Oh, no doubt the OP presented an extremely biased view. But I thought the data itself was interesting and, in some respects, distressing. I'm not sure there's any inherent contradiction there. If a large enough majority of the population wants the death penalty for abdicating Islam, then that's exactly what a democratic government will enact. In fact, the more democratic the government the more assuredly and quickly it will enact such a law. I don't think there's anything in democracy that's inherently tolerant of dissent or diversity. In a system in which power comes primarily from having a majority agree with you, it makes a certain amount of sense that the punishment for radically deviating from the cultural/social/religious norm would be particularly harsh.