No Compulsion in Islam

The Qur’an declares in Surah 2:256 that there is “no compulsion in religion.” But throughout the Islamic scripture’s exegetical history, most Muslim scholars attached so many qualifications to this declaration that it became almost a dead letter, arguing that the verse applied only to forced conversions to Islam but did not prohibit the use of religious coercion against Muslims. Some went even further and held the verse to have been abrogated by later, more severe scriptural passages. Thus, the title of the new volume, No Compulsion in Religion—No Exceptions, edited by Mustafa Akyol, stands as a bold challenge to both the medieval Islamic jurisprudential tradition and to the arguments of the authoritarian movements seeking to create “Islamic states” of various kinds today. The arguments of the book, which firmly oppose attempts to ground religious coercion of any kind in Islamic teachings, primarily address Muslims who are unsure what they should think about the issue. But the book is of great interest, also, to Westerners who are unsure about Islam’s compatibility with political and personal freedom.