사우디아라비아의 형법과 종교 자유권에 대한 고찰

A Study on the Criminal Law and Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this article is to reveal how the right to religious freedom is being restricted in the Islamic world, focusing on the cases in Saudi Arabia. The right to religious freedom, including the right of individuals to change their religion, is taken for granted by most people in the modern civil societies. However, criminal laws in many Islamic countries stipulate that Muslims who abandon Islam should be punished. According to Shari’a, apostacy (ridda) from Islam is one of the most serious crimes that incur a God-prescribed penalty of death. Today, among the Islamic countries, eight countries such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Brunei Darussalam, Mauritania, Qatar, the Sudan, UAE and Yemen treat apostasy as a serious crime to be punished for death penalty. Among these eight countries, seven countries, except Saudi Arabia, have clearly defined apostasy as a criminal offense under the penal code. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, which has no penal code, deals with religious crimes according to Shari‘a. This is the reason why many religious crimes in Saudi Arabia, such as false prophecy, blasphemy, witchcraft, sorcery, and atheism in addition to apostasy can be punished for death , flogging, long term imprisonment, etc in Saudi Arabia. In this context, firstly this paper is going to give an overview of what kinds of penalty Shari‘a has traditionally prescribed for apostasy and how they are applied in modern Islamic countries. Secondly, this article will show what kinds of religious activity are considered criminal offenses in Saudi Arabia. In particular, this article would like to analyze the cases that restrict religious rights of non-Muslim foreigners and non-Sunni Muslims such as Christians, Shi ites and Ahmadis. Finally, this paper examines how religion-related penalties are being exploited to suppress anti-government activists who have advocated social reforms in recent years.