Why I Am Not a Muslim

By Ibn Warraq

Book Overview

First published in 1995, Why I Am Not A Muslim is Ibn Warraq's personal statement of the reasons for his departure from Islam. The book, a critical look at the origins and theology of Islam, has been... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879759844
• ISBN13: 9780879759841
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Well-informed, timely and nuanced

Despite what some reviewers have said I found this book to be quite moderate and conservative. The author clearly knows his materials, has thought his thesis through, and doesn't make cheap shots or take short-cuts. His acknowledgement of the high achievements of Islamic civilisation, as in the areas of science and poetry (just to name a couple, he could have added architecture and other outstanding accomplishments but that would just repeat points he has already made) reveal a good appreciation of the strengths of Islamic culture. But oh, someone had to say it; Islamic law, the treatment of women, and inherent extremism (again just a few examples among many) fall woefully short of what other great civilisations attained and ill-equip Muslims for dealing with the modern world with its secularism, rationalism, and egalitarianism. I was just left with a great sadness after completing the book.

Why I Am No Longer A Muslim

The two idiots below, socalled "Former Christian" and "Good Hates Xtians Too" are great examples of the hatred and closed-mindedness of the Muslim Man. Not only are they obtuse but they definitely didn't read this book. They attack Christianity as if Warraq is some sort of Christian propagandist. Well, Warraq is a secular humanist, one who finds the belief systems of Christianity and all religions as based upon myths. So to attack Christians for what Ibn Warraq writes merely shows that one is an idiot. I too was born into a Muslim family, I'm Iranian and as far as I'm concerned I no longer want a thing to do with Islam, Muhammad, Ali or Hossein. Warraq exposes the Arabic/Islamic imperialism and cultural rape of my people and others (e.g. North Africans, Egyptians, Indians, etc.). If anything I intend to further study and better understand the religion of my ancestors, Zoroastrianism. This is occuring more often with Iranian yuoth. We are sick to death and disgusted by this Bedouin Arab cult!

A Humanist Confronts Islam

If you reject any criticism of Islam out of hand as blasphemy, then plainly a book of this title is not intended for you. If you regard the Koran as the unalterable word of God, this book may even enrage you. But the blasphemy and rage lies only in the heart of the beholder and certainly not in the careful, conscientiously researched pages of this book. This book is that rare read, a work of breathtaking scholarship by an insider which is also a riveting iconoclastic page-turner. Ibn Warraq knows his history and can cite his sources. His scope-from North Africa to Malaysia and prehistory to the present- is nothing short of stunning for an author too modest to call himself a scholar. It is a mark of his book's worth that those raising the strongest objections so often attack Ibn Warraq the pseudonymous author - and not his actual writings -too much of what he has quoted here comes straight from the Koran and Haddiths. (Muslims believe the former to be the literal dictation by their Prophet Mohammed of divine revelations-and the latter to be the sayings of the prophet collected after his death.) "A review by a former Muslim, May 13, 2002" offers an excellent summary of this book's contents. A central thesis of this book is that the Koran and Haddiths may be-and indeed should be-looked at critically as historical not divine documents. As shocking as that will be for many believers in the Muslim world, it is a standard historicist technique which has been accepted and applied fruitfully in Christian theology for nearly two centuries. What may prove equally shocking for non-Muslims unfamiliar with Islam is just how much of the literal texts concern brutalities which may be inflicteded on non-Muslims-with death to be meted out to those who resist, and onerous taxation, physical humiliation and severe religious restrictions to be inflicted on those who submit but do not convert. Though it is certainly true that many Muslims have practiced more tolerant and spiritual interpretations of jihad, the position of non-Muslims in most Muslim lands even today remains distinctly unenviable. It is certainly not blasphemous to record the actual history of Arab colonization, as Ibn Warraq does, beginning with Mohammed's 27 military campaigns. Far from victims, the Muslims were much more often the victimizers in a ferocious colonization effort which eventually subjugated most of the civilized world, and lasted far longer than the European colonial period. To mention just one example, defeated Albanians, Armenians and Greeks were periodically compelled to hand over one in five of their children to the invaders, children who were in turn raised as Muslim troops to further oppress their peoples. Incredibly, this oppression endured for centuries and "periodically" eventually came to mean annually! The historian's concern isn't whether Muslims who do bad things are "true Muslims" or practice the "true Islam." His concern is to examine the roots of su