Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

altmuslim

Home
Muslim
To Ayaan Hirsi Ali – The Problem is Not with Islam, but with the Author

To Ayaan Hirsi Ali – The Problem is Not with Islam, but with the Author

Last updated on: April 1, 2015 at 7:03 pm by Guest Contributor

To Ayaan Hirsi Ali – The Problem is Not with Islam, but with the Author 2015-04-01T19:03:19-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Zainab Chaudry

Authors who publish books generally want to sell them. Well, what sells better then timely, dramatized sensationalism with a personal angle, which reinforces readers’ latent fears and beliefs?

After reading Somali-born author and anti-Islam activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s disturbingly deceptive new book, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now, I can confidently vouch that this read is exactly that: Dramatized sensationalism with a personal angle that reinforces the larger audience’s fears and suspicions.

The book’s abject flaws begin with the introduction, which doggedly fixates on media reports disproportionately covering slanted stories of terrorist acts involving Muslims in destabilized and conflict-ridden regions of the world — without providing any crucially relevant context or background.

All, of course, to make the case that Islam is not a religion of peace.

Anyone who relies on such reports to draw their conclusions about the world’s second largest religion might agree with that assumption, but they would be wrong.

It goes on to leave the reader with an impression of a woman who has endured hardships in her personal life that continue to haunt her and unfortunately prohibit her from objectively viewing the religion she was born into – one that she, decades later, still clearly holds responsible for her traumas.

In her newest book, Ali, who is not an expert on Islam and has no formal religious training or qualifications, calls for a revolution within Islam similar to the Protestant Reformation that resulted from criticism of the Catholic Church.

She pleads for adherents of the world’s second largest religion to reject core tenets of the Islamic faith, which she has referred to in the past as a “destructive, nihilistic cult of death,” and instead embrace an almost Unitarian Universalist brand of Islam that, among other outlandish modifications, rejects the veracity and validity of the revered Prophet Muhammad.

Ali might as well ask for Earth to stop rotating on its axis, as the chances of that happening are probably equally as unlikely.

Being born and raised in a Muslim family does not make one an expert on Islam. Her Orientalist approach to “reforming Islam” calls for dissociation from, and outright rejection of, its basic, fundamental principles – this, despite the fact that she has yet to exhibit a firm grasp of what these principles actually convey.

As a woman, I empathize that Ali was subjected to female genital mutilation at the tender age of five while her father, who was a politician, was imprisoned. Frankly, it is inconceivable and unacceptable that girls and women are still forced to endure this unethical, abominable practice.

But Ali should stop spreading misinformation and educate herself on the fact that this barbaric practice predates Islam. It is not rooted in Islamic practices and in fact stems from cultural practices deeply rooted in certain segments of religiously diverse African populations.

Islam does not oppress women, as Ms. Ali often and wrongfully asserts. In fact, if practiced as intended, it actually liberates women from patriarchy and objectification.

According to today’s societal standards, modernization has led women to believe that our liberation is directly proportional to the height of our high heels, square inches of skin on display for visual consumption and the sexiness and marketability of our appearance.

Perhaps Ms. Ali can be forgiven for not knowing that Islam was the first religion to grant women rights to property and wealth inheritance; that it banned the horrible practice of female infanticide during a period in history when burying newborn infant girls was considered normative; that it encourages women to keep our family names even after marriage, so as to maintain our own individuality.

But ignorance is never an excuse for willfully perpetuating intolerance towards an already marginalized group of people whose religion is demonized on a daily basis.

Ms. Ali alleges she was forced to flee to the Netherlands to escape a forced marriage. As a woman myself of South Asian heritage, I know of many cases where Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh women have been pressured into arranged marriages against their will. But, Islam cannot be scapegoated for Ms. Ali’s disturbing circumstances. Religion is not the culprit; cultural traditions are responsible for the pressuring of women and girls to enter into marriages against their will. Islam unmistakably outlines that a woman’s consent is mandatory for marriage. Therefore, coercion is prohibited in our faith.

She has often said that according to her, the problem does not lie with Muslims; it lies within the tenets of the faith practiced by Muslims. I would argue that the problem is not with the tenets of Islam, but rather the way Muslims improperly practice their faith or mix it with cultural practices. If she wishes to salvage any credibility, Ms. Ali must stop erroneously conflating religion with culture to justify her unwarranted criticism of Islam.

The problem that exists is not within Islam; it is among the less than one percent of its adherents who have limited access to resources and jobs, who have been victimized by failed policies and corrupt governments, who misunderstand or misinterpret its teachings, who have granted precedence to their own egos and greed, who prioritize personal and political agendas over its tenets and who have lagged far behind in adapting to the 21st century.

Unfortunately, by virtue of biased reporting and a myriad of other factors, the actions and voices of this minuscule minority have been amplified and provided a platform to wrongly define and misrepresent Islam in Western society. And while failed governmental policies (in the U.S. and abroad), destabilization and multiple invasions coupled with more than a decade of war can never justify acts of terrorism, this context is simply important to help explain the motivation for terrorist groups who have capitalized on these factors in the most recent decade to build their ranks.

During a recent appearance on The Daily Show, Ali baselessly claimed that “Muslims were responsible for 70 percent of violence in the world today.” Later, she amended this unsupported claim to “70 percent of all fatalities in armed conflicts around the world last year were in wars involving Muslims.”

What she still failed to mention is that a bulk of these casualties, mostly Muslim, occurred in Syria, which recently entered its fourth year of a bloody civil war that has exacted a tremendous toll on its people, but still has been largely left ignored by the world’s superpowers.

Any dialogue seeking resolution for conflicts plaguing the Muslim world is incomplete without taking into consideration the many factors that have contributed to destabilization in these regions across the globe. Ali’s approach is also especially problematic because it presumptuously categorizes the followers of the world’s second largest – and fastest growing – religion into restrictive labels and proceeds to dissect and analyze them through a one-dimensional, myopic lens.

Islam is not a monolith. As The Reluctant Fundamentalist author Mohsin Hamid pointed out eloquently, there are more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and each individual has unique life experiences and perspectives. It is disingenuous to lump a large group into a single category and paint them all with the same tainted brush.

Ali stresses: “The assumption is that, in Islam, there are a few rotten apples, not the entire basket. I’m saying it’s the entire basket.” But in order to effectively determine whether to direct our focus on the apples or the basket, we must first educate ourselves on the actual scope and source of the problem and also verse ourselves on the proper, contextualized understanding of Islam.

Once again, Ali has demonstrated a failure to do both. But judging by the latest round of media appearances while promoting her most recent, sensationalized book, she will undoubtedly still turn a nice profit.

Dr. Zainab Chaudry is a spokeswoman and Maryland Outreach Manager for the Council on American Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. She is a Board Member of Interfaith Action for Human Rights, and serves on the Taskforce of Bilal Initiative – an initiative designed to expand dialogue on racism and prejudice within American Muslim communities. You can email her at [email protected].

Previous Post

March 30, 2015

Sexual Abuse Case in Illinois - Open Letter From Ulema Regarding Rights of Media and Public Discussion

Next Post

April 8, 2015 Bullying Behavior: Texas School Teacher Teaches Islamophobic Lessons to Students

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Salome Martha Mary Peter