ملخص الجهاز:
In spite of its Abrahamic roots and its long, if somewhat troubled, encounters with the West, the significance of Arab countries in terms of western economic interests and the steady growth of diasporic Muslims settling in the devel- oped world (easily surpassing the Jewish presence, probably even in the United States), Islam had remained a residual category entirely peripheral to American intellectual or cultural life.
He studied in Pakistan and at the University of Edinburgh, where he met Montgomery Watt, a widely respected scholar of Islam known for his sensitive approach to his subject, and against whom Ibn Warraq reserves his most caustic judgments.
Since Ibn Warraq’s fame (or infamy) rests with his first book, Why I Am Not a Muslim, it is perhaps appropriate to indicate its basic argument.
On reading Ibn Warraq’s account, one would never guess that Islam accepts Moses and Jesus as prophets, acknowledges their miracles (includ- ing Jesus’ miraculous birth), shares the same stories and legends of human- ity’s origin (e.
Moreover, Islam’s opposition to monarchy, its robust egalitarianism, and its concern for social justice and legal legitimacy (What other religion has allowed five different jurisprudential schools to coexist and flourish?) make it possible to argue that undemocratic regimes exist in many Muslim countries today not because of Islam, but in spite of it.
Admittedly, while Ibn Warraq’s agenda remains the same, the lan- guage in the introductions to his next two books, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad and What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary becomes less abrasive, his tone less mocking.