Criticism of Islam
Encyclopedia
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam
's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christian
s, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy
. Later there appeared criticism from the Muslim world
itself, and also from Jewish
writers and from ecclesiastical Christians.
Objects of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad
, the last prophet of Islam
, both in his public and personal life. Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Qur'an
, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics. Other criticisms focus on the question of human rights in modern Islamic nations, and the treatment of women in Islamic law and practice. In wake of the recent "multiculturalism
" trend, Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate has been criticized
.
s, who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate
. One such Christian was John of Damascus
( c. 676 - 749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic
. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled 'Concerning Heresies', presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed an Arian
monk
(whom he did not know was Bahira
) influenced Muhammad and viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible.
Writing on Islam's claim of Abrahamic ancestry, John explained that the Arabs were called "Saracen
s" because they were "empty of Sarah
". They were called "Hagarenes
" because they were "the descendants of the slave-girl Hagar
". In the opinion of John V. Tolan, a Professor of Medieval History, John's biography of Muhammad is "based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions", but Tolan does not elaborate his statement.
Notable early critics of Islam included:
, the Islamic law
allowed citizens to freely express their views, including criticism of Islam and religious authorities, without fear of persecution. As such, there have been several notable Muslim critics and skeptics of Islam that arose from within the Islamic world itself. In tenth and eleventh-century Syria
there lived a blind poet called Al-Ma'arri
. He became well known for a poetry that was affected by a "pervasive pessimism." He labeled religions in general as "noxious weeds" and said that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth. He had particular contempt for the ulema
, writing that:
Another early critic was the Persian physician
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi in the 10th century. He criticized Islam and all revealed religions in general in several treatises. Despite his views, he remained a celebrated physician across the Islamic world. In 1280, the Jewish philosopher, Ibn Kammuna
, criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths. He reasoned that the Sharia
was incompatible with the principles of justice, and that this undercut the notion of Muhammad being the perfect man: "there is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others as claimed." The philosopher thus claimed that people converted to Islam from ulterior motives:
According to Bernard Lewis
, just as it is natural for a Muslim to assume that the converts to his religion are attracted by its truth, it is equally natural for the convert's former coreligionists to look for baser motives and Ibn Kammuna
's list seems to cover most of such nonreligious motives.
Maimonides
, one of the foremost 12th century rabbi
nical arbiters
and philosophers, sees the relation of Islam to Judaism as primarily theoretical. Maimonides has no quarrel with the strict monotheism of Islam, but finds fault with the practical politics of Muslim regimes. He also considered Islamic ethics
and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts. Maimonides criticised what he perceived as the lack of virtue in the way Muslims rule their societies and relate to one another. In his Epistle to Yemenite Jewry, he refers to Mohammad, as "hameshuga" – "that madman".
Historian Will Durant
refers to the Islamic invasion of India
as "probably the bloodiest story in history", and contends that Islam spread through India with violence. Historian Koenraad Elst
makes the case in his book "Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam" that during the Islamic conquest of India, the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million, but Indian history conceals this fact out of fear of criticizing Islam. Sir Jadunath Sarkar
contends that that several Muslim invaders were waging a systematic jihad
against Hindus in India to the effect that "every device short of massacre in cold blood was resorted to in order to convert heathen subjects."
, the Qur'an is described as an "absurd performance" of a "pretended prophet" who lacked "a just sentiment of morals." Attending to the narration, Hume says, "we shall soon find, that [Muhammad] bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers."
orientalist
scholar Sir William Muir
criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslims countries. The following sentences are taken from the Rede Lecture
he delivered at Cambridge in 1881:
quoted an unfavorable remark about Islam
made at the end of the 14th century by Manuel II Palaiologos
, the Byzantine emperor.
Critics argue that:
are Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah
(words and deeds) of Muhammad. They are drawn from the writings of scholars writing between 844 and 874 CE, more than 200 years after the death of Mohammed in 632 CE. In general, for Muslims the Hadith are second only to the Qur'an in importance, although some scholars put more emphasis on the perpetual adherence of Muslim nation
to the traditions to give them credibility, and not solely on Hadith. Most of the knowledge about the life of Muhammad comes from the Hadith, many of which were biographies of Mohammed. Many Islamic practices (such as the Five Pillars of Islam
) are drawn from the Hadith.
However, there is criticism of the historical reliability of Hadith.
Within Islam, different schools and sects have different opinions on the proper selection and use of Hadith. The four schools of Sunni Islam all consider Hadith second only to the Qur'an, although they differ on how much freedom of interpretation should be allowed to legal scholars. Shi'i scholars disagree with Sunni scholars as to which Hadith should be considered reliable. The Shi'as accept the Sunnah of Ali and the Imams as authoritative in addition to the Sunnah of Muhammad, and as a consequence they maintain their own, different, collections of Hadith.
Scholars not ascribing to the traditionalist view of either Sunni or Shia Islam, notably Qur'an alone
Muslims, point to the prevalence of authoritative Hadith which they aver contradict the Quran as placing the Hadith, in practice, as supplanting the Quran as an authority. This contrasts with the traditionalist view that the Hadith are always secondary to the Quran and that Hadiths contradicting the Quran are void. One illustrative contention between the different sects concerns the punishment for adultery. According to the Sunnah, the correct punishment is death by stoning. This punishment is absent in the Quran, as the Quran mentions two separate punishments for adultery as 100 lashes , or immurement
in the home . Traditionalists claim there is no contradiction because the latter punishment is applied to fornication, and interpret the Quran as authorising Muhammad to ascribe additional laws of equal authority though absent in the Quran itself, such as stoning. Non-traditionalists may aver that as two punishments for adultery are already detailed in the Quran, the Quran claims itself as complete without mentioning the Hadith as a source of authority, the Hadith and Hadith-scholars at times give Hadith higher authority than the Quran.
and former Muslim Ibn Warraq
see some of Mohammed's actions as immoral.
Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf
wrote a poetic eulogy commemorating the slain Quraish notables; later, he had traveled to Mecca and provoked the Quraish to fight the Prophet. He also wrote erotic poetry about Muslim women, which offended the Muslims there. This poetry influenced so many that this too was considered directly against the Constitution of Medina
which states, loyalty gives protection against treachery and this document will not (be employed to) protect one who is unjust or commits a crime. Other sources also state that he was plotting to assassinate Muhammad.
Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b. Muhammad ibn Maslama offered his services, collecting four others. By pretending to have turned against Muhammad
, Muhammad ibn Maslama and the others enticed Ka'b out of his fortress on a moonlit night, and killed him in spite of his vigorous resistance. The Jews were terrified at his assassination, and as the historian Ibn Ishaq
put it "...there was not a Jew who did not fear for his life".
is the literal word of God as recited to Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel
. Criticism of the Qur'an generally consists of questioning traditional claims about the Qur'an's composition and content.
It is a central tenet of Islam that the Qur'an
is perfect, so criticism of the Qur'an is considered criticism of Islam.
This is a list of critical arguments:
summarizes:
The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence
, as well as Shi'a scholars, agree that a sane adult male apostate (if he doesn't repent) must be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to the majority view, or imprisoned until she repents, according to others.
The Qur'an threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only, the historian W. Heffening states, the traditions however contain the element of death penalty. Muslim scholar Shafi'i interprets verse as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Qur'an. The historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet." He further states that "nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of the holy text."
William Montgomery Watt
, in response to a question about Western views of the Islamic Law as being cruel, states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived. However, as societies have since progressed and become more peaceful and ordered, they are not suitable any longer."
Some contemporary Islamic jurists from both the Sunni and Shi'a denominations together with Qur'an only Muslims have argued or issued fatwa
s that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances. For example, Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri argues that no Qur'anic verse prescribes an earthly penalty for apostasy and adds that it is not improbable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad at early Islam due to political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims and not only because of changing the belief or expressing it. Montazeri defines different types of apostasy. He does not hold that a reversion of belief because of investigation and research is punishable by death but prescribes capital punishment for a desertion of Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim.
According to Yohanan Friedmann
, an Israeli Islamic Studies scholar, a Muslim may stress tolerant elements of Islam (by for instance adopting the broadest interpretation of Qur'an 2:256 ("No compulsion is there in religion...") or the humanist approach attributed to Ibrahim al-Nakha'i), without necessarily denying the existence of other ideas in the Medieval Islamic tradition but rather discussing them in their historical context (by for example arguing that "civilizations comparable with the Islamic one, such as the Sassanids and the Byzantines, also punished apostasy with death. Similarly neither Judaism nor Christianity treated apostasy and apostates with any particular kindness"). Friedmann continues:
In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
states:
To implement this, Article 18 (2) of the ICCPR states:
The right for Muslims to change their religion is not afforded by the Iranian Shari'ah law, which specifically forbids it.
Muslim countries such as Sudan
and Saudi Arabia
, have the death penalty for apostasy from Islam
.
These countries have criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western
countries.
In 1990, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation published a separate Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
compliant with Shari'ah. Although granting many of the rights in the UN declaration, it does not grant Muslims the right to convert to other religions, and restricts freedom of speech
to those expressions of it that are not in contravention of the Islamic law.
Abul Ala Maududi
, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami
, wrote a book called Human Rights in Islam
, in which he argues that respect for human rights has always been enshrined in Sharia
law (indeed that the roots of these rights are to be found in Islamic doctrine) and criticizes Western notions that there is an inherent contradiction between the two. Western scholars have, for the most part, rejected Maududi's analysis.
as well as gender segregation practices.
, former Muslims Ehsan Jami
and the Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali
, have criticized Islam's attitudes towards homosexuals. Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch
and Amnesty International
, condemn Islamic laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
.
In May 2008, the sexual rights lobby group Lambda Istanbul
(based in Istanbul
, Turkey
) was banned by court order for violating a constitutional provision on the protection of the family and an article banning bodies with objectives that violate law and morality. Then this decision taken to the Court of Cassation and the ban lifted.
The ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq
has noted that the Qur'an's condemnation of homosexuality has frequently been ignored in practice, and that Islamic countries were much more tolerant of homosexuality than Christian ones until fairly recently.
, throughout the world, Muslim intellectuals are punished for criticizing some aspects of traditional and contemporary Islam. He cited the case of Muhammad Said al-Ashmawy being held in Egypt is under house arrest for his own protection; Abdel Karim Soroush who was beaten in Iran for raising the voice of inquiry, Mahmoud Mohammed Taha who was killed in Sudan. Mohammed claims that Scholars Rifat Hassan, Fatima Mernissi, Abdallah an-Na'im, Mohammed Arkoun and Amina Wadud were all vilified by the imams for asking Muslims to use their intellects.
. Some writers, such as Bruce Bawer
, argue that while the media allows open criticism of other religions, Islam often receives immunity from any criticism frequently targeted at other religions and other topics.
has increased greatly in recent decades, and frictions have developed between these new neighbours. Conservative Muslim social attitudes on modern issues have caused much controversy in Europe and elsewhere, and scholars argue about how much these attitudes are a result of Islamic beliefs. Others argue that Western democratic values and freedoms are being given away to appease Islam, and grant Islam privileges not granted to other religions or community groups, resulting in deeper division.
There is also a growing concern of Islamism
in Britain, where Muslims are immigrating and urged by preachers, many linked to Wahhabism
, to prepare for jihad
, to hit girls for not wearing the hijab, and to create a 'state within a state'. In The United Kingdom
there are currently 85 sharia courts operating to deal with civil matters and there are also sharia courts in Canada
. Critics argue that "the rights of women are being sacrificed for the sake of multiculturalism" Pakistani-born Michael Nazir-Ali
said that Islamic extremism had turned "already separate communities into 'no-go' areas". In Germany, Turkish-born author Necla Kelek
noted that being Muslim was becoming a "self-sufficient identity" and many Muslims were voluntarily living in a "parallel world".
Some critics consider Islam to be incompatible with secular Western society; their criticism has been partly influenced by a stance against multiculturalism
advocated by recent philosophers, closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers
. Fiery polemic on the subject by proponents like Pascal Bruckner, and Paul Cliteur has kindled international debate. They hold multiculturalism to be an invention of an "enlightened" elite who deny the benefits of democratic rights to non-Westerners by chaining them to their roots. They claim this allows Islam free rein to propagate abuses such as the mistreatment of women
and homosexuals
, and in some countries slavery
. They also claim that multiculturalism allows a degree of religious freedom that exceeds what is needed for personal religious freedom and is conducive to the creation of organizations aimed at undermining European secular or Christian values. This tendency to focus criticism of Islam on politics and the non-European identity of its traditions triggered a new debate on Islamophobia
.
defines "cultural jihad" as a process where "these Islamists
use, in a most duplicitous way, the laws and the rights they are given in our society to try to work against society and overthrow it."
In Canada
, a newly released intelligence report states that Islamist groups the Muslim Brotherhood
and Hizb ut-Tahrir
want to build a "parallel society... which could undermine the country's social cohesion and foster violence", where they encourage Muslims to "self-imposed isolation." The report states that "Islamist social ideology appears to have gone unstudied, precisely because the use of violence is either unsupported or understated. "Nevertheless, several Islamist movements advocate a rejection of Western society and mores, and encourage self-imposed isolation of Muslims in the West."
Similar documents have also surfaced in Switzerland
and North America
. The general goals and strategic plans of the Muslim Brotherhood are only found in Arabic documents. One for Europe called "The Project" was found in 2001 in Switzerland, another for North America was found in 2005 called the "General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America." An evaluation of this Memorandum was made for the US-Congress and for the Pentagon. Their influence is fast growing, especially in Europe, but not easy to trace while the active members have to keep their membership secret.
One citation from the document "General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America" makes the objectives of the MB clear:
drew a parallel between Islam
and Communism
: "Islam may provide in the 21st century, the attraction that communism provided in the 20th, both for those that are alienated and embittered on the one hand and for those who seek order or justice on the other." Pell also agrees in another speech that its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited. An Australian Islamist spokesman, Keysar Trad
, responded to the criticism: "Communism is a godless system, a system that in fact persecutes faith".
Writers such as Stephen Suleyman Schwartz and Christopher Hitchens
, describe Islamist attributes similar to Fascism
. Malise Ruthven
, a Scottish
writer and historian who focuses his work on religion and Islamic affairs, opposes redefining Islamism as `Islamofascism`, but also finds the resemblances between the two ideologies "compelling".
towards depictions of people in art. When the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan
, some people took it as evidence that Islam was "implacably hostile to anthropomorphic art", despite the fact that even Muslims were against the destruction.
According to 15th century Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi
, the Great Sphinx of Giza
was damaged in 1378 CE by a deranged iconoclastic Sufi sheikh
who was later hung
in revenge by locals. Attitudes against depicting God, angels, and humans led to the careful covering (to prevent damage) of the mosaics with plaster in the Hagia Sophia
.
has written many introductory texts on Islam and the Islamic world. For example, he has addressed issues like the rise of militant Islam, the veiling of women, and democracy. Esposito emphatically argues against what he calls the "pan-Islamic myth". He thinks that "too often coverage of Islam and the Muslim world assumes the existence of a monolithic Islam in which all Muslims are the same." To him, such a view is naive and unjustifiably obscures important divisions and differences in the Muslim world.
William Montgomery Watt
who in his book Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman addresses Muhammad’s alleged moral failings. He claims that "Of all the world's great men none has been so much maligned as Muhammad." Watt argues on a basis of moral relativism
that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today."
Karen Armstrong
, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad’s teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Qur'an alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.
Edward Said
, in his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, stated that the general basis of Orientalist
thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study. He claims the existence of a very considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up. He claims Islam has been looked at with a particular hostility and fear due to many obvious religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity."
Cathy Young
of Reason Magazine claimed that the growing trend of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim sentiment stemmed from an atmosphere where such criticism is popular. While stating that the terms "Islamophobia
" and "anti-Muslim bigotry" are often used in response to legitimate criticism of fundamentalist Islam and problems within Muslim culture, she claimed "the real thing does exist, and it frequently takes the cover of anti-jihadism."
Deepa Kumar
, the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike, in her article titled 'Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics' says "The history of Islam is no more violent than the history of any of the other major religions of the world. Perhaps my critics haven't heard of the Crusades -- the religious wars fought by European Christians from the 11th to the 13th centuries" referring to the brutality of the crusades and then contrasting them to forbidding of acts of vengeance and violence by the Sultan of Egypt
Saladin
, after he successfully retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Speaking on the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy
(which resulted in more than 100 deaths, all together), she says "The Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammed
with a bomb on his head is nothing if not the visual depiction of the racist diatribe that Islam is inherently violent. To those who can't understand why this argument is racist, let me be clear: when you take the actions of a few people and generalize it to an entire group -- all Muslims, all Arabs -- that's racism. When a whole group of people are discriminated against and demonized because of their religion or regional origin, that's racism." And "...Arabs and Muslims are being scapegoated and demonized to justify a war that is ruining the lives of millions."
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
. Later there appeared criticism from the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
itself, and also from Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
writers and from ecclesiastical Christians.
Objects of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, the last prophet of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, both in his public and personal life. Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics. Other criticisms focus on the question of human rights in modern Islamic nations, and the treatment of women in Islamic law and practice. In wake of the recent "multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
" trend, Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate has been criticized
Criticism of multiculturalism
Criticism of multiculturalism questions the multicultural ideal of the co-existence of distinct ethnic cultures within one nation-state. Multiculturalism is a particular subject of debate in certain European nations that were once associated with a single, homogeneous, national cultural identity...
.
Early Islam
The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are to be found in the writings of ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s, who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
. One such Christian was John of Damascus
John of Damascus
Saint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...
( c. 676 - 749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled 'Concerning Heresies', presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed an Arian
Arian
Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...
monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
(whom he did not know was Bahira
Bahira
Bahira , or "Sergius the Monk" to the Latin West, was a Syriac or Bahrani Nestorian monk who, according to tradition, foretold to the adolescent Muhammad his future prophetic career.-Islamic tradition:...
) influenced Muhammad and viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible.
Writing on Islam's claim of Abrahamic ancestry, John explained that the Arabs were called "Saracen
Saracen
Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...
s" because they were "empty of Sarah
Sarah
Sarah or Sara was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Her name was originally Sarai...
". They were called "Hagarenes
Hagarenes
Hagarenes , is a term that describes "the followers or descendants of Hagar". The name was used in Judeo-Christian literature and Byzantine chronicles for Hanif Arabs, then for Islamic forces known collectively as Saracens, and during the height of the Ottoman Empire, for Turks. The name, used...
" because they were "the descendants of the slave-girl Hagar
Hagar (Bible)
Hagar , according to the Abrahamic faiths, was the second wife of Abraham, and the mother of his first son, Ishmael. Her story is recorded in the Book of Genesis, mentioned in Hadith, and alluded to in the Qur'an...
". In the opinion of John V. Tolan, a Professor of Medieval History, John's biography of Muhammad is "based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions", but Tolan does not elaborate his statement.
Notable early critics of Islam included:
- Muhammad al WarraqMuhammad al WarraqAbu Issa Muhammad Ibn Harun al-Warraq was a 9th Century skeptical scholar and critic of Islam. He was a mentor and friend of scholar Ibn al-Rawandi in whose work The Book of the Emerald he appears...
, a 9th century scholar and critic of Islam. - Ibn al-RawandiIbn al-RawandiAbu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaq al-Rawandi , commonly known as Ibn al-Rawandi , was an early skeptic of Islam and a critic of religion in general. In his early days he was a Mutazilite scholar, but after rejecting the Mutazilite doctrine he adhered to Shia Islam for a brief period of time...
was an athiest, who repudiated Islam and revealed religionRevelationIn religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
in general.
Medieval Islamic world
In the early centuries of the Islamic CaliphateCaliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
, the Islamic law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
allowed citizens to freely express their views, including criticism of Islam and religious authorities, without fear of persecution. As such, there have been several notable Muslim critics and skeptics of Islam that arose from within the Islamic world itself. In tenth and eleventh-century Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
there lived a blind poet called Al-Ma'arri
Al-Ma'arri
Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri was a blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer....
. He became well known for a poetry that was affected by a "pervasive pessimism." He labeled religions in general as "noxious weeds" and said that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth. He had particular contempt for the ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
, writing that:
Another early critic was the Persian physician
Ancient Iranian Medicine
The practice and study of medicine in Persia has a long and prolific history. The Iranian academic centers like Jundishapur University were a breeding ground for the union among great scientists from different civilizations...
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi in the 10th century. He criticized Islam and all revealed religions in general in several treatises. Despite his views, he remained a celebrated physician across the Islamic world. In 1280, the Jewish philosopher, Ibn Kammuna
Ibn Kammuna
Sa'd ibn Mansur Ibn Kammuna was a 13th Century Jewish physician , philosopher and critic of Islam who lived under the rule of the Mongols in Baghdad....
, criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths. He reasoned that the Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
was incompatible with the principles of justice, and that this undercut the notion of Muhammad being the perfect man: "there is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others as claimed." The philosopher thus claimed that people converted to Islam from ulterior motives:
According to Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
, just as it is natural for a Muslim to assume that the converts to his religion are attracted by its truth, it is equally natural for the convert's former coreligionists to look for baser motives and Ibn Kammuna
Ibn Kammuna
Sa'd ibn Mansur Ibn Kammuna was a 13th Century Jewish physician , philosopher and critic of Islam who lived under the rule of the Mongols in Baghdad....
's list seems to cover most of such nonreligious motives.
Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, one of the foremost 12th century rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
nical arbiters
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
and philosophers, sees the relation of Islam to Judaism as primarily theoretical. Maimonides has no quarrel with the strict monotheism of Islam, but finds fault with the practical politics of Muslim regimes. He also considered Islamic ethics
Islamic ethics
Islamic ethics , defined as "good character," historically took shape gradually from the 7th century and was finally established by the 11th century...
and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts. Maimonides criticised what he perceived as the lack of virtue in the way Muslims rule their societies and relate to one another. In his Epistle to Yemenite Jewry, he refers to Mohammad, as "hameshuga" – "that madman".
Historian Will Durant
Will Durant
William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975...
refers to the Islamic invasion of India
Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
Muslim conquest in South Asia mainly took place from the 13th to the 16th centuries, though earlier Muslim conquests made limited inroads into the region, beginning during the period of the ascendancy of the Rajput Kingdoms in North India, from the 7th century onwards.However, the Himalayan...
as "probably the bloodiest story in history", and contends that Islam spread through India with violence. Historian Koenraad Elst
Koenraad Elst
Koenraad Elst is a Belgian writer and orientalist .He was an editor of the New Right Flemish nationalist journal Teksten, Kommentaren en Studies from 1992 to 1995, focusing on criticism of Islam, various other conservative and Flemish separatist publications such as Nucleus, t Pallieterke,...
makes the case in his book "Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam" that during the Islamic conquest of India, the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million, but Indian history conceals this fact out of fear of criticizing Islam. Sir Jadunath Sarkar
Jadunath Sarkar
Sir Jadunath Sarkar was a prominent Indian Bengali aristocrat and historian.-Background:Born in Singra, Natore. He was the son of Rajkumar Sarkar, the Zamindar of Karchamaria in Natore in Bengal.-Education:...
contends that that several Muslim invaders were waging a systematic jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
against Hindus in India to the effect that "every device short of massacre in cold blood was resorted to in order to convert heathen subjects."
Medieval Christianity
- In DanteDANTEDelivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's Inferno, Muhammad is portrayed as split in half, with his guts hanging out, representing his status as a heresiarchHeresiarchA heresiarch is a founder or leader of a heretical doctrine or movement, as considered by those who claim to maintain an orthodox religious tradition or doctrine...
(one who broke from the Church). - Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by SatanSatanSatan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, a "precursor of the AntichristAntichristThe term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
" or the Antichrist himself. - Denis the CarthusianDenis the CarthusianDenis the Carthusian , also known as Denys van Leeuwen or Denis Ryckel, was a Roman Catholic theologian and mystic.-Life:...
wrote two treatises to refute Islam at the request of Nicholas of CusaNicholas of CusaNicholas of Kues , also referred to as Nicolaus Cusanus and Nicholas of Cusa, was a cardinal of the Catholic Church from Germany , a philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and an astronomer. He is widely considered one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century...
, Contra perfidiam Mahometi, et contra multa dicta Sarracenorum libri quattuor and Dialogus disputationis inter Christianum et Sarracenum de lege Christi et contra perfidiam Mahometi. - The Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscriptManuscriptA manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
with unknown dating, shows how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by SatanSatanSatan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation. The story argues God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their derivation from the faith. He then sends an angel to the monk Osius who orders him to preach to the Arabs. Osius however is in ill-health and orders a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders instead. Ozim sets out to follow his orders, but gets stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believes him to be the same angel that spoke to Osius before. The evil angel modifies and corrupts the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renames Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to the tultusceptrum. - According to many Christians, the coming of Muhammad was foretold in the Holy Bible. According to the monk BedeBedeBede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
this is in Genesis 16:12, which describes IshmaelIshmaelIshmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...
as "a wild man" whose "hand will be against every man". Bede says about Muhammad: "Now how great is his hand against all and all hands against him; as they impose his authority upon the whole length of Africa and hold both the greater part of Asia and some of Europe, hating and opposing all." - In 1391 a dialogue was believed to have occurred between Byzantine Emperor Manuel II PalaiologosManuel II PalaiologosManuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor from 1391 to 1425.-Life:...
and a Persian scholar in which the Emperor stated:
Enlightenment Europe
In Of the Standard of Taste, an essay by David HumeDavid Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
, the Qur'an is described as an "absurd performance" of a "pretended prophet" who lacked "a just sentiment of morals." Attending to the narration, Hume says, "we shall soon find, that [Muhammad] bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers."
Nineteenth century
The VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
orientalist
Orientalist
Orientalist may refer to:*A scholar of Oriental studies*A person or thing relating to the Western intellectual or artistic paradigm known as Orientalism...
scholar Sir William Muir
William Muir
Sir William Muir, KCSI was a Scottish Orientalist and colonial administrator.-Life:He was born at Glasgow and educated at Kilmarnock Academy, at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, and at Haileybury College. In 1837 he entered the Bengal Civil Service...
criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslims countries. The following sentences are taken from the Rede Lecture
Rede Lecture
The Sir Robert Rede's Lecturer is an annual appointment to give a public lecture, the Sir Robert Rede's Lecture at the University of Cambridge. It is named for Sir Robert Rede, who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the sixteenth century.-Initial series:The initial series of lectures ranges...
he delivered at Cambridge in 1881:
Modern Christianity
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
quoted an unfavorable remark about Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
made at the end of the 14th century by Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor from 1391 to 1425.-Life:...
, the Byzantine emperor.
Reliability of the Qur'an
Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the perfect word of God, and as such it cannot contain any errors or contradictions, and must be perfectly compatible with science. Muslims believe it to be so perfect that readers must conclude it is of divine, rather than human, origin.Critics argue that:
- the Qur'an contains verses which are difficult to understand or contradictory.
- the Qur'an contains incorrect cosmological explanations.
- Some accounts of the history of Islam say there were two verses of the Qur'an that were allegedly added by MuhammadMuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
when he was tricked by Satan (in an incident known as the "Story of the Cranes", later referred to as the "Satanic VersesSatanic VersesThe Satanic Verses was a purported incident where a small number of apparently pagan verses were temporarily included in the Qur'an by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, only to be later removed...
"). These verses were then retracted at angel Gabriel's behest.
Hadith
HadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
are Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
(words and deeds) of Muhammad. They are drawn from the writings of scholars writing between 844 and 874 CE, more than 200 years after the death of Mohammed in 632 CE. In general, for Muslims the Hadith are second only to the Qur'an in importance, although some scholars put more emphasis on the perpetual adherence of Muslim nation
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
to the traditions to give them credibility, and not solely on Hadith. Most of the knowledge about the life of Muhammad comes from the Hadith, many of which were biographies of Mohammed. Many Islamic practices (such as the Five Pillars of Islam
Five Pillars of Islam
The Pillars of Islam are basic concepts and duties for accepting the religion for the Muslims.The Shi'i and Sunni both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts, but the Shi'a do not refer to them by the same name .-Pillars of Shia:According to Shia Islam, the...
) are drawn from the Hadith.
However, there is criticism of the historical reliability of Hadith.
Within Islam, different schools and sects have different opinions on the proper selection and use of Hadith. The four schools of Sunni Islam all consider Hadith second only to the Qur'an, although they differ on how much freedom of interpretation should be allowed to legal scholars. Shi'i scholars disagree with Sunni scholars as to which Hadith should be considered reliable. The Shi'as accept the Sunnah of Ali and the Imams as authoritative in addition to the Sunnah of Muhammad, and as a consequence they maintain their own, different, collections of Hadith.
Scholars not ascribing to the traditionalist view of either Sunni or Shia Islam, notably Qur'an alone
Qur'an alone
Quranism is an Islamic denomination that holds the Qur'an to be the only canonical text in Islam. Quranists reject the religious authority of Hadith and often Sunnah, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done,...
Muslims, point to the prevalence of authoritative Hadith which they aver contradict the Quran as placing the Hadith, in practice, as supplanting the Quran as an authority. This contrasts with the traditionalist view that the Hadith are always secondary to the Quran and that Hadiths contradicting the Quran are void. One illustrative contention between the different sects concerns the punishment for adultery. According to the Sunnah, the correct punishment is death by stoning. This punishment is absent in the Quran, as the Quran mentions two separate punishments for adultery as 100 lashes , or immurement
Immurement
Immurement is a form of execution where a person is walled up within a building and left to die from starvation or dehydration. This is distinct from being buried alive, in which the victim typically dies of asphyxiation.-In legend and folklore:...
in the home . Traditionalists claim there is no contradiction because the latter punishment is applied to fornication, and interpret the Quran as authorising Muhammad to ascribe additional laws of equal authority though absent in the Quran itself, such as stoning. Non-traditionalists may aver that as two punishments for adultery are already detailed in the Quran, the Quran claims itself as complete without mentioning the Hadith as a source of authority, the Hadith and Hadith-scholars at times give Hadith higher authority than the Quran.
Lack of secondary evidence
The traditional view of Islam has also been criticised for the lack of supporting evidence consistent with that view, such as the lack of archaeological evidence, and discrepancies with non-Muslim literary sources.Muhammad
Muhammed is considered the prophet for Islam, its founder, and, by implication, a model for followers. Critics such as Sigismund KoelleSigismund Koelle
Sigismund Wilhelm Kölle was a German missionary, and pioneer scholar of African languages....
and former Muslim Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq is the pen name of a polemical author of Pakistani origin who is critical of Islam, and who founded the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society . He is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry focusing on Qur'anic criticism...
see some of Mohammed's actions as immoral.
Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf
Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf
Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf was a chief of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir and a poet, who plotted with Quraysh and a group of Jews to fight against Muslims and assassinate the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was assassinated by Muslims on the order of Muhammad before he could carry out his plans...
wrote a poetic eulogy commemorating the slain Quraish notables; later, he had traveled to Mecca and provoked the Quraish to fight the Prophet. He also wrote erotic poetry about Muslim women, which offended the Muslims there. This poetry influenced so many that this too was considered directly against the Constitution of Medina
Constitution of Medina
The Constitution of Medina , also known as the Charter of Medina, was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families of Yathrib , including Muslims, Jews, Christians and pagans. This constitution formed the...
which states, loyalty gives protection against treachery and this document will not (be employed to) protect one who is unjust or commits a crime. Other sources also state that he was plotting to assassinate Muhammad.
Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b. Muhammad ibn Maslama offered his services, collecting four others. By pretending to have turned against Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, Muhammad ibn Maslama and the others enticed Ka'b out of his fortress on a moonlit night, and killed him in spite of his vigorous resistance. The Jews were terrified at his assassination, and as the historian Ibn Ishaq
Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār was an Arab Muslim historian and hagiographer...
put it "...there was not a Jew who did not fear for his life".
Morality of the Qur'an
Muslims believe that the Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
is the literal word of God as recited to Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
. Criticism of the Qur'an generally consists of questioning traditional claims about the Qur'an's composition and content.
It is a central tenet of Islam that the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
is perfect, so criticism of the Qur'an is considered criticism of Islam.
This is a list of critical arguments:
- Critics argue that the Qur'anic verse 4:34 allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them. (There is however confusion amongst translations of Qur'an with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them", "beat", "strike lightly" and "separate".
- Critics claim that violence is implicit in the Qur'anic text, and that Islam itself, not just IslamismIslamismIslamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
, promotes terrorism. - Some critics argue that the Qur'an is incompatible with other religious scriptures, attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions.
Islamic law
Bernard LewisBernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
summarizes:
The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
, as well as Shi'a scholars, agree that a sane adult male apostate (if he doesn't repent) must be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to the majority view, or imprisoned until she repents, according to others.
The Qur'an threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only, the historian W. Heffening states, the traditions however contain the element of death penalty. Muslim scholar Shafi'i interprets verse as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Qur'an. The historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet." He further states that "nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of the holy text."
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh...
, in response to a question about Western views of the Islamic Law as being cruel, states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived. However, as societies have since progressed and become more peaceful and ordered, they are not suitable any longer."
Some contemporary Islamic jurists from both the Sunni and Shi'a denominations together with Qur'an only Muslims have argued or issued fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
s that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances. For example, Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri argues that no Qur'anic verse prescribes an earthly penalty for apostasy and adds that it is not improbable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad at early Islam due to political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims and not only because of changing the belief or expressing it. Montazeri defines different types of apostasy. He does not hold that a reversion of belief because of investigation and research is punishable by death but prescribes capital punishment for a desertion of Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim.
According to Yohanan Friedmann
Yohanan Friedmann
-Biography:Friedmann was born in Zákamenné, Czechoslovakia and immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1949. He attended high school at the Reali School in Haifa . In 1956 he began his undergraduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Arabic Language and Literature,...
, an Israeli Islamic Studies scholar, a Muslim may stress tolerant elements of Islam (by for instance adopting the broadest interpretation of Qur'an 2:256 ("No compulsion is there in religion...") or the humanist approach attributed to Ibrahim al-Nakha'i), without necessarily denying the existence of other ideas in the Medieval Islamic tradition but rather discussing them in their historical context (by for example arguing that "civilizations comparable with the Islamic one, such as the Sassanids and the Byzantines, also punished apostasy with death. Similarly neither Judaism nor Christianity treated apostasy and apostates with any particular kindness"). Friedmann continues:
Human rights conventions
Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion.In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
states:
To implement this, Article 18 (2) of the ICCPR states:
The right for Muslims to change their religion is not afforded by the Iranian Shari'ah law, which specifically forbids it.
Muslim countries such as Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, have the death penalty for apostasy from Islam
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
.
These countries have criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
countries.
In 1990, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation published a separate Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference adopted in Cairo in 1990, which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective on human rights, and affirms Islamic Shari'ah as its sole source...
compliant with Shari'ah. Although granting many of the rights in the UN declaration, it does not grant Muslims the right to convert to other religions, and restricts freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
to those expressions of it that are not in contravention of the Islamic law.
Abul Ala Maududi
Abul Ala Maududi
Syed Abul A'ala Maududi , also known as Molana or Shaikh Syed Abul A'ala Mawdudi, was a Sunni Pakistani journalist, theologian, Muslim revivalist leader and political philosopher, and a major 20th century Islamist thinker. He was also a prominent political figure in Pakistan and was the first...
, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
, wrote a book called Human Rights in Islam
Human Rights in Islam (book)
Human Rights in Islam is a 1976 book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.In the book, Maududi argues that respect for human rights has always been enshrined in Sharia law and criticises Western notions that there is an inherent contradiction between the two.Western...
, in which he argues that respect for human rights has always been enshrined in Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law (indeed that the roots of these rights are to be found in Islamic doctrine) and criticizes Western notions that there is an inherent contradiction between the two. Western scholars have, for the most part, rejected Maududi's analysis.
Women
The term "Muslim apartheid" has been used to highlight religious isolation in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
as well as gender segregation practices.
Homosexuals
Critics such as lesbian activist Irshad ManjiIrshad Manji
Irshad Manji is a Canadian author, journalist and an advocate of "reform and progressive" interpretation of Islam. Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at the Robert F...
, former Muslims Ehsan Jami
Ehsan Jami
Ehsan Jami is a Dutch politician of Iranian origin. From March 7, 2006 until November 6, 2007 he was member of the city council of Leidschendam-Voorburg on behalf of the Dutch Labour Party . From that date until 2010 he continued to be a member of the city council as independent member 'fraction...
and the Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...
, have criticized Islam's attitudes towards homosexuals. Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
and Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, condemn Islamic laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
.
In May 2008, the sexual rights lobby group Lambda Istanbul
Lambda Istanbul
Lambda Istanbul is a Turkish LGBT organization. It was founded in 1993 as a cultural space for the LGBT community, and became an official organization in 1996. Clandestine Pride events were held in Turkey starting in 1993, and with Lambda Istanbul participation, they became public marches.The...
(based in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
) was banned by court order for violating a constitutional provision on the protection of the family and an article banning bodies with objectives that violate law and morality. Then this decision taken to the Court of Cassation and the ban lifted.
The ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq is the pen name of a polemical author of Pakistani origin who is critical of Islam, and who founded the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society . He is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry focusing on Qur'anic criticism...
has noted that the Qur'an's condemnation of homosexuality has frequently been ignored in practice, and that Islamic countries were much more tolerant of homosexuality than Christian ones until fairly recently.
21st century
According to Islamic scholar Khaleel MohammedKhaleel Mohammed
Khaleel Mohammed is associate professor of Religion at San Diego State University , in San Diego, California, and a core faculty member of SDSU's .- Specialties and research interests :...
, throughout the world, Muslim intellectuals are punished for criticizing some aspects of traditional and contemporary Islam. He cited the case of Muhammad Said al-Ashmawy being held in Egypt is under house arrest for his own protection; Abdel Karim Soroush who was beaten in Iran for raising the voice of inquiry, Mahmoud Mohammed Taha who was killed in Sudan. Mohammed claims that Scholars Rifat Hassan, Fatima Mernissi, Abdallah an-Na'im, Mohammed Arkoun and Amina Wadud were all vilified by the imams for asking Muslims to use their intellects.
Self-Censorship around Islam
The fear of criticizing Islam and offending Muslims has led to some concerns around self-censorshipSelf-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own work , out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities of others, without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority...
. Some writers, such as Bruce Bawer
Bruce Bawer
Bruce Bawer is an American literary critic, writer and poet. His work focuses mainly on criticism and issues related to Islam.-Personal life:Bawer received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D...
, argue that while the media allows open criticism of other religions, Islam often receives immunity from any criticism frequently targeted at other religions and other topics.
Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate
The immigration of Muslims to European countriesIslam in Europe
This article deals with the history and evolution of the presence of Islam in Europe. According to the German , the total number of Muslims in Europe in 2007 was about 53 million , excluding Turkey. The total number of Muslims in the European Union in 2007 was about 16 million .-Early history:Islam...
has increased greatly in recent decades, and frictions have developed between these new neighbours. Conservative Muslim social attitudes on modern issues have caused much controversy in Europe and elsewhere, and scholars argue about how much these attitudes are a result of Islamic beliefs. Others argue that Western democratic values and freedoms are being given away to appease Islam, and grant Islam privileges not granted to other religions or community groups, resulting in deeper division.
There is also a growing concern of Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
in Britain, where Muslims are immigrating and urged by preachers, many linked to Wahhabism
Wahhabism
Wahhabism is a religious movement or a branch of Islam. It was developed by an 18th century Muslim theologian from Najd, Saudi Arabia. Ibn Abdul Al-Wahhab advocated purging Islam of what he considered to be impurities and innovations...
, to prepare for jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
, to hit girls for not wearing the hijab, and to create a 'state within a state'. In The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
there are currently 85 sharia courts operating to deal with civil matters and there are also sharia courts in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Critics argue that "the rights of women are being sacrificed for the sake of multiculturalism" Pakistani-born Michael Nazir-Ali
Michael Nazir-Ali
Michael James Nazir-Ali was the 106th Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England: he retired in September 2009, taking up a position as director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue...
said that Islamic extremism had turned "already separate communities into 'no-go' areas". In Germany, Turkish-born author Necla Kelek
Necla Kelek
Necla Kelek is a German feminist and social scientist, holding a doctorate in this field, originally from Turkey. She gave lectures on migration sociology at the Evangelische Fachhochschule für Sozialpädagogik in Hamburg from 1999 until 2004.In 2006, the scientific community distanced itself from...
noted that being Muslim was becoming a "self-sufficient identity" and many Muslims were voluntarily living in a "parallel world".
Some critics consider Islam to be incompatible with secular Western society; their criticism has been partly influenced by a stance against multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
advocated by recent philosophers, closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers
New Philosophers
The New Philosophers is a term which refers to a generation of French philosophers who broke with Marxism in the early 1970s. They include André Glucksmann, Alain Finkielkraut, Pascal Bruckner, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Jean-Marie Benoist, Christian Jambet, Guy Lardreau and Jean-Paul Dollé...
. Fiery polemic on the subject by proponents like Pascal Bruckner, and Paul Cliteur has kindled international debate. They hold multiculturalism to be an invention of an "enlightened" elite who deny the benefits of democratic rights to non-Westerners by chaining them to their roots. They claim this allows Islam free rein to propagate abuses such as the mistreatment of women
Women in Islam
The study of women in Islam investigates the role of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by Islamic texts, the history and culture of the Muslim world...
and homosexuals
Homosexuality and Islam
LGBT topics and Islam are influenced by both the cultural-legal history of the nations with a large Muslim population, along with how specific passages in the Qur'an and statements attributed to the prophet Muhammad are interpreted. The mainstream interpretation of Qur'anic verses and hadith...
, and in some countries slavery
Islam and Slavery
Islamic views on slavery first developed out of the slavery practices of pre-Islamic Arabia. During the wars between different states/tribes in various parts of the world, prisoners/captives were either killed or enslaved...
. They also claim that multiculturalism allows a degree of religious freedom that exceeds what is needed for personal religious freedom and is conducive to the creation of organizations aimed at undermining European secular or Christian values. This tendency to focus criticism of Islam on politics and the non-European identity of its traditions triggered a new debate on Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
.
Cultural Jihad
The resistance by some Muslims to assimilate has been called "cultural jihad". Dr. Zuhdi JasserZuhdi Jasser
Zuhdi Jasser, also known as M. Zuhdi Jasser, and Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser, is a medical doctor specializing internal medicine and nuclear cardiology in Phoenix, AZ. Jasser is a former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy where he served as staff internist in the Office of the Attending...
defines "cultural jihad" as a process where "these Islamists
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
use, in a most duplicitous way, the laws and the rights they are given in our society to try to work against society and overthrow it."
In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, a newly released intelligence report states that Islamist groups the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
and Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Sunni. pan-Islamic political organisation but keeps it open for all including shias,some of its beliefs are against sunni school of thought, whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph...
want to build a "parallel society... which could undermine the country's social cohesion and foster violence", where they encourage Muslims to "self-imposed isolation." The report states that "Islamist social ideology appears to have gone unstudied, precisely because the use of violence is either unsupported or understated. "Nevertheless, several Islamist movements advocate a rejection of Western society and mores, and encourage self-imposed isolation of Muslims in the West."
Similar documents have also surfaced in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The general goals and strategic plans of the Muslim Brotherhood are only found in Arabic documents. One for Europe called "The Project" was found in 2001 in Switzerland, another for North America was found in 2005 called the "General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America." An evaluation of this Memorandum was made for the US-Congress and for the Pentagon. Their influence is fast growing, especially in Europe, but not easy to trace while the active members have to keep their membership secret.
One citation from the document "General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America" makes the objectives of the MB clear:
"The process of settlement is a 'Civilization-Jihadist Process' with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."
Comparison with Communism and Fascist ideologies
In 2004, speaking to the Acton Institute on the problems of "secular democracy", Cardinal George PellGeorge Pell
George Pell AC is an Australian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001. He previously served as auxiliary bishop and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne...
drew a parallel between Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
: "Islam may provide in the 21st century, the attraction that communism provided in the 20th, both for those that are alienated and embittered on the one hand and for those who seek order or justice on the other." Pell also agrees in another speech that its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited. An Australian Islamist spokesman, Keysar Trad
Keysar Trad
Keysar Trad is a spokesperson for a section of the Australian Muslim community.- Background :Trad was born in Lebanon and came to Australia at the age of thirteen under the Australian government's family reunion program. He met and married his wife, Hanifeh, when he was in his early twenties...
, responded to the criticism: "Communism is a godless system, a system that in fact persecutes faith".
Writers such as Stephen Suleyman Schwartz and Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, describe Islamist attributes similar to Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. Malise Ruthven
Malise Ruthven
Malise Ruthven is an Irish academic and writer. He was born in Dublin of Irish-British parentage. He obtained an MA in English Literature at Cambridge University, before working as a scriptwriter with the BBC Arabic and World Service, and a consultant on Middle Eastern affairs. He also gained a...
, a Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
writer and historian who focuses his work on religion and Islamic affairs, opposes redefining Islamism as `Islamofascism`, but also finds the resemblances between the two ideologies "compelling".
Destruction of art
Islam has been criticised for its attitudeIslam and the arts
-Performing arts:Many Islamic rulings relating to the performing arts are gender and event specific.-Music:There is no clear position in Islam regarding Music....
towards depictions of people in art. When the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan
Buddhas of Bamiyan
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters...
, some people took it as evidence that Islam was "implacably hostile to anthropomorphic art", despite the fact that even Muslims were against the destruction.
According to 15th century Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrizi
Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi ; Arabic: , was an Egyptian historian more commonly known as al-Maqrizi or Makrizi...
, the Great Sphinx of Giza
Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza , commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt....
was damaged in 1378 CE by a deranged iconoclastic Sufi sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
who was later hung
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in revenge by locals. Attitudes against depicting God, angels, and humans led to the careful covering (to prevent damage) of the mosaics with plaster in the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
.
Responses to criticism
John EspositoJohn Esposito
John Louis Esposito is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University...
has written many introductory texts on Islam and the Islamic world. For example, he has addressed issues like the rise of militant Islam, the veiling of women, and democracy. Esposito emphatically argues against what he calls the "pan-Islamic myth". He thinks that "too often coverage of Islam and the Muslim world assumes the existence of a monolithic Islam in which all Muslims are the same." To him, such a view is naive and unjustifiably obscures important divisions and differences in the Muslim world.
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh...
who in his book Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman addresses Muhammad’s alleged moral failings. He claims that "Of all the world's great men none has been so much maligned as Muhammad." Watt argues on a basis of moral relativism
Moral relativism
Moral relativism may be any of several descriptive, meta-ethical, or normative positions. Each of them is concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures:...
that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today."
Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...
, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad’s teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Qur'an alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.
Edward Said
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
, in his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, stated that the general basis of Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study. He claims the existence of a very considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up. He claims Islam has been looked at with a particular hostility and fear due to many obvious religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity."
Cathy Young
Cathy Young
Cathy Young is a Russian American journalist and writer whose books and articles, as well as columns which appear in the libertarian monthly Reason, and also weekly in The Boston Globe, primarily espouse equality feminism and libertarianism.-Life and Career:Born in Moscow, the capital of what was...
of Reason Magazine claimed that the growing trend of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim sentiment stemmed from an atmosphere where such criticism is popular. While stating that the terms "Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
" and "anti-Muslim bigotry" are often used in response to legitimate criticism of fundamentalist Islam and problems within Muslim culture, she claimed "the real thing does exist, and it frequently takes the cover of anti-jihadism."
Deepa Kumar
Deepa Kumar
Deepa Kumar is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the Rutgers University . She is the author of the book Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike....
, the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike, in her article titled 'Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics' says "The history of Islam is no more violent than the history of any of the other major religions of the world. Perhaps my critics haven't heard of the Crusades -- the religious wars fought by European Christians from the 11th to the 13th centuries" referring to the brutality of the crusades and then contrasting them to forbidding of acts of vengeance and violence by the Sultan of Egypt
Sultan of Egypt
Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generally included Sham and Hejaz, with the consequence that the...
Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
, after he successfully retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Speaking on the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
(which resulted in more than 100 deaths, all together), she says "The Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammed
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
with a bomb on his head is nothing if not the visual depiction of the racist diatribe that Islam is inherently violent. To those who can't understand why this argument is racist, let me be clear: when you take the actions of a few people and generalize it to an entire group -- all Muslims, all Arabs -- that's racism. When a whole group of people are discriminated against and demonized because of their religion or regional origin, that's racism." And "...Arabs and Muslims are being scapegoated and demonized to justify a war that is ruining the lives of millions."
See also
- Apostasy in IslamApostasy in IslamApostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
- Christian Apologetics and Research MinistryChristian Apologetics and Research MinistryThe Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry is an Evangelical Christian apologetics ministry founded in 1995. The proprietor of the website is Matt Slick. The organization's materials may be accessed on the Internet, through its website at www.carm.org. The ministry is registered as a 5013...
- Criticism of atheism
- Criticism of BuddhismCriticism of BuddhismThe criticism of Buddhism, much like criticism of religion in general, can be found from those who disagree with or question assertions, beliefs or other factors of various schools of Buddhism....
- Criticism of the Catholic ChurchCriticism of the Catholic ChurchCriticism of the Catholic Church includes critical observations made about the current or historical Catholic Church, in its actions, teachings, omissions, structure, or nature; theological disagreements would be covered on a denominational basis. Criticisms may regard the concepts of papal primacy...
- Criticism of ChristianityCriticism of ChristianityThroughout the history of Christianity, many have criticized Christianity, the church, and Christians themselves. Some criticism specifically addresses Christian beliefs, teachings and interpretation of scripture...
- Criticism of HinduismCriticism of HinduismSome aspects of practices committed by Hindus have been criticised, from both within the Hindu community and externally. Christian critics argue that Hindu philosophy and mythology is very complex and does not conform to normal Christian logic. Overt depiction of sexuality in Hindu idols, imagery...
- Criticism of JainismCriticism of JainismJainism has been criticized in one way or another by proponents of other religions, and by Jains espousing reform or simply expressing dislike.-Fasting to death:...
- Criticism of JudaismCriticism of JudaismCriticism of Judaism has existed since Judaism's formative stages, as with many other religions.-Heretical views within Judaism:In many religions ex-members and excommunicates became known for doctrinal disputes with their former faith. In Judaism a process similar to excommunication is called cherem...
- Criticism of religionCriticism of religionCriticism of religion is criticism of the concepts, validity, and/or practices of religion, including associated political and social implications....
- Internet InfidelsInternet InfidelsInternet Infidels, Inc. is a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based nonprofit educational organization founded in 1995 by Jeffery Jay Lowder and Brett Lemoine. Its mission is to utilize the Internet to promote the view that supernatural forces or entities do not exist...
- List of critics of Islam
- List of Muslim reformers
External links
Further reading
- The miracle and challenge of the Qur'an
- The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion by Robert Spencer
- The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam is a controversial book by Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch. It is part of The Politically Incorrect Guide series by Regnery Publishing.-Content :...
by Robert Spencer - Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum - (THE SEALED NECTAR) Memoirs of the Noble Prophet by Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri.
- Onward Muslim SoldiersOnward Muslim SoldiersOnward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West published in October 2003 is a topical nonfiction book by Robert Spencer, who has described the book as an "in-depth study of the doctrine of jihad and how it is exploited today by terrorists to justify what they’re doing and...
by Robert Spencer - The Legacy of JihadThe Legacy of JihadThe Legacy of Jihad is a book by Andrew Bostom. The foreword was written by self-proclaimed ex-Muslim author and polemicist, "Ibn Warraq"....
by Andrew G. BostomAndrew G. BostomAndrew G. Bostom is an American author and Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School. He is an expert on connections between homocysteine and cardiovascular disease.... - Who Wrote the Qur'an?
- Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations CollideIslam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations CollideIslam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide is a book by Bat Ye'or.-QuoteContent :In the book Bat Ye’or chronicles the history of non-Muslims living under the dominion of Islam in the status of dhimmitude using a comprehensive body of primary sources and first hand witness historical records...
by Bat Ye'orBat Ye'orBat Ye'or is a pseudonym of Gisèle Littman, née Orebi, an Egyptian-born British writer and political commentator who writes about the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic governments.She is the author of eight... - Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to DhimmitudeDecline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to DhimmitudeThe Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude is a book by historian and expert on Islamic culture Bat Ye'or. In the book the author describes her interpretation of the waning of the Eastern Christendom under the Islamic empire's conquests.Bat Yeor described her book as...
by Bat Ye'orBat Ye'orBat Ye'or is a pseudonym of Gisèle Littman, née Orebi, an Egyptian-born British writer and political commentator who writes about the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic governments.She is the author of eight... - The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse by Paul L. WilliamsPaul L. WilliamsPaul L. Williams is an American author, journalist, and consultant. He was also an adjunct professor of humanities and philosophy at Wilkes University and The University of Scranton....
- http://www.themodernreligion.com/basic/quran/quran-amazing.html The Amazing Qur'an by Gary MillerGary MillerGary Gene Miller is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 41st, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
- An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism by Victor Davis HansonVictor Davis HansonVictor Davis Hanson is an American military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, notable as a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets...
- Arabs and Israel - Conflict or Conciliation? by Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen DeedatAhmed DeedatAhmed Hussein Deedat was a Muslim writer and public speaker of Indian South African descent. He was best known for his numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as pioneering video lectures, most of which centered around Islam, Christianity and the Bible...
- Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles KepelGilles KepelGilles Kepel is a French political scientist, specialist of the Islam and contemporary Arab world. He is Professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and member of the Institut Universitaire de France....
- The War for Muslim MindsThe War for Muslim MindsThe War for Muslim Minds is a 2004 book by French author and scholar Gilles Kepel and translation from the French of Fitna: guerre au coeur de l'Islam. It explores Muslim's relationship to the west, especially those after the September 11, 2001 attacks...
by Gilles KepelGilles KepelGilles Kepel is a French political scientist, specialist of the Islam and contemporary Arab world. He is Professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and member of the Institut Universitaire de France.... - J. Tolan, Saracens; Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002)
- Ibn WarraqIbn WarraqIbn Warraq is the pen name of a polemical author of Pakistani origin who is critical of Islam, and who founded the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society . He is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry focusing on Qur'anic criticism...
, Why I Am Not a MuslimWhy I Am Not a MuslimWhy I Am Not a Muslim, a book written by Ibn Warraq, is a critique of Islam and the Qur'an. It was first published by Prometheus Books in the USA in 1995...
(1995) - —, Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak OutLeaving Islam: Apostates Speak OutLeaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out is a book, authored and edited by secularist Ibn Warraq that researches and documents cases of apostasy in Islam.-Synopsis:...
- The Institute for the Study of Civil Society report - The ‘West’, Islam and Islamism
- Zwemer Islam, a Challenge to Faith (New York, 1907)
- Shoja-e-din Shafa, Rebirth (1995) (Persian Title: تولدى ديگر)
- Shoja-e-din Shafa, After 1400 Years (2000) (Persian Title: پس از 1400 سال)