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

3.0

A quick read, and absolutely a worthwhile endeavor, but ultimately less interesting than I'd hoped. If you've read Harris, you already know the arguments he makes against Islam, and he repeats them here in challenge to Nawaz. Nawaz is clearly a smart guy, and he's taken on a thankless job in attempting to push for a reform of Islam, so he's to be commended for that effort. But his responses to Harris are mostly along the lines of "The questions you've raised are serious problems for Muslims to address in our age." (p. 87) Yes, it's great to hear a Muslim even acknowledge that, but he fails to propose satisfying suggestions for how to address those questions. His writing is less clear than that of Harris, maybe because he has less clear positions to support. While Harris can make very pointed statements such as "Nor can one say that the central message of Islam is pacifism." (p. 68), Nawaz can only respond by proposing methodologies for interpreting scripture such as pointing out that "no text speaks for itself" (which is debatable) and emphasizing "relationship to scripture" in order to view "religion as more a spiritual journey, and less a set of legal injunctions." (p. 89) Again, I wouldn't call that a clearly stated position exactly, but if it means that Muslims need to do as many progressive Christians have done and simply start ignoring the parts of scripture that prevent them from participating in modern civilization, then I could not agree more.