The French philosopher
Foucault makes it clear that labelling people as apostates, weak in
the truth, inactive, un-spiritual leads to stigma which deprives
people of social respect and individual empowerment.
Stigma
originated in ancient Greece (a special mark or special clothing) to
warn people that they represented a danger to society,The
individual receives a public definition, which is built into a
stereotype, and is declared by the offender like "crazy", "junkie" "criminal" even "apostate' .The label helps to perpetuate the status of an individual
in an outsider ("a person out of our circle")
Such
a master status suppresses all other statuses. The individual is shaped his social experience which results in playing a role of
self-fulfilling prophesy. Why
do we allow them to label us as apostate anyway!!!