Apostasy and Public Policy in Contemporary Egypt

An Evaluation of Recent Cases from Egypt's Highest Courts

Bibliographic Data

ID23156367
AuthorsMaurits Berger (0000-0002-6075-0984, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume25
Issue3
Pages720-740
Publication date2003-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Rights Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-0392 • E-ISSN: 1085-794X
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/hrq.2003.0026
OpenAlexW2061749131
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited9

Apostasy, the abandonment of Islam, can be subdivided into the act of apostasy, and its legal consequences. In Egyptian case law of the past fifty years, only the latter plays a role. The act of apostasy hardly needs to be scrutinized by the courts since it is almost never related to religious conviction, but to legal issues like marriage or inheritance. This was different, however, in the 1996 ruling of the Court of Cassation against the Egyptian Muslim scholar Nasr Abu Zayd: here, the behavior of the accused was the central issue. Still, it will be argued, based on the legal notion of public policy that plays a central role in the issue of apostasy, that the court's ruling was consistent with Egyptian jurisprudence in this matter.

Abandonment (legal) · Apostasy · Conviction · Islam · Jurisprudence · Political science · Theology · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy

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