Uh...I don't have much of an opinion. I just want to state if you don't want to remain Muslim, just quit being one. Why do you have to make a  federal case out of it? Uh...the fact that you get persecuted after you stop being Muslim is long gone and nobody really cares. There's nothing impressive about you leaving Islam, and no one can really convince you to stay in it. Most of us here, in Islam, are peaceful people who don't mind infidelity - if that is how you put it - and it doesn't make you a pariah if you leave Islam. And that is all I wanted to state...ever. Thank you.
Oh how quaint!
Hi srhzaidi, welcome to the forum.
The experiences of every ex Muslim on this forum and elsewhere proves that there is a considerable cost to dissenting from Islam - from casual bullying, slander, family, social and community ostracism, all the way to violence, threats of violence, death threats and people living in fear of their life.
Not everyone experiences this in the same way - there are a spectrum of experiences and reactions.
Not everyone is threatened. But at the very least people feel inhibited from expressing their conscience freely for fear of ostracism or bullying or slander.
And of course, not every Muslim reacts in the same way. But to suggest that there is not a problem and an issue within the ummah towards dissenters and apostates is simply denying factual reality.