Why I Am Not a Muslim

Rating:
Summary: quite reasonable
Review: The world needs more apostasy. This point, however, makes reading Ibn Warraq in America a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, he has done a good job of documenting the historic and present problems caused by adherence to Islamic dogma, and highlighting some of the absurdities therein. (There are some flaws, like his anti-gay section and an occasional tendency to go over the top, but his general analysis is sound.)
On the other hand, his work cites and is cited by warmongering Zionists like Daniel Pipes as justification for U.S. and Israeli hostility towards much of the Muslim world.
In the book, he mentions a Muslim friend of his who was glad to see his reading "Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell, failing to realize that Russell's arguments refuted Islam as well. It is all the more ironic, then, that the Weekly Standard blurb on the back should contrast Islam negatively to the supposedly good religions, Judaism and Christianity. Some habits die hard.

Rating:
Summary: Best Information Book on Islam out there!
Review: I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours studying Islam. I discovered this book after finding that Ibn Warraq helped with a website pointing out countless the contradictions in the Koran.

For instance just a few:

And it just doesn't add up: Sura 4:11-12 and 4:176 state the Qur'anic inheritance law. When a man dies, and is leaving behind three daughters, his two parents and his wife, they will receive the respective shares of 2/3 for the 3 daughters together, 1/3 for the parents together [both according to verse 4:11] and 1/8 for the wife [4:12] which adds up to more than the available estate. A second example: A man leaves only his mother, his wife and two sisters, then they receive 1/3 [mother, 4:11], 1/4 [wife, 4:12] and 2/3 [the two sisters, 4:176], which again adds up to 15/12 of the available property.

Six or eight days of creation? Sura 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, and 25:59 clearly state that God created "the heavens and the earth" in six days. But in 41:9-12 the detailed description of the creation procedure adds up to eight days.

How many days did Allah need to destroy the people of Aad? One day [54:19] or several days [41:16; 69:6,7]

Six or eight days of creation? Sura 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, and 25:59 clearly state that God created "the heavens and the earth" in six days. But in 41:9-12 the detailed description of the creation procedure adds up to eight days.

Quick or Slow Creation? Allah creates the heavens and the earth in six days [7:54] and many Muslims want to be modern and scientific, and make that six eons, but then again, He creates instantaneously [2:117], "Be! And it is".

Heavens or Earth? Which was created first? First earth and then heaven [2:29], heaven and after that earth [79:27-30].


After reviewing much of his work, I naturally wanted to see more of what he had to say on the subject. I was amazed at the amount of information he had compiled. Some shocking things are not only the full explanation of how Rushdie has a "Fatwa" (death sentance) on his head for writing a simple fiction/fantasy book. But explains how during a time of intense persecution from the pagans, Muhammad and his tribe were threatened with death by starvation so Muhammad CONVENIENTLY has some "revelation" from Allah telling the Pagans that a certain number of their women Goddesses are actually REAL Gods who help Allah. The persecutions decrease, and they start to worship Muhammad now that he gave in to allowing their Goddesses to be Gods in his religion. Then, after the persecution stops, he takes the first chance he gets to escape the area, and during the escape, angel Gabriel comes to Muhammad AGAIN and tells him that a few verses from his last revalation were from SATAN and should've been read a different way. Muhammad, then changes the revelation ommitting the part about the goddesses.

The point is this: #1 that Muhammad admits that he was receiving revelation from Satan.
#2 IF Satan was Muhammad's enemy and was trying to kill him and his religion, then why did he give Muhammad a revelation to SAVE HIM and his people from sure destruction? All Satan had to do was let Muhammad keep declaring Allah was the only God, and he would die at the hand of the Pagans. Why was it Satan who saved Muhammad and not Allah if he is so powerful?
#3 Gabriel said that only a few (2 or 3) of the verses in the revelation were from Satan. So who gave him the revelation? Did Allah give him the revelation and LET Satan insert 3 verses into it? Or did Satan give him Allah's revelation and then change 3 of the verses?

You can learn so much from this book! Muhammad was a polygamous petafile (married a 6 yr old girl and consumated their marriage when she was only 9, before puberty!)

Muhammad told Muslims to pray toward Jerusalem. Now after his death they changed the Prophet's command and now pray to Mecca. They don't even follow thier own prophet.

If you want the truth about Islam, read this book, but don't let Muslims know you own it...the Leaders kill people who find things out they shouldn't. Islam is about rituals, not doctrine...if they knew their doctrine, they wouldn't be Muslim. At least check this book out at the library and you won't be disappointed unless you are closed minded or brainwashed.

Rating:
Summary: A fulfilling read for non-muslims
Review: "Fulfilling" is a common way to measure success. the book will say exactly what you've always needed to hear while everyone (except in some intellectually-barren chatrooms) is being the politically-correct, king/queen of all things tolerance.

This book is a success because it achieves popularity by putting in tangible words that vague and elusive image of islam that 's been living in european and american heads for a decades.

you'll find a lot of comfort in this book. Not challenge or discovery or unbiased interpretation of a culture, though.

FOR THAT, please look elsewhere. And look hard and keep in mind THREE things:

1- Listen to those who are impartial and are impartially educated. not new converts. not fanatics.

2- Look at the map and remind yourself that all muslim nations of today are still waking up from the big blow of colonization. Which left them illiterate, poor, and hungry. Remember that the Islamic faith and culture and social literary heritage is not readily manifested or ,indeed, not represented by all today's muslims. definitely not by their political leaders.

3- History is written by those who have the power at a given time (you're gonna come accross lots of half-truths about Islam's history and contribution to collective human civilization.)

Rating:
Summary: An extra star for courage
Review: ... My own first reactions, on seeing this book, was delight that it existed, followed by fears for the author's life. That such fears are necessary and realistic only confirms a great deal of Ibn Warraq's criticism of the state of contemporary Islam.

This book outlines the current role of Islam in maintaining various dictatorships that murder and torture their own citizens while threatening their neighbours; in promoting the mutilation and oppression of women and the murder of anyone who dares to question either the basis of the faith or the activities of some adherents. Some reviewers have argued that these things are done by governments, not by the religion, but this would only be valid if church and state were separate in those countries. They are not; the dictatorships in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Ethiopia, Afganistan and elsewhere govern hand in hand with Islamic leaders, or else the Mullahs rule directly. Thus, to credit Islam with the atrocious things done by Islamic Governments is not guilt by association but placing guilt squarely at its source.

Even relatively tolerant and stable countries like Malaysia maintain such peace and freedom as they do in spite of Islam, not because of it. As the clique currently running the Malaysian Government become more desperate many Malaysians expect them to turn to the Mullahs, who will provide violent supporters to beat up and murder the Government's critics in exchange for power to end such tolerance and freedom as Malaysia currently enjoys. Meanwhile Indonesia's new-born democracy is under threat from an alliance between Islamic forces and the military. It might be reasonable to conclude that if you wished to destroy a third world country's economy and infrastructure, shift it from peace and progress to civil war and poverty, end education and technological development, blight its present and future and make it dependent and powerless for generations to come, one of the most effective means might be to put power and money into the hands that country's Islamic clerics.

(Some reviewers have defended Islam by pointing out that the US also sponsors terrorism. They are right: it is hypocritical to condemn only one side's support for murder, but that argument backfires on Islamic apologists as well. The thing is to condemn ALL terrorism.)

But Ibn Warraq mainly looks at Islam's origins and early history, not the present, and this is the most enlightening part of the book to most readers. He shows that Islam's horrific manifestations are not a perversion of Islam, as I had naively thought, but flow logically from its scripture and doctrines. Since Christianity was the form of religious belief that I rejected, I tended to be more aware of Christianity's faults than those of other religions. For example I had believed that in the Crusades the aggression and atrocities were almost all on the Christian side, which Ibn Warraq shows is not entirely true, and that Islam had been a humane and tolerant religion before it came under Christian attack, which idea Ibn Warraq demolishes completely.

I had been, I suppose, afraid that to attack Islam might be racist, or seen as such. But Ibn Warraq argues convincingly that we should avoid double standards, and not be afraid to condemn evil or life-damaging nonsense regardless of the culture it arises from. His very great courage has given me that small piece of courage. I understand that Ibn Warraq has chosen his references to present the worst and most ignorant and murderous side of Islam, rather as if someone presented the doctrines of a US fundamentalist group as typical of Christianity as a whole. That is a valid criticism, but Ibn Warraq shows how the extremes are a logical development from the scriptures. And we need to know the worst as well as the best to know the whole.

I spoke to many Muslims while considering taking up a job in Malaysia (I didn't, the already-repressive Government and the rise of Islamic influence being key reasons), and I know that many are quietly disgusted with things done in Islam's name, and would agree with much of what Ibn Warraq's says. But I do not know of many Muslims who are prepared to come out and openly condemn the slave trades, the murders and atrocities and all the rest. Until those Islamic voices make themselves heard on the side of decency (it will take courage, and many will be imprisoned, tortured or murdered), Islam will continue to be rightly tainted by those things. There the solution is in the hands of moderate Muslims: if there are no voices for decency heard from within Islam, what can the rest of the world reasonably conclude?

Ibn Warraq's title deliberately echoes Russell's _Why I am not a Christian_. Ibn Warraq does not write with Russell's clarity, and the book is in places poorly organised. Nevertheless it contains much information that will be new to most readers. I might have given it four stars, but it wins the extra star for courage; it's a brave book and a necessary one. I wish Ibn Warraq and his family well, wherever they are, and I hope the guys who say "peace be unto you" never find you.

Cheers!

Laon

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable work of research
Review: Before I started actually reading this book, I had little hopes for it. I thought it would be little more than a former Muslim's personal diatribe against his religion, something on the order of a rebellious teenager's rants against his disciplining parents. There are a number of books out there like that, and I have no interest in them.

But as I read it, my oh my, how my impression changed. Far from being a personal rant, this book is as thorough of an examination of Islam as I have found anywhere. It is possible to disagree with the author's sources and materials, perhaps, but you certainly cannot fault his careful, systematic, and thorough research methods. I have read books by famous international experts whose methodology was not as careful or as exhaustive as Warraq's. This work is both a critique and a work of erudite scholarship. Even if you do not like the author's conclusions, you cannot read it without learning a great deal.

Granted, this is not a good book for those who are completely satisfied with their religion and who have no desire to advance their understanding beyond their current beliefs. And, yes, those people will even be offended by this book, just as the Catholic Church was once offended by who questioned it; and who, in the process, removed the shackles from human inquiry and triggered an advancement of human understanding that had never been seen before.

For those who are interested in applying the civilization-advancing tools of the scientific method and modern historical research to this topic, this book is an exceedingly rich and invaluable resource. It will also prove invaluable to Westerners who want to better understand the motives and contextual background of phenomena like the Bin Ladens, the Iranian mullahs who refer to us as the "Great Satan," and the numerous conflicts around the world that seem to inevitably involve members of this religion. The author makes clear that not all Muslims are Bin Ladens. He also makes clear that a Bin Laden could not exist without Islam. The two go hand in hand. This is a point that the author urges non-Muslims to take very seriously.

After reading dozens of books in this area, this is the one that made everything crystal clear. I really cannot rank it highly enough. Warraq is to be congratulated and admired for his bravery and his hard work toward advancing human understanding. Works like this make a valuable contribution to all who value free inquiry.

Rating:
Summary: I G AlTheeb
Review: Don't waste your money on this rubbish.

I will boycott untill Aamazon remove all these kind of rubbishes.

All who believe that every religion should be respected have to boycott amazon also.

Rating:
Summary: A much needed work
Review: Even though this book does have some organizational flaws, I still give it five stars because I admire the effort put into it and its message needs to be heard. I am the only person like me that I know--one who converted to Islam while fully believing and then leaving after only a half a year. I simply found it more and more difficult to blindly swallow the beliefs. The beginning of the end was learning that ikhtilat (mixing of the sexes) is prohibited--even though this book does not really talk about that specifically. When I read all hundred reviews for this title, I couldn't rest until I ordered it. I had basically left Islam right before I received this book and it has amazed me that I ever was part of such a religion.

What is great about this book is that it attacks Islam from every angle: historical, moral, philosophical, logical, and scientific. While it does sound bitter at times--I was surprised to hear Warraq describe all religions as "sick men's dreams"--it is the facts which one must consider. When people scream out that the book contains lies, I guess that's about the only thing they can say, or else try to justify the tenets of Islam that the author describes. Yes, he does quote the Qur'an and the Hadiths, and the only way to refute what he says is to say that he's misquoting them or to try to justify Muhammad's behavior.

Some of the Islamic dogma that he describes is not accepted by all Muslims, such as the concept of predestination, but to find a couple of errors in his book is not to disprove it. I have seen the apologetics for Islam. I was once one of the MILLIONS who used the lame arguments, "Islam is a peaceful religion. Islam respects women's rights." This book describes the real Islam, if by the real Islam you mean what's written in the Qur'an. To argue that violent people today are not following Islam is a lame argument. Islam was a warring religion from the time of Muhammad--this is what the book describes, not the Muslims of today.

This book is largely a compilation of other writers' quotes, which might be why Warraq does not have a death sentence against him. But he also has some philosophical ideas of his own, tearing apart the principles of unquestioning submission found in Islam. I'm sure if somebody tried really hard, they could disprove the inconsistencies the author finds in the Qur'an, by using mental gymnastics (like saying he misinterpreted the text, took something out of context, etc.). But I am tired of forcing myself to believe in something that I can't believe in. Islam has taught me that it's possible to find a defense for any legal/social practice: stoning adulterers, female circumcision, requiring the hijab, or cutting off hands of thieves. Muslims today dream of the Golden Age when the Shari'a was in full force, but if this legal code were in place, I don't see how it could be called a Golden Age.

If you are happy with Islam, then I am fine with that--you don't need to read this book. But not everyone feels this way, and I feel sorry for those believe something because they think they have to. For me, leaving Islam was a rather painful (and very freeing) experience, and this book helped a great deal.

Rating:
Summary: Excuse me...
Review: I have flipped through this book, so I don't have a right to rate it until I have read it all; so u can ignore my ratings. But I would like to say one thing, and that is that every religion at the beginning has had a harsh truth in it. First of all, the Jews were the one who crucified Christ, and the Christians were the ones who brought in the crusaders who caused a huge massacre. EVERY religion had a brutal history so Islam is no indifferent. And honestly, I have never heard not even once in my life about Muslims treating any women in the HISTORY of Islam in any way barbarically. I am a recent convert of Islam because I realized how much Islam praises women and gives her more rights and appreciates the woman as well as her body more than any other religion. So PLEASE, before judging a religion, research every single aspect on it before writing an entire book on a religion, which you are not even part of.

Rating:
Summary: Please consider before you buy!
Review: I have seen many books such as this by Ibn Warraq.
Ibn Warraq speaks with hatred, misunderstandings and historical inaccuracies. Being from Arab descent he has loathed what he considered a pagan religion predominant in every arab culture. Fueled by his anger with corrupt arab politics,(who only call themselves Muslim by name), he has done his best to discredit such a noble religion by completely taking every piece of information out of context. He stubbornly criticises that which he does not understand into that which he blieves. He also fails to record all historical accounts about the life of the prophet Muhammed, not to mention exaggerating and falsifying the records which he mentiones. Overall, unfortunatelly this is not a complete book, nor is it a worthy book to read. If you are reading to find out the truth about Islam, first read the Holy Quran, (the guiding source of Islam) and decide what you make out of it. Finally if you choose to read books criticizing Islam, it is only fair to read other books which calrify it, that way you have a complete picture on the topic and where the two sides stand.
I hope this is helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Does Islam oppose truth and freedom?
Review: I'm sure many of us are aware that Islam is associated with plenty of bad behavior. We see the rights of women and homosexuals threatened in Muslim nations. We see an intolerance for non-Muslims. Some Muslims are embarrassed that what they feel is True Islam has been hijacked by those who have mangled its message. Others say that Islam is in need of reform.

A few (including my grandmother) simply look at the theological lack of justification for Islam and the dubious acts by some of those who practice it and decide to adopt a different way of life. The author of this book is such a person.

We soon find out why. He explains that the problem is not those who practice Islam. For the author, the problem is twofold, Muhammad's teachings and Islamic law. No wonder he's against it! He left Islam at an early age, convinced that all religions are demonstrably false and pernicious. The Rushdie Affair and various reactions to it infuriated him and convinced him to write this book. The title is taken from that of a famous speech by Bertrand Russell at the Battersea Town Hall in March of 1927 titled "Why I Am Not A Christian." Ibn Warraq is a pen name that has been traditionally adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam.

Ibn Warraq explains to us the totalitarian nature of Islam, a religion that he shows is not compatible with democracy and human rights but is compatible with fascism, imperialism, colonialism and racism. And he warns us that Western intellectuals who refuse to criticize Islam are doing no one any favors. His conclusion is that if there is to be a battle, it will not be between Islam and the West, but simply between those who value freedom and those who do not.

No matter how you feel about Islam, this is worth reading.