Ibn Warraq

Ibn Warraq is a bestselling author and and secularist scholar of Islam currently living in the United States. He is a Muslim apostate and an outspoken critic of Islam who has written extensively on the oppresive nature of Islam.

The name, Ibn Warraq, is pseudonym that has traditionally been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam.

Among the few personal details known about his life is that he was born in 1946 in Rajkot, India to Indian-Muslim parents who soon emigrated to Pakistan, and that he studied at the University of Edinburgh under the Orientalist scholar Montgomery Watt.

Ibn Warraq has written several books, some of which are more scholarly and gather together critical research on such topics as the origins of the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad. Some of his books are polemical and strongly inveigh against Islam. There is much in his writings that contradict orthodox Muslim belief. Ibn Warraq promotes secular humanist values among Muslims.

Books by Ibn Warraq

• Why I Am Not a Muslim, Ibn Warraq, foreword by R. Joseph Hoffmann, Prometheus Books, 1995, hardcover, 428 pages, ISBN 0879759844
• Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2003, hardcover, 320 pages, ISBN 1591020689
• What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary, edited and translated by, Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2002, 600 pages, ISBN 157392945X
• Quest for the Historical Muhammed, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2000, hardcover, 554 pages, ISBN 1573927872
• Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 1998, hardcover, 420 pages, ISBN 157392198X

Quote

One mustn’t forget the climate of fear in which many Muslims, even in the West (live)– may I read you a letter that was sent to the Observer in London at the time of the Rushdie affair? The writer from Pakistan wrote anonymously, stated that

“Salman Rushdie speaks for me. Mine is a voice that has not yet found expression in newspaper columns, it is the voice of those who are born Muslims but wish to recant in adulthood, yet are not permitted to, on pain of death. Someone who does not live in an Islamic society cannot imagine the sanctions – both self-imposed and external – that militate against expressing religious disbelief. ‘I don’t believe in God’ is an impossible public utterance, even among family and friends. So we hold our tongues, those of us who doubt”.

And this climate of fear continues even into the West. There was a remarkable article in The Washington Times by Julia Duin on October 13th 2002, where she talks of something like twenty thousand Muslims who convert to Christianity, but who are absolutely terrified of revealing this to friends and neighbours. And she gives examples of those who do reveal it, but who are then faced with ostracism, death threats, physical violence of various kinds.

Those who do leave Islam, those who become apostates, keep it quiet. And churches who baptise ex-Muslims are very reluctant to release the figures, they don’t want to create a sensation and so on. But we do have – according to the figures in this article in The Washington Times, you do have at least twenty thousand in the United States converting to Christianity. And then you have some figures that I do quote: people in Algeria, for example in the Qabili, converting to Christianity. One particular church recorded fifty baptisms in one year, which is quite remarkable in that it doesn’t sound a lot, but in a country where you can have your throat cut just for wearing lipstick, this open avowal of apostasy is quite remarkable.

External links

• Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (http://www.secularislam.org)
• Boston Globe: Losing His Religion (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/08/17/losing_his_religion_boston_globe)
• Trends and Flaws in Some Anti-Muslim Writing as Exemplified by Ibn Warraq  (http://www.city-net.com/~alimhaq/text/warraq.htm) Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr., Ph.D.