I know this board is focused on JW issues, but one or two people may be interested in an article on the BBC website, which discusses the attitudes to apostacy in the Islamic religion.
Here is a quick overview:
The penalty for leaving Islam or converting to another religion is death. It may have been the reason why a British teacher who converted from Islam was killed in Somalia last week.
The Quran does not in fact say anything about punishing apostates, and some academics are now teaching that the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and based on a misunderstanding of the original sources. Nevertheless, apparently of over a third of young British Muslims believe that the death penalty should apply for apostasy.
If you want to read the article see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7355515.stm
Disfellowshipping in the JW religion is evil and abhorrent but at least it is not quite as final as death. However at least progressive Islamist academics can have open public discussions with traditional dogmatists about attitudes towards apostasy, so they are in this respect at least, more advanced than the WTS!