There has been no shortage of free thinkers in Islamic history - but recent attempts to
suppress critical thought are
verging on the absurd
Islamic history is full of free thinkers
Ziauddin Sardar
This has nothing to do with Islam, say the imams. These callous and fanatic murders have nothing to do with us, say the mullahs. Islam means peace, say the worshippers. These disclaimers, and variations on them, have been repeated countless times by Muslim commentators since the Charlie Hebdo killings. They are designed to distance people from guilt by association with those who kill and maim in the name of Islam.
But what about the sentence recently handed down to the (mildly) liberal blogger Raif Badawi in the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia? Ten years in jail, a massive fine, 1,000 lashes over 20 weeks (currently suspended because the first 50 lashes have rendered him medically unfit)? Does this have nothing to do with a parochial view of Islam?
There is this widespread perception of Islam, made more so by modern communications; increasingly gaining followers in Europe, it can be, and is, used to justify all manner of atrocities. Yet this is an Islam of manufactured dogma which relies on neither the Koran nor the example of the Prophet Mohamed.
So where do these beliefs come from? From todays extremist leaders, of course. But also, historically, from caliphs and clerics who realised that religion could perform a very useful function: it could keep the masses in their place and ensure that power remained in the hands of a select few.
As for state-sanctioned blasphemy laws now regarded as sacrosanct in Pakistan, Egypt and other Muslim counties they were actually first introduced by the colonial powers in the 19th century, to keep the peace between the different religious communities that they ruled. And still it goes on, with recent attempts to suppress critical thought verging on the absurd. In September 2011, a Saudi cleric called for astronomy to be banned, and astronomers punished, because it encouraged scepticism about sharia. (This despite the fact that astronomy, regarded as an original Muslim science, has a distinguished history in Islamic civilisation.)
But despite what these religious despots would have their followers think, in fact Islamic history is full of free thinkers who have stood up to such authoritarianism. During the 8th century CE, when sharia law was being shaped, the Persian writer and thinker Ibn al-Muqaffa declared that it had the potential of becoming a political tool in the hands of kings and clerics manipulating the rough and credulous. And during the 9th and 10th centuries, a host of writers, satirist and free thinkers joined him in denouncing dogmatism.
The accomplished theologian Ibn al-Rawandi mocked religious scholars. and the nonsense they peddled about a Paradise full of virgins. His contemporary, the polymath and natural scientist Abu Bakr al-Razi, insisted that Islam without reason had no value. The renowned blind poet Abul Ala al-Maarri sought to correct what established religion took for Gods criteria.
Their contemporary, the scientist Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, who is regarded by some as a free thinker not only of his age but across all ages, insisted that it was essential to question everything from religion to philosophy and to respect criticism, including of ones religion, in order to benefit from its arguments. And the 12th-century philosopher Ibn Rushd, who later had huge influence on European thought, argued that matters of belief should be decided only on the basis of reason and evidence a position deemed so dangerous that his numerous books were banned, and Ibn Rushd himself was briefly banished.
So why dont we hear more about these great thinkers and questioners today? Because concentrated attempts have been made, and continue to be made, to stifle free thinking and wipe its record from Islams history.
Today, as in history, all attempts to rethink our understanding and relationship with God, to interrogate orthodox belief, to bring reason back to Islam, are shunned not just by the fanatics but by the vast majority of Muslims. The manufactured articles of faith seem to have an unassailable hold on Muslim minds. And so the moderate free thinkers legacy, so vital at this time of sectarian warfare within Islam, is swept collectively under the carpet of accepted, if artificial, doctrine.
Our best hope of dealing with extremism is to challenge the doctrines manufactured by religious scholars, from the past and present. The distinguished history of critical thought in Islam must be brought back from the periphery to the centre.
The writer is editor of the quarterly journal Critical Muslim. His book, Mecca: The Sacred City, was published by Bloomsbury
