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Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages, as with many other religions, on philosophical, scientific, ethical, political and theological grounds. There are criticisms of both the fundamentals of Islam as a religion and of the cultural traditions and social norms associated with it.

History of criticism of Islam

The earliest records of criticism of Islam are found in early Islamic writings about criticism from pagan Arabs, and from Jewish inhabitants of Arabia.

The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are to be found in the writings of Christians who came under the early dominion of the Islamic empire. One such Christian was John of Damascus (born c. 676), 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 a Nestorian monk influenced Muhammad.

In 1280, the Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammuna criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths. Ibn Kammuna wrote that Muslim rulers habitually violate the provisions of the Islamic law (sharia) because "f the provisions of Islam were acted upon without any alteration, the regime would be upset, and people's blood would be spilled unjustly. This is no secret to anyone acquainted with Muslim jurisprudence and with the evil and corruption the people sink into." He reasoned that this incompatiblity of sharia with the principles of justice undercuts Muhammad's claims of being a perfect man: "there is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others as claimed". The philosopher thus concluded that people usually convert to Islam from ulterior motives:

That is why, to this day we never see anyone converting to Islam unless in terror, or in quest of power, or to avoid heavy taxation, or to escape humiliation, or if taken prisoner, or because of infatuation with a Muslim woman, or for some similar reason. Nor do we see a respected, wealthy, and pious non-Muslim well versed in both his faith and that of Islam, going over to the Islamic faith without some of the aforementioned or similar motives.

In 1284, the news about Ibn Kammuna's book reached the Muslims of Baghdad. The chronicler Fuwati described the events that followed: "The infuriated mob rioted, and massed to attack his house and to kill him." The local emir and the supreme judge arrived at the scene. "The amir stepped out to calm the crowds but these showered abuse upon him and accused him of being on the side of Ibn Kammuna, and of defending him. Then, upon the amir's order, it was heralded in Baghdad that, early the following morning outside the city wall, Ibn Kammuna would be burned." The crowd dispersed, and Ibn Kammuna was smuggled out of Baghdad to his son in Hilla.

Over the years there have been several famous Muslim critics and skeptics of Islam from within the Islamic world itself. In tenth and eleventh-century Syria there lived a blind poet called Al-Ma'arri. According to Ibn Warraq, 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:

They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me

that these are fiction from first to last.
O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth. Then perish

the fools who forged the religious traditions or interpreted them!

Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself.

Maimonides, one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, 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.

Modern criticism of Islam

Modern criticism of Islam comes in many varieties and from various corners. The most notable of recent criticisms include those expressed by political and religious leaders, and by official institutions.

Many critics are non-Muslim scholars or authors who are outspoken in their views. The members of this group include Oriana Fallaci, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer and Bat Ye'or. Robert Spencer is especially vocal, having written many books, one titled The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims. Bat Ye'or has studied the phenomenon of dhimma in detail, and stresses "the incompatibility between the concept of tolerance as expressed by the jihad-dhimmitude ideology, and the concept of human rights based on the equality of all human beings and the inalienability of their rights." Sam Harris, author of the bestseller The End of Faith, is skeptical that moderate Islam is even possible, arguing that Muslim extremism is a consequence simply of taking the Qur'an literally. Nobel prize winner V. S. Naipaul, a Trinidadian-born British novelist of Hindu heritage, has sowed controversy with his criticism of Islam. He claims it has had a "calamitous effect on converted peoples", destroying their ancestral culture and history. The Italian journalist and novelist Oriana Fallaci wrote three short books after the events of September the 11th advancing the argument that "Western world is in danger of being engulfed by radical Islam". Two of them, The Rage and The Pride and The Force of Reason have been translated into English by Fallaci.

Notable evangelical leaders from the United States have also weighed in against Islam. They include Pat Robertson, who expresses the view that "Islam wants to take over the world and is not a religion of peace, and that radical Muslims are "satanic", and that Osama Bin Laden was a "true follower of Muhammad". Jerry Falwell, another popular American conservative Baptist minister, characterized the prophet Muhammad as being a 'terrorist'. Franklin Graham described Islam as an 'evil and wicked religion' and suggested that those who believed Islam to be "wonderful" should "go and live under the Taliban somewhere".

There are also outspoken former Muslims who believe that Islam is the primary cause for what they see as the mistreatment of minority groups in Muslim countries and communities. Almost all of them now live in the West, many under assumed names because of a legitimate danger to themselves and many have had death threats made against them by Islamic groups including the very public fatwa made on the life of Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomeini of the Government of Iran. Such people include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Ibn Warraq. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has focused on the plight of Muslim women, saying that "they aspire to live by their faith as best they can, but their faith robs them of their rights."

Several scholars do not self-identify as critics of Islam but are not afraid to criticise some of its aspects. Bernard Lewis is perhaps the most well-known member of this group. For example, he holds that unbelievers, slaves, and women are considered fundamentally inferior to other groups of people under Islamic law though he holds that even the equality of free adult male Muslims represented a very considerable advance on the practice of both the Greco-Roman and the ancient Iranian world.

Responses to criticisms

Responses come from both Muslim and some non-Muslim scholars and writers.

Responses from Modern non-Muslim scholars

Such non-Muslim scholars include William Montgomery Watt, John Esposito and Karen Armstrong and the late Edward Said, who sharply criticized Western scholarship of the East. Watt, for example, in his book Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman addresses Muhammad’s alleged moral failures. He claims that “Of all the world's great men none has been so much maligned as Muhammad.” Watt argues 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.

John Esposito 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 Muslims world.

Responses from modern Muslim scholars

Responses from Muslims have come from many Muslim writers, scholars and comparative religionists such as Ahmad Deedat, Dr. Zakir Naik, Osama Abdallah, Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Gary Miller. Within the academia, responses have come from scholars such as Michael Sells, Muqtedar Khan. Muhammad Mohar Ali says that the Qur'an records the earliest criticisms (and responses), examples of which are Muhammad being called a madman (e.g. 15:6), a poet (21:5), a kahin soothsayer (69:42), and so on. He writes that nothing of importance has been added by later critics.

Objections to the methods used by critics

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." Montgomery Watt agrees with West's historical denigration of Islam but states that the situation has become much better during the last two centuries though many of the old prejudices still linger on. Watt encourages both Muslims and Europeans to reach to an objective view of Muhammad and his religion.

Intolerance of Islam to criticism

Islam is frequently criticised as being intolerant of and suppressive of criticism, and especially of apostasy. Ibn Warraq has collected and published stories of the reported mistreatment of Muslim apostates at the hands of Islamic authorities.

Apostasy in Islamic law

Bernard Lewis summarizes:

The penalty for apostasy, in Islamic law, is death. Islam is conceived as a polity, not just as a religious community. It follows therefore that apostasy is treason. It is a withdrawal, a denial of allegiance as well as of religious belief and loyalty. Any sustained and principled opposition to the existing regime or order almost inevitably involves such a withdrawal.

However, the question of the correct penalties to be imposed under Islamic law for apostasy is a highly controversial topic that has been passionately debated. There are widely-held exceptions to the death penalty punishment, and a minority of Islamic scholars advocate a lesser penalty altogether. In general, though, the four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, as well as Shi'a scholars, agree that a sane adult male apostate must be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to the majority view, or imprisoned until she repents, according to others.

William Montgomery Watt, in an interview in response to a question about westerns view 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 fatwas that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances. For example, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-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. However, these minority opinions regarding punishment for apostasy have not found broad acceptance among their peers in the ulema.

Modern treatment of accused apostates

Today, out of 57 mostly Islamic countries in OIC, five make apostasy from Islam a crime punishable by death, including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and Yemen. However, according the US State Department, there have been no reports of such executions by the government of Saudi Arabia for several years. On the other hand, in Pakistan, vigilante attacks against alleged apostates are common.

The recent case of Afghan Abdul Rahman has achieved particular notoriety. In early 2006, Rahman was arrested and held by Afghan authorities on charges that he converted from Islam to Christianity, a capital offense in Afghanistan. Many Muslim clerics in the country pushed for a death sentence, but after international pressure (including a public statement by U.S. Secretary of State at the time Condoleezza Rice) he was released and secretly given asylum in Italy.

In 1993, an Egyptian professor named Nasr Abu Zayd was divorced from his wife by an Egyptian court run by Islamic radicals on the grounds that his controversial writings about the Qur'an demonstrated his apostasy. He subsequently fled to Europe with his wife. Another Egyptian professor, Farag Fuda, was killed in 1992 by masked men after criticizing Muslim fundamentalists and announcing plans to form a new movement for Egyptians of all religions.

Modern treatment of critics

German professor Christoph Luxenberg feels compelled to work under a pseudonym to protect himself because of fears that a new book on the origins of the Qur'an may make him a target for violence. Hashem Aghajari, an Iranian university professor, was initially sentenced to death because of a speech that criticized some of the present Islamic practices in Iran being in contradiction with the original practices and ideology of Islam, and particularly for stating that Muslims were not "monkeys" and "should not blindly follow" the clerics. The sentence was later commuted to three years in jail, and he was released in 2004 after serving two years of that sentence.

In recent times fatwas calling for execution have been issued against author Salman Rushdie and activist Taslima Nasreen.

On September 19 2006 French writer and philosophy teacher Robert Redeker wrote an editorial for Le Figaro, a French conservative newspaper, in which he attacked Islam and Muhammad, writing: "Pitiless war leader, pillager, butcher of Jews and polygamous, this is how Mohammed is revealed by the Qur'an"; he received death threats and went into hiding.

See also Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

Muhammad

Muslims consider Muhammad to be the final and greatest prophet, the messenger of the final revelation that he called the Qur’an. Muslims believe that Muhammad was righteous and holy. However, some scholars such as Koelle and Ibn Warraq, as well as some other non-Muslims, see some of his actions as very immoral. Islamic scholars, such as William Montgomery Watt disagree, especially when a comparison is made between Muhammad and Biblical prophets. Watt, for example, argues 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." Muslims have also questioned the historical evidence for some of Muhammad's alleged immoral acts.

The Qur'an

It is a central tenet of Islam that the Qur'an is perfect, so criticism of the Qur'an is considered criticism of Islam.

Here are the main arguments of the critics:

• Critics argue the Qur'an has scientific errors, though Muslims have claimed that the Qur'an is perfectly compatible with science.
• Satanic Verses were two verses allegedly argued to have been added by Mohammad when he was tricked by Satan.
• Quranic verse allows Muslim men to beat their wives
• Some critics believe that it is not only Islamists that preaches terrorism but Islam itself, a violence implicit in the Qur'anic text.
• The Quran is critized for advocating the death penalty or other cruel and unusual punishments for acts like apostasy, homosexuality, adultery, and theft.
• There is much criticism of the Quran on its position on slavery, since it specificly allows the practice.
• Critics point to the quran for being Incompatibile with other religious scriptures, for containing attacks, and for advocating hate against people of other religions.
• Critics claim that the Qur'an contains numerous verses which contradict each other.

Other criticism

Human rights issues

Human-rights violations by adherents of Islam

See Historical persecution by Muslims.

Discrepancy between Islam and the UN Declaration of Human Rights

Predominantly Muslim countries, like Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, frequently 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 1981, the Iranian representative to the United Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, articulated the position of his country regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by saying that the UDHR was "a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims without trespassing the Islamic law.

In 1990 the Organization of Islamic Conference published a separate Cairo Declaration of Human Rights compliant with Shari'ah. A group called Article 11 is protesting for religious rights in Malaysia and has been attacked by mobs of Muslim counter-demonstrators.

Ayatollah Sanei believes that the Islamic and the UN Declaration of Human Rights are approximately close to each other. The discrepancy is their sources. The source of one is divine revelation and the source of the other is the God-given human conscience.

In full contradiction with this point of view, official European sources have ruled that the difference is not just in the sources, but in the basic tenets. See the reperated condemnations by the European Court for Human Rights of the Sharia as incompatible with democracy.

Discrimination against women and non-Muslims

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Critics argue that in Islam women have fewer rights than men and that non-Muslims under the dhimmi system have fewer rights than Muslims. Muslims argue that men are the protectors of women (Qur'an ) and that dhimmis must return the favor by paying Jizya of the protection given by an Islamic state (non-Muslims are exempt from military service for the state). Non-Muslims also have certain privileges in Muslim countries; for example, they may be permitted to drink alcohol, although it would be illegal for Muslims to do so, and are also not required to pay the alms tax (Zakah) that Muslims are required to pay in a Muslim state, but must pay Jizya instead. (See also Islam and other religions).

According to Freedom House , Saudi Arabia relegates women to second-class citizenship. "Women are not treated as equal members of society. They may not legally drive cars, and their use of public facilities is restricted when men are present. ...Laws discriminate against women in a range of matters including family law, and a woman's testimony is treated as inferior to a man's in court."

Some Islamic scholars justify the different religious laws for men and women by referring to the biological and sociological differences between men and women. For example, regarding the inheritance law which states that women’s share of inheritance is half that of men, Grand Ayatollah Makarim Shirazi quotes the Imam Ali ibn Musa Al-reza who reasons that at the time of marriage man has to pay something to woman and woman receives something, and that men are responsible for both their wives' and their own expenses but women have no responsibility thereof. Muslims reject the assertion that different laws prescribed for men and women imply that men are more valuable than women, arguing that the only criterion of value before God is piety. Part of the verse () that literally reads as “the male is not like the female” is usually used to show that the value of the female is greater than or at least equal to the value of the male. (The text is not clear as to whether this quote is supposed to be from God or from the mother of Mary, but the meaning of the phrase is clear in its context.)

According to Professor Doumato, in Islamic thought, women are held responsible for sexual temptation. She writes "Specific Quranic verses enjoin modesty upon women and, to a lesser degree, upon men; and women are viewed as being responsible for sexual temptation (fitna)."

Critics have used the derogatory terms "gender apartheid" to refer to "sexual discrimination, particularly strict gender-based segregation in some Muslim countries where women are segregated on the basis of sex from men in public and do not enjoy legal equality or equal access to employment or education." The terms "Islamic apartheid" and "Muslim apartheid" have been used to highlight alleged discrimination by both religion and gender.

The term "gender apartheid" has also been used by Phyllis Chesler . Per Chesler's article,

"In a democratic, modern, and feminist era, women in the Islamic world are not treated as human beings. Women in Iran and elsewhere in the Islamic world are viewed as the source of all evil. Their every move is brutally monitored and curtailed. The smallest infraction – a wanton wisp of hair escaping a headscarf – merits maximum punishment: Flogging in public, or worse. This is happening in Iran even as we speak. In 2005, a hospital in Tehran was accused of refusing entry to women who did not wear head-to-toe covering. In 2002, in Saudi Arabia, religious policemen prevented 14 year old schoolgirls from leaving a burning school building because they were not wearing their headscarves and abayahs. Fifteen girls died."

Reliability of hadith

Hadith are Muslim traditions relating to the Sunna (words and deeds) of Muhammad. 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. However, there are groups and individuals both inside and outside Islam who criticize the reliability of hadith or its use in general.

John Esposito notes that "Modern Western scholarship has seriously questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith, maintaining that the bulk of traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad were actually written much later." He mentions Joseph Schacht as one scholar who argues this, claiming that Schacht "found no evidence of legal traditions before 722," from which Schacht concluded that "the Sunna of the Prophet is not the words and deeds of the Prophet, but apocryphal material" dating from later.

Other Western scholars, like Wilferd Madelung, are more confident in the reliability of Islamic traditions, rejecting the stance of some historians who show an "extreme distrust" for "Muslim literary sources for the early age of Islam". Madelung wrote in the preface of his book The Succession to Muhammad:

Work with the narrative sources, both those that have been available to historians for a long time and others which have been published recently, made it plain that their wholesale rejection as late fiction is unjustified and that with a judicious use of them a much more reliable and accurate portrait of the period can be drawn than has so far been realized.

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 Sunna of Ali and the Imams as authoritative in addition to the Sunna of Muhammad, and as a consequence they maintain their own, different, collections of hadith.

On the extreme end, there have been Muslims who deny the authority of the hadith completely or almost completely (manifestations of which have sometimes been termed the Quran-only movement). Early in Islamic history there was a school of thought that adhered to this view, but it receded in importance after coming under criticism by al-Shafi'i. Daniel Brown describes a modern anti-hadith movement that reached its peak in the 1950's and 1960's, but is now in decline. The Submitters movement today holds to a Quran-only view, although they are considered heretical by more traditionalist Muslims.

Rise of fatwas

Many critics are concerned about the rise in fatwas from Islamic leaders. Some fatwas are simple declarations about lifestyle choices and others, such as Osama bin Laden's declaration of war against America, are a call to violence or assassination. Some critics of fatwas are shocked by a recent call to destroy ancient Egyptian statues and artifacts.

See also

Topics regarding Islam and controversy

Criticism of other beliefs

Further reading

• The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion by Robert Spencer
• The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades) by Robert Spencer
• Onward Muslim Soldiers by Robert Spencer
• The Legacy of Jihad by Andrew G. Bostom
• Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Ye'or
• Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude by Bat Ye'or
• The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse by Paul L. Williams
• An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism by Victor Davis Hanson
• Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel
• The War for Muslim Minds by Gilles Kepel
• Esposito, John L. (1995). The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-510298-3.
• Halliday, Fred (2003). Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics of the Middle East. I.B. Tauris, New York. ISBN 1-86064-868-1.
• Esposito, John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-516886-0.

• Geisler, Norman L. (2002). Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross. Baker Books. ISBN 0-8010-6430-9.
• Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995)
• —, Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out
• 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)
• Category:Books critical of Islam

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