The Notion of Religious Freedom and Islam

Abstract

Religious freedom is a contested notion in our modern times and has been the standard to judge any tradition or religion as rational and acceptable ideology. Islam has been 'charged' as being a religion which puts limitation upon human freedom and hence been declared 'outdated' due to this tendency. But Islam is the religion which not only allows and promotes religious freedom but stresses upon it. The modern notion of religious freedom is something which is provided by 'The West' but, in fact, this notion has been the key feature of Islam as a religion and Allah has time and again stressed upon it in Quran. Putting limitations on religious freedom and dissent of opinion is not innate in Islam rather it has been misinterpreted. Such misinterpretations have given a reason to the critics of Islam to charge it as an outdated and rigid ideology. This paper attempts to clarify this misconception with the help of examples from Quran. Islam provides with full freedom and prohibits any kind of coercion in matters of faith.