You'll see right away why this book gets such a range of reviews. The man speaks his mind. After 9/11, when I set about clarifying my own beliefs about gods and religions, this and Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian were the two most useful books I found. No great surprise of course that the have much the same things to say. I appreciated Warraq's going into some detail about Islamic history and culture. Shame on my ignorance. But of course Jewish/Christian/Muslim are shoots of a common seed. An Episcopal priest friend of mine describes himself as a rabbi, and Muslims acknowledge Moses and Jesus. The pond is small. I used to make Buddhism a benign exception to what goes wrong in other religions but not so much anymore after a glimpse of Sri Lankan history. Take Me With You When You Go Nutty to Meet You! Dr. Peanut Book #1

You know, sometimes I really hate writing these things, but some of them really deserve a bit of an enlightening oppinion. Okay Ibn Warraq it seems to me was a frustrated child who was never listened to, but that's neither here nor there since this is supposed to be a review on the work and not the creator of the work.

I'll start with the first mistake that I noticed in this work. Warraq says in the Qur'an Surah 1 Verse 29 it states, On the day we shall unto hell, art thou full? And it shall reply, is there yet any more? Now any layman that is familiar with the Qur'an can see that this is ridiculous. For starters, the opening of the Qur'an mentions nothing about hell. Secondly, the opening chapter of the Qur'an is called the cure. Now why if this chapter is called a cure would it perscribe something like hell as a remedy. Thirdly, if you didn't already know, the opening chapter of the Qur'an which is the Fatihah has only and I repeat ONLY, seven verses. And he says Surah 1 verse 29. Check for yourself.

Next he talks about the Trinity in the Qur'an and gives three proofs (so he says). And one of them is Surah 4 verse 169. In this verse it says, "Except the road of Hell, to abide therein forever; and that is easy for God." Now if you have read what I read, where do you see the trinity labeled in this surah. Nothing remotely points out a trinity. Warraq also points out two others in the Qur'an that talks about the trinity. They are Surah 5 and verses 77 and 116. They are too large to write in this review to show of warraq's incompetence on his "knowledge" of the Qur'an. I encourage all to go and look up these accusations for themselves.

Lastly, Warraq talks about Zoroastrianism, which I will not go into in great detail for the sake of space, but in his explanation of Zoroastrianism he fails to introduce and inform the reader of what Zoroastrianism really is. Warraq makes the false claim that Islam origins can be found in Zoroastrianism, which is a totally false claim. Zoroastrianism is or was the end product of an evolutionary process which began with nature worship, passed through a more discrete polytheism, and finally concluded with a monotheistic deity. (Zepp Muslim Primer)

I say all this to say that as readers we should be careful in the information we receive from writers like Warraq. He appears to be knowledgeable, because he was raised Muslim and taught the Qur'an at a young age until as he says "was able to think for himself." He seems not to either have not been taught correctly or he may have forgotten what he was taught, because this book is filled with numerous fallacies that can be taken to heart by the ignorant reader. Warraq needs a revised version of this book or needs to cease in writing about things he really has no idea of himself. To be so blatant in his claims, but yet so ignorant in his knowledge of the subject matter is absolutely perfidious.

Why I Am Not a Muslim

A need to read book.

Notice that most of the negative reviews for this book are someone who actually admits to either being a theist or a Muslim.
The book is a good walk through Islamic belief and a history of scholarly questioning of Islam. A common complaint is that invalid arguments against the Quran or life of Mohammed by turn of the century orientalists taint the books scholarship; but on the contrary, it serves as a good history of the questioning of commonly accepted Islamic history.
This vein of critical and skeptical thought is something stifled and criminal in most of the Muslim world; this is an important landmark in the rejection of Islam. Like Schweitzer and Russell, Warraq is leading the way in skeptic thought about the faith dominant in his culture.
Besides the above sections that often raise objections from defensive theists, the book also discusses humanitarian, egalitarian, and democratic ideals in conflict with Islam, and discusses the historic shaping of the religion, from the influence of Arab pagan culture, to the insertion of Hadith in the faith.
The book has been praised by the likes of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, and is sure to present a new outlook of Islam to the critical, objective, and open minded reader.

Zahra Maladan is an educated woman who edits a women's magazine in Lebanon. She is also a mother, who undoubtedly loves her son. She has ambitions for him, but they are different from those of most mothers in the West. She wants her son to become a suicide bomber.


At the recent funeral for the assassinated Hezbollah terrorist Imad Moughnaya -- the mass murderer responsible for killing 241 marines in 1983 and more than 100 women, children and men in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994 -- Ms. Maladan was quoted in the New York Times giving the following warning to her son: "if you're not going to follow the steps of the Islamic resistance martyrs, then I don't want you."
[Worshippers of Death]

Zahra Maladan represents a dramatic shift in the way we must fight to protect our citizens against enemies who are sworn to kill them by killing themselves. The traditional paradigm was that mothers who love their children want them to live in peace, marry and produce grandchildren. Women in general, and mothers in particular, were seen as a counterweight to male belligerence. The picture of the mother weeping as her son is led off to battle -- even a just battle -- has been a constant and powerful image.

Now there is a new image of mothers urging their children to die, and then celebrating the martyrdom of their suicidal sons and daughters by distributing sweets and singing wedding songs. More and more young women -- some married with infant children -- are strapping bombs to their (sometimes pregnant) bellies, because they have been taught to love death rather than life. Look at what is being preached by some influential Islamic leaders:

"We are going to win, because they love life and we love death," said Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. He has also said: "[E]ach of us lives his days and nights hoping more than anything to be killed for the sake of Allah." Shortly after 9/11, Osama bin Laden told a reporter: "We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the big difference between us."

"The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death," explained Afghani al Qaeda operative Maulana Inyadullah. Sheik Feiz Mohammed, leader of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Sydney, Australia, preached: "We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam. Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech: "It is the zenith of honor for a man, a young person, boy or girl, to be prepared to sacrifice his life in order to serve the interests of his nation and his religion."

How should Western democracies fight against an enemy whose leaders preach a preference for death?

The two basic premises of conventional warfare have long been that soldiers and civilians prefer living to dying and can thus be deterred from killing by the fear of being killed; and that combatants (soldiers) can easily be distinguished from noncombatants (women, children, the elderly, the infirm and other ordinary citizens). These premises are being challenged by women like Zahra Maladan. Neither she nor her son -- if he listens to his mother -- can be deterred from killing by the fear of being killed. They must be prevented from succeeding in their ghoulish quest for martyrdom. Prevention, however, carries a high risk of error. The woman walking toward the group of soldiers or civilians might well be an innocent civilian. A moment's hesitation may cost innocent lives. But a failure to hesitate may also have a price.

Late last month, a young female bomber was shot as she approached some shops in central Baghdad. The Iraqi soldier who drew his gun hesitated as the bomber, hands raised, insisted that she wasn't armed. The soldier and a shop owner finally opened fire as she dashed for the stores; she was knocked to the ground but still managed to detonate the bomb, killing three and wounding eight. Had the soldier and other bystanders not called out a warning to others -- and had they not shot her before she could enter the shops -- the death toll certainly would have been higher. Had he not hesitated, it might have been lower.

As more women and children are recruited by their mothers and their religious leaders to become suicide bombers, more women and children will be shot at -- some mistakenly. That too is part of the grand plan of our enemies. They want us to kill their civilians, who they also consider martyrs, because when we accidentally kill a civilian, they win in the court of public opinion. One Western diplomat called this the "harsh arithmetic of pain," whereby civilian casualties on both sides "play in their favor." Democracies lose, both politically and emotionally, when they kill civilians, even inadvertently. As Golda Meir once put it: "We can perhaps someday forgive you for killing our children, but we cannot forgive you for making us kill your children."

Civilian casualties also increase when terrorists operate from within civilian enclaves and hide behind human shields. This relatively new phenomenon undercuts the second basic premise of conventional warfare: Combatants can easily be distinguished from noncombatants. Has Zahra Maladan become a combatant by urging her son to blow himself up? Have the religious leaders who preach a culture of death lost their status as noncombatants? What about "civilians" who willingly allow themselves to be used as human shields? Or their homes as launching pads for terrorist rockets?

The traditional sharp distinction between soldiers in uniform and civilians in nonmilitary garb has given way to a continuum. At the more civilian end are babies and true noncombatants; at the more military end are the religious leaders who incite mass murder; in the middle are ordinary citizens who facilitate, finance or encourage terrorism. There are no hard and fast lines of demarcation, and mistakes are inevitable -- as the terrorists well understand.

We need new rules, strategies and tactics to deal effectively and fairly with these dangerous new realities. We cannot simply wait until the son of Zahra Maladan -- and the sons and daughters of hundreds of others like her -- decide to follow his mother's demand. We must stop them before they export their sick and dangerous culture of death to our shores.

This book challenges the historical, theological, and theoretical bases of Islam. It is unsparing in its analysis of how the Koran and sharia law came into existence. It portrays an unflattering picture of the prophet Mohammed. Finally, it compares Western philosophy and political theory to that of Islam, and finds Islam to be ossified and lacking in human values.

It quotes widely from both Islamic and Western sources and gives the reader an overview of the theological premises discussed in much less detail in Bernard Lewis' books, such as What Went Wrong.

A minor criticism is that it is not tightly organized and often overlapping in arguments from one chapter to the next. This is far outweighed by the force of the arguments presented, and the searing criticism of Islam that more timid texts (eg., Karen Armstrong) are unwilling to make.

I did not read the book yet, but as a comment:
if you want a good idea about the Quran and Who's Mohammed.. why not going for the real thing?!!
I'm saying, why not reading verses from the Quran.. some of Mohammed's quotations.. surely there are some that is understandable, don't you agree?

Bertrand Russell's collection of essays and titled "Why I am not a Christian" should be part of a trilogy along with Ibn Warraq's "Why I am not a Muslim". I am still waiting for "Why I am not a Jew". Then the absurdity of religion would be fully exposed.

This is by far and away the best book I have read to date on the subject of political Islam. Ibn Warraq delivers a thorough analysis of the origins and development of Islam from the time of the prophet Muhammed right up to present times. Warraq specifically looks at the Salman Rushdie affair, and how this has awakened the West's awareness of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. This book has the added bonus of having been written by a former muslim. An absolute must for anybody interested in gaining a solid understanding of Islam in the twenty-first century.

My brother and I bought this book and we found it amazing to find out the prophet of Islam had a 9 year old wife, promoted camel urine as home remedie, and other very supersticious and vile acts.

However many of the reviews claimed that it was all false information designed to mislead people. So we decided to read the Quaran and Hadith, and surprisingly the passages quoted and all the facts were in these 2 books. It was all true, Ibn Warraq did a good job.

So it is really sad to read reviews by muslims who didn't actually read this book, they just cursed it and named it a lie before even reading and researching the facts in it.

Some time ago, I reached the conclusion that organized, proselytizing religions are primarily a structure to exploit the superstitious nature of mankind in order to enforce social control and facilitate cultural imperialism. For this, I started with Islam (a perfect example of both), since on its very face it is a farce. It wasn't until I read "Why I Am Not a Muslim" that I really understood how blatantly insane, irrational, and dangerous the entire Muslim religion is. The whole Koran, supposedly perfectly formed in heaven, was just the "Prophet" (piss be upon him) rationalizing, one surah at a time, his perverted and criminal behaviors to his gullible followers.

Islam (the word means SUBMISSION) itself demands that its followers filter every aspect of what they see or do through the irrationality of their faith, including that those who are not of their faith are less than human and must be converted or subjugated by any means up to and including deadly force. That's right, the ones that are NOT involved in terrorist activity are the ones failing in their duty. When all the thinking of an entire culture is based on an inherently irrational basis, the entire culture is insane, and when its goal is the destruction of all else, we have what we see in Islam: an armed and dangerous psychotic on the loose in the world. They hate us because we are not them, and they PLAN to make us surrender or DIE. Understand this. THEY SAY IT THEMSELVES if you would listen. It's us or them; there is no coexistence.

Even if the author had not made the reference himself, the title of this book invites comparison to Bertrand Russel's "Why I am Not a Christian". I've read both, and Ibn Warraq is certainly no Bertrand Russel, but I'd have to say he makes a fine Ibn Warraq. Anyway, I've deducted a star because the book would be well served by a strong editorial going-through. Among other flaws, he spends too much time telling us what he's going to be telling us in which chapters rather than just getting on with it, so things seem jumbled and repetitive. I'd still recommend it to anyone that needs a reality check.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to know how a Muslim might think his way out of Islam, and wants to read an excellent review of the development of Islamic philosophy and theology. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone who wants to understand the conflicts within modern Islam.

When I got this book I expected a whole lot more. Written by a man who had left Islam I thought this would give me some insight into the religion from soemeone who had read and studied it and found it a deficiant in tending to his spiritual needs.

Sadly however, what I found was a book that was lacking. Much of it is based on Pipes whose own credentials are simply worthless. Much of the book criticizes Islam but fails to provide the reader with an alternative. Where there mobs who attacked and murdered in the name of 'defending their faith?' Yes but then the same could be said for every religion on the planet. Did Muhammad carry out warfare? Yes but then so did many of the Biblical Prophets, Bhuddist, and Hindu kings etc.

A critical study is what is needed, a study of a religion that can have leaders who insight mobs to burn and murder because a cartoon is published in Denmark while in Turkey publish books by Said Nursi insighting his followers to "Spit in the face of the English" refering to Anglican Priests. With Imams and Sheikhs that regularly spend their friday prayers insulting and abusing any non-Musim faith, that abuse the lives of the non-religious (imagine if a Priest in a Church abuseing how Muslims pray or the symbols of Islam on a Sunday sermon yet Imams and Mullahs regularly do this about the cross, the prayer even the clothing that non-Muslims wear yet demand sepperate clothing, sepperate schools)

Simply quoting from the likes of Pipes whose obsession with the minority cranks and murderers such as Bin Ladin have given freedom to groups who support global domination, have links to fascist death squads and even seek to wipe out any opposition amongst Muslims dine with our leaders, open schools, preach wherever and whatever they like.

Quoting from the odd 19th century orientalist is also not enough nor the few opponents to Islam throughout the centuries. The Islam that exists today is not the Islam of medieval critics or the Islam of 19th century orientalism. That Islam is long since dead. The Islam today is not even the Islam of Khomenies and the like but rather much more dangerous is the hate preacher standing up on Friday to a crowd of hundreds, the 'scholar' writing hate mixed with religion, the news channels calling suicide bombers 'martyer opperations' the leaders with their endless religo/nationalism .

The author of this book IS NOT a Muslim apologist/sympathizer. The Koran, which, page-by-page, is suitable for flushing down a toilet, and Islam are based on the teachings and deeds of Muhammed (poop be upon him), a pedophile and rapist. (Even Muslim/Islamic scholars do not dispute the fact that he was a pedophile - a worthless pig!)
Today, in the USA, we know what to do with pedophile pigs like the "prophet" Muhammed (poop be upon him). We throw them in prison, where they are reqularly beaten by other inmates! Even US criminals know what to do with pigs like Muhammed (poop be upon him and his followers).
Islam, given its obsession with tribute payments, property aquisition and distribution rules, gender bias, enslavement, rape, and use of mob-style violence to foment compliance (even by persons who are not Muslim pigs) is nothing more than an unrestrained, international organized crime syndicate. Islam also is a religion aspiring to homosexuality. Read, "Why I am not a Muslim," and find out for yourself.

I would love to review the book but there is only one problem, It has not arrived yet.

Ibn Warraq states his case against Islam and against all religions. It only served to cement my own atheism. It was well written in language anyone could understand and appreciate.

I am not a muslim but i was extremly offended by the lies in this book. As another reviewer stated a persons own bias's will lead them to reasearch things in a specific way. He is very mis-informed about many of the information he uses in this book, im sure he got the information by people that think like him. At times he lies about things that simply are not true. This book is aimed for the USA and the UK. These two countries are very anti-islam, and if you make a book that is anti-islam it will sell really well. People want to believe that islam is bad because then they can re-assure themselves the war is ok, and the distruction of a culture and a religion is ok, well folks its not ok, and Islam is not any more evil than christanity.

The amount of skepticism someone brings to their research on any topic will inevitably influence the outcome of their research. For example, extreme skepticism leads people to conclude that the holocaust never happened, men never landed on the moon, and that George Bush (who is imagined to be incredibly ignorant), somehow managed to orchestrate the destruction of the World Trade Centers! Unfortunately, this is the kind of skepticism Ibn Warraq brings to his topic.

For example, to discredit the Koran's view of the origin of life Ibn Warraq cites Oparin and Miller whose theories have been thoroughly discredited (Does anyone hold to their theories anymore)? To disprove miracles he cites Hume who has been adequately answered and refuted time and time again. Since the Koran cites stories from the Old Testament Ibn Warraq cites skeptics of the like Welhausen (1944-1918!)who has been shown not only to be in error, but to have deliberately ignored evidence that discredited his theories! Ibn Warraq even defends the nonsense that Jesus never existed! Even the radical, anti-Evangelical Jesus' scholars like Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan agree that Jesus existed. Ibn Warraq also quotes from Bertrand Russell's "Why I am not a Christian," whose arguments are so feeble they actually strengthened my faith!

Ibn Warraq criticizes Christians and Muslims for cruelty while speaking of "thousands of atheists who have led blameless lives but have worked selflessly for the good of their fellow humans." He doesn't bother to mention the millions of Christians and Muslims who have led good lives, including those who have given their lives to set up schools, build hospitals, and feed the poor. Nor does he mention the fact that by some estimates about one hundred million people were killed under the atheist Soviet Union alone, not to mention all the millions of others slaughtered under other atheist regimes like China, North Korea or Cuba.

Ibn Warraq apparently has no interest in interaction with contrasting views. His only goal is to discredit religion--all religion. Although Ibn Warraq provides a wealth of information on Islam and many of his arguments are valid, his total lack of objectivity seriously detracts from what might otherwise have been an excellent book.

Muslims will dislike this book because it is critical of their faith. Naturally, they will be defensive. However, a completely objective reader will find extensive valid points based on common sense and logical thinking.
I applaud the author in his presentation and highly recommend this book to everyone who has an open mind and is capable of thinking outside the box. The fact that it was published prior to 9/11 is of particular importance. It supports that his motive in relaying this material is not as a response to current events.
The material is extremely well thought out. The presentation is interesting and the references are decent enough for his argument. Though some are far-fetched in relativity, most are credible enough to stimulate thoughtful evaluation.
I am married to an Arab Muslim for 15 years. To be clear, people of this faith walk a very fine line of functional social behavior because of the archaic beliefs and practices of their religion. There is no doubt in my mind and in my sincere heart that their culture is a light year or two behind Western environments. This does not necessarily make them bad people or villians, it is simply a fact. I am not a hypocrite. I am a person who is tolerant of other people and always strive to put myself in other people's shoes and circumstances. It is often a painful place to be. While our two children attend an Islamic school, I carefully filter what they are being taught and make it clear that the practices are simply ritual. Luckily they are intelligent enough to come away with only the good which was the basis for all people of the book (Jews and Christians) anyway.
Read this book. Don't hate. Just understand.

The strength of this work by Ibn Warraq is that he uses primarily all Muslim sources and interpretations. For any of us outside the Muslim community, his citations pound into even the most politically correct liberal the true Muslim agenda.

The scholarly detail he provides to ad nauseam allow an objective researcher to independently verify his contentions about the Quran, Mohammed, and Muslim orthodoxy. One word of caution...do not expect this book to offer a solution of compromise between Islam and Western Democracy. The author clearly demonstrates why that can never happen.

The strength of this work by Ibn Warraq is that he uses primarily all Muslim sources and interpretations. For any of us outside the Muslim community, his citations pound into even the most politically correct liberal the true Muslim agenda.

The scholarly detail he provides to ad nauseam allow an objective researcher to independently verify his contentions about the Quran, Mohammed, and Muslim orthodoxy. One word of caution...do not expect this book to offer a solution of compromise between Islam and Western Democracy. The author clearly demonstrates why that can never happen.

This book is a good attempt by the author to delve into the religion of Islam, and explain some of its religious belief systems.

Unfortunatly, I found the book based on the authors opinions and not much on facts. He uses many examples which only further point to human flaws, rather then religious.

I'd recommend something by Karen Armstrong over this book.

This book is a good attempt by the author to delve into the religion of Islam, and explain some of its religious belief systems.

Unfortunatly, I found the book based on the authors opinions and not much on facts. He uses many examples which only further point to human flaws, rather then religious.

I'd recommend something by Karen Armstrong over this book.

Listen, I don't have anything against critcizing anything or anyone, including my religion. I do however have a problem when people use lies to do so and Ibn Warraq's sources are extremely skeptical even among Muslim scholars. How he derives his arguments and the texts he does it from are rejected by the majority of Muslims. The text which he seems to miss the most about is the Quran which Muslims regard as infallible (something he doesn't mention again). Overall a waste of my time and more about his own horrible experience with bad Muslims than a bad Islam

As a kid, I had to learn the Koran at school, whole sections by heart for exams. Never liked it! Compared to the bible, I found it wanting. However parts, the poetry still rings in my mind. So when I read this book, it dealt with things that I thought I had already learnt.

I was shocked. Some of the information, I have never seen before for example the lack of evidence for Muhammad outside the Koran, a person I thought was the most documented man in medieval history was a real stunner. I went on to the net, to check his sources. Much seems correct.

On the other hand, the writer is negative about Islam yesterday and today. In fact he is negative towards religion in general. Some is over the top. For example, Islam is not a totalitarian religion. Also Islam has at times been tolerant. Religious Muslims in many western countries have been successful.

On the other hand Islam is certainly not a religion of peace. Much of the criticism is justified for example the refusal by senior Islamic figures today to criticize the crimes committed in Islam name today. If Catholics, Protestants, Jews or Hindus had committed 911, we would have seen a never-ending steam of guilt statements coming out of these religions. What do we see in Islamic world? A stream of conspiracy theories the Pentagon, the US government, Israel did it.

This book covers every aspect of Islam from the perspective of a former Muslim who has embraced a secular progressive Western outlook. I can't say enough about how informative this book is. It will lay a foundation for further study into Islam. Please give read this book as well as other perspectives on Islam. It is vital we understand Islam in the post 9-11 world.