Mohsen Kadivar, The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam

On Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST via Zoom, Professor Mohsen Kadivar (Duke University) will present “The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam.” This talk examines a few ḥadith that are attributed to the Prophet that support a penalty for apostasy, especially execution, that have been the foundation of this ruling of criminal law in conservative Islam. They are not only conjectural isolated ḥadith that directly contradict the Qurʾān but were also fabricated and forged under the influence of Jewish literature during the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. The so-called prophetic ḥadith of “Kill the one who changes his religion” was the product of the eighth and ninth centuries. The ruling of killing apostates entered Shīʿī law from the Sunni legal schools. From the tenth century onwards, narrations on the penalty for apostasy as well as blasphemy of the Prophet (and even the Imams), in the most restrictive sense, have been attributed to the Shīʿī Imams, although most of them are considered weak, having no chain of transmitters, or contain unknown individuals in the chain.