The Barnabas Fund (a British Christian charity) reviews the book (available at Amazon here).
Islam is a one-way street. Non-Muslims can convert to Islam, but Muslims are not allowed to convert from Islam. Those who become Christians, or leave Islam for other reasons, face very serious penalties.
All schools of Islamic law specify the death sentence for an adult male Muslim who chooses to leave his faith. Most give the same punishment for women. The law also imposes many other penalties on apostates, and provokes powerful hostility towards them amongst Muslims.
But change is possible. Some liberal Muslim scholars have argued that the apostasy law should be abandoned, so that people can leave Islam without fear of reprisals. In late 2009 a group of mainstream Muslim leaders in Britain asserted that “people have the freedom to enter the Islamic faith and the freedom to leave it”. These voices will be strengthened by non-Muslims also calling for repeal of the law.
Dr Sookhdeo’s new book promotes the case for abolition. In the first section he sets out the Muslim teaching on apostasy from the Islamic sources, and in the second he looks at the debate amongst contemporary Muslim scholars about the law and related issues. The third section reviews the treatment of converts from Islam in the world today, using country profiles and individual case studies.