Reason on Faith

commenting on faith and religion through the eyes of reason

Ali M’s Flawed Argument

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Recently, I tweeted out praise for Ali A. Rizvi’s new book, The Atheist Muslim.

Note: Names Suppressed

The original version of this post contained the twitter handle and name of a person who years after this post approached me on November 28, 2019 about removing this article, as it would show up as the first hit employers would see for his name. I advised that I’ll keep the content, and remove his full name. As such, unlike posts where one can normally click through to see the original tweet, full user handle, etc., that won’t be possible here. This is only to protect my interlocutor, at his request. I don’t plan to make these accommodations a habit, so others should think about engaging before they engage, and how public they are willing to be.

I’ve had the occasional Muslim who’s upset with my praise for Ali and his book, tweet back at me. Let’s examine this tweet from user Ali M.:

Ali M. posted a picture of a tweet from Ali Rizvi from a couple of months prior.

But what’s the cry-foul assertion that Ali M. makes? He states:

…the making fun of Muslims-who-get-bombed jokes.

Readers will note that in Ali Rizvi’s tweet:

1. The word “Muslim” appears, well, nowhere.

2. No one is identified as being injured or killed.

3. The bang gets everyone fleeing the scene.

4. The “everyone” identified is non-specific

5. User @TalibKweli is mentioned.

Like many classical liberals, Muslim reformers and ex-Muslims, Ali Rizvi is fed-up with people trying to shut down criticism of Islam-the-ideology by uninformed antagonists who throw out words like racism — which aren’t even accurate. And if people want to insist that Islam is a race, well then, Ali Rizvi is quite within his right to make a joke of this fallacious insistence, in exasperation. 

Further, Ali Rizvi clearly identifies that this tweet is in jest. It is made within the context of people conflating religion with race. Who are those people making this conflation? In this particular context, it was the person Ali Rizvi mentioned in his tweet: Talib Kweli.

Talib has butt heads on Twitter with Muslim reformers like Maajid Nawaz and ex-Muslims like Sarah Haider. For anyone interested, I suggest you read the following two posts that lay out just how confused Talib Kweli really is on this issue:

1. Maajid Nawaz V Talib Kweli by Stephen Knight of the GSPodcast

2. Facebook post by Sarah Haider recounting her and Talib’s Twitter exchanges

For more on conflating anti-Muslim bigotry with racism, see my answer on Quora.

Ali M. clearly took offense from Ali Rizvi’s joke on Twitter. But you know what’s not a laughing matter and which is actually offensive? It’s the numerous “holy” versus in the Qur’an on violence and brutality against the disbelievers.

Why does rejecting Islam warrant such violence against non-believers? There’s no concept in the Qur’an to acknowledging that a reasonable, rational person could still disbelieve in the Islamic message. Quite the contrary, the message from the Qur’an is quite arrogant. 

In case you cannot make out that verse from Qur’an 8:12 in my tweet, here it is again:

[Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, “I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.” (8:12)

Is Ali M. offended by the bigotry of the Qur’an towards people who simply choose to be skeptical of its claims? If not, why not? Why is Ali Rizvi’s tweet somehow more offensive to him?

Let’s step back even further. Why did Ali M. tweet this out? Well, it was in response to my praising of Ali Rizvi’s book, The Atheist Muslim.

Anyone can do a drive-by-tweet, throwing up memes, sound bytes and cute one-liners.

If however, Ali M. would like to critique ideas seriously, then he should critique serious ideas. Tell us what you disagree with in Ali Rizvi’s book, and why. Write a detailed post or article in response. Don’t blatantly misrepresent someone just because they challenge your inherited beliefs. That’s just tribal.