Having written and edited a small library of books on Islamic topics, the pseudonymous Ibn Warraq has now collected some of his writings on ex-Muslims in a book with four parts: freethought and atheism in classical Islam; the mysterious Treatise of the Three Imposters (a reference to Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad); the influence of Ibn Rushd and Ibn Tufayl on Western freethinking, and atheism among Muslims in the modern age.
The author kicks things off with his characteristic verve:
Greeks and Aristotle lead to Muslim Materialists, and Averroes, who in turn leads to the thirteenth and fourteenth century Renaissance in Europe. Averroes’s influence extends to Jewish philosophers whose influence on the European Enlightenment leads to the modern world.
No less emphatically, Ibn Warraq explains his purpose:
A history of atheism and freethought in Islam [is] a moral necessity; it gives necessary succor to ex-Muslims, and provides evidence that many in Islamic civilization have shaken off the intellectual shackles of Islam, and, what is more important, atheism can provide a new identity, and show a means of living moral lives without the aid of Islam.
Ibn Warraq concludes that ex-Muslims
can no longer be dismissed as fringe lunatics, uneducated or incoherent. They hold degrees in science from prestigious universities in the West, where they are no longer afraid to speak up. They have organized themselves into groups that support each other, forming ex-Muslim councils, or writing their own atheist blogs.
