Reviews

Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Maajid Nawaz, Sam Harris

metafora's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Me gustó bastante. En primer lugar, la forma en que se presenta el libro hace fácil su lectura y permite reconocer la idea que los dos interlocutores quieren expresar a lo largo del libro: El diálogo sí es posible.
La explicación de términos fue bastante oportuna, pues entendí cuestiones que nunca había pensado.

ronurism's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

'Critiquing Islam, critiquing any idea, is not bigotry'

'My view is that no idea is above scrutiny, and no people are beneath dignity'

'And the only hope of moving beyond the current religious chaos, through pluralism and secularism, and finally to a convergence on liberal values, is to modify the beliefs of millions of people through honest conversation'

Types:
Jihadists - Regional and Global
Islamists - Revolutionary and Political
Moderates
Feminist Muslims, Ex-muslims, non-muslims.
Nationalism and Racism = Tribalism

Terminologies:

Regressive Leftists
The Voldemort effect
Ideological recrutiment - a grievance narrative, identity crisis, charismatic recruiter, ideological
dogma
Sunnis - who represent 80 percent if the Muslims around the world
Bosnian genocide
in-group loyalty and out-group hostility
Prisoner of conscience
Caliphate
Shari'ah, fatwa
Machiavellian
Direct action strategy
Red herring
Trotsky and Stalin
Thought police
Identity politics
Free thinkers
jurisprudence

Quotes:

1. when we in the West failed to intervene in the Bosnian genocide, some Muslims became radicalized; when we did intervene in Afghanistan and Iraq, more Muslims became radicalized; when we failed to intervene in Syria, many more Muslims became radicalized

2. people often blame poverty or lack of education for radicalization, whereas experts have long known that a disproportionate number of terrorists come from highly educated backgrounds.

3. An Islamist attempts to impose his version of Islam on the rest of the society, and a jihadist is an Islamist who attempts to do so my force

4. Conservative Muslims can be very useful as allies against Islamism and jihadism, but they may oppose you on gender rights and equality and in some cases, honor killings/

5. There is a strong reform strand within US Muslim discourse, and it may be that most American Muslims support it........ by comparison with America, Britain has a disproportionately large problem with Muslim extremism, as does Europe.

6. As long as you're dying in accordance with the view you subscribe to, you're a martyr in the eyes of your group

7. it's often suggested that the 9/11 hijackers couldn't have been true believers, because they went to strip clubs before they carried our their suicide mission.

8. More violence does not necessarily equate with greater religious conviction.

9. ..but everyone has an identity crisis at some point. In fact, one could say that the whole of life is one long identity crisis.

10. Classical liberalism focuses on individual autonomy.

11. Political decisions made by empires can determine and have determined which doctrines become orthodoxy. So it was with Islam.

12. This is why the approach of a group like the Islamic State holds a certain intellectual appeal because the straightforward reading of scripture suggests that Allah advises jihadists to take sex slaves from among the conquered, decapitate their enemies, and so forth.

13. The only truth is that there is no correct way to interpret scripture. When you open it up like that, you're effectively saying that there is no right answer. And in the absence of a right answer, pluralism is the only option. And pluralism will lead to secularism, and to democracy, and to human rights.

14. On any list of Islamic doctrines in need of reform, I think those relating to infidels and the martyrdom should be at the very top.

15. Islam was spread primarily by conquest, not conversation. Infidels were forced to convert or die. 'People of the book' - Jews and Christians - were given the option of paying a protection tax (jizya) and living in an apartheid state (as dhimmi)

16. To believe that you're going to blow up everyone around you and go straight to paradise on a one-way ticket requires 100 percent certainty. If we can seed even 1 percent doubt, we may stop that suicide bomber.

17. An authentic and indigenous cultural shift is needed, and this will require years of work. Currently, the work to reform Muslim identity, scriptural interpretations, and cultural affiliations, and to discredit the Islamist ideology, is many decades behind.

anakinfox's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This is a great conversation between two incredibly intelligent thinkers. Both Nawaz and Harris bring different perspectives to the conversation and they are both great to listen to. I found myself not expressly siding with either and I believe that is what made the dialogue so interesting to me. As someone who lives in the Western world, I also felt that Nawaz gave insight into Muslim states better than anyone I’ve heard speak before.

I can also wholeheartedly recommend the audiobook, as it is narrated by the authors. Also included is a postscript where they speak about the response to the publishing of the book.

tycho7's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

A very interesting and important discussion. The two varied perspectives work well together. I would consider this a great place to start researching this topic. It is respectful but not diluted by meaningless and vague sentiment. They are willing to state some hard truths and call for a discussion. The only drawback would be the lack of depth and detail. I felt that, at times, they were dismissing religious beliefs out of hand, rather than rigorously refuting them. At one point, one of the authors states that there is always multiple perspectives on any scriptural text and therefore there is no one true interpretation. This is a pretty outrageous statement and required a lot more support to be convincing, but it was put forward as a truism.

farzatalchayah's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

though Nawaz tried to explain some stuff to Harris in this book, Harris still misuses some concepts afterwards (I say this because I like Harris and his podcast, he still misuses the word Takia for example).
Still constructive dialogue, between two really different views of Islam, Nawaz did a good job in the book, although I don't agree totally with him in everything he said.

minzreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

You can get more depth out of a reddit thread than this book. lol

metzimm's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

A good, short read that forces the reader to ask themselves new questions about Islamism. Highly recommended to those who want to continue the conversation about religious reform in Islam.

eggcellent_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

As an atheist but also as someone who is incredibly interested in Islam I found this book to be extremely interesting, insightful and informative. It really helped me to look at certain things in a different light and the topic as a whole is entirely relevant for our current time.

protro's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective

tesserjac's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

A highly thought-provoking and interesting discussion.