Arguments critical to religion in general, or specific to monotheism, such as the existence of God, are not dealt with here. This page describes criticism specific to Islam only, looking at either its historical nature or that of its beliefs and practices.

Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to 1000 CE, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy.¹ Later there appeared criticism from the Muslim world itself, and also from Jewish writers and from ecclesiastical Christians.²³⁴⁵ In the modern era, criticism has come from people both inside and outside Islam, on a wide variety of topics.

Objects of criticism include Islam's intolerance of criticism, attitudes towards perceived heresy and accused heretics, and the treatment accorded to apostates in Islamic law.⁶ Another area focuses on the morality of the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, both in his public and personal life.⁵⁷ Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Qu'ran, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics.⁸⁹ Other criticisms focus on the question of human rights in modern Islamic nations, and the treatment of women in Islamic law and practice.¹⁰¹¹ Recently, Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate has been criticized.¹²

History of criticism of Islam

Early Islam

The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are to be found in the writings of Christians, who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate. One such Christian was John of Damascus (born c. 676), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled 'Concerning Heresies' presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed an Arian monk influenced Muhammad and viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hotchpotch culled from the Bible. Writing on the Islam's claim of Abrahamic ancestry, John explained that the Arabs were called "Saracens" because they were "empty of Sarah". They were called "Hagarenes" because they were "the bastard descendants of the slave-girl Hagar".¹³ According to John V. Tolan, a Professor of Medieval History, John's biography of Muhammad is based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions. ¹⁴

The Hadith (written between 844 and 874) contain accounts of criticism of Islam at the time of Muhammad from the pagan, Jewish and Christian inhabitants of Arabia.

Medieval Islamic world

Over the years there have been several famous Muslim critics and skeptics of Islam from within the Islamic world itself. In tenth and eleventh-century Syria there lived a blind poet called Al-Ma'arri. He became well-known for a poetry that was affected by a "pervasive pessimism." He labeled religions in general as "noxious weeds," and said that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth. He had particular contempt for the ulema, writing that:

In 1280, the Jewish philosopher, Ibn Kammuna, criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths. He reasoned that the Sharia was incompatible with the principles of justice, and that this undercut the notion of Muhammad' being the perfect man: "there is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others as claimed."^{16 17} The philosopher thus claimed that people converted to Islam from ulterior motives:

.

According to Bernard Lewis, just as it is natural for a Muslim to assume that the converts to his religion are attracted by its truth, it is equally natural for the convert's former coreligionists to look for baser motives and Ibn Kammuna's list seems to cover most of such nonreligious motives. ¹⁸

Maimonides, one of the foremost 12th century rabbinical arbiters and philosophers, sees the relation of Islam to Judaism as primarily theoretical. Maimonides has no quarrel with the strict monotheism of Islam, but finds fault with the practical politics of Muslim regimes. He also considered Islamic ethics and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts. Maimonides criticised what he perceived as the lack of virtue in the way Muslims rule their societies and relate to one another.⁴ In his Epistle to Yemenite Jewry, he refers to Mohammad, as "hameshuga" - that madman. ¹⁹.

Medieval Christendom

Main article: Medieval Christian view of Muhammad

• In Dante's Inferno, Muhammad is portrayed as split in half, representing his status as a heresiarch (one who split from the Christian church).

• Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself.⁵

• Denis the Carthusian wrote two treatises to refute Islam at the request of Nicholas of Cusa, Contra perfidiam Mahometi, et contra multa dicta Sarracenorum libri quattuor and Dialogus disputationis inter Christianum et Sarracenum de lege Christi et contra perfidiam Mahometi.²⁰

• The Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscript with unknown dating, shows how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation. The story argues God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their derivation from the faith. He then sends an angel to the monk Osius who orders him to preach to the Arabs. Osius however is in ill-health and orders a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders instead. Ozim sets out to follow his orders, but gets stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believes him to be the same angel that spoke to Osius before. The evil angel modifies and corrupts the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renames Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to the tultusceptrum.²¹

• According to many Christians, the coming of Muhammad was foretold in the Holy Bible. According to the monk Bede this is in Genesis 16:12, which describes Ishmael as "a wild man" whose "hand will be against every man". Bede says about Muhammad: "Now how great is his hand against all and all hands against him; as they impose his authority upon the whole length of Africa and hold both the greater part of Asia and some of Europe, hating and opposing all."²²

• In 1391 a dialog was believed to have occurred between Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and a Persian scholar in which the Emperor stated:

The first sentence of this quotation, when repeated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, lead to a series of riots, firebombing of churches and a Fatwa against the life of the Pope (see Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy).

Enlightenment Criticism

In Of the Standard of Taste, an essay by David Hume, the Koran is described as an "absurd performance" of a "pretended prophet" who lacked "a just sentiment of morals." Attending to the narration, Hume says, "we shall soon find, that [Muhammad] bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers."²³

Late 19th and Early 20th Century Critics of Islam

See also: Orientalism

During the late 19th and early 20th century, the new methods of Higher criticism were applied to the Qu'ran, claiming that it had a non-divine origin. Ignaz Goldziher and Henri Corbin wrote about the influence of Zoroastrianism, and others wrote on the influence of Judaism, Christianity and Sabianism ²⁴

Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister through most of World War 2, was a strong critic of the effects Islam had on its believers. He stated in his 1899 book "The River War" ²⁵:

Contemporary critics of Islam

Notable contemporary critics include:

• Robert Spencer an American writer on Islam. He is the author of six books, including two bestsellers, on topics related to Islam and terrorism. He is the founder and director of the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch websites that focus on Islamist terrorism-related events and various Jihad-activity worldwide.²⁶
• Serge Trifkovic a Serbian-American historian, journalist, and political analyst. Author of the Sword of the Prophet: The politically incorrect guide to Islam: History, Theology, Impact on the World (2002) The book chronicles events related to the rise of Islam and the patterns of violence adopted by its founder, Muhammad.
• Daniel Pipes an American historian and analyst who specializes in the Middle East. He has written or co-written 18 books, maintains a blog, and lectures around the world presenting his analysis of world trends.
• Bat Ye'or an Egyptian-born British historian ²⁷ and scholar ²⁸ specialising in the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic governments.²⁹
• V. S. Naipaul, a Nobel prize winning, Trinidadian-born British novelist of Hindu heritage, who has sowed controversy with his criticism of Islam. He claims it has had a "calamitous effect on converted peoples", destroying their ancestral culture and history.³⁰
• Brigitte Gabriel, founder of American Congress For Truth and author of Because They Hate.
• Oriana Fallaci, an Italian journalist and novelist who has written three short books after the events of September the 11th advancing the argument that the "Western world is in danger of being engulfed by radical Islam". Two of them, The Rage and The Pride and The Force of Reason have been translated into English by Fallaci.³¹
• Right-wing European and American politicians and commentators such as Tom Tancredo, Nick Griffin, Philippe de Villiers, Geert Wilders, Pia Kjærsgaard, Susanne Winter, Anne Coulter, Michael Savage, and Laura Schlessinger
• Bloggers including Hugh Fitzgerald, Lawrence Auster, Fjordman

Several scholars do not self-identify as critics of Islam but criticize some of its aspects:

• Bernard Lewis holds that unbelievers, slaves, and women are considered fundamentally inferior to other groups of people under Islamic law. He does write that even the equality of free adult male Muslims represented a very considerable advance on the practice of both the Greco-Roman and the ancient Iranian world.³²³³
• Patricia Crone, is a scholar, author and historian of early Islamic history working at the Institute for Advanced Study. She co-authored the controversial Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, a book that researched the early history of Islam, coming to conclusions at variance with the traditional view.
• Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician that wants to ban the Qu'ran in the Netherlands, because he believes it conflicts with the Dutch laws and calls for violence in general.

Atheists

• Michel Onfray, a French philosopher and ardent supporter of atheism. Onfray attacks Islam along with other monotheistic religions, speaks of "muslim fascism" that had risen with the Islamic Revolution in Iran and considers Islamic teachings to be "structurally archaic". However, he considers Western consumerist culture to be flawed as well.³⁴
• Richard Dawkins an outspoken antireligionist, atheist, secular humanist, and sceptic, and he is a supporter of the Brights movement.³⁵. Dawkins' impassioned advocacy of evolution has earned him the appellation "Darwin's rottweiler".³⁶
• Sam Harris, author of the bestseller The End of Faith, who is skeptical that moderate Islam is even possible, arguing that Muslim extremism is a consequence simply of taking the Qur'an literally.³⁷ This book has a chapter entitled "The problem with Islam" where puts forward arguments specific to Islam saying "There are good beliefs and there are bad ones and it should now be obvious to everyone that Muslims have more than their fair share of the latter".³⁸
• Christopher Hitchens a vociferous critic of what he describes as "fascism with an Islamic face"
• Richard Carrier a philosopher and ancient historian, frequently criticises Islam in his writings on the Secular Web.³⁹
• Pat Condell, a stand-up comedian and writer who frequently^{citation needed} singles out Islam for criticism in his online video posts.

Evangelical Christians

• Pat Robertson who expresses the view that "Islam wants to take over the world and is not a religion of peace", and that radical Muslims are "satanic", and that Osama Bin Laden was a "true follower of Muhammad".⁴⁰⁴¹
• Jerry Falwell, another American conservative Baptist minister, characterized the prophet Muhammad as being a 'terrorist'.⁴²
• Franklin Graham who described Islam as an 'evil and wicked religion' and suggested that those who believed Islam to be "wonderful" should "go and live under the Taliban somewhere".⁴³
• R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who described the Islamic theology as false and destructive and believes that Muslims are motivated by demonic power. ⁴⁴
• Other evangelical critics of Islam include Rod Parsley, Bill Keller and Jerry Vines

Former Muslims

There are also outspoken former Muslims who believe that Islam is the primary cause for what they see as the mistreatment of minority groups in Muslim countries and communities. Almost all of them now live in the West, many under assumed names because of a legitimate danger to themselves. Many have had death threats made against them by Islamic groups and individuals.

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has focused on the plight of Muslim women, saying that "they aspire to live by their faith as best they can, but their faith robs them of their rights."⁴⁵
• Taslima Nasrin, also Nasreen - and popularly just Taslima, is a Bengali/Bangladeshi ex-physician turned feminist author. She is a severe critic of Islam and of religion in general who describes herself as a secular humanist.
• Magdi Allam, an outspoken Egyptian-born Italian journalist who describes Islam as intrinsically violent and characterised by “hate and intolerance”. ⁴⁶ He converted to Catholicism and was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI during an Easter Vigil service on March 23, 2008.
• Nonie Darwish, who founded the pro-Israel web site Arabs for Israel and stated that "Islam is more than a religion, it is a totalitarian state"⁴⁷ She is also the author of Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.
• Nyamko Sabuni, who is the Minister of Integration and Gender Equality in Sweden and advocates banning the veil and instituting compulsory gynecological examinations for schoolgirls to guard against female genital mutilation, stating, "I will never accept that women and girls are oppressed in the name of religion" and declaring it not her intent to reform Islam but only to denounce "unacceptable" practices. She has received death threats, requiring 24-hour police protection, for her views.⁴⁸
• Zachariah Anani, a former Sunni Muslim Lebanese militia fighter. Anani said that Islamic doctrine teaches nothing less than the "ambushing, seizing and slaying" of non-believers -- especially Jews and Christians.⁴⁹
• Khalid Duran, a specialist in the history, sociology and politics of the Islamic world who coined the term "Islamofascism" to describe the push by some Islamist clerics to "impose religious orthodoxy on the state and the citizenry".⁵⁰
• Ehsan Jami, a Dutch politician who criticized Islamic prophet Muhammad, describing him as a "criminal".⁵¹
• Maryam Namazie, a Communist activist and the leader of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. ⁵²
• Anwar Shaikh who has written several books exposing and criticising Islam.
• Ali Sina Founder of Faith Freedom International.
• Walid Shoebat a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation who took part in terrorist attacks against Israeli targets⁵³. He stated that "Secular dogma like Nazism is less dangerous than Islamofascism that we see today ... because Islamofascism has a religious twist to it; it says 'God the Almighty ordered you to do this. It is trying to grow itself in fifty-five Muslim states. So potentially, you could have a success rate of several Nazi Germanys, if these people get their way."⁵⁴".
• Ibn Warraq a secularist author, intellectual, scholar and founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society and a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry⁵⁵⁵⁶⁵⁷ specializing in Koranic criticism.⁵⁸⁵⁹
• Wafa Sultan, who has pointed out that the prophet of Islam said: "I was ordered to fight the people until they believe in Allah and his Messenger." Sultan has called on Islamic teachers to review their writings and teachings and remove every call to fight people who do not believe as Muslims.⁶⁰ Dr. Sultan is now in hiding, fearing for her life and the safety of her family after appearing on the al-Jazeera TV show.⁶¹

Muslims

• Irshad Manji, a Canadian journalist and author of The Trouble with Islam.⁶²
• Ahmed H. al-Rahim, founder of American Islamic Congress, who says that the Mosques in America are teaching values of hate and not peace.⁶³

Responses to criticism of Islam

• John Esposito has written many introductory texts on Islam and the Islamic world. For example, he has addressed issues like the rise of militant Islam, the veiling of women, and democracy.⁶⁴⁶⁵ Esposito emphatically argues against what he calls the "pan-Islamic myth". He thinks that "too often coverage of Islam and the Muslim world assumes the existence of a monolithic Islam in which all Muslims are the same." To him, such a view is naive and unjustifiably obscures important divisions and differences in the Muslim world.⁶⁶
• William Montgomery Watt who in his book Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman addresses Muhammad’s alleged moral failures. He claims that “Of all the world's great men none has been so much maligned as Muhammad.” Watt argues on a basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today."⁶⁷
• Karen Armstrong, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad’s teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Qur'an alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.⁶⁸
• Edward Said, in his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, stated that the general basis of Orientalist thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study. He claims the existence of a very considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up. He claims Islam has been looked at with a particular hostility and fear due to many obvious religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity."⁶⁹
• Cathy Young of Reason Magazine claimed that the growing trend of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim sentiment stemmed from an atmosphere where such criticism is popular. While stating that the terms "Islamophobia" and "anti-Muslim bigotry" are often used in response to legitimate criticism of fundamentalist Islam and problems within Muslim culture, she claimed "the real thing does exist, and it frequently takes the cover of anti-jihadism."⁷⁰
• Deepa Kumar, the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike, in her article titled 'Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics' says "The history of Islam is no more violent than the history of any of the other major religions of the world. Perhaps my critics haven't heard of the Crusades -- the religious wars fought by European Christians from the 11th to the 13th centuries." referring to the brutality of the crusades and then contrasting them to forbidding of acts of vengeance and violence by the Sultan of Egypt Saladin, after he successfully retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Speaking on the Danish cartoon controversy she says "The Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head is nothing if not the visual depiction of the racist diatribe that Islam is inherently violent. To those who can't understand why this argument is racist, let me be clear: when you take the actions of a few people and generalize it to an entire group -- all Muslims, all Arabs -- that's racism. When a whole group of people are discriminated against and demonized because of their religion or regional origin, that's racism." and "...Arabs and Muslims are being scapegoated and demonized to justify a war that is ruining the lives of millions."⁷¹
• Muhammad Mohar Ali says that the Qur'an records the earliest criticisms (and responses), examples of which are Muhammad being called a madman (e.g. 15:6), a poet (21:5), a kahin soothsayer (69:42), and so on. He writes that nothing of importance has been added by later critics.⁷²

Criticism of the truthfulness of Islam and Islamic Scriptures

Reliability of the Qur'an

Main article: Criticism of the Qur'an

See also: Historicity of Muhammad -- historical authenticity of the Qur'an

See also: Origin and development of the Qur'an

Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the perfect word of Allah, and as such it cannot contain any errors or contradictions, and must be perfectly compatible with science. It is so perfect that readers must conclude it is of divine, rather than human, origin.

Critics argue that:

• the Qur'an has scientific errors.^{73 74}
• the Qur'an contains numerous verses which contradict each other.⁷⁵
• the Qur'an contains incorrect cosmological explanations.³⁹
• there is nothing miraculously new in the Qur'an³⁹
• the Qur'an is not original, but rather shows the influence of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Sabianism, and Samaritanism in its origins. American missionary Samuel Zwemer claimed the Qur'an "is not an invention, but a concoction; there is nothing novel about it except the genius of Mohammad in mixing old ingredients into a new panacea for human ills and forcing it down by means of the sword."⁷⁶

• The oldest scripts of the Qur'an (the Sana'a manuscripts, found in Yemen in 1972) ⁷⁷ contain differences from the traditional version.⁷⁸ Critics believe that this implies that the Qur'an has changed over time.⁷⁹

In a 1999 Atlantic Monthly article, Gerd Puin,German scholar and the world's foremost authority on Qur'anic paleography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts, is quoted as saying that:^{80 80}

My idea is that the Koran is a kind of cocktail of texts that were not all understood even at the time of Muhammad. Many of them may even be a hundred years older than Islam itself. Even within the Islamic traditions there is a huge body of contradictory information, including a significant Christian substrate; one can derive a whole Islamic anti-history from them if one wants. The Qur’an claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen,’ or clear, but if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense. Many Muslims will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Qur’anic text is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Qur’an is not comprehensible, if it can’t even be understood in Arabic, then it’s not translatable into any language. That is why Muslims are afraid. Since the Qur’an claims repeatedly to be clear but is not—there is an obvious and serious contradiction. Something else must be going on.

• The traditional account of the history of Islam says there were two verses in the Qur'an (known as the Satanic Verses) that were allegedly added by Muhammad when he was tricked by Satan. These verses referred to "daughters of Allah". These verses were later removed from the Qur'an.⁸¹⁶⁷

Muslim Answers to Criticism of the Qur'an

• On Scientific Errors & Contradictions

Prominent muslims such as Dr. Zakir Naik, on the other hand argues that "every single of these criticisms can be easily refuted". Naiks lectures and debates are mostly centered around the removing of, what he calls, misconceptions regarding Islam and the Quran. In his book titled The Qur'an and Modern Science, Compatible or Incompatible?⁸² he explains a number of scientific 'miracles' of the Qur'an (i.e. verses, apparently referring to what has only recently been scientifically established) and thus argues,

He and most other muslims scholars like Ahmed Deedat argue that the seeming contradictions amongst verses in the Qur'an can be refuted simply by understanding verses in their context. They also argue that Qur'an itself poses a challenge to anyone to find a single contradiction and prove the Qur'an was not authored by Allah⁸³; they all then quote the following verse:

• On some Similarities with other Religious Scriptures

Writers such as S.M. Saifullah argue that it is an Islamic viewpoint that every nation was sent a Messenger for their guidance by Allah. The important matter was the concept of Tawheed (i.e. Islamic-monotheism) while the secondary matter was shariah, which kept changing from nation to nation⁸⁴; their arguments are based on Qur'anic verses like the following:

Muslims thus believe that it is obligatory for them to believe in the prophets mentioned by Prophet Muhammed and the Qur'an.⁸⁵

• The Sana'a manuscripts

Aisha Geissinger, a notable writer on Islam, argues in her article titled "Orientalists plot against the Qur'an under the guise of academic study and archive preservation"⁸⁶

Reliability of hadith

Main article: Hadith

Hadith are Muslim traditions relating to the Sunna (words and deeds) of Muhammad. They are drawn from the writings of scholars writing between 844 and 874 CE, more than 200 years after the death of Mohammed in 632 CE.⁸⁷ In general, for Muslims the hadith are second only to the Qur'an in importance,⁸⁸ although some scholars put more emphasis on the perpetual adherence of Muslim nation to the traditions to give them credibility, and not solely on hadith.⁸⁹. Most of our knowledge about the life of Muhammad comes from the hadith, many of which were biographies of Mohammed. Many Islamic practices (such as the Pillars of Islam) are drawn from the hadith.

However, there is criticism of the historical reliability of hadith. John Esposito notes that "Modern Western scholarship has seriously questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith", maintaining that "the bulk of traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad were actually written much later." He mentions Joseph Schacht as one scholar who argues this, claiming that Schacht "found no evidence of legal traditions before 722," from which Schacht concluded that "the Sunna of the Prophet is not the words and deeds of the Prophet, but apocryphal material" dating from later.⁹⁰

Other Western scholars, like Wilferd Madelung, are more confident in the reliability of Islamic traditions, rejecting the stance of some historians who show an "extreme distrust" for "Muslim literary sources for the early age of Islam". Madelung wrote in the preface of his book The Succession to Muhammad:

Within Islam, different schools and sects have different opinions on the proper selection and use of hadith. The four schools of Sunni Islam all consider hadith second only to the Qur'an, although they differ on how much freedom of interpretation should be allowed to legal scholars.⁹² Shi'i scholars disagree with Sunni scholars as to which hadith should be considered reliable. The Shi'as accept the Sunna of Ali and the Imams as authoritative in addition to the Sunna of Muhammad, and as a consequence they maintain their own, different, collections of hadith.⁹³

On the extreme end, there have been Muslims who deny the authority of the hadith completely or almost completely (manifestations of which have sometimes been termed the Quran-only movement). Early in Islamic history there was a school of thought that adhered to this view, but it receded in importance after coming under criticism by al-Shafi'i. Daniel Brown describes a modern anti-hadith movement that reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but is now in decline.⁹⁴ The Submitters movement today holds to a Quran-only view,⁹⁵ although they are considered heretical by more traditionalist Muslims.⁹⁶

Lack of secondary evidence

See also: Historiography of early Islam

The traditional view of Islam has also been criticised for the lack of supporting evidence consistent with that view, such as the lack of archaeological evidence, and discrepancies with non-Muslim literary sources.⁹⁷ (see Hagarism)

Criticism of the morality of Islam

Criticism of the morality of Muhammad

Main article: Criticism of Muhammad

Muslims consider Muhammad to be the final prophet, the messenger of the final revelation that he called the Qur’an. Muslims believe that Muhammad is righteous, holy, no more than a messenger, a warner and seal of Prophets. However, critics such as Koelle and Ibn Warraq, as well as some other non-Muslims, see some of his actions as immoral.⁵⁷ Islamic scholars, such as William Montgomery Watt disagree, especially when a comparison is made between Muhammad and Biblical prophets. Watt, for example, argues that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today."

Criticism of the morality of the Qur'an

Main article: Criticism of the Qur'an

A part of Meditation II from Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar's justification for his terrorist attack at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Meditation II, has appeared on numerous websites critical to Islam.

Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the literal word of God as recited to Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. Criticism of the Qur'an generally consists of questioning traditional claims about the Qur'an's composition and content.

It is a central tenet of Islam that the Qur'an is perfect, so criticism of the Qur'an is considered criticism of Islam.

This is a list of critical arguments:

• Critics argue that the Quranic verse 4:34 allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them.⁹⁸⁹⁹ (There is however confusion amongst translations of Quran with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them"¹⁰⁰, "beat"¹⁰¹, "strike lightly" and "separate"¹⁰².
• Critics claim that violence is implicit in the Qur'anic text, and that Islam itself, not just Islamism, promotes terrorism.¹⁰³¹⁰⁴
• The Quran is criticized for advocating the death penalty.¹⁰⁵¹⁰⁶
• Some critics argue that the Qur'an is incompatible with other religious scriptures, attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions.^81071088109

Human Rights: Apostasy

Decision of a Fatwa committee on the case of a convert to Christianity: "Since he left Islam, he will be invited to express his regret. If he does not regret, he will be killed pertaining to rights and obligations of the Islamic law."

Main article: Apostasy in Islam

Apostasy in Islamic law

Bernard Lewis summarizes:

The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, as well as Shi'a scholars, agree that a sane adult male apostate must be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to the majority view, or imprisoned until she repents, according to others.¹¹⁰

The Qur'an threatens apostate with punishment in the next world only, the historian W. Heffening states, the traditions however contain the element of death penalty. Muslim scholar Shafi'i interprets verse ^{Qur'an 2:217} as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Qur'an.¹¹¹ The historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet." He further states that "nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of the holy text."¹¹²

William Montgomery Watt, in response to a question about Western views of the Islamic Law as being cruel, states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived. However, as societies have since progressed and become more peaceful and ordered, they are not suitable any longer."¹¹³

Some contemporary Islamic jurists from both the Sunni and Shi'a denominations together with Qur'an only Muslims have argued or issued fatwas that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances.^{114115116117118119120121} For example, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri argues that no Qur'anic verse prescribes an earthly penalty for apostasy and adds that it is not improbable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad at early Islam due to political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims and not only because of changing the belief or expressing it. Montazeri defines different types of apostasy. He does not hold that a reversion of belief because of investigation and research is punishable by death but prescribes capital punishment for a desertion of Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim.¹²²

According to Yohanan Friedmann, a contemporary Muslim with liberal convictions may stress tolerant elements of Islam (by for instance adopting the broadest interpretation of Qur'an 2:256 ("No compulsion is there in religion...") or the humanist approach attributed to Ibrahim al-Nakha'i), without necessarily denying the existence of other ideas in the Medieval Islamic tradition but rather discussing them in their historical context (by for example arguing that "civilizations comparable with the Islamic one, such as the Sassanids and the Byzantines, also punished apostasy with death. Similarly neither Judaism nor Christianity treated apostasy and apostates with any particular kindness").¹²³ Friedmann continues:

The real predicament facing modern Muslims with liberal convictions is not the existence of stern laws against apostasy in medieval Muslim books of law, but rather the fact that accusations of apostasy and demands to punish it are heard time and again from radical elements in the contemporary Islamic world.¹²⁴

Contemporary treatment of accused apostates

Today, out of 57 mostly Islamic countries in OIC, five make apostasy from Islam a crime punishable by death: Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and Yemen. According the US State Department, there have been no reports any executions carried out by the government of Saudi Arabia for several years.¹²⁵ On the other hand, in Pakistan, vigilante attacks against alleged apostates are common.¹²⁶

Abdul Rahman

The recent case of Afghan Abdul Rahman has achieved particular notoriety. In early 2006, Rahman was arrested and held by Afghan authorities on charges that he converted from Islam to Christianity, a capital offense in Afghanistan. Many Muslim clerics in the country pushed for a death sentence, but after international pressure (including a public statement by U.S. Secretary of State at the time Condoleezza Rice) he was released and secretly given asylum in Italy.¹²⁷¹²⁸

Nasr Abu Zayd

In 1993, an Egyptian professor named Nasr Abu Zayd was divorced from his wife by an Egyptian court run by Islamic radicals on the grounds that his controversial writings about the Qur'an demonstrated his apostasy. He subsequently fled to Europe with his wife.¹²⁹ Another Egyptian professor, Farag Fuda, was killed in 1992 by masked men after criticizing Muslim fundamentalists and announcing plans to form a new movement for Egyptians of all religions.¹³⁰

Apostasy and Human Rights Conventions

Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion.¹³¹¹³²

In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ¹³³ states:

To implement this, Article 18 (2) of the ICCPR states:

The right for Muslims to change their religion is not afforded by the Iranian Shari'ah law, which specifically forbids it ^134132131

Muslim countries such as Sudan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, have the death penalty for apostasy from Islam.¹³⁵.

These countries have criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western countries.

In 1990, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference published a separate Cairo Declaration of Human Rights compliant with Shari'ah.¹³⁶. Although granting many of the rights in the UN declaration, it does not grant Muslims the right to convert to other religions, and restricts freedom of speech to those expressions of it that are not in contravention of the Islamic law.

Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami,¹³⁷ wrote a book called Human Rights in Islam¹³⁸, in which he argues that respect for human rights has always been enshrined in Sharia law (indeed that the roots of these rights are to be found in Islamic doctrine)¹³⁹ and criticizes Western notions that there is an inherent contradiction between the two.¹⁴⁰. Western scholars have, for the most part, rejected Maududi's analysis.^{141142 143}

Women

Main articles: Women and Islam#Liberal Islam, Islamic feminism, and other progressive criticism and Islam and domestic violence

Many have asserted that "women are not treated as equal members" of Muslim societies ¹⁰ and have criticized Islam for condoning this treatment.¹¹ The term "Muslim apartheid" has been used to highlight religious isolation in France as well as gender segregation practices.¹⁴⁴¹⁴⁵

The Catholic Church has warned christian women about marrying Muslim men because of the "inferior" status of women in Muslim countries and the nonexistence of maternal rights to children. [6]

Event though many critics of Islam argue that Islam opressess women, others argue that it does the opposite. They draw this conclusion from the following sources:

[3 : 195] "Their Lord responded to them: "I never fail to reward any worker among you for any work you do, be you MALE OR FEMALE, YOU ARE EQUAL TO ONE ANOTHER........."

[4 : 124] "As for those who lead a righteous life, MALE OR FEMALE. while believing, they enter Paradise; without the slightest injustice"

[16 : 97] "Anyone who works righteousness, MALE OR FEMALE, while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world, and we will surely pay them their full recompense for their righteous works." [7]

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008)

Homosexuals

Main article: Homosexuality and Islam

Critics such as Muslim lesbian activist Irshad Manji¹⁴⁶, former muslim Ehsan Jami and the Dutch Muslim-born politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali have criticized Islam's attitudes towards homosexuals. Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, condemn Islamic laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However most Muslim nations insist that such laws are necessary to preserve Islamic morality and virtue.¹⁴⁷ In May 2008, the sexual rights lobby group Lambda Istanbul (based in Istanbul, Turkey) was banned by court order for violating a constitutional provision on the protection of the family and an article banning bodies with objectives that violate law and morality.¹⁴⁸

Violence towards critics of Islam

Marchers hold signs expressing extremist sentiments outside Danish Embassy in London in 2006

Despite claims that the sources of Islam demand it to be a "religion of peace" with violence being regulated by laws of Jihad, it has been criticised for its followers exhibiting intolerance and violence towards critics (often viewed as being pejorative of Islam and its Prophet¹⁴⁹):

• Ibn Warraq has collected and published stories of the reported mistreatment of Muslim apostates at the hands of Islamic authorities.⁶
• German professor Christoph Luxenberg feels compelled to work under a pseudonym to protect himself because of fears that a new book on the origins of the Qur'an may make him a target for violence.¹⁵⁰
• Hashem Aghajari, an Iranian university professor, was initially sentenced to death because of a speech that criticized some of the present Islamic practices in Iran being in contradiction with the original practices