Beschreibung:
<jats:p xml:lang="en">
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.
</jats:p>