Ibn Warraq

Ibn Warraq at the 2007 Secular Islam Summit

Ibn Warraq is a bestselling secularist author, ex-Muslim intellectual, scholar and founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society and a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry^{[1][2] [3]} specializing in Koranic criticism ^[4][5]

Warraq gathered world notice through his controversial historiographies of the early centuries of the Islamic timeline and has published works which tend to challenge traditional conceptions of the period. He is the author of seven books, including Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995), The Origins of the Koran (1998),Quest for the Historical Muhammad, (2000), What the Koran Really Says (2002),Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out(2003), Defending the West a Critique of Edward Said (2006) and Which Koran? (2007)

He has also spoken at the United Nations "Victims of Jihad" conference organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union alongside speakers such as Bat Ye'or, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Simon Deng.^[6]

Life

Warraq was born in 1946 in Rajkot, India, to Muslim parents who migrated to Pakistan after the partitioning of India in 1947. He started his schooling at a local Madrassas in Pakistan where he learned to recite the Qur'an by heart. His father eventually decided to send him to a boarding school in England partly to circumvent a grandmother's effort to push an exclusively religious education on his son at the local Madrassas. By 19 he had emigrated to Scotland to pursue his education at Edinburgh University where he studied philosophy and Arabic with Islamic studies scholar W. Montgomery Watt. ^[7]

After leaving college, Warraq taught primary school for five years in London, and moved to France with his wife in 1982 where he opened an Indian restaurant and then worked as a courier for a travel agent, until the Rushdie affair took place. Warraq greatly taken by these events, began to write for the American secular humanist Free Thought Magazine on topics along the lines of to "why I am not Muslim." ^{[8] [9]}

Ibn Warraq continued his writing with several works examining the historiography of the Qur'an and Muhammad raising a great deal of controversy and creating a debacle in the Islamic community in the process. Other books treated secular humanist values among Muslims.

In 2005 Warraq spent several months working with Koranic philologist Christoph Luxenberg^[10]

In March 2006 a letter he co-signed entitled MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism with eleven other individuals (most notably Salman Rushdie) was published in response to violent and deadly protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.^[11]

Warraq's new book, titled, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism, will be published by Prometheus Books in August 2007.^[12]

Although not a member of any religion, he has a higher opinion of polytheism than of monotheism.^[13] He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society. Despite his criticisms of Islam, he does not take the view that it cannot be reformed; he has a high opinion of Sufism^[14] and he works with liberal Muslims in his group.

In 2007 he participated in St Petersburg Secular Islam Summit along with other thinkers and reformers of Islam such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan and Irshad Manji.[1] The group released the St Petersburg Declaration which urges world governments to, among other things, reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, which they believe to be in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Warraq's op-ed pieces have appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian in London, and he has addressed governmental bodies all over the world, including the United Nations in Geneva.^[15]

In Oct 2007 Warraq participated in the IQ2 debates in London with Douglas Murray David Aaronovitch Tariq Ramadan William Dalrymple and Charles Glass ^{[16] [17]}

Pen Name

The penname Ibn Warraq (Arabic: ابن وراق, most literally "son of a papermaker") is used due to his concerns for his personal safety and one that has been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam.^[18] The name refers to 9th century skeptical scholar Muhammad al Warraq ^[19] Warraq adopted the pseudonym in 1995 when he completed his first book Why I Am Not a Muslim ^[20]

There were several reasons, which are still valid. I had begun 1993 to write my book “why I am not Muslim ” when it appeared 1995, I was a professor for British and American culture at the University of Toulouse. I had a fear of becoming the second Salman Rushdie and I did not want not to die and I had my family to protect. My brother and his family did not know even today that I wrote the book. I do not want that they suffer on my account.

Peer reception

Daniel Pipes has described Ibn Warraq's work as "well-researched and quite brilliant" ^[21]Richard Dawkins describes him in his book The God Delusion as a "deeply knowledgeable scholar of Islam."^[22] Conversely, religious studies professor Herbert Berg has labelled him as polemical and inconsistent in his writing.^[23] Fred Donner, a professor in Near Eastern studies, notes Ibn Warraq's lack of specialist training in Arabic studies, citing "inconsistent handling of Arabic materials," and unoriginal arguments. Donner criticizes Ibn Warraq's book on Muhammad for what he describes as "heavy-handed favoritism" towards revisionist theories and "the compiler’s [Ibn Warraq] agenda, which is not scholarship, but anti-Islamic polemic." ^[24]

Bibliography

• Why I Am Not a Muslim, Ibn Warraq, foreword by R. Joseph Hoffmann, Prometheus Books, 1995, hardcover, 428 pages, ISBN 0-87975-984-4
• Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2003, hardcover, 320 pages, ISBN 1-59102-068-9
• What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2002, 600 pages, ISBN 1-57392-945-X
• Quest for the Historical Muhammad, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2000, hardcover, 554 pages, ISBN 1-57392-787-2
• Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 1998, hardcover, 420 pages, ISBN 1-57392-198-X
• Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism. Prometheus Books 2007 hardcover,: 300 pages ISBN-10: 1591024846
• Which Koran?: Variants, Manuscripts, and the Influence of Pre-Islamic Poetry . Prometheus Books 1 May 2007 : 450 pages, ISBN-10: 1591024293, ISBN-13: 978-1591024293

See also

• Apostasy in Islam
• Criticism of Islam
• Criticism of the Qur'an
• List of notable former Muslims
• Religious conversion

References

1. ^ The spectator 3 October 2007 "The great Islamic scholar, Ibn Warraq, one of the great heroes of our time. Personally endangered, yet unremittingly vocal, Ibn Warraq leads a trend. Like a growing number of people, he refuses to accept the pretence that all cultures are equal. Were Ibn Warraq to live in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, he would not be able to write. Or if he did, he would not be allowed to live. Among his work is criticism of the sources of the Koran. In Islamic states this constitutes apostasy. It is people like him, who know how things could be, who understand why Western values are not just another way to live, but the only way to live — the only system in human history in which the individual is genuinely free (in the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson) to ‘pursue happiness’."
2. ^ The spectator Oct 2007
3. ^ Stephen Crittenden L The Religion Report Ibn Warraq: Why I am not a Muslim Oct 10 2001 Secularist Muslim intellectual Ibn Warraq - not his real name - was born on the Indian subcontinent and educated in the West. He believes that the great Islamic civilisations of the past were established in spite of the Koran, not because of it, and that only a secularised Islam can deliver Muslim states from fundamentalist madness.
4. ^ The spectator Oct 2007 IQ2 debates on the topic "We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values" Ibn Warraq An independent researcher at the humanist Centre for Enquiry in the USA. Author of ‘Why I am Not a Muslim’ (1995) and editor of anthologies of Koranic criticism and an anthology of testimonies of ex-Muslims ‘Leaving Islam’ (2003). A contributor to the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, and has addressed distinguished governing bodies all over the world, including the United Nations in Geneva on the subject of apostasy. Current projects include a critical study, entitled ‘Defending the West: a Critique of Edward Said’s “Orientalism” ’ to be released 2007.
5. ^ http://Center for Enquiry [www.centerforinquiry.net/newsroom/press_information/religion/]Religion, Ethics, and Society - Experts and Scholars"Ibn Warraq, Islamic scholar and a leading figure in Koranic criticism, is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry"
6. ^ Ibn Warraq 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
7. ^ World Magazine "Dissident Voices"June 16, 2007
8. ^ World Magazine "Dissident Voices"June 16, 2007
9. ^ Boston Globe August 2003 Lee Smith Losing his religion
10. ^ Center for Inquiry Volume 9 Issue 5, July 2005 Koranic scholar Christoph Luxenberg has tried to demonstrate that many of the obscurities of the Koran disappears if we read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic. This would include, for example, reinterpreting the promise of virgins in the afterlife as a promise for chilled drinks and good food. Luxenberg’s work has been well received among Islamic scholars, and the esteemed Koranic critic Ibn Warraq regards it as the most important book ever written on the Koran. In a series of three lectures, Warraq, who has spent several months working with Luxenberg, will give a summary of Luxemberg’s research.
11. ^ MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism
12. ^ Ibn Warraq to release new book, Defending the West
13. ^ Why I am not a Muslim, p.116-123
14. ^ Why I am not a Muslim, p.276
15. ^ THe Campus enquirer Volume 10, Issue 2 March 2006
16. ^ [http://www.spectator.co.uk/intelligence/242761/we-should-not-be-reluctant-to-assert-the-superiority-of-western-values.thtml Ibn Warraq at the IQ2 debates with Douglas Murray David Aaronovitch Tariq Ramadan William Dalrymple Charles Glass
17. ^ AUDIO Podcast of the IQ2 Debates in London with Ibn Warraq
18. ^ Facts cited from introduction to interview with Warraq. Ibn Warraq: Why I Am Not A Muslim. ABC Radio National (2001-10-10). Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
19. ^ Doubt: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson By Jennifer Michael Hecht HarperOne 2004
20. ^ Der Spiegel Aug 2007 Interview with Ibn Warraq There were several reasons, which are still valid. I had begun 1993 to write my book “why I am not Muslim ” when it appeared 1995, was I professor for British and American culture at the University of Toulouse. I had fear to become the second Salman Rushdie I did not want not to die and I had my family to protect. My brother and its family do not know until today that I wrote the book. I do not want that they must suffer on my account.
21. ^ Daniel Pipes Weekly Standard January 1996 pg1 "Ibn Warraq brings a scholarly sledge-hammer to the task of demolishing Islam. Writing a polemic against Islam, especially for an author of Muslim birth, is an act so incendiary that the author must write under a pseudonym; not to do so would be an act of suicide. And what does Ibn Warraq have to show for this act of unheard-of defiance? A well-researched and quite brilliant, if somewhat disorganized, indictment of one of the world's great religions. While the author disclaims any pretence to originality, he has read widely enough to write an essay that offers a startlingly novel rendering of the faith he left. "
22. ^ Richard Dawkins The God Delusion Pg 307
23. ^ Berg, Herbert (1999). "Ibn Warraq (ed): The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 62 (3): 558. Retrieved on 2006-07-20. 
24. ^ Donner, Fred. (2001) Review: The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, University of Chicago.

External links

• Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society
• Boston Globe: Losing His Religion
• Why I am not a Muslim: The Origins of Islam
• Ibn Warraq: How to Debate a Muslim
• Profile: Ibn Warraq

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