Dr Nasr Abu ZaidEgypt 
In 1990, Dr Nasr Abu Zaid, a former Cairo University lecturer in Koranic Studies, published his book The Concept of the Text. He received death threats from Muslim extremists and was harassed in public. In 1995, Egypt's highest court declared that he was an apostate and he was forced to divorce his wife. Under Islamic law an apostate cannot be married to a Muslim. Dr Zaid argued that "the Koran is a literary text, and the only way to understand, explain, and analyze it is through a literary approach". Dr Zaid remained in Egypt for some time in order to contest the charges of apostasy, but he later moved to the Netherlands, with his wife, in the face of continuing threats to his safety.
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