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ISLAM WATCH

Maimonides wrote: You write that the rebel leader in Islamic Anti-Semitism Yemen decreed compulsory apostasy for the Jews by forcing the Jewish inhabitants of all the places he had Part 1 of 3 subdued to desert the Jewish religion just as the Berbers had compelled them to do in Maghreb [i.e., the Islamic West]. Verily, this news has broken our Ibn Warraq backs and has astounded and dumb- founded the whole of our community. And rightly so. For these are evil tid- ings, “and whosoever heareth of them, s Islamic anti-Semitism only a mod- “” for the “Arab world”: he fled both his ears tingle” (I Samuel 3:11). ern phenomenon? What of the so- his native Córdoba in Spain, which Indeed our hearts are weakened, our called Golden Age of Islamic toler- was then in the grip of religious-politi- minds are confused, and the powers of I cal terror, choking under the yoke of a ance, above all, as depicted in Islamic the body wasted because of the dire Berber Muslim dynasty, the Almohads, misfortunes which brought religious Spain? Here, the willingness to accept that was to snuff out all that remained persecutions upon us from the two the clichés of the Romantics is palpable. of the culture of convivencia and ends of the world, the East and the And those whom we expect to have done made the life of Spain’s Jews (and of West, “so that the enemies were in the the free spirits among its Muslims) their own research and not merely to midst of Israel, some on this side, and utter hell. Maimonides and his family some on that side” (Joshua 8:22). accept, and pass on, these clichés so fled the fire of the Muslim city-states in often disappoint. the Iberian Peninsula to Morocco and Maimonides points out that persistent Consider the case of Amartya Sen, a then to Jerusalem. There was dark- persecutions of the Jews by Muslims celebrated economist and winner of a ness and terror in Morocco as well, and Jerusalem was equally inhos- amounts to forced conversion: “. . .the Nobel Prize in 1998. In recent years, Sen pitable in the time of the Crusader continuous persecutions will cause many has written on subjects outside his nor- Kingdom. Deliverance came only in to drift away from our faith, to have mis- mal area of research. Unfortunately, he Cairo—the exception, not the rule, its givings, or to go astray, because they wit- seems not to have bothered to check his social peace maintained by the enlight- ened Saladin. nessed our feebleness, and noted the tri- history, something which would have umph of our adversaries and their been easy, given the resources available Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), Jew- dominion over us. . . .” to him. ish rabbi, physician, and philosopher, was He continues: “After him arose the Here is how Sen treats, for example, fleeing the Muslims, the intolerant Madman who emulated his precursor the myth of Maimonides. Sen tells us Almohads who conquered Córdoba in since he paved the way for him. But he twice in his book Identity and Violence 1148. The Almohads persecuted the Jews, added the further objective of procuring that when “the Jewish Philosopher offering them the choice of conversion to rule and submission, and he invented Maimonides was forced to emigrate from Islam, death, or exile. Maimonides’s fam- his well known religion.” Many medi- an intolerant Europe in the twelfth cen- ily and other Jews chose exile. But this eval Jewish writers commonly referred tury, he found a tolerant refuge in the did not bring any peace to the Jews, who to Muhammad as ha-meshugg’, or Arab world.” I do not know how to char- had to be on the move constantly to avoid madman. acterize this misinterpretation of history: the all-conquering Almohads. After a Maimonides points to one of the as willful, grotesque, dishonest, or typi- brief sojourn in Morocco and the Holy reasons for Muslim hatred of Jews: cal. It is certainly an indication that, in Land, Maimonides settled in Fostat, “Inasmuch as the Muslims could not find the present intellectual climate, one can Egypt, where he was physician to the a single proof in the entire Bible nor a denigrate Europe any way one wishes, to Grand Vizier Alfadhil, and possibly to reference or possible allusion to their the point of distorting history, without, Saladin, the Kurdish Sultan. prophet which they could utilize, they evidently, any one of the distinguished Maimonides’s The Epistle to the Jews were compelled to accuse us saying, ‘You scholars who blurbed the book raising an of Yemen was written in about 1172 in have altered the text of the Torah, and eyebrow. Ironically, the one reviewer who reply to inquiries by Jacob ben Netan’el expunged every trace of the name of – did object to Sen’s “potted history,” al-Fayyumi, then the head of the Jewish Mohammed therefrom.’ They could find which “is tailored for interfaith dia- community in Yemen. The Jews of Yemen nothing stronger than this ignominious logues,” was Fouad Ajami in The Wash- were passing through a crisis, as they argument.” ington Post. Ajami reminded Sen that were being forced to convert to Islam, a He notes the depth of Muslim hatred campaign launched in about 1165 by for the Jews, but he also remarks on the ...this will not do as history. – Maimonides, born in 1135, did not flee ‘Abd-al-Nabi ibn Mahdi. Maimonides pro- Jewish tendency toward denial, which vided them with guidance and with what he insists will hasten their destruction: Ibn Warraq is the author of Why I Am encouragement he could. The Epistle to Not a Muslim and the editor of The the Jews of Yemen gives a clear view of Remember, my co-religionists, that on account of the vast number of our sins, Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the what Maimonides thought of Muhammad God has hurled us in the midst of this Historical Muhammad, and What the the Prophet—“the Madman,” as he calls people, the Arabs, who have persecut- Koran Really Says. him—and of Islam, generally. This is what ed us severely, and passed baneful and

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discriminatory legislation against us, ousness of Ishmael in silence. They how much we suffer and elect to as Scripture has forewarned us, “Our found a cryptic allusion for this atti- remain at peace with them, they stir up enemies themselves shall judge us” tude in the names of his sons “Mishma, strife and sedition, as David predicted, (Deuteronomy 32:31). Never did a Dumah, and Massa” (Genesis 25:14), “I am all peace, but when I speak, they nation molest, degrade, debase and which was interpreted to mean, are for war” (Psalms 120:7). If, there- hate us as much as they. . . . Although “Listen, be silent, and endure.” fore, we start trouble and claim power we were dishonored by them beyond (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, ad locum). from them absurdly and preposterous- human endurance, and had to put with We have acquiesced, both old and ly we certainly give ourselves up to [sic] their fabrications, yet we behaved young, to inure ourselves to humilia- destruction. like him who is depicted by the inspired tion, as Isaiah instructed us: “I gave my writer, “But I am as a deaf man, I hear back to the smiters, and my cheeks to To be continued. This article was not, and I am as a dumb man that them that plucked off the hair” (50:6). adapted from Ibn Warraq’s foreword openeth not his mouth” (Psalms 38:14). All this notwithstanding, we do not Similarly our sages instructed us to escape this continued maltreatment to Andrew G. Bostom’s The Legacy of bear the prevarications and preposter- which well nigh crushes us. No matter Islamic Anti-Semitism. — EDS.

TheThe FutureFuture ofof NaturalismNaturalism

September 20–22, 2007 • Center for Inquiry/Transnational, Amherst, N.Y. Cosponsored by the Center for Inquiry/Transnational and the University at Buffalo Department, with support from the C.S. Peirce Professorship in , the Marvin Farber Memorial Fund, and the George F. and Celeste Hourani Memorial Fund has achieved a dominant place on the world’s intellectual scene, elevated by science’s spectacular achievements. The philo- sophical effort to grapple with the wider implications of the scientific worldview must keep pace with science’s ceaseless advances. Philosophical naturalism must understand both the power and limitations of scientific methodology. Can science realistically describe nature’s workings, progressively expand our knowledge through intellectual revolutions, integrate the human being into nature, and help guide the quest for improving the human condition? The future of naturalism will ultimately depend on the answers to such ques- tions, and this conference on “The Future of Naturalism” brings together many leading thinkers who are working on them. Speakers will discuss many crucial topics, including science’s claims to know reality, how mind and experience might fit into nature, the implica- tions of naturalism for ethics and law, the conflicts between religion and naturalism, and the varieties of naturalism. Scheduled Speakers John Peter Anton (University of South Florida), Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University), Arthur Caplan (University of Pennsylvania), Randall Dipert (University at Buffalo), Paul Draper (Purdue University), Owen Flanagan (Duke University), Ronald Giere (University of Minnesota), James Gouinlock (Emory University), Adolf Grünbaum (University of Pittsburgh), Terr y Horgan (University of Arizona), Hilary Kornblith (University of Massachusetts), Paul Kurtz (Center for Inquiry), John Lachs (Vanderbilt University), (University of Texas), Isaac Levi (Columbia University), Joseph Margolis (Temple University), Lynn Hankinson Nelson (University of Washington), Laura Purdy (Wells College), Nicholas Rescher (University of Pittsburgh), David Rosenthal (City University of ), John Ryder (State University of New York), Charlene Haddock Seigfried (Purdue University), Harvey Siegel (University of Miami), John E. Smith (Yale University), Ernest Sosa (Brown University), Victor J. Stenger (University of Hawaii), and Michael Tye (University of Texas) Visit the conference’s Web site at www.naturalisms.org/2007 For more information about the CFI’s Naturalism Research Project and other upcoming events, see www.centerforinquiry.net/research.

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