A dated record of moments when a Muslim ruler, court or council of scholars retired a rule that once seemed permanent. This is a starting record of 21 entries and it will grow.
The Ottoman government gives a written undertaking that converts from Islam will no longer be put to death.
Ahmad Bey abolishes slavery in Tunisia, two years before France and nineteen before the United States.
The Reform Edict declares Muslim and non-Muslim subjects equal and ends the poll tax on non-Muslims.
The Turkish parliament abolishes the caliphate.
The Code of Personal Status outlaws polygamy and gives women the right to divorce in court.
Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery by royal decree.
Morocco rewrites its family code: the marriage age rises to eighteen and a wife is no longer bound to obey.
The Amman Message, later endorsed by scholars from some fifty countries, forbids declaring Muslims of the recognized schools unbelievers.
The founding jurist of Egyptian Islamic Jihad publishes, from prison, a full repudiation of the violence he had licensed.
More than a hundred and twenty Sunni scholars sign an open letter refuting the Islamic State point by point, including its revival of slavery.
Some two hundred and fifty Muslim scholars and officials declare that religious minorities in Muslim lands hold full rights of citizenship.
The Saudi religious police lose the power to pursue, arrest or question anyone.
Tunisia lifts the rule that barred Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men.
Women drive legally in Saudi Arabia. Cinemas reopen after thirty-five years.
The Pope and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar sign the Document on Human Fraternity, affirming freedom of belief and full citizenship.
Scholars of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization on earth, recommend retiring the word for unbeliever when speaking of fellow citizens.
More than twelve hundred scholars from a hundred and thirty-nine countries approve the Charter of Makkah.
The head of the Muslim World League leads a delegation of senior clerics to pray at the camp.
Sudan repeals the death penalty for leaving Islam.
The Emirates rewrite their personal law: an honor killing is now simply murder.
A mosque, a church and a synagogue of equal size open around one shared garden.
The ledger records events. The Index will record the present state of the law, country by country: apostasy, blasphemy, the status of minorities, the testimony of women, the content of the schoolbooks. Every entry will carry its source.
It is being compiled now. Researchers, newsrooms and institutions can ask for early access.
Know of an entry that is missing or wrong? Write to editor@defuseislam.org with the source.