In Islam, Taqiya or Taqiyya (Arabic: تقیة‎ taqiyyah, literally "prudence, fear") is a precautionary dissimulation or denial of religious belief and practice in the face of persecution. A related term is Kitmān (lit. "action of covering, dissimulation"), which has a more specific meaning of dissimulation by silence or omission. Aharon Layish, a scholar of Islamic Law, elegantly summarized that “taqiyya is a dynamic, not a static; adaption and assimilation to the environment are not one-time acts but continuous processes determined by changing circumstances of place and time.”