REPOSITIONING UNDERSTANDING ON THE FREEDOM OF RELIGION: SPECIAL REFERENCE TO QUR’ANIC INTERPRETATION, 2: 256

Recently there have been much reported on television and ewspaper concerning the development of religious sects which viewed by mainstream Muslim leaders as mislead. This comes out not without reason, since having observed both on the substance and practice of these sects there has been an indication that the activities of its followers either in urban areas or villages tend to make the community inharmony. Yet, more than that, it distorted a fundamental doctrine of the majority of religious belief in this country. Such phenomenon at least raises some questions, especially to my mind, whether the existence of these sects could be justifi ed on the basis of religious freedom as an expression of human rights to choose and determine their own beliefs or not? Could the activities of these sects be included into the act of apostasy? Therefore, they deserve to be punished or killed. Therefore, this brief essay aims at re-explaining the interpretation of the verse by referring to several treatises on Qur’anic exegesis and Muslim scholars opinion as a way to put the verse on its right position