Ibn Warraq makes an invaluable corrective contribution to our understanding of literature and its impact on popular conceptions of history. Warraq takes for his study the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and makes a facinating comparison between the novels (and Scott's sources) and what is known from the Arab sources and biographers of Saladin and the Crusades. Then he discusses the work of many other scholars of this period so the reader comes away with a well-rounded view, not only of the Crusades, but the scholarship of the period as well. Beyond that, Warraq discusses antisemitism and the Jewish plight during the Medieval era, (as well as their oppressed status under Islamic rule) on through to the early Christian Zionist movement in literature focusing especially on the work of George Eliot and Charlotte Elizabeth. Warraq ends by discussing the primary importance of freedom of expression and how that is threatened in the modern world. He holds up the South Park Affair as a prime example of the West's tendency of to fold before Islam "like some third rate poker player who throws in the cards at the first aggressive bluff when he is in fact holding the winning hand." Ibn Warraq is the rare scholar who still believes in objective truth and that that truth may be found (or at least approximated) by a thorough and dispassionate examination of the evidence. His is the calm voice of reason in a world carried away by hyperbole. Read him and be wiser.

Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies

Literature & Fiction

Ibn Warraq

History & Criticism

New English Review Press

Why I Am Not A Muslim

Prometheus+books

Ibn Warraq addresses several misconceptions regarding the cause of Islamic terrorism. Many scholars refuse to take into account the beliefs of the terrorists, and many seem to think that Islamic terrorism has emerged only in the last forty years or so. Many analysts believe that the United States was targeted because of its foreign policy, while others opine that we have to dig out the root causes which are essentially socioeconomic, with poverty as the favorite explanation. Ibn Warraq, on the other hand, argues that we must take the beliefs of the jihadists seriously. The acts of ISIS or the Taliban or any other jihadist group are not random acts of violence by a mob of psychopathic, sexually frustrated, impoverished vandals, but carefully and strategically planned operations that are a part of a long campaign by educated, affluent Muslims who wish to bring about the establishment of an Islamic state based on the Shari a, the Islamic Holy Law derived from the Koran, the Sunna and the Hadith. Nor did Islamic terrorism emerge, ex nihilo, in the past forty years or so. From its foundation in the seventh century, violent movements have arisen seeking to revive true Islam, which its members felt had been neglected in Muslim societies, who were not living up to the ideals of the earliest Muslims. Thus, the answer to the cause of Islamic terrorism, according to Ibn Warraq, lies in Islamic theology (especially the concepts of jihad and Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong), and Islamic history, both of which he examines closely. This is borne out by what the Islamists themselves tell us, hence Ibn Warraq s detailed examination of the writings of key Islamic thinkers of the past, such as Ibn Taymiyya, and modern activists, from Mawdudi to Khomeini.

The Islam in Islamic Terrorism: The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology

Religion & Spirituality

Islam

Leaving the Allah Delusion Behind begins with a pioneering study of freethought and atheism in both Classical and Modern Islam, a much neglected subject. After a look at zindiqs (atheists, heretics, dualists) and dahris (materialists and atheists), Ibn Warraq examines such heretics as Ibn al-Rawandi, Al-Razi, al-Ma'arri, 'Umar Khayyam, and Akbar the Great. In Part Two, the author discusses the fascinating story of the Islamic origins of The Treatise of The Three Impostors (a refutation of the revealed religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and a scathing look at their respective prophets, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad), and the philosophy of Averroes (Ibn Rushd), and its enormous influence on Western freethought. Part Three brings the story up to the nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first century. We are witnessing monumental changes in the beliefs of peoples of Islamic lands, changes whose implications and consequences have not yet sunk in. The general public both in the West, and in the Middle East is unaware of this modern phenomenon of literally thousands of young men and women from Islamic societies leaving Islam, and embracing atheism. Their presence can be felt on the internet and the social media. Ibn Warraq, a leading figure in Koranic criticism, is the author of eight pioneering books on Islam and Koranic criticism, including the classic Why I am Not a Muslim, 1995. Warraq's op-ed pieces have appeared in the Wall Street Journal in America and The Guardian in London, and he has addressed distinguished governing bodies all over the world.

Leaving the Allah Delusion Behind: Atheism and Freethought in Islam

Schiler & Mucke Gbr Verlag

Dlaczego nie jestem muzulmaninem

Europa Przyszłości

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Books by Ibn Warraq