Ibn Warraq Interview

From an interview with Ibn Warraq:

Stephen Crittenden: Here in Australia, I often wonder whether the sun and Bondi Beach might win over in the end, and possibly create, or assist in the creation of some kind of hybridised form of Islam here in Australia. Do you think Islam is capable of that kind of transformation?

Ibn Warraq: Yes, in the West it should be possible, provided that we do certain things. That is to say we're not afraid of looking critically at Islam in the way that we have looked critically at Christianity, or any other religion, in the way that we have criticised the Bible, higher Biblical criticism has existed since at least the 17th century with Spinoza and so on, going on to the 19th century in Germany.

And yet nobody dares to look at the Qur'an in the same way. Even in the academic community there is a kind of taboo about discussing the Qur'an scientifically. I'll give you one example: my friend Christof Luxenberg brought out a book on the Qur'an written in German and showing that a large part of the Qur'an must have been originally written in Aramaic, and it is a solidly argued, brilliantly philological examination of the Qur'an.

But it was boycotted, people refused to discuss it, even in university circles, they dismissed it out of hand and said, 'Well we do not wish the hurt the sensibilities of the Muslims.' I mean it's incredible. So if we are consistent, if we remain critical in the way that we have remained critical of the Bible and so on, then the Muslims will be forced to look at their own religion in a critical way as well.

We live in the free West, or in Australia for example, and New Zealand, where there is a democracy and freedom of expression. We should take this opportunity to remain critical, and that's the only way we are going to help the Muslims in the West. As somebody once said, we're not doing Islam any favours by shielding it from enlightenment values.