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 Islam is alleged to be a religion which puts limitation upon human freedom and thus an ‘outdated’ religion. But in reality, Islam is the religion allows and promotes religious freedom. The modern notion of religious freedom is considered to be introduced by ‘the West’ but rather this notion has been the key feature of Islam as a religion mentioned 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 Such misinterpretations have given a reason to the critics of Islam to charge it as an outdated and rigid ideology.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 offers full freedom and prohibits any kind of coercion in matters of faith.