Leaving one’s religion for another or atheism is utmost difficult in Islam. Islamic laws prescribe that the apostate should be killed by any Muslim(s). Some Islamic countries have legalised this practice, others practice it anyway. It is like mafia gang. No one can leave the gang. The cruelty in such killing of apostates is sanctified as divine law of Allah. That’s why apostates from Islam cannot come out in the open unlike their counterparts from Christianity, Buddism & Hinduism. But still many Muslims have been turning to be apostates since the days of prophet. This is not a new phenomenon.
In similar fashion, many non-Muslims are also becoming Muslims. Islamists may unnecessarily and conveniently highlight this and remain silent about apostates from Islam. The fact is, movement is on both ways.
Barring the instances of forceful conversion to Islam, which is a religious obligation of Muslims (in Islamic countries), most of the recent Muslim converts are from West. Now the question comes up why this two way movement?
If we try to examine the situation, we will find that apostates from Islam are those who, in spite of childhood indoctrination, doubt many things about Islam on becoming adults and after finding no satisfactory answer leave Islam. To them Islam is hollow, superficial, false, imperialistic, cruel and so on and so forth. The reasons are, therefore, intellectual & spiritual.
On the other hand the Westerners, who are disillusioned with the moral degradation of West and got bored with unlimited liberty, convert to Islam as Islam controls every sphere of Muslims’ life. These Westerners find the regimented and controlled life of Muslims much attractive than free-bird type of life in free Western society. Some of them even join Jihadi groups to come out of the boredom and understand the meaning of life (or death). However, such apostates are at no risk of death. Some of them even aspire to go to Islamic paradise by default. The reasons are, here, moral & psychological.