BBC: There's a widespread belief that the penalty for leaving Islam is death - hence, perhaps, the killing of a British teacher last week. But Shiraz Maher believes attitudes may be softening.
Ziya Meral's parents disowned him when he converted from Islam to Christianity.
"They said 'go away, you're not our son.' They told people I died in an accident rather than having the shame of their son leaving Islam."
Born and raised in Turkey, he decided to convert to Christianity after moving to university. He knew telling his parents would be a difficult moment even though they're not particularly observant Muslims, and he planned to break the news to them gently.
In the end, events overtook him. Before heading back to Turkey for the holidays, Ziya briefly visited a Christian summer camp where he was filmed eating a bowl of spaghetti.
The first his parents heard of his conversion was when they saw Ziya on the national news being described as "an evil missionary" intent on "brainwashing" Turkish children.
His parents decided they would rather tell people that he was dead than acknowledge he was a Christian. And Ziya, who now lives in the UK, is not alone in this experience.
Sophia, which is not her real name, faced similar pressures when she decided to become a Christian.
Coming from a Pakistani background but living in east London, 28-year-old Sophia spoke about the extreme cultural pressures her family put her under.
"They kept saying: 'The punishment is death, do you know the punishment is death?'"
In the end, Sophia ran away from home. Her mother tracked her down and turned up at her baptism.
"I got up to get baptised, that's when my mother got up, ran to the front and tried to pull me out of the water.
"My brother was really angry. He reacted and phoned me on my mobile and just said: 'I'm coming down to burn that church.'"
For Sophia and Ziya, a lot of the prejudice they faced seemed to be borne out of cultural ideas, which are particularly ingrained in the South Asian community relating to notions of family honour.
But it's too easy to say this is just a cultural problem. Dig a little deeper and you find that there is a theological argument which advocates the death penalty for apostates, which has serious implications for British society. When Muslims Become Christians >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
