During the colonial era , death for apostasy was abolished in many Muslim-majority colonies . Similarly , under intense European pressure , death sentence for apostasy from Islam was abolished by the Edict of Toleration , and substituted with other forms of punishment by the Ottoman government in 1844 ; the implementation of this ban was resisted by religious officials and proved difficult . A series of edicts followed during Ottoman 's Tanzimat period , such as the 1856 Reform Edict . Despite these edicts , there was constant pressure on non-Muslims to convert to Islam , and apostates from Islam continued to be persecuted , punished and threatened with execution , particularly in eastern and Levant parts of the then Ottoman Empire . The Edict of Toleration ultimately failed when Sultan Abdul Hamid II assumed power , re-asserted pan-Islamism with sharia as Ottoman state philosophy , and initiated Hamidian massacres in 1894 against Christians , particularly of Armenians , Assyrians and crypto-Christian apostates from Islam in Turkey ( Stavriotes , Kromlides )
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Apostasy in Islam