So, let me give a specific scenario. Hatice is a young girl from eastern Turkey. She was born to Muslim parents. And raised in a small community that was exclusively Muslim. Her father and brothers regular attend prayers at the local mosque. She has generally prayed at home with her mother, and though as a teenager she became less regular in keeping this practice, she always had a revival of personal devotion every year at Ramadan.
A few years ago, Hatice graduated high school and went off to study at university. She ended up studying in Istanbul, where she was exposed to all manner of different beliefs. Many of her professors were at best nominal Muslims. A few even were so bold to declare themselves as athiests. This led Hatice begin to ask questions about her faith, and even to in time doubt it. She found herself not really believing the Qur'an to be a revealed book. But she was so used to celebrating all of the traditions that she grew up with that she continued to celebrate Ramadan, even as she realized that she didn't believe in the very thing she was celebrating.
After graduation from university, she applied to grad school in London. There she completely quit saying prayers completely. She would dress as here peer group dressed, went to local pubs with them, even engaging in drinking games with the boys that she began to date. One day she woke up and wondered how it was that her life had changes so much from when she was younger. There was one girl that she was interning with that she felt close enough to that she was able to confide her internal conflict. That girl happened to be a buddhist. And this buddhist shared how she didn't believe in God or gods per se, but did find meaning in life from the teachings of the Buddha.
When Hatice returned home, that year, she no longer kept any of the practices of Islam. When asked why not, she said that she didn't believe in Islam or that Muhammed was the prophet. That she had found truth and meaning in the principles of Buddhism which she now kept and that she considered herself no longer a Muslim, but a Buddhist.
Her mother cries. Her father says that she was raised a Muslim and that she is still a Muslim. That she must be crazy, and been brainwashed, for no rationally thinking person would ever leave Islam once they knew the beauty and truth of it. He tries to have her committed to a mental hospital. But Hatice will have nothing of it. She gets into a big fight with her family, and tells them that they are the ones who have deluded themselves. She declares that she is not a Muslim. That she is old enough to make such decisions for herself. She is a Buddhist and she is going to remain a Buddhist. Further, she says that they should all realize what fools they are for believing in a God who doesn't even exist. And since he doesn't exist how could he send an angel with a recitation to anyone. Her brother tells her to shut up or he'll shut her up. They revert to their childish taunts of "make me" and other silly things. But that very night her brother, Ahmet, kills her, and claims it is an honor killing both because his sister had allowed herself to become sexually active, was so with non-Muslim men, and she had claimed to have herself left Islam.
Now my question is what, if anything, should the state do with regard to Ahmet?
Does the answer to that question change any if we move the story from eastern Turkey to Anwar province of Pakistan? Or to London?
