Criticism of Islam

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Criticism of Islam can take many forms, including academic critiques, political criticism, religious criticism, and personal opinions. Subjects of criticism include Islamic beliefs, practices, and doctrines.

Criticism of Islam has been present since its formative stages, and early expressions of disapproval were made by Christians, Jews, and some former Muslims like Ibn al-Rawandi.[1] Subsequently, the Muslim world itself faced criticism after the September 11 attacks.[2][3][4][5]

Criticism of Islam has been aimed at the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, in both his public and personal lives.[4][6] Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the scriptures of Islam, both the Quran and the hadiths, are also discussed by critics.[7] Criticisms of Islam have also been directed at historical practices, like the recognition of slavery as an institution[8][9][10][11] as well as Arab imperialism impacting indigenous cultures.[12] More recently, Islamic beliefs regarding human origins, predestination, God's existence, and God's nature have received criticism for their apparent philosophical and scientific inconsistencies.[13][14]

Other criticisms center on the treatment of individuals within modern Muslim-majority countries, including issues which are related to human rights in the Islamic world, particularly in relation to the application of Islamic law.[5] As of 2014, 26% of the world's countries had anti-blasphemy laws, and 13% of them also had anti-apostasy laws. By 2017, 13 Muslim countries imposed the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy.[15][16][17][18] Amid the contemporary embrace of multiculturalism, there has been criticism regarding how Islam may affect the willingness or ability of Muslim immigrants to assimilate in host nations.[19][20]

  1. ^ De Haeresibus by John of Damascus. See Migne. Patrologia Graeca, vol. 94, 1864, cols 763–73. An English translation by the Reverend John W Voorhis appeared in The Moslem World for October 1954, pp. 392–98.
  2. ^ Warraq, Ibn (2003). Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Prometheus Books. p. 67. ISBN 1-59102-068-9.
  3. ^ Ibn Kammuna, Examination of the Three Faiths, trans. Moshe Perlmann (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971), pp. 148–49
  4. ^ a b Mohammed and Mohammedanism, by Gabriel Oussani, Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16 April 2006.
  5. ^ a b Friedmann, Yohanan (2003). Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 18, 35. ISBN 978-0-521-02699-4.
  6. ^ Ibn Warraq, The Quest for Historical Muhammad (Amherst, Mass.:Prometheus, 2000), 103.
  7. ^ Bible in Mohammedian Literature., by Kaufmann Kohler Duncan B. McDonald, Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22 April 2006.
  8. ^ Brunschvig. 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam
  9. ^ Dror Ze'evi (2009). "Slavery". In John L. Esposito (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  10. ^ Focus on the slave trade, in BBC News.
  11. ^ The persistence of history, in The Economist
  12. ^ Karsh, Ephraim (2007). Islamic Imperialism: A History. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300198171.
  13. ^ Fitzgerald, Timothy (2000). The Ideology of Religious Studies. New York: Oxford University Press (published 2003). p. 235. ISBN 9780195347159. Retrieved 30 April 2019. [...] this book consists mainly of a critique of the concept of religion [...].
  14. ^ Ruthven, Malise. "Voltaire's Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet:A New Translation; Preface: Voltaire and Islam". Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  15. ^ Which countries still outlaw apostasy and blasphemy?, Pew Research Center, 29 July 2016.
  16. ^ Doré, Louis (May 2017). "The countries where apostasy is punishable by death". The Independent. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  17. ^ "Saudi Arabia". Archived from the original on 9 November 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2006.
  18. ^ Timothy Garton Ash (5 October 2006). "Islam in Europe". The New York Review of Books.
  19. ^ Tariq Modood (6 April 2006). Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-415-35515-5.
  20. ^ Russia and Islam: State, Society and Radicalism. Taylor & Francis. 2010. p. 94. by Roland Dannreuther, Luke March