Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now - Hardcover

Hirsi Ali, Ayaan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345808827 ISBN 13: 9780345808820

Publisher: Knopf Canada, 2015

Synopsis

Continuing her very personal journey from a deeply religious Islamic upbringing to a post at Harvard, the brilliant, charismatic and controversial New York Times and Globe and Mail #1 bestselling author of Infidel and Nomad makes a powerful plea for an Islamic Reformation as the only way to end the horrors of terrorism and sectarian warfare and the repression of women and minorities.

     Today, the world's 1.6 billion Muslims can be divided into a minority of fundamentalists, a majority of observant "daily" Muslims and a few dissidents who risk their lives by questioning their own religion. But there is only one Islam and, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues, there is no denying that some of its key teachings--like the subordination of women and the duty to wage holy war--are incompatible with the values of a free society.
     For centuries it has seemed as if Islam is immune to change. But Hirsi Ali has come to believe that a "Reformation"--a revision of Islamic doctrine aimed at reconciling the religion with modernity--is now at hand, and may even have begun. The Arab Spring may now seem like a political failure. But its challenge to traditional authority revealed a new readiness--not least by Muslim women--to think freely and to speak out.
     Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that ordinary Muslims throughout the world want change. Courageously challenging the fundamentalists, she identifies 5 key amendments to Islamic doctrine that must be made in order to set Muslims free from their 7th-century chains. Interweaving her own experiences, historical analogies and powerful examples from contemporary Islamic societies and cultures, Heretic is not a call to arms, but a passionate plea for peaceful change and a new era of toleration.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Is Islam A Religion of Peace?

In what is sure to be her most controversial book to date, Ayaan Hirsi Ali makes a powerful case that a religious Reformation is the only way to end the terrorism, sectarian warfare, and repression of women and minorities that each year claim thousands of lives throughout the Muslim world. With bracing candor, the brilliant, charismatic, and uncompromising author of the bestselling Infidel and Nomad argues that it is foolish to insist, as our leaders habitually do, that the violent acts of Islamic extremists can be divorced from the religious doctrine that inspires them. Instead we must confront the fact that they are driven by a political ideology embedded in Islam itself.

Today, Hirsi Ali argues, the world's 1.6 billion Muslims can be divided into a minority of extremists, a majority of observant but peaceable Muslims, and a few dissidents who risk their lives by questioning their own religion. But there is only one Islam, and as Hirsi Ali shows, there is no denying that some of its key teachings—not least the duty to wage holy war—inspire violence not just in the Muslim world but in the West as well.

For centuries it has seemed that Islam is immune to historical change. But Hirsi Ali is surprisingly optimistic. She has come to believe that a Muslim "Reformation"—a revision of Islamic doctrine aimed at reconciling the religion with modernity—is at hand, and may even already have begun.

Partly in response to the barbaric atrocities of Islamic State and Boko Haram, Muslims around the world have at last begun to speak out for religious reform. Meanwhile, events in the West, such as the shocking Charlie Hebdo massacre, have forced Western liberals to recognize that political Islam poses a mortal threat to free speech. Yet neither Muslim reformers nor Western liberals have so far been able to articulate a coherent program for a Muslim Reformation.

This is where Heretic comes in. Boldly challenging centuries of theological orthodoxy, Ayaan Hirsi Ali proposes five key amendments to Islamic doctrine that Muslims must make if they are to bring their religion out of the seventh century and into the twenty-first. She also calls upon the Western world to end its appeasement of radical Islamists—and to drop the bogus argument that those who stand up to them are guilty of "Islamophobia." It is the Muslim reformers who need our backing, she argues, not the opponents of free speech.

Interweaving her own experiences, historical analogies, and powerful examples from contemporary Muslim societies and cultures, Heretic is not so much a call to arms as a passionate plea for peaceful change and a new era of global tolerance. As jihadists kill thousands, from Nigeria to Syria to Pakistan, this book offers an answer to what is fast becoming the world's number one problem.

About the Author

Globally known, award-winning human rights activist, AYAAN HIRSI ALI is the New York Times bestselling author of Infidel, Nomad and The Caged Virgin. Born in Somalia and raised Muslim, she grew up in Africa and Saudi Arabia, before fleeing to the Netherlands in 1992, where she went from cleaning factories to winning a seat in the Dutch Parliament. A prominent speaker, debater and op-ed writer, she was chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. She is now a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and lives in Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Canada
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0345808827
• ISBN 13: 9780345808820
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288