Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Atheist Muslim
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Toronto
STATE: ON
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY:
Pakistani-Canadian * http://us.macmillan.com/theatheistmuslim/aliarizvi/9781250094445/ * https://richarddawkins.net/aliarizvi/ * http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-ali-a-rizvis-the-atheist-muslim-is-a-passionate-timely-but-ultimately-muddled-plea-for-reform-in-islam/article33048374/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016028950
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016028950
HEADING: Rizvi, Ali A.
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670 __ |a The atheist Muslim, 2016: |b ECIP data. (Ali A. Rizvi; writer, commentator, medical communications professional and a trained physician with residency and fellowship training in oncologic surgical pathology)
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, commentator, medical communications professional, and a trained physician with residency and fellowship training in oncologic surgical pathology.
AVOCATIONS:Plays with a rock band in Toronto.
WRITINGS
Contributor to the Huffington Post.
SIDELIGHTS
Ali A. Rivzi was brought up in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan and is now a physician in Canada. He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and plays in a rock band in Toronto. The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason, his first book, is partly a memoir that goes back to his upbringing and his feelings of embracing his Muslim identity while at the same time rejecting many of the tenets of the religion. He was living in a heavily religious society while working as a scientist and physician, eventually losing his faith in his religion. Rivzi discovered that as an atheist Muslim, he wasn’t alone, and when he moved to Canada, he made it his mission to educate the public about atheist Muslims. He found himself caught between those who espoused extreme Islam and those with strong anti-Muslim bigotry. By writing the book, Rivzi covers the challenges of modern Islam and those things that could lead toward a constructive reform.
Reviews of The Atheist Muslim were positive. Library Journal contributor Brian Sullivan recommended the book for “similarly unbelieving Muslims and for readers interested in a perspective on Islam that falls between the extremes of unconditional acceptance and xenophobic intolerance.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt the book has “rare and intriguing arguments in the debate over Islam.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked that The Atheist Muslim “pushes towards the possibility of a cultural Islam that maintains family and ethnic traditions without requiring belief.”
In the Toronto Globe and Mail Online, Kamal al-Solaylee wrote: “A pattern emerges in The Atheist Muslim: This journey to reason has its own dogmatic side and leaves little room for the ambivalence and nuances of history, politics and lived experiences. He’s right of course not to overplay the role of imperialism or American interventions in the Muslim world and call it on its homegrown legacy of intolerance. But is it not possible that complex situations require complex diagnoses and are the result of multiple, interlinked factors?”
In the New York Times Online, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote: “Rizvi’s specific criticisms of the Muslim orthodoxy as stated in the Quran are surgically accurate. He cites various passages that are either contradictory or seemingly absurd in the modern world. … Rizvi’s descriptions of historical sects of Islam and their conflicts with one another are especially illuminating. He concludes that a current disagreement ‘would never be an issue if its consequences weren’t so deadly.’” On the Reason on Faith website, Kamal al-Solaylee commented: “What Ali A. Rizvi does achieve with precision is to make an impassioned case through his own personal journey, of why cultures influenced and constrained by Islam can be problematic, and how the Islamic sources foundational to the Islamic claims of divine authorship, can be seriously challenged.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2016, review of The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason.
Library Journal, December 1, 2016, Brian Sullivan, review of The Atheist Muslim, p. 99.
Publishers Weekly, September 12, 2016, review of The Atheist Muslim, p. 50.
ONLINE
Globe and Mail Online (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), https://www.theglobeandmail.com (November 25, 2016), review of The Atheist Muslim.
New York Times Online, https://www.nytimes.com (January 11, 2017), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, review of The Atheist Muslim.
Reason on Faith, http://reasononfaith.com (November 26, 2016), Kamal al-Solaylee, review of The Atheist Muslim.
Sydney Morning Herald Online, http://www.smh.com.au (February 10, 2017), Fiona Capp, review of The Atheist Muslim.
Ali A. Rizvi is a Pakistani-Canadian writer, physician, and musician who resides in Toronto. He is currently writing his first book, The Atheist Muslim.
Ali grew up in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, as part of a progressive Muslim family, before he moved permanently to Canada in his twenties. As a physician, he trained in pathology (with fellowship in oncologic pathology) at SUNY Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and also holds a master of science degree in biochemistry from Ontario’s McMaster University. In 2011, he switched his career to medical communications so he could focus more on his writing. Ali is an avid and vocal advocate for secularism, science, and reform, particularly in the Muslim community. He is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, and also plays with a rock band in Toronto.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ali A. Rizvi
ALI A. RIZVI grew up in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan before moving to Canada and the United States when he was 24. Rizvi has been writing extensively about secularism in the Muslim world for several years, working as a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and being published on major media outlets like CNN. Rizvi is also a medical communications professional and a trained physician and oncologic pathologist.
05/13/2013 12:39 pm ET | Updated Jul 13, 2013
Why I Call Myself an ‘Atheist Muslim’
By Ali A. Rizvi
AP
760
Last week, I had an essay up on HuffPost entitled “An Atheist Muslim’s Perspective on the ‘Root Causes’ of Islamist Jihadism and the Politics of Islamophobia.”
One of the goals of the piece was to emphasize the difference between the criticism of Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry: the first targets an ideology, and the second targets human beings. This is obviously a very significant difference, yet both are frequently lumped under the unfortunate umbrella term, “Islamophobia.”
I highlighted this distinction by describing myself as an “atheist Muslim,” which drew the single most commonly asked question about the piece by both atheist and Muslim readers: “How can you be an atheist and a Muslim at the same time? Isn’t that contradictory?”
Let me explain.
One of the central themes of the essay was that all religious people are selective in their religiosity. This cherry-picking is almost universal, and even inevitable considering the frequency with which contradictions appear in religious texts.
If this selectivity allows people to disregard some of the teachings of their faith, such as the orders to publicly execute non-virginal brides and homosexuals, or behead and mutilate disbelievers, it may not be a bad thing, for obvious reasons — even if it appears intellectually dishonest.
I once jokingly asked a writer friend how her identification as a “feminist Muslim” was any different from someone identifying as a black white supremacist or a meat-eating vegetarian. She replied that she didn’t see this designation as inherently contradictory, because she identified with a range of feminist values as well as many Islamic values. She openly admitted that she doesn’t understand or agree with many of the more patriarchal verses in the Quran despite being aware of their various exegeses — that she was able to disregard them, confident in the belief that Allah sees her as equal to her male counterparts.
I asked her if she saw that as disingenuous. “Everyone cherry-picks,” she replied, with a shrug.
This kind of reconciliation and compartmentalization is made possible by a selective reading and following of religion, and is also increasingly seen among groups such as believing gay Muslims. It has long been a phenomenon with other religious groups. A majority of the world’s Catholics are cafeteria Catholics (most of them ignoring their Church’s positions on birth control and abortion while retaining their Catholic identities), and many Jewish atheists expressly reject Judaism while retaining its cultural elements.
So who decides how far the cherry-picking can go? If everyone cherry-picks, is it possible to do it all the way to non-belief status?
My take is that these things are subjective and relative. Fundamentalist Muslims say that women who work outside the home without their husbands’ permission are not true Muslims. Some moderate Muslims say that those who eat pork or drink alcohol are not true Muslims. Violent sectarian conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have graphically demonstrated that many strict Sunnis reject the idea that Shias are true Muslims, and vice versa.
Even the wildly popular, seemingly moderate Pakistani candidate Imran Khan recently said, disappointingly, that he does not consider the Ahmadis, a community that has suffered decades of persecution in Pakistan, to be true Muslims because they do not believe in the “finality” of the Prophet. I actually found it interesting, in light of this, that a few readers who took issue with my identification as an atheist Muslim were Ahmadis themselves.
So my first point is simply this: If the rest of you can cherry-pick, why can’t I?
The second aspect revolves around the question of whether Islam a culture or a religion.
For me, the answer is that Islam is a religion, but the experience of being Muslim, practicing or not, is much more nuanced and complex.
Just like Judaism is a religion that can exist independently from Jewish ethnicity or Jewish culture, Islam is a religion, and even though Muslims are ethnically and racially varied, there really is such a thing as a Muslim culture that can exist separately from Islam.
It’s true that Muslims around the world are culturally heterogeneous. Pakistani Muslims, for instance, have more cultural similarities with Indian Hindus than with Arab Muslims. Arab Muslims, in turn, have more in common culturally with Arab Christians than with Indonesian Muslims.
However, some elements of Muslim culture are universal.
The festival of Eid is celebrated across all Muslim societies. The celebratory iftar (fast-breaking) feasts of Ramadan are common to all Muslims. These rituals are among several that I enjoy immensely as someone raised in a Muslim family and society.
As a songwriter, the rich musicality and poetry of the nohas recited and sung at Shia Muslim mourning rituals, with a light beating of the chest providing the rhythm, have had a strong influence on my own music. Like many singers attribute their musical education to singing in church growing up, I learned singing and music from my upbringing in a Shiite Muslim household.
Richard Dawkins has referred to himself as a “cultural Christian”, with an admitted fondness for Christianity-inspired art, literature and Christmas carols. “I’m not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history,” he once told the BBC.
This is probably why he hit the nail on the head when he described me as a “cultural Muslim with no imaginary friend.” He understood that this is precisely what I meant when I called myself an “atheist Muslim.”
And I am not the only one who identifies this way. Another atheist Muslim blogger who writes under the name “Re-Enlightenment” also makes the case by drawing a comparison with Christians:
Would you only be prepared to grant someone a Christian identity if they successfully negotiated your questions on church attendance, the Old Testament, and attitudes to homosexuality? You probably wouldn’t and you definitely shouldn’t. Even if someone considered themselves Christian in a religious sense, again, would you interrogate them on their compliance with what you (religious “scholar” that you clearly are) considered to be the fundamental theological tenets of Christianity? Again, you shouldn’t.
I know Christians who never go to church. I know Christians who don’t believe in God. I know Christians who don’t hate homosexuals. I know Christians who never wear a crucifix. I know Christians who don’t believe a virgin can give birth to a boy who is his own father who created the universe in six days.
...Why the different treatment for Islam?
“Certainly it’s not perfect,” writes Saif Rahman, another fellow secular Muslim who has posted a thought-provoking piece explaining what it means to be a “cultural” Muslim.
“I would much prefer the description ‘secular agnostic utilitarian rationalist reductionist humanist with cultural Muslim influences’, but that won’t fit on my business card.”
And that sums it up. Islam is a religion, and you cannot have an atheistic Islam. But many atheists from Muslim families and Muslim communities identify with the cultural aspects of their Muslim heritage and history, as do atheists with Christian or Jewish heritage.
Progressive Muslims, particularly in the West, may want to consider coalescing around a sense of community (which celebrates commonalities) rather than belief (which varies from person to person). With so many Muslim countries that punish apostasy (leaving the Islamic faith) with death, it is strategically beneficial to allow atheists from the Muslim community to adopt the Muslim label if they so choose. It is less confrontational, helps illustrate the important contrast between a monolithic ideology and a richly diverse people, and could, with time, potentially provide closeted atheists in the Muslim community a platform to come out and speak, adding another dimension to a dynamic internal dialogue that so far seems narrowly limited to the voices of fundamentalists or progressive/liberal apologists. This is our community too. Why shouldn’t we also be allowed to speak for it?
“New atheists” like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have strong allies in many of us who identify as atheist Muslims, because their valid criticisms of Islam gain further legitimacy when supported and simultaneously voiced by those of us who have lived it, grew up in it, and actually learned about it before giving it up. This is a very powerful and much-needed reinforcement for the promising new atheist movement.
Similarly, progressive/liberal Muslims also have strong allies in atheist Muslims. Sure, our ideological differences can and should continue to be vigorously debated in universities and op-ed columns. However, these differences can be set aside from time to time to pursue our strong common purpose: opposing and eradicating the Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism that have devastated our shared community.
In closing, I leave you with a few more words from my fellow atheist Muslim, Re-Enlightenment:
Let us be clear why Christianity and Judaism, in the twenty-first century, generally lend themselves to a pick-and-mix treatment: it’s because they have more or less been wrenched through a two-part grinder called ‘Secularism and the Enlightenment’. That metaphor might be a violent one but what has emerged from the other end of the machine is far more peaceful and humane than what was fed in: religions which can be picked apart, consumed and discarded as an individual human sees fit.
And that is what is required of Islam, urgently.
How will we know when this job is done? Well, when we meet beer-loving, pork-eating, atheist Muslims who pray exactly no times a day and in no particular direction, and we don’t consider that a contradiction, that will be a good start.
I must admit, I am still not a fan of most kinds of pork. But thank God for bacon.
Follow Ali A. Rizvi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aliamjadrizvi
Ali A. Rizvi
Pakistani-Canadian writer, physician and musician
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Print Marked Items
Rivzi, Ali A.: The Atheist Muslim: A Journey
from Religion to Reason
Brian Sullivan
Library Journal.
141.20 (Dec. 1, 2016): p99.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution
permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Rivzi, Ali A. The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason. St. Martin's. Nov. 2016.256p. notes, index.
ISBN 9781250094445. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250094452. REL
In his first book, Pakistani Canadian physician and scientist Rizvi thoughtfully explores the difficulties of embracing a
Muslim identity while rejecting the tenets of the religion itself. While there are welltrod paths for unbelievers who are
Christian or Jewish, cultural Islam presents a unique set of challenges. Rizvi's narrative is part memoirgoing back to
his upbringing in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistanand part critique of Islam. One of the strongest recurring themes
throughout is the important but frequently conflated difference between criticizing Islam (an idea) and demonizing
Muslims (a people). Perhaps his most insightful contribution is a chapter against "IslamophobiaPhobia," in which
Rizvi calls out Western liberals for their common unintentional support of decidedly illiberal positions out of fear of
being associated with antiMuslim bigotry. Other chapters examine various Islamic beliefs and frequently cited verses
of the Quran, challenging commonly held platitudes such as, "It's politics, not religion." Overall, Rizvi presents an
empathetic, wellargued, and hopeful case for a more secular humanistic Muslim path. VERDICT Recommended for
similarly unbelieving Muslims and for readers interested in a perspective on Islam that falls between the extremes of
unconditional acceptance and xenophobic intolerance.Brian Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY
Sullivan, Brian
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Sullivan, Brian. "Rivzi, Ali A.: The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason." Library Journal, 1 Dec.
2016, p. 99. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472371222&it=r&asid=192ddf4bc53f56a51d34ae45422758cc.
Accessed 30 May 2017.
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Ali A. Rizvi: THE ATHEIST MUSLIM
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 1, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ali A. Rizvi THE ATHEIST MUSLIM St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) 26.99 ISBN: 9781250094445
Leaving Islam and showing others the way out.Rizvi was raised and educated in such thoroughly Muslim nations as
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan before making his home in Canada. Despite a religious upbringing, the author grew
skeptical of the tenets of Islam at an early age and eventually opted for atheism. In a multifaceted work, Rizvi attempts
to convince others that a rational view of Islam as a culture without need for a religion will allow it to join the modern
world. The author begins by discussing the violence, inequality, and lack of freedom he witnessed in the Muslim
world, and he reminds his readers that these aspects of Islamic society are not simply cultural outcroppings, but are tied
directly to the Muslim religion. The Abrahamic religions, he writes, are ;inherently ;political and, as such,
will always spill outside of the framework of faith and into public life. Rizvi is especially distressed by Western
liberals who defend the most questionable aspects of Islam because they see it as a minority religion in danger of
subjugation. In so doing, they unwittingly bolster hardline Islamists elsewhere who trample on the rights of their own
people. In Pakistan, he notes, there are blasphemy laws to force us into silence. Here, there are accusations of
Islamophobia to shame us into it. The authors own route away from the excesses of his religion was to leave it entirely.
He found in atheism an intellectually satisfying answer, and he goes to great lengths to defend it. However, realizing
that there are indeed cultural aspects of any religion worth preserving, he points Muslims toward a rational, modernist
view of their faith. Pointing out that many Jews and Christians retain their cultural heritage without a belief in God, he
urges Muslims to secularize their culture and leave behind the theistic aspects of Islam, which, he believes, have been a
grave source of evil for centuries. Rare and intriguing arguments in the debate over Islam.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Ali A. Rizvi: THE ATHEIST MUSLIM." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA465181829&it=r&asid=4aa21326c8ade71b38fe8dc9022a62d3.
Accessed 30 May 2017.
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The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to
Reason
Publishers Weekly.
263.37 (Sept. 12, 2016): p50.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason
Ali A. Rizvi. St. Martin's, $26.99 (256p) ISBN 9781250094445
Rizvi combines a deconversion memoir with a rehashing of "new atheist" arguments to explain his transition from
Islam to atheism. Raised in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, he experienced repressive Islam firsthand before renouncing
the faith in North America as a young adult in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Rizvi makes his most original and
concise points when calling out the hypocrisy of liberals who attempt to defend Islam unreservedly. By arguing against
platitudes such as "terrorist are not really Muslims" or "Islam is essentially peaceful," Rizvi brings nuance to
understanding the connections among religion, frustration, and violence for young Muslims. In doing so, he shows that
religious institutions make terrorism possible. His personal story unfortunately recedes into brief anecdotes while he
embarks on longer explanations of and arguments against religion in general. His lines of thought will be familiar to
most who have read other New Atheist works, but his careful explanation of the problems facing metaphorical
readings of the Qur'an and other Islamspecific issues add a good insider's perspective to the debate. By demanding a
space for questioning Islam openly that does not devolve into attacking individual Muslims, the work pushes towards
the possibility of a cultural Islam that maintains family and ethnic traditions without requiring belief. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason." Publishers Weekly, 12 Sept. 2016, p. 50+. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
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Accessed 30 May 2017.
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Review: Ali A. Rizvi’s The Atheist Muslim is a passionate, timely but, ultimately, muddled plea for reform in Islam
KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 11:19AM EST
Last updated Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 11:22AM EST
0 Comments Print
Title The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason
Author Ali A. Rizvi
Genre Non-Fiction
Publisher St. Martin’s Press
Pages 256
Price $37.99
Ali A. Rizvi was just five years old when his view of God shifted from the “merciful” and “compassionate” supreme being that his Pakistani Muslim family had instilled in him, to one capable of “cruel, sadistic, and obscene” acts. It happened while visiting his aunt’s home in London to say goodbye to his three-year-old cousin, Sana, whose battle with childhood leukemia was coming to a gruesome, undignified end.
As his mother and aunt turned to the Koran to console themselves, he asked his father to explain why the family was praying to a God who seems to be tormenting a child? The father muttered something about Sana returning to her original place, back to God.
“And right there – years before I would even know the meaning of the word skepticism – its seeds have been sown,” Rizvi writes in The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason. It’s one of several powerful revelations in a passionate, timely but, ultimately, muddled plea for secularism and reform in Islam.
A Canadian surgical oncologist who grew up in Libya, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Rizvi is better known as an occasional columnist for the Huffington Post, where he has explored the challenges of Muslims who leave their faith, sometimes known as ex-Muslims and other times as atheists – or, to their critics, apostates. His book weds the tenets of the New Atheism of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens to a narrative of a journey from faith to doubt. To Rizvi, science not only trumps the blind faith that the Abrahamic religions require, but its transparency provides a pattern to place or restore order in the universe.
With The Atheist Muslim, the author takes on an equally ambitious agenda: setting the stage for a conversation among Muslims in the Western world and Muslim-majority nations – estimated at 1.5 billion people – to bring about a new age of reason. He plots out a multistep program that begins with rejection of scriptural inerrancy (the belief that every word in the Koran is that of God and must be followed to the letter); reformation; secularism; and, finally, enlightenment. He separates the religion, which he sees as a set of ideas, from its followers, a community. This tactic allows critics of Islam to avoid falling into the anti-Muslim bigotry of, say, the new far right in Europe or the United States, while also continuing their reformist quest.
None of this will strike readers of Judeo-Christian backgrounds as remarkable or new, but it’s (relatively) rare and heretical in most Muslim societies. Rizvi’s willingness to take the faith from within despite physical and emotional risks should be applauded and protected. That doesn’t mean he argues his way into atheism fairly or methodically.
Despite his clinical credentials and appeals to reason, Rizvi reverts to a pugilistic mode when discussing anyone who disagrees with his positions or those of the New Atheism in general. (His reverence for Dawkins and Harris borders on idolatry.) He castigates “moderate” Muslims and Western liberal commentators as apologists for literal or extreme interpretations of Islam. This hostility to what he believes to be mere political correctness leads Rizvi to perform the same “intellectual acrobatics” and cherry-picking that he accuses his opponents of doing. He peppers over the extreme positions of bloggers such as U.S.-based Pamela Geller while suggesting that liberals’ inability to take on radical Islam has created the vacuum that Donald Trump and France’s Marine Le Pen have exploited.
Quite the stretch, that, and one that absolves right-wing extremists of responsibility and places it on the laps of the centre and left instead. Here and elsewhere – in a HuffPost column in 2015, he described Trump as “possibly the most liberal conservative the GOP has seen in decades” – Rizvi’s political and moral compass cries out for recalibrating. And although the book was probably in print when Donald Trump Jr. made his now-infamous analogy between refugees and poisoned Skittles, it’s not a stretch to see echoes of the same uncompromising sentiment in Rizvi’s discussion of infallibility in a chapter on metaphors and misunderstandings in the Koran: “If there were even a single, small fly in a glass of otherwise pristine water, would you drink it?”
A pattern emerges in The Atheist Muslim: This journey to reason has its own dogmatic side and leaves little room for the ambivalence and nuances of history, politics and lived experiences. He’s right of course not to overplay the role of imperialism or American interventions in the Muslim world and call it on its homegrown legacy of intolerance. But is it not possible that complex situations require complex diagnoses and are the result of multiple, interlinked factors? Does everything have to be reduced to liberalism or faith? As bombs rain down on Syria and Yemen, can we blame survivors for clinging to their belief in an eternal afterlife, one of religion’s more comforting narratives?
As valuable as parts of The Atheist Muslim are – the personal narrative shines – it arrives at a moment when it may kick-start a reformist movement in Islam or furnish excuses for new bigotries and horrors. It’s the book’s strength and, potentially, fatal flaw.
Kamal Al-Solaylee is the author of Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) and Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Two Books About Muslim Identity
By KAREEM ABDUL-JABBARJAN. 11, 2017
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Morning prayer begins celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, in Brooklyn, July 2015. Credit Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
LETTERS TO A YOUNG MUSLIM
By Omar Saif Ghobash
244 pp. Picador. $22.
THE ATHEIST MUSLIM
A Journey From Religion to Reason
By Ali A. Rizvi
247 pp. St. Martin’s Press. $26.99.
In 1784, Thomas Jefferson’s friend the future Senator Richard Henry Lee expressed both of their opinions when he asserted in a letter to James Madison, referring to Muslims and Hindus, that “true freedom embraces the Mahometan and the Gentoo as well as the Christian religion.” In 1777, the Muslim kingdom of Morocco became the first country in the world to formally accept the United States as a sovereign nation. In 1786, when the United States needed protection from North African pirates who were stealing ships and enslaving crews, it signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which stated that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquillity of Musselmen.” In 1785, George Washington declared that he would welcome Muslim workers at Mount Vernon. In 1786, Jefferson triumphed in his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia, by persuading the Legislature to overwhelmingly reject attempts to include Jesus Christ as the religious authority in the bill. Jefferson later declared that this was one of his three greatest accomplishments.
Clearly, some of our founding fathers were very comfortable extending religious freedom to include Islam. They should have been. Islam didn’t just show up in America one day like an excited tourist. America imported it when we brought slaves over from Africa, an estimated 20 percent of whom were Muslim. This is not to suggest our colonial founders urged Islam’s spread. No one who follows a particular religion wants the competition to flourish. Tolerance is not the same as encouragement. Still, there was an inclusive spirit afoot in this bold, young country that would, in principle, make a Muslim feel safe and welcomed.
It’s safe to say America’s relationship with Islam has been headed downhill ever since.
Two new books about being Muslim in today’s volatile world — Omar Saif Ghobash’s “Letters to a Young Muslim” and Ali A. Rizvi’s “The Atheist Muslim: A Journey From Religion to Reason” — may help us return to those glory days when Americans weren’t so frightened and could see the world as more than just Us Versus Them. It’s an especially important task since our recent presidential election has justifiably left Muslim Americans feeling nervous, not just for their religious freedom, but for their physical safety. Hate speech and hate crimes against Muslim Americans have increased sharply. In early December, over 300 prominent Muslim American leaders sent an open letter to President-elect Trump asking him to reject some of his picks to join his administration because they have “a well-documented history of outright bigotry directed at Muslims or advocating that Muslims should not have the same rights as their fellow Americans.”
Continue reading the main story
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Ghobash’s “Letters to a Young Muslim” follows the literary tradition of a family elder passing down insights to a younger generation, specifically in this case, his two teenage sons, as well as other young Muslim women and men. Ta-Nehisi Coates used the same approach in his magnificent 2015 book “Between the World and Me,” which explores the multifaceted experience of being black in America. Coates’s work in turn took inspiration from “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation,” an essay by James Baldwin in his “The Fire Next Time.” A child who grows up a member of a disparaged group, one despised with fierce intensity, will eventually ask, “Why do they hate us so?” The literary device of answering that question directly both adds a dimension of heartfelt sincerity to the writing and shames those who have caused the question to be asked in the first place.
Ghobash is especially qualified to take on this task. Educated at Oxford University and the University of London, he is the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Russia. He also has a passion for the cultural power of literature, as demonstrated by his involvement with several literary awards, including the prestigious Man Booker Prize. That intelligence and focus illuminate his words. The compassion and humility his faith gives him is an inspiration to readers whether they are young followers of Islam looking for answers or curious non-Muslim readers looking to better understand the religion.
Ghobash is not an apologist for Islam because there is no need. He argues that reason and religion can coexist because we are meant to use our intelligence to reject manipulative and myopic interpretations of the scriptures. In essence, he is suggesting a compromise between blind faith and nibbling on the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There are certain heavenly ordained teachings, but followers must be ever-vigilant that these not be perverted by people with personal or political ambitions. He writes: “I want my sons’ generation of Muslims to realize that they have the right to think and decide what is right and what is wrong, what is Islamic and what is peripheral to the faith. It is their burden to bear whatever decision they make.”
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The most difficult subject for non-Muslims to understand is how peaceful Muslims can exist simultaneously with Muslim terrorists. This is the same problem Catholics, Protestants and Jews have had to grapple with throughout the centuries as adherents of each of those religions used violence to further some aim. Ghobash explains the differences among Muslims by describing Islam as a pyramid: “The fundamentalist, reductive, ‘authentic’ Muslims are at the top with the loudest voices and the clearest plan. So how is this going to affect you? Well, you need to begin thinking about how people use power in general and what they are using it for. It may seem a little early to have to think about these things, but there is a lot of power and influence at stake. And power tempts.” He warns the reader not to underestimate the influence of the small minority of extremists on the 70 percent of Muslims who are illiterate and the 100 million Arabs between the ages of 15 and 29, 28 percent of whom are unemployed.
In the end, Ghobash encourages the reader to accept a modern, enlightened path that embraces diversity, not just within Islam but among all religions: “If you begin to accept the individual diversity of your fellow Muslims, you are likely to do the same for those of other faiths as well.” It is this sort of wisdom that creates hope for a world in which people are smart enough to work together toward a common good rather than claw at one another while slowly sinking in quicksand.
The oncologic pathologist Ali A. Rizvi is in the unenviable position of being in the two religious groups that are, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, ranked lowest by Americans: atheists and Muslims. His book, “The Atheist Muslim: A Journey From Religion to Reason,” is just what the title promises: a close look at Rizvi’s journey from his Muslim upbringing to his rejection of Islam as well as all religion. The arguments presented are thoughtful, articulate, well documented, logical and made accessible by many personal anecdotes and pop culture references.
The American minister and author Norman Vincent Peale allegedly said, “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” This is especially true when someone is audacious enough to criticize religion. Rizvi clearly wants to save the world from the ravages of irrational thinking that excuses all sorts of violence and destruction. He approaches his subject with the kind of scientist’s rationality that ushered in the Age of Reason, yet he does so also with a passion for humanity that is inspiring. Most of Rizvi’s general arguments against religion are familiar, from Bertrand Russell’s famous essay “Why I Am Not a Christian” to the popular books by the contemporary atheists Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. However, his open personality and earnestness make this book so compelling that Rizvi may well become the Dawkins or Hitchens for the millennial generation.
Rizvi’s specific criticisms of the Muslim orthodoxy as stated in the Quran are surgically accurate. He cites various passages that are either contradictory or seemingly absurd in the modern world. But this is not a moving target. For centuries we have known that the holy books of most religions have the same weaknesses. The older they are, the more they are the product of their specific time and fraught with the misinformation of that era. Rizvi’s descriptions of historical sects of Islam and their conflicts with one another are especially illuminating. He concludes that a current disagreement “would never be an issue if its consequences weren’t so deadly. In effect, it is similar to two groups fighting about whether the green or the blue unicorn is the right one.”
How would a person of faith, like Ghobash, respond? Faith is the belief in something for which there is no conclusive evidence. To demand concrete proof of God’s existence contradicts the very notion of faith, which requires a person to examine their interior world rather than anything on the outside. But faith does not preclude logic. Choosing to demonstrate faith in humanity’s ultimate goodness, despite all the evidence to the contrary, allows us to embrace certain religious teachings. But it does not relieve us of the responsibility of choosing which teachings express that faith and dismissing those that do not. Both authors would agree to that. And that should give us all hope.
Correction: January 22, 2017
A review last Sunday about “The Atheist Muslim,” using information from the publisher’s website, misstated the medical specialty of the book’s author, Ali A. Rizvi. He is an oncologic pathologist, not a surgical oncologist.
Correction: February 5, 2017
A review on Jan. 15 about “Letters to a Young Muslim,” by Omar Saif Ghobash, and “The Atheist Muslim,” by Ali A. Rizvi, misstated the date and context for a quotation by the Virginia statesman Richard Henry Lee. Lee maintained that “true freedom embraces the Mahometan and the Gentoo as well as the Christian religion” in a letter to James Madison in 1784, not “in Congress” in 1776.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the N.B.A.’s all-time leading scorer. His book “Coach Wooden and Me” will be published in May.
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The Atheist Muslim review: Ali A. Rizvi's account of his relationship with Islam
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The Atheist Muslim, by Ali A. Rizvi.
The Atheist Muslim, by Ali A. Rizvi. Photo: Supplied
The Atheist Muslim
Ali A. Rizvi
St Martins Press, $35.99
As a boy, Ali Rizvi witnessed his three-year-old cousin dying from leukaemia while her parents pleaded at her bedside for God to save her. It seemed a "gruesome game of tug-of-war between God and the rest of us". Despite the scepticism this experience left him with and his rational, enlightened upbringing, he was astounded to find himself reacting with visceral terror on meeting his first Israeli. When he confronted his educated Pakistani parents with the violent aspects of the Koran, they were shocked and blamed the English translation. The Atheist Muslim is part wrestling match with the beliefs of Rizvi's community, part meditation on Islam and its discontents. The biggest problem with Islam, as he sees it, is the belief that the Koran is the word of Allah and must be read literally, and finds hope in Muslim reform movements.
Kamal Al-Solaylee’s Review of The Atheist Muslim
NOVEMBER 26, 2016 REASON ON FAITH LEAVE A COMMENT
Professor Kamal Al-Solaylee wrote a book review of Ali A. Rizvi’s The Atheist Muslim for the Globe and Mail. Several parts of the book review left me puzzled. You see, I too have just finished reading the book. All of it. And I was thoroughly impressed by it.
I’m not going to do a full critique of Professor Al-Solaylee’s review. I am however, going to highlight a couple of assertions that he has made to illustrate how some of the liberal left has lost the plot when it comes to the topic of Islam.
Let’s take for example, Professor Al-Solaylee’s commentary on the book and the comforting narrative of an afterlife:
As bombs rain down on Syria and Yemen, can we blame survivors for clinging to their belief in an eternal afterlife, one of religion’s more comforting narratives?
There’s a problem with this statement. Ali never “blames survivors” nor does Ali suggest that his readers do, nor does Ali deny that religion’s most comforting narrative (the eternal afterlife) is well, emotionally comforting. Of course it’s comforting. That’s not the point. That’s not Ali’s point.
If you read the last chapter in Ali’s book, The Atheist Muslim, you’ll see that Ali fully acknowledges that religion is a powerfully comforting force in the death-is-painful-to-accept department.
In The Atheist Muslim, Ali speaks to the courage to rise above the belief in what is merely comforting to embracing what is actually true. This is the central theme of the book; pursing what is real.
Professor Al-Solaylee’s review seems to suggest that even if religion is false, we shouldn’t embark on exposing that fact while there are still people in the world who benefit from the comforting emotional boost of the afterlife concept, even if it is a lie.
Earlier in the review, Professor Al-Solaylee writes:
It’s one of several powerful revelations in a passionate, timely but, ultimately, muddled plea for secularism and reform in Islam.
Having read the book, I didn’t see it as a manifesto for reforming the religion of Islam in say, the way that Martin Luther initiated for Christianity.
To be fair, at end of Ali A. Rizvi’s book summary, you will read:
Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.
But what is this progressive reformation that Ali speaks to in his book?
Reformation in the current context simply means an effort at modernizing Islam and finding ways to make it compatible with the twenty-first century.
Rizvi, Ali A. (2016-11-22). The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason (Kindle Locations 3719-3720). St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition.
I read this to be, as Ali relays in other parts of the book, similar to how one can still be culturally Jewish without any serious reverence for say, Leviticus, Deuteronomy or orthodox Judaism itself.
Perhaps this reformation doesn’t look like one that Professor Al-Solaylee can envision or perhaps even one that he personally wants to see. We all bring our own personal beliefs and inherited biases to the discussion. No doubt, this influences what positions we’re willing to seriously entertain. This truth applies to Professor Al-Solaylee, to Ali A. Rizvi and to myself.
But let’s get back to Professor Al-Solaylee’s assertion regarding The Atheist Muslim being an allegedly “muddled plea for secularism and reform in Islam.”
I didn’t see the book’s message as muddled in the slightest.
True, no book will cover all topics for all peoples. This is a moderately sized book — not Encyclopedia Britannica nor is it the three-volume set of Lord of the Rings.
However, what Ali A. Rizvi does achieve with precision is to make an impassioned case through his own personal journey, of why cultures influenced and constrained by Islam can be problematic, and how the Islamic sources foundational to the Islamic claims of divine authorship, can be seriously challenged.
That’s no muddled message.
The Muslim reader is challenged to reflect on the authenticity of their religious beliefs. Having dropped the truth-claims of Islam and retained whatever cultural aspects they wish to, their reformed identity as Muslims can resemble that of modern Jewish people, who retain many cultural and familial aspects of Judaism-inspired tradition, while tossing out the rigidity and problematic, orthodox religious components.
This is the bold reformation Ali A. Rizvi speaks to in no uncertain terms.