Scan barcode
A review by ballgownsandbooks
The Muslim Problem: Why We're Wrong About Islam and Why It Matters by Tawseef Khan
informative
fast-paced
3.0
I read this book weeks ago and have been putting off this review because I'm still SO conflicted... but today is release day so... here we go? Just let it be known that my thoughts are very much still in flux!
This book debunks five common misconceptions used against Islam, and it does so by making two major points, one of which I loved, and the other I really struggled with.
On the one hand, the parts where Khan broke down structural Islamophobia in Western society was fantastic. He's so explicit about naming the the double standards and hypocrisy that make it all but impossible for Muslims to successfully navigate British/Western society, as well as the ways in which the West paved the way for terrorism, and how harmful the subsequent anti-terror legislation, such as Prevent (which I've only recently realised that a lot of white Brits don't even know about!), has been. I learned so much about the historical origins of the five stereotypes too - I'd had no idea of the ways they've been weaponised by European nations over the centuries to prop up racism and colonialism!
On the other hand, he also talked about the ways in which the Muslim community sometimes plays into those harmful stereotypes, in a way that came across a little... victim blame-y, at times? (Not that the Muslim community doesn’t have its issues, just that his phrasing felt a bit accusatory in a way I didn't love.) And more than that, I felt like his ultimate point on that front was that Muslims can cherry pick the Islamic teachings they like and interpret them however they choose, in order to fit modern standards. Of course, you should always think critically and not accept anything 'just because', but equally there are parts of Islam that you can't actively make judgements on without the full context of deep research - you can't just decide a verse doesn't mean what qualified scholars say it does, just because it doesn't suit your lifestyle or you want to make it seem more acceptable to Western audiences.
I struggled particularly with his wholesale rejection of all hadith (narrations of the Prophet Muhammad, which are separate from the Quran). There is debate about hadith, and a scale of how reliable different narrations are considered to be, but blanket discrediting them all rocks the entire foundations of Islam in a way he didn't really seem to have considered. Islamic scholars have carried out centuries of research, and compiled books upon books of evidence to determine which hadith are authentic, and making a judgement on the issue requires extensive study, which I don't think Khan has done. (I could be wrong on that! But based on the information I could find about him, I didn't see any mention of him having studied Islamic sciences in detail).
Having said that, the fact that I disagree with Khan's own philosophy doesn't necessarily make this objectively a bad book, or negate the value that it does have. I don't actively not recommend it, but I do hope that anyone reading it will focus on the more secular, political/sociological aspects, and take the doctrinal pronouncements under advisement/in conjunction with other sources of information.
This book debunks five common misconceptions used against Islam, and it does so by making two major points, one of which I loved, and the other I really struggled with.
On the one hand, the parts where Khan broke down structural Islamophobia in Western society was fantastic. He's so explicit about naming the the double standards and hypocrisy that make it all but impossible for Muslims to successfully navigate British/Western society, as well as the ways in which the West paved the way for terrorism, and how harmful the subsequent anti-terror legislation, such as Prevent (which I've only recently realised that a lot of white Brits don't even know about!), has been. I learned so much about the historical origins of the five stereotypes too - I'd had no idea of the ways they've been weaponised by European nations over the centuries to prop up racism and colonialism!
On the other hand, he also talked about the ways in which the Muslim community sometimes plays into those harmful stereotypes, in a way that came across a little... victim blame-y, at times? (Not that the Muslim community doesn’t have its issues, just that his phrasing felt a bit accusatory in a way I didn't love.) And more than that, I felt like his ultimate point on that front was that Muslims can cherry pick the Islamic teachings they like and interpret them however they choose, in order to fit modern standards. Of course, you should always think critically and not accept anything 'just because', but equally there are parts of Islam that you can't actively make judgements on without the full context of deep research - you can't just decide a verse doesn't mean what qualified scholars say it does, just because it doesn't suit your lifestyle or you want to make it seem more acceptable to Western audiences.
I struggled particularly with his wholesale rejection of all hadith (narrations of the Prophet Muhammad, which are separate from the Quran). There is debate about hadith, and a scale of how reliable different narrations are considered to be, but blanket discrediting them all rocks the entire foundations of Islam in a way he didn't really seem to have considered. Islamic scholars have carried out centuries of research, and compiled books upon books of evidence to determine which hadith are authentic, and making a judgement on the issue requires extensive study, which I don't think Khan has done. (I could be wrong on that! But based on the information I could find about him, I didn't see any mention of him having studied Islamic sciences in detail).
Having said that, the fact that I disagree with Khan's own philosophy doesn't necessarily make this objectively a bad book, or negate the value that it does have. I don't actively not recommend it, but I do hope that anyone reading it will focus on the more secular, political/sociological aspects, and take the doctrinal pronouncements under advisement/in conjunction with other sources of information.
Graphic: Racism and Islamophobia