In order to properly grasp the significance of why blasphemy/apostasy are treated as Treason, it is crucial to note that Islamic concepts of "State, nation/nationality," "citizenship" and "naturalization" are drastically different from these notions as we understand and routinely use them in the Western secular countries where they are defined as follows: a "nation" is defined as "a body of people recognized as an entity by virtue of their historical, linguistic or ethnic links; a body of people united under a particular political organization, and usually occupying a defined territory." And a "state" is defined as, "a self-governing political community occupying its own territory; a partly autonomous member of a political federation; the political organism as an abstract concept." Islam came to class these notions among the evil traits of humanity and tried to bring about a cure.⁽⁹⁾

What is the Islamic cure? Or to put it another way: How different then is the Islamic concept? To start with, the basis of the Islamic nationality is religious not political, ethnic, linguistic or regional.⁽¹⁰⁾

A common ideology is the basis of "nationality among the Muslims, and Islam is this ideology ⁽¹¹⁾ and this Islamic ideology is a synthesis of the requirements both of the body and the soul.⁽¹²⁾ After all, life in this world is but ephemeral, and there must be a difference between the behaviour of a man and a beast. ⁽¹³⁾ "Naturalization" (to grant citizenship) or "nationality" in Islam is a thing depending solely upon the will and the voluntary choice of the individual, not on an essentially ineluctable accident of nature.⁽¹⁴⁾

Islam rejects the narrow Western basis of birth and common blood, language, etc. as the element of solidarity called "nationality".⁽¹⁵⁾

A citizen, by definition, has rights and owes allegiance to the State howsoever defined. Under the secular, non-Islamic, Western way of life, based on political authority, a western citizen owes his allegiance to the political entity. In Islam a Muslim citizen owes his allegiance to a politico-religious entity which is based upon his religious ideology.

Now, one is likely to wonder what the concepts of state, religion, treason and apostasy have to do with blasphemy, and why is it necessary and even relevant to mention laws of Apostasy in the same breath. Without a proper background on the subject, it would be very difficult for a non-Muslim to understand the reasoning. Let me explain.

In Islam, contemptuous, irreverent speech or sacriligious acts, not only about God , but also about the Prophet Muhammad and all other prophets, and the members of these prophets' households, as well as the holy scriptures, including the Qur'an, and other things that are of a similar religious nature (i.e., which are regarded as sacred) are all acts of blasphemy. Muslims regard blasphemy to be as heinous a crime as apostasy. Since blasphemy is tantamount to apostasy, which in Islam is an act of political treason, (i.e. a crime against the state which is a capital offence) the punishment for blasphemy is the same as the punishment for apostasy. In other words, by committing blasphemy, a Muslim takes himself out of the pale of Islam and becomes an infidel, an apostate. As to the question of the severity of punishment for treason, we need only mention the fact that almost every country and every nation in the world regards Political Treason as a capital offence which calls for capital punishment involving forfeiture of life. In order to bring the differences and similarities of the two systems into relief, the following illustration may be useful: -
 

9. Ibid, para. 261

10. Ibid, para. 440

11. Ibid, para. 264

12. Ibid, para. 119

13. Ibid, para. 118

14. Ibid, para. 265

15. Ibid, para. 119