I’m not going to do a full critique of Professor Al-Solaylee’s review. I am however, going to highlight a couple of assertions that he has made to illustrate how some of the liberal left has lost the plot when it comes to the topic of Islam.
Let’s take for example, Professor Al-Solaylee’s commentary on the book and the comforting narrative of an afterlife:
As bombs rain down on Syria and Yemen, can we blame survivors for clinging to their belief in an eternal afterlife, one of religion’s more comforting narratives?
There’s a problem with this statement. Ali never “blames survivors” nor does Ali suggest that his readers do, nor does Ali deny that religion’s most comforting narrative (the eternal afterlife) is well, emotionally comforting. Of course it’s comforting. That’s not the point. That’s not Ali’s point.
If you read the last chapter in Ali’s book, The Atheist Muslim, you’ll see that Ali fully acknowledges that religion is a powerfully comforting force in the death-is-painful-to-accept department.
In The Atheist Muslim, Ali speaks to the courage to rise above the belief in what is merely comforting to embracing what is actually true. This is the central theme of the book; pursing what is real.
Professor Al-Solaylee’s review seems to suggest that even if religion is false, we shouldn’t embark on exposing that fact while there are still people in the world who benefit from the comforting emotional boost of the afterlife concept, even if it is a lie.
Earlier in the review, Professor Al-Solaylee writes:
It’s one of several powerful revelations in a passionate, timely but, ultimately, muddled plea for secularism and reform in Islam.
Having read the book, I didn’t see it as a manifesto for reforming the religion of Islam in say, the way that Martin Luther initiated for Christianity.
To be fair, at end of Ali A. Rizvi’s book summary, you will read:
Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.
But what is this progressive reformation that Ali speaks to in his book?
Reformation in the current context simply means an effort at modernizing Islam and finding ways to make it compatible with the twenty-first century.
Rizvi, Ali A. (2016-11-22). The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason (Kindle Locations 3719-3720). St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition.
I read this to be, as Ali relays in other parts of the book, similar to how one can still be culturally Jewish without any serious reverence for say, Leviticus, Deuteronomy or orthodox Judaism itself.
Perhaps this reformation doesn’t look like one that Professor Al-Solaylee can envision or perhaps even one that he personally wants to see. We all bring our own personal beliefs and inherited biases to the discussion. No doubt, this influences what positions we’re willing to seriously entertain. This truth applies to Professor Al-Solaylee, to Ali A. Rizvi and to myself.
But let’s get back to Professor Al-Solaylee’s assertion regarding The Atheist Muslim being an allegedly “muddled plea for secularism and reform in Islam.”
I didn’t see the book’s message as muddled in the slightest.
True, no book will cover all topics for all peoples. This is a moderately sized book — not Encyclopedia Britannica nor is it the three-volume set of Lord of the Rings.
However, what Ali A. Rizvi does achieve with precision is to make an impassioned case through his own personal journey, of why cultures influenced and constrained by Islam can be problematic, and how the Islamic sources foundational to the Islamic claims of divine authorship, can be seriously challenged.
That’s no muddled message.
The Muslim reader is challenged to reflect on the authenticity of their religious beliefs. Having dropped the truth-claims of Islam and retained whatever cultural aspects they wish to, their reformed identity as Muslims can resemble that of modern Jewish people, who retain many cultural and familial aspects of Judaism-inspired tradition, while tossing out the rigidity and problematic, orthodox religious components.
This is the bold reformation Ali A. Rizvi speaks to in no uncertain terms.