August 22 is Apostasy Day — a day to defend, honor and celebrate our right to courageously leave religion. This year, Ex-Muslims International is inviting you and our global community to: End Apostophobia. Celebrate Apostasy!
Apostasy is a deeply personal journey of deconstruction, reflection and liberation. Whether it means being secretly closeted, quietly walking away or boldly speaking out, leaving religion is every person’s moral and intellectual right. Apostates dare to ask “forbidden” questions, challenge religious norms and expectations, and take huge risks to find safety, belonging and freedom.
Apostasy is a human right. Apostophobia — the irrational fear, hatred, or punishment of people who leave their religion — is the crime.
People who abandon their faith often experience hate and harm from their own religious family and friends, even in countries where religious freedom is legally protected. Apostasy is seen as a betrayal, and met with emotional abuse, forced secrecy, and total shunning. And beyond apostophobia at home and in the community, state violence continues to be a grave threat.
As of 2025, at least 12 Islamic countries — including Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Somalia — officially enforce legal or government-sanctioned punishments for apostasy, including the death penalty.
Many more criminalize blasphemy, a charge frequently used to imprison or silence apostates for simply expressing their views — online, in art, or in conversation. In these countries, there is no recourse for justice — only silence, exile, or death.
Ongoing cases and data are tracked by Ex-Muslims of North America’s persecution tracker — documenting arrests, threats, and state-sponsored persecution against apostates around the world.
What you can do about Apostophobia on Apostasy Day and beyond
We want a world where Apostophobia is condemned with the same clarity and conviction as racism, homophobia, and misogyny, and apostasy and blasphemy laws are a thing of the past.
On Apostasy Day, August 22, 2025, Ex-Muslims International calls on apostates and allies around the world to:
- Join the Apostasy Day livestream on YouTube with Uniting the Cults (link TBD)
- Visit, share and utilize Apostophobia.com
- Share this statement from Ex-Muslims International
- Discuss Apostophobia in your communities and on your platforms
- Call for an end to Apostophobia, apostasy laws, blasphemy laws, and religious punishments
- Celebrate the freedom and joy of leaving religion
- Stand with those who are persecuted for questioning, doubting, or walking away
- Share and amplify apostate stories and apostasy experiences
- Name the emotional and psychological abuse faced by apostates, including shunning, forced secrecy, isolation, and coercion disguised as “family honour” or “religious love”
- Urge your lawmakers to implement, defend and uphold secularism, freedom of/from religion, freedom of speech, and freedom expression
- Use hashtags: #EndApostophobia #CelebrateApostasy #ApostasyDay2025 #ApostasyDay.
Did you know? The first Apostasy Day was organized by Ex-Muslims groups in 2020 and coincides with the United Nation’s International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.
Understand and talk about ApostophobiA uniquely experienced by people who leave religion
Apostophobia mirrors other forms of bigotry like sexism, homophobia, ableism, and racism, yet it is rarely discussed and uniquely experienced by people who leave religion. It seeks to control identity, expression, and autonomy by casting doubt, shame, and punishment on those who deviate from inherited religious norms.
Across Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and other religions, apostates are cut off from their families, pushed into silence, or threatened with violence — all in the name of “protecting the community.”
Like queer people told to “keep it to themselves,” apostates are often expected to hide our truth, erase our histories, and protect the sensitivities of those who rejected us.
Organizations like the Council of British ExMuslims, Faithless Hijabi and Association MELP in France support this healing by creating safe spaces for Ex-Muslims to share their stories, access support like legal aid or mental health, and break the silence through meetups, art and testimony.
Silence is not safety. Shame is not consent. And fear is not respect.
Yet, leaving religion opens new doors to critical thinking, emotional healing, and deeper empathy. Apostasy helps us live life rooted in autonomy, authenticity and humanity rather than control, fear and dogma.
We’re here to build a world where everyone — religious or not — has the right to believe or leave.
That world begins with truth-telling, solidarity, and the courage to refuse erasure. Apostasy is not a shameful secret — it is a rightful, rational, and deeply human choice. And it is time the world recognised it as such.
