The apostacy of the tribes was not confined to a difference of doctrine. They had taken up the sword in rebellion against the Islamic state, they slaughtered the Muslims among them, they burnt some alive and mutilated those they killed and then advanced Upon Medina. Tabari has observed: When the Bani Asad, Ghatafan, Hawazan, Bani Sulaim and Bani Tai were finally vanquished, the Muslim commander, Khalid bin Waleed, refused to grant them an amnesty till they would produce before him those Who, after their apostacy, had burned the Muslims alive, had mutilated them and had otherwise tortured them (Tabari, V 01. IV, p.1900).
It is also established that the apostates had expelled from their respective areas the functionaries who had been appointed by the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, and in some places set up their own government or attempted to do so. Ibn Khalladun has written: The Banu Rabia became apostates and appointed Munzar bin Numan as their ruler (Ibn Khalladun, Vol. II, p.76).
It is, therefore, utterly untrue that the fighting of the apostates by the Muslims in the time of Abu Bakr lends any support to the thesis that simple apostacy is punishable with death in Islam. Those who make such a claim are either ignorant of the early history of Islam or they deliberately seek to mislead.