenets with the international standards of human rights.