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Ali Sina
Joined: 14 Feb 2002
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rand
Joined: 28 Jul 2002
Posts: 1752
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 Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0465044352/reviews/qid=1039491493/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2983396-1316744
| Quote: | Editorial Reviews
Book Description
A defense of Islam, and an indictment of religious fundamentalism, addressed to Islamic and Western readers.
In this impassioned, erudite, and deeply moving book, Abdelwahab Meddeb, born and raised in Tunis and now living in Paris, details the breadth and scope of the Arab intellectual tradition and dismantles common preconceptions held by the Islamic and Western worlds. He describes the growing resentment between the West and the Islamic world as being due, in large part, to Islam's drift away from its own pluralist tradition. Tracing the history of the "conquering" of the Arab world by the West, he provides a detailed history of the ways in which Islamic fundamentalism has come to compensate for Western dominance. Directly addressing the terrorist attacks of September 11, he challenges us to reconsider the presumption that the gulf between the Islamic world and the West is too wide to breach.
The "malady" of Islam lies in its alienation from the West and the corrosive influence that fundamentalism has wrought. This book is a correction of the historical record, a passionate description of the best of Islamic thought and culture, and an absolutely necessary read for those seeking a better understanding not only of Islam but also ourselves.
About the Author
Abdelwahab Meddeb is a prolific novelist, poet, translator, and essayist and the editor of the journal Dédale. The author of ten books, he is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Paris X--Nanterre. He lives in Paris, France. |
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yeezevee
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 2300
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ohmyrus
Joined: 19 Jun 2002
Posts: 625
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Scandinavian infidel
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 623
Location: Norwegian ex-pat, living in "the belly of the beast"
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| Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 7:16 am Post subject: |
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I will recommend "Towards an Islamic reformation", by the Sudanese scholar Abdullah al- Naim. He's a student of Taha, the reformist who was killed as an apostat. Taha and Naim claim that the more "peaceful" suras of the Koran revealed in Mecca should take preference above the later ones from the Medina period.
I would also recommend most books by the German-Syrian scholar Bassam Tibi, one of the advocates of "Euro-Islam".
These people belong to a very small group of Islamic reformers. Maybe refoming Islam will turn out to be an impossible task. It quite simply contains too much hate. But Naim and Taha do the most serious attempts I've read. They do not shy away from saying that significant parts of the Sharia would be impossible to reconcile with modern human rights standards, taking the side of the latter. This fact alone makes their books worthwile reading. |
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dontkillme
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 275
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| Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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There' a book review of
"Why Nations Rage killing in the name of god"
by Christopher Catherwood
at
http://thoughts.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$95
Catherwood will make you laugh with his proposal of how to get on with Islam....
_________________
Why can't any of these God's write clearly? Even self-build furniture has clearer rules. |
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Scandinavian infidel
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 623
Location: Norwegian ex-pat, living in "the belly of the beast"
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| Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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I'd like to recommend "23 years" by the Iranian freethinker Ali Dashti, who ended his life in prison during the Khomeini-regime. The title of the book refers to the 23 years of Muhammeds life, from he received the first revelations until he died.
This is a BRILLIANT book, in which he tries to make a profile of Muhammed's personality, and put them into an historical context. Also refutes many of the main theses in Islam as absurd, and shows that the speaker in many Koranic passeges is actually Muhammed, not God. |
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yeezevee
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 2300
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| Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 1:50 am Post subject: Maulana Azad Library; Aligarh Muslim University |
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In ancient times, India was the cultural center for foreign cultures and foreign scholars; one can see that from the times from Nalanda University to this day. If some one would like to look in to the historical books on ISLAM, the best libraries that store them are probably in India. Two of them come to my mind. One is Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and other is Library at Osmania University Hyderabad. I wish some one could look in to them and translate part of the history from these ancient books and manuscripts.
Few examples from Maulana Azad Library:
1) Majmu`ah-ye Rasa`el
M.C. No.:- 21/2 Subject:- Sufism
Author:- Mohiyed Din ebn-e `Arabi (d. 638 A.H./1240 A.D.)
Language:- Arabic
2).Akmal ot-Taysir el-Bayan fi Takhrij-e Ayat el-Qoran
M.C. No.:- 23/3 Subject:- Quranic science
Author:- Habib ollah ben Haji Nur ollah, known as Shah Nur Esfahahi
Inscription:- 1120 A.H./1708 A.D. Place:- Peshawar
Language:- Arabic
3).Bostan ol-Mohaddesin
Subject:- Hadith
Author:-`Abd ol-`Aziz ben Shah Vali ollah Mohaddes Dehlavi (d. 1239 A.H./1823 A.D.)
Language:- Arabic & Persian
http://www.noormicrofilmindia.com/catal14.htm has complete catalogue of the books/microfilms stored at Aligarh Muslim University.
with best regards
yeezevee |
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CroMagnon
Joined: 28 Apr 2002
Posts: 2112
Location: West Kafiristan
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everybee
Joined: 03 May 2003
Posts: 858
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rand
Joined: 28 Jul 2002
Posts: 1752
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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| I just received Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak out, edited by Ibn Warraq. Very interesting so far. Ali Sina wrote an excellent 22 page chapter in the book. The book discusses FFI. |
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yeezevee
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 2300
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yeezevee
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Scandinavian infidel
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 623
Location: Norwegian ex-pat, living in "the belly of the beast"
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2003 8:41 am Post subject: |
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| yeezevee wrote: | Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq
Most of Why I Am Not a Muslim is online:
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Does anybody know if this book exists in paperback?
_________________
The Islamic world is involved in up to 90% of the wars and terrorist attacks on the planet. If Islam is a religion of peace, how does a religion of war look like? |
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yeezevee
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 2300
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2003 8:51 am Post subject: |
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THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY; WRITTEN AT THE COURT OF AL MÂMÛN (Circa A.H. 215; A.D. 830)
IN DEFENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AGAINST ISLAM. edited and commented by Sir William Muir
http://answering-islam.org/Books/Al-Kindi/index.htm
This online edition of the text preserves the page breaks and footnote numbers of Muir’s second edition published in 1887. The marginal headings found through the book refer to the page numbers in the Romanized Arabic edition used by Sir William Muir: Risalat `Abd Allah ibn Isma`il al-Hashimi. Edited by Anton Tien. Published by the Turkish Mission Aid Society, 1885, pp. 272
This being one of the oldest sources of Islam, it is worth reading.
with best regards
yeezevee |
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Justone
Joined: 24 Apr 2002
Posts: 353
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yeezevee
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 2300
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| Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World
by Serge Trifkovic, Srdja Trifkovic
excerpts, read it all from http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4686
| Quote: | The Koran explicitly guarantees Moslems the right to own slaves, either by purchasing them or as bounty of war. Mohammed had dozens, both male and female, and he regularly traded slaves when he became independently wealthy in Medina. Some of their names are recorded to posterity.
....In line with the racist views of Mohammed himself about his own people, the Arabs as "the nobles of all races" were exempt from enslavement. More later on the present-day consequences of this in Africa.
The four caliphs or religious rulers who came after Mohammed discouraged the enslavement of free Moslems, and it was eventually prohibited. But the assumption of freedom as the normal condition of men did not extend to non-Moslems. Disobedient or rebellious dhimmis (subject peoples, i.e. Christians, Hindus, Jews, Africans) were often reduced to slavery and prisoners captured in jihad were also enslaved if they could not be exchanged or ransomed. In Africa, Arab rulers regularly raided black tribes to the south and captured slaves claiming their raids to be jihad; in India, many Hindus were enslaved on the same pretext.
[A Moslem slave-owner was entitled by law to the sexual enjoyment of his slave women. Many African slaves were eunuchs. Castration was against Islamic law, but this was massively evaded. For African captives nothing short of "castration level with the abdomen" would do; no mere removal of the cojones, as with Slavic and Greek captives. Only such radically castrated eunuchs were deemed fit to be guardians of the harem.
.....During its so-called golden age, the slave trade inside the Islamic empire and along its edges was vast. It began to flourish at the time of the Moslem expansion into Africa, in the middle of the seventh century, and it still survives today in Mauritania and Sudan.......
........... For all its horrors, the Atlantic slave trade took place within a capitalistic context in which slaves were expensive pieces of property not to be destroyed. In the Moslem world slaves were considerably cheaper, far more widely available, and regarded as a dispensable commodity. They were effectively worked to death, and thus left no descendants......
........... Mauritania and Sudan. Black people have been enslaved on such a scale that the term black has become synonymous with slave. The mixed-race, predominantly Negroid but self-avowedly "Arabic" denizens of the transitional sub-Saharan zone have been indoctrinated into treating their pure-black southern neighbors with racist disdain. (To this day it can be dangerous to one's life to ask a dark-looking but Arabic-speaking Sudanese or Mauritanian Moslem if he is "black.")
For the pure-black populations of Sudan and Mauritania, independence from colonial rule marked the end of a slavery-free respite. Slavery was "abolished" several times in Mauritania since independence, most recently on July 5, 1980. Yet the Anti-Slavery Society's findings (1982) and those of Africa Watch (1990) point to the existence of at least 100,000 "full-time" slaves and additional 300,000 half-slaves, all of them black, still being held by Arab-Mauritanians. Even the head of state from 1960 to 1978, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, kept slaves behind the presidential palace.
The Arabian Peninsula in 1962 became the world's penultimate region to officially abolish slavery, yet years later Saudi Arabia alone was estimated to contain a quarter of a million slaves. Thousands of miles away from Africa, in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, girls as young as five are auctioned off to highest bidders. Afghan girls between the ages of 5 and 17 sell for $80 to $100. The price depends on the colors of their eyes and skin; if they are virgins, the price is higher. The girls are generally sold into prostitution or, if they are lucky, they may join harems in the Middle East. If they are lucky. |
with regards
yeezevee
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bob
Joined: 05 Jan 2003
Posts: 370
Location: Paris, France
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2003 5:37 am Post subject: |
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Just to second Ali Sina's first post. 'The Malady of Islam' by A. Meddeb is a truly remarkable book. It goes beyond the usual us/them mud-slinging and clearly analyses the reasons why Islam became a 'productive' civilisation in the fields of science, poetry etc and why it rapidly declined to become an unproductive culture doomed to repetition, sterility and denial - at least in the Middle East. I can't guarantee the quality of the English translation though!
Another book which I recommend to French speakers is a fairly massive tome called "Les Fondations de L'Islam - Entre écriture et histoire" (Le Seuil) by Alfred-Louis de Prémare who is an Orientalist at the University of Aix-en-Provence. He sifts through virtually ALL the written sources available to examine the growth of monotheism in pre-Islamic Arabia and the redaction of the Quran. His book contains an excellent chapter on the very earliest reactions from Christians to the Islamic conquest, updating recents works on this subject. The book gains from being written in a dry academic style and the fact that the author has no polemical axe to grind.
_________________
"Two things fill the heart with ever renewed awe the more we meditate upon them: the starry firmament above and the moral law within." Immanuel Kant |
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Robert
Joined: 25 Jul 2002
Posts: 554
Location: Germany
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everybee
Joined: 03 May 2003
Posts: 858
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bob
Joined: 05 Jan 2003
Posts: 370
Location: Paris, France
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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Scandy Infidel.
In answer to your question about a paperback version of Why I am not a Muslim, no, there isn't one yet. At least not last year. There is one in French but it is AWFUL. I ordered my copy from a UK bookshop and it took weeks to arrive. I was told there was a problem with the 'distributor'. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature but ....
Why don't you get Jostein Gaarder to translate it into Norwegian? 
_________________
"Two things fill the heart with ever renewed awe the more we meditate upon them: the starry firmament above and the moral law within." Immanuel Kant |
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everybee
Joined: 03 May 2003
Posts: 858
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