How is one who abandons prayer considered a Muslim and buried in Muslim cemeteries if he is killed for abandoning prayer and prefers death to it, knowing that some scholars are of the view that he is killed but is not considered an apostate?

The problem mentioned by the questioner regarding the prayer-leaver who chooses death over prayer is a strong objection that applies only to the view that the prayer-leaver is a disbeliever. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah holds that this objection is one of the corrupt sub-issues that were not transmitted from the Companions. He emphasizes that it is inconceivable for someone to affirm the obligation of prayer yet insist on abandoning it until killed, for this has never occurred in Islam. Consequently, whoever abstains from prayer until killed is not, in reality, affirming its obligation, and such a person is a disbeliever by the consensus of Muslims. He supports this with traditions from the Companions and prophetic texts that indicate the disbelief of the prayer-leaver. Therefore, the belief in the obligation of prayer and that its abandoner deserves death is a sufficient motive for performing it. If one does not perform it, it is known that this motive did not exist for them.