by Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr., Ph.D.
alimhaq@city-net.com
www.city-net.com/~alimhaq/miaha.html
© 1997 May be reproduced for non-profit purposes only, in its
entirety, with proper attribution, and with notification to the
author. Edited versions must be approved in writing by the author.
All other rights reserved.
Bism Allah, al-Rahman, al-Raheem....
The 1995 book "Why I Am Not A Muslim" by Ibn Warraq (ISBN
0-87975-984-4) seems to me to illustrate a number of important issues
for today's Muslim. These issues are related not only to how we
understand and respond to those hostile to Islam. Disturbingly,
Warraq's book does validly reflect back to us the severity of the
ummah's current problems in the areas of religious education and
Islamic practice.
In my general experience Muslims are often unskilled when it comes
to responding to anti-Muslim polemic. In general, we only repeat
back-- parrot-like-- what we have read in a few popular books, or
what we have heard some impressive personality say. Many of us
practice our religion only because "this is what our forefathers
taught" and have failed to truly choose Islam in a mature and
thoughtful manner. We understand and practice religion as do children
and adolescents, rather than as adults. Because of this our skills
and level of understanding are often inadequate to truly understand,
and thus respond to, anti-Muslim propaganda. This is even more the
case when we are confronted with valid criticism by anti-Muslims.
Warraq's book is easily one of the more vicious anti-Muslim
writings I've ever read that is of recent publication. This stems
from his strange combination of valid criticism of contemporary
Muslim practice and Muslim attitudes with what seems to be a real
ignorance of what is actually communicated by the Qur'an and
sunnah.
Warraq's book is long, detailed, referenced and footnoted, but
with extensive and glaring intellectual flaws. It would take a book
twice as long as his to refute each of his errors. This paper shall
first identify five general flaws that are present in Warraq's work
and are also often seen in other anti-Muslim writing. I shall then
discuss some issues and problems specific to Warraq's book.
Throughout both parts I shall draw attention to areas that appear to
me to be valid criticism.
Part I
Five General Errors Common to Warraq and Other Anti-Muslim Writers.
Part II
Some Problems Specific to Warraq: failure to define terms; not
immersed in intellectual history; failure to even appear objective;
paranoia and suspicion.