Islam: Voices of Dissent

INTRODUCTION Islam:Islam: VoicesVoices ofof DissentDissent Enlightenment complete the Prometheus series. Tom Flynn Meanwhile, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), to which the Council belongs, emerged as a leader n my spare time I write science fiction novels—black com- in focusing international pressure on Pakistan in the matter I edies set in a consistent future. An advanced civilization of Dr. Younus Shaikh, who faces death under that nation’s discovers “primitive” Earth (circa 2181 C.E.) and almost turns repressive blasphemy laws. it into an anthropological preserve. Then Earth religions catch Several of the articles in our special section were drawn the visitors’ eyes. Roman Catholicism becomes our planet’s from the community that utilizes the ISIS web site. Other leading export; a quirky Mormon fundamentalism takes sec- contributors include prominent Pakistani physicist/dissident ond place. Obviously this is “soft” science fiction, meant as Pervez Hoodbhoy, whose electrifying speech at November’s contemporary social comment rather than serious specula- Center for Inquiry conference in Atlanta formed the basis of tion. Serious speculation about the future of religion would his present article. (Hoodbhoy’s article attracted so much focus heavily on Islam, and in my novels Islam is nowhere to attention that the Washington Post published it without be seen. Instead I offer lame excuses for its absence, even an proper credit several weeks before this issue went to press!) offhanded mention of its “burning itself out” and disappearing Ibn al-Rawandi is a Westerner who converted to—and later a century or two from now. from—Sufi Islam, and wrote the Prometheus book Islamic I decided to exclude Islam about eight years ago while I was Mysticism: A Secular Perspective. Antony Flew, philoso- plotting my first novel. I reasoned that, if I populated my tales pher and Laureate of the Academy of Humanism, is a leading with the futuristic mullahs and imams scrupulous specula- critic of “Islamically correct” social policies in Britain, where tion would demand, American readers wouldn’t know enough large sectors of society responded to Muslim calls for Salman about Islam to get the jokes. Supplying enough Mormon back- Rushdie’s death with craven silence. Roy Brown is a vice pres- ground as I went along for non-Mormon readers to get those ident of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and an jokes seemed to impose as much work on readers as a begin- ISIS member with a longtime interest in the Islamic world. An ning author could fairly demand. excerpt from Ibn Warraq’s The Origins of the Koran appears Then came September 11. Today believers and secularists in this issue’s Great Minds department. alike are scrambling to acquire Islamic literacy. Works by As this section will show, despite the manifest dangers of Edward Said, Bernard Lewis, Ibn Warraq, and the Qur’an opposition, dissent exists—and even, if cautiously, thrives—in itself have flown off bookstore shelves. That’s healthy; political the Islamic world. Activists dare to demand basic human free- or military considerations aside, the fastest-growing major doms, especially free inquiry and equitable treatment for women. faith tradition is something about which every citizen of the Historians claim the warrant to scrutinize Islam’s history and world needs at least elementary knowledge. sources as they might those of any other human movement. Long before September 11, the Council for Secular Humanism Secular humanists are uniquely qualified to extend the hand was forging contacts in the Islamic world. In 1994 FREE INQUIRY of fellowship to Muslim apostates as fellow refugees from faith. helped to organize a historic debate between Muslim and sec- Equally important, we need to understand the doctrines, origins, ularist scholars in Cairo, Egypt. Contacts established there led and defects of Islam as thoroughly as so many of us do those of to formation of the independent Institute for Secularization of Christianity and Judaism. Countless humanists can discourse on Islamic Society (ISIS), whose Internet site is one of the leading contradictions in the Bible; we need as many knowledgeable pre- arenas for dissent by Muslim critics, doubters, and apostates.1 senters—locally, nationally, and in academe—who can deliver The Council has since hosted several Islamic dialogues at the responsible secularist critiques of Islam with the same authority. Center for Inquiry and elsewhere. If I were designing my science fiction satires today, I’d in- For its part, Prometheus Books brought forth powerful clude some Muslim clerics, and my readers would get the jokes. critiques of Islam. First to publish poet/rebel Taslima Nasrin Challenging Islam carries genuine risks. But the world has in English, Prometheus issued Paul Fregosi’s Jihad in the seen that the risks of letting Islam’s fastest-growing and least West after a major U.K. imprint judged it too hot to handle. tolerant strands continue unchallenged are flatly unacceptable. Ibn Warraq, several times a research fellow at the Center for We’re proud to present FREE INQUIRY’s contribution to the new Inquiry, has written or edited Why I Am Not a Muslim, The Islamic literacy: deeply serious reflections on Islam and the chal- Quest for the Historical Muhammad, The Origins of the lenges it poses—for the West and for its own believers. Koran, and, most recently, What the Koran Really Says. Important works on women and Islam, Sufi mysticism, and the Note 1. www.secularislam.org. Tom Flynn is the editor of FREE INQUIRY. 31 http://www.secularhumanism.org spring 2002.

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