Why then do all four Sunni schools of law agree that a Muslim man who leaves Islam is killed if he refuses to recant (the Hanafis only punish a woman with imprisonment)? The ruling is based on a number of Hadiths considered totally reliable by Sunni scholars, such as ‘Whoever changes his religion, kill him’ and another specifying that a Muslim’s life is only taken for three crimes: murder, adultery and apostasy.52
