Sheikh Muhammad Nur Abdullah, ISNA President and Member of the Fiqh Council of North America, states the following: “First of all, we should know that it is not the purpose of the Shari’ah to police people or cut their heads. The Shari’ah aims at bringing people closer to Allah and to build an innermost sense of consciousness which motives people to obey Allah.
As for the issue of missing Salah, Muslim scholars have debated it based on different interpretations of religious texts. There are two types of neglecting prayer. One who admits Salah is obligatory but he or she is lazy to perform, but he or she does not deny the obligatory character of it. These types of people are still considered Muslims but they have committed a grave sin. Those people are not to be killed as they are still in the fold of Islam.
The other sort of people is the one who denies the prayer as a pillar of Islam. That statement of denial would take a person out of Islam.
Now, with the regard to killing, there are many issues related to it. First of all, the issue is to be referred to A Muslim judge in a county where Islamic law is applied and he will question the person. If the person defiantly denies Salah as a pillar of Islam, that means he or she has caused a great disorder that is not to be tolerated in any way.”