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Why I Am Not a Muslim, by Ibn Warraq
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Those who practice the Muslim faith have resisted examinations of their religion. They are extremely guarded about their religion, and what they consider blasphemous acts by skeptical Muslims and non-Muslims alike has only served to pique the world's curiosity. This critical examination reveals an unflattering picture of the faith and its practitioners. Nevertheless, it is the truth, something that has either been deliberately concealed by modern scholars or buried in obscure journals accessible only to a select few.
- Sales Rank: #293036 in eBooks
- Published on: 2010-09-30
- Released on: 2010-09-30
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"My favorite book on Islam is the rationalist critique Why I Am Not a Muslim."
- Christopher Hitchens in The Atlantic Monthly
". . . a courageous and prophethic call to value and protect human rights, especially the rights of women."
- National Catholic Reporter
"The problem with a book such as this is that it will most likely never reach those most in need of it. How many libraries will stock it, or dare stock it if they knew its contents?"
-The New Humanist
". . . transcends The Satanic Verses in terms of sacrilege. Where Rushdie offered an elusive critique of Islam in an airy tale of magical realism, Ibn Warraq brings a scholarly sledgehammer to the task of demolishing Islam. Such an act, especially for an author of Muslim birth, is so incendiary that the author must write under a pseudonym; not to do so would be an act of suicide"
- The Weekly Standard
" . . . a completely compelling case for the conclusion that Islam is flatly incompatible with the establishment and maintenance of the equal individual rights and liberties of a liberal, democratic, secular state."
- Salisbury Review
"Ibn Warraq has done for Islam what Bertrand Russell did for Christianity, but at much greater personal risk. . . . His [fate] would be that of Salman Rushdie's were he to reveal his true name rather than the pseudonym he uses. This book is must reading for all who would understand the possibilities and the dangers of affirming multi-culturalism in today's world."
-The Human Quest
"At long last a writer has risen to the challenge posed by this religion of compulsion. He has put together in one book all the objectionable rules of Islam, and has made it into one of the best books about Islam that I have seen in many years. We must be extremely grateful to Ibn Warraq for his revealing book."
- Humanist in Canada
About the Author
Ibn Warraq is the highly acclaimed author of Why I Am Not a Muslim, Virgins? What Virgins?, and Defending the West. He is also the editor of The Origins of the Koran, What the Koran Really Says, Leaving Islam, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, and Which Koran?.
Most helpful customer reviews
498 of 545 people found the following review helpful.
"Why I Am Not A Mulsim": Bold, Brilliant, and Blasphemous
By Tarik Armagan
In 1990 'Free Inquiry Magazine' published an article called "Why I Am Not A Jew" by David Dvorkin. In its introduction the following words appeared:
"Atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers - call them whatever they prefer, virtually all of them share one very large blind spot: they are almost all ex-Christians, and therefore they measure their shiny new non-belief not against belief in general, but against Christianity in particular. It is thus ex-Christians who write the literature that, to the world at large, represents the views of non-believers. Literature that is specifically intended to present the arguments against religious belief tends in fact to present the arguments against Christian belief."
To be sure, Dvorkin's claim has a very solid foundation in fact: most of the modern anti-religion and atheist doctrines and theories stem from a disillusionment and deconstruction of the Christian faith. From Voltaire to Bertrand Russell ("Why I Am Not A Christian", 1927), the main object of scrutiny and scorn has been the Gospel of Christ, a set of tenets and moral teachings Voltaire famously referred to as the "most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." Fortunately, for Voltaire, there has been a vast body of research and testimony to substantiate his sacrilegious claims. Unfortunately for Voltaire, not all of them are directed at the Christian faith.
The Eastern faiths (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism) make no claims of exclusivity, i.e. that salvation can only be found in their dogmas. The Western faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), however, do. Each proclaims itself the utter and infallible word of God and seeks to subjugate the world to its will. That's where Ibn Warraq comes in. Like Dvorkin's essay and Russell's famous speech, Warraq takes the standard of Reason, Historical Scrutiny, and Speculation and applies it to Islam, the religion he inherited from his ancestors. What emerges is what can only be termed as a pioneering work, a revolutionary and giant body of research and analysis which stands as the most comprehensive, critical, and detailed look at the revelation, the history, the tradition, and the culture that is Islam.
Make no mistake about it: this book is a devastating piece of anti-Islamic propaganda, an unapologetic denunciation of a religion that has become a cultural and moral wasteland. It is with profound regret and unmitigated rage that Warraq assails Islam for serving as the impetus to History's worst human rights record: the suffocation of Reason and Freedom of Expression, the subjugation of Jews and Christians, the dehumanization of pagans, slaves, and even non-Arab Muslims, and a Holocaust against Womankind that continues unchallenged because of its self-declared 'divine' sanction. It will always baffle me that a majority of this world, a majority that happens to be female, is condemned, oppressed, and exploited by the very same ideology that tells them that their salvation is only attainable through self-effacement, and that they comply, reconciling themselves with such blatant notions of cruelty and misogyny. Such is the malicious legacy of the Patriarchal Faiths. I am not entirely convinced that Islam will survive the mounting call to reform, but what is apparent is that it will be Muslim women who intiate and maintain any such progressive reformation.
"Why I Am Not A Muslim" is important because it looks critically and historically at the whole of "Islam", concluding that it is nothing more than a 7th century Arabian narcissist's attempt to mimic Judeo-Christian monotheism with some Samaritan/Sabian overtones and a whole host of pagan rituals thrown in to make it more appealing to hordes of 'unbelievers'. Did you know, for example, that pagan Arabs worshipped Allah, placing him high in the hierarchy of their deities? That Muhammad was rejected by all the monotheists of his homeland (Jews, Christians, Sabians, Hanafis) before claiming his own 'perfect' monotheism? That the pagans had their own pilgrimage rituals which included running between holy sites and casting stones, as does the Muslim Hajj ritual? That the parallels between the prophethoods of Moses and Muhammad are too identical to have been distinct? This is but a minute sampling of what the book offers. Warraq's conclusions are indeed audacious and he blasphemes in virtually every sentence; however, it is difficult not to agree with his conclusions because they are based on historical accounts and not theologically inspired ones. Warraq examines not only the expected subjects (Muhammad, the Koran, the Origins of Islam, the status of Muslim Women and religious minorities) but some unlikely ones as well: the relationship between Islam and Totalitarianism, the compatibility of Islam with Democracy and Human Rights, the influence of Greek Science on Muslim Culture and, probably most telling of all, the history of atheists and freethinkers in Islamic civilizations. Truly, he has assembled an awesome body of research, and the wealth of information which resides in its pages makes it a valuable tool not only in Islamic critique but also in terms of the only subject that really matters: human nature and the ways of human thought. Ultimately, Warraq declares that Islam is just another name for the Arab Imperialism the peninsula witnessed between the 7th and 9th centuries.
Reading "Why I Am Not A Muslim" was a profoundly eye opening experience, even for someone like me who comes from a Sunni Turkish background. For example, I knew, as most people do, that Muhammad was a skilled general and a charismatic politician. I knew that he had fought in wars to defend his people, and, as happens in war, he killed some of his opponents. In spite of this, the image in my mind of Muhammad was always that of a gentle, reflective individual, in effect a Bedouin Jesus. According to Warraq and his sources, a completely disparate image emerges: gone is the humble messenger of God, and in his place is raised a merciless, bloodthirsty warlord, a man who spread the word of God by threatening lives instead of appealing to spirituality. A man who butchered 900 Jews of the Banu Qurayza tribe, taking the women and children as slaves and keeping the chief's daughter, Saffiya, among his collection of wives. He had hundreds of political opponents assassinated and looted their material and sacred resources. He had a mother of five killed while she was suckling her newborn. He had between 15 and 25 wives, and perhaps countless concubines. Here is a man who, at the age of 51, consummated with a nine-year-old girl, his child bride Aisha, whom he married when she was six (yes, six). The amazing thing is these accounts cannot be dismissed as `racist orientalism' for they are themselves corroborated by the Islamic tradition. Whether or not this tradition is reliable (or even credible) is a separate issue, for we have scant evidence directly linked to the life of Muhammad (or, as he was known to his tribesmen before his prophet days, Abul Kassim) but it is the tradition upon which the Islamic foundation is laid and is the only one we are given to consider.
Like Warraq, I too am an ex-Muslim, though I excised my Islamic identity several years before I had ever heard of "Why I Am Not A Muslim". I picked it up out of sheer curiosity and amazement that someone had dared to compose such a tome. I thought that if an ex-Muslim was courageous enough to take Islam head-on, in spite of what had happened to Salman Rushdie after the publication of "The Satanic Verses" (a book which is comparatively much kinder to Islam), then I, as someone who understood his positions and shared his dismay, had an obligation to read it. I would thereby recommend it to anyone with an interest in Islam, though it seems unlikely (and understandably so) that any Muslim would ever consider reading it.
Liberal intellectuals in the west are taken to task in the final chapter, but it is a criticism which must be considered as a double-edged sword for both Warraq's anti-Islamism and his Humanism; I can empathize with his frustrations. Islamic fundamentalists are ideologically similar to conservative right-wingers: if you have any doubts, look at the completely illogical and self-serving justifications offered by George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden for their voluntary wars- both claim God is on their side and both seek support by playing to the fears and ignorance of the masses. They are, however, politically opposed to each other (it's called OIL). Leftist intellectuals have made heavy allowances for the understanding and acceptance of Islam and other 'backward' cultures, offering some deeply convoluted apologies for its inhumanity in an attempt at hypertolerant inclusion. As a liberal, I understand the desire to respect and appreciate everyone's right to practice religion. As humanists, and as those who champion human rights (and let's be honest here- this is the domain of activist liberals in the West) we cannot overlook those same human rights in the name of multicultural tolerance. Yes, we are all entitled to believe what we want and to act accordingly, but we must insist that all rights are guaranteed to all human beings, even if those rights are in opposition to certain religious dogmas. To liberals, nothing is more important than being fair, open-minded, and inclusive. Warraq must concede that humanist values have been propagated by liberal reformers. But we liberals do have a standard to bear, and not all ideologies will be able to meet it. We must work for their reform, and this is especially true of Islam and its disastrous human rights record. Unfortunately, any criticism of Islam is immediately classified as racist orientalism or western imperialism, even if the criticism is coming from Muslims and ex-Muslims themselves. This interpretation of Islamic critique needs to be viewed as humanist reform and not colonialism.
What is clear in reading "Why I Am Not A Muslim" is that Ibn Warraq perceives his endeavor as a crusade against the falsehood that is Islam. Whether or not one agrees with him he must be given credit for assembling an immensely powerful compilation of evidence to make his case. It is about time that the same standards of historical criticism and humanist reform that were applied to Judaism and Christianity were applied to Islam. There is no good reason for them not to be. Islam has for too long resided in the dark shadow of self-seclusion, cutting itself off from the outside world in order to maintain and validate its own dogmas. Warraq's book is proof enough that Islam as it exists today is unacceptable; there can be no more Talibans or Ayatollahs or Wahhabi Saudis. To believe in the message of an Arabian prophet as that of God is one thing; to promulgate it upon human lives through force, threat, and annihilation is another, unacceptable and entirely at odds with humanity. I eagerly await the arrival of a tolerant, humane, and liberal Islam. But how will the Islamic Reformation take place? That remains a possibility wrought with tremendous hope and yet potential catastrophe. What is certain is that it must begin with each Muslim asking, "Why am I Muslim?" If the question can be answered beyond the call of hereditary inheritance and blind acceptance, then there is hope. But it must begin with individuals, and not councils or mullahs or imams. To quote David Dvorkin once again: "If Western civilization has made one single important contribution to the world, it is the concept of individuality: the idea that a man is what he chooses to be, not what his community ordains him to be; that each of us represents only himself and is not a mere cell in some familial or ethnic organism. This, to my mind, is the true essence of humanism."
129 of 144 people found the following review helpful.
Well-informed, timely and nuanced
By Len Oakes
Despite what some reviewers have said I found this book to be quite moderate and conservative. The author clearly knows his materials, has thought his thesis through, and doesn't make cheap shots or take short-cuts. His acknowledgement of the high achievements of Islamic civilisation, as in the areas of science and poetry (just to name a couple, he could have added architecture and other outstanding accomplishments but that would just repeat points he has already made) reveal a good appreciation of the strengths of Islamic culture. But oh, someone had to say it; Islamic law, the treatment of women, and inherent extremism (again just a few examples among many) fall woefully short of what other great civilisations attained and ill-equip Muslims for dealing with the modern world with its secularism, rationalism, and egalitarianism. I was just left with a great sadness after completing the book.
72 of 80 people found the following review helpful.
A Surprisingly Respectful Critique of Islam
By Fred W. Hallberg
The author tells us his title is modelled on Bertrand Russell's 1927 essay, "Why I am Not a Christian." Russell's essay was a superficial critique of Christianity which rested heavily on refuting the medieval "proofs" of the existence of God. But no one bases their religious beliefs on such "proofs." The author invokes Russell's name merely to signal that he, like Russell, is a free spirit who will follow the arguments and evidence wherever they lead.
The author tells us his real intellectual heroes are John Stuart Mill and Karl Popper. Mill wrote the 1859 essay "On Liberty," a lively defense of what American's call the "First Amendment rights" of freedom of conscience and expression. Popper wrote his two volume "The Open Society and Its Enemies" during his exile to Australia in W.W. II. Popper's thesis was that both human dignity and the validation of our general beliefs requires that our procedures of conjecture and criticism remain open and dynamic. The greatest failing of Islam, on this author's account, is that it aims to produce a closed society in which conjecture and criticism is impossible. Since Mill and Popper represent the essential thrust of modernity, Islam's greatest problem is how to come to terms with the modern world.
This is where the author's history of islam becomes so important. It is what makes his critique of Islam so much better grounded than Russell's critique of Christianity. It turns out Islam has been struggling to squelch dissent and diversity from its very beginning. Christians could not behave this way during the first four centuries of their existence, because they did not wield significant political power until then. The Prophet and his companions, by way of contrast, were the head of a powerful military and political organization from the time they returned to Mecca from Medina. The thrust of "traditional" Islam from that time forward has been to impose an exceptionless orthodoxy on all believers.
There have always been dissenters within the Muslim community, despite the best efforts to impose confirmity. The author gives a dramatic history of the better known among these Islamic "heretics and freethinkers" (in his Chapter 10). We learn the teacher of one of the most illustrious among these freethinkers (Ibn Al-Rawandi, born about 830) was Abu Al-Warraq (described on p. 257). None of Abu Al-Warraq's writings survive, so he remains a rather shadowy figure. The author's pseudonym (Ibn Warraq) is apparently based on this historical figure, which he takes to symbolize the entire tradition of heroic resistance against the Islamic tradition of mindless conformism.
The initial stumulus for Ibn Warraq to write his book was the condemnation of Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomeini, in February of 1989, for publishing the book, "The Satanic Verses." The condemnation (in the form of a fatwa authorizing Rushdie's murder) is a clear example of Muslim hypocracy about the origins of their own religion. The story of the "Satanic Verses" (given that label by Muir, the English historian, in the 1850's) is found in the earliest authentic Muslim sources. What happened was that after his revelation of monotheism, the Prophet got in trouble with the merchants of Mecca for condemning their "gods" (and the religious idols of these "gods" which they made for sale.) So the Prophet had another "revelation" which authorized the worship of at least some of these pagan "gods." But he came to regret this concession to the economic needs of his fellow Meccans, and had a third "revelation" that these verses about accepting the pagan "gods" had been inserted by Satan, and were invalid after all.
The entire story is based on the best attested and earliest Muslim sources. But they are difficult for traditionalists to accept because they show how the revelations in the Koran evolved over time, instead of being revealed all at once in their final and perfected form. But instead of trying to deal with this conflict forthrightly, Khomeini tried to suppress any awareness of the problem by having Rushdie killed.
That was bad enough in Warraq's eyes. But then prominent intellectuals from the European continent and the English speaking world undertook to excuse the fatwa and to blame Rushdie for having "insulted" the religion of Islam! Warraq felt this betrayal was an insult to the freethinkers and dissenters who had been martyred throughout the entire bloody history of the Islamic religion. And that was why, he tells us, he wrote his book.
A book addressed to a problem which occurred in 1989 might seem a bit dated in 2006. But the carefully orchestrated riots against the Danes for publishing harmless cartoons of the Prophet shows his concerns are as relevant today as they were in 1989.
There are some puzzling typos and formatting errors in the book, which suggest it was written on a word processor, without the aid or support of editors and proof readers. Perhaps that is one cost of trying to publish a book critical of Islam in today's world. The big publishers won't touch it, and the small ones leave it as a "do it yourself" project for the author. But these typos never interfere with the reader's understanding of what is being said.
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