The Ruling on Apostasy and Clarifying the Meaning of “There is No Compulsion in Religion”

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, some writers or intellectuals have been in the habit of repeating the phrase “freedom of belief” and citing the saying of Allah the Exalted:

Answer:
We affirmed this at the beginning of our discussion: religion is not a matter of trial and error; religion is the truth. Therefore, if a person acknowledges it and enters it, then turns away from it, he has become corrupt and deviant from the religion of Allah. It is not permissible to leave him alone; it is not permissible to leave him alone. Rather, he must be killed because he has become a corrupt member of society, and he will drag others into shirk (associating partners with Allah) as well. He will cast doubts and delusions upon the people, and his evil will not be confined to himself. Therefore, he must be uprooted from society and eliminated, unless he repents with a sincere repentance. Allah accepts the repentance of those who repent.