Islam and the future of tolerance
In this short book, Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz invite you to join an urgently needed conversation: Is Islam a religion of peace or war? Is it amenable to reform? Why do so many Muslims seem drawn to extremism? What do words like Islamism, jihadism, and fundamentalism mean in today's world? Remarkable for the breadth and depth of its analysis, this dialogue between a famous atheist and a former radical is all the more startling for its decorum. Harris and Nawaz have produced something genuinely new: they engage one of the most polarizing issues of our time -- fearlessly and fully -- and actually make progress. Islam and the Future of Tolerance has been published with the explicit goal of inspiring a wider public discussion by way of example. In a world riven by misunderstanding and violence, Harris and Nawaz demonstrate how two people with very different views can find common ground.
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- Ouch, that article really hurt my respect for SPL. Nawaz especially, through his discussions with Sam Harris, really opened my eyes to the struggles of moderate and progressive Muslims when it comes to reforming Islam.
Nawaz was himself radicalized as a young man, and much of his work today is around preventing other young Muslims from taking that path. It disgusts me that a man with such a important perspective is carelessly labeled anti-Muslim.
Check out the audiobook discussion with Sam Harris if you haven't, "Islam and the future of Tolerance". It was a good, respectful discussion between two very different viewpoints, and Nawaz made very insightful and logical arguments for mainstream Islam being capable of undertaking certain anti-radicalization reforms and why those matter.
- I read on my phone/tablet these days. I backpacked around for 11 months straight once and having physical books and keeping notes was difficult. I use to just buy books from Google/Amazon/B&N, but these days I'll usually just buy some merch from an author or support their podcast (if they have one) and pirate the book because I hate vendor lock-in.
I usually try to switch back and fourth between fiction and non-fiction. I'll read two or three fictional novels and then maybe some non-fiction. I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction. A lot of them they draw out a 100 page book into a 300 page extended essay because that's what publishers want to sell books at the current market prices. I'd rather they sell 150 page non-fiction if they could get the same point across. (Sam Harris brought this up when he self published the short book: Islam and the Future of Tolerance, which is on my list).
I think at one time I might have switched between two books throughout my reading, but today I usually read one all the way through.
I do want to read more. Here's what I finished last year:
Books 2018:
and 2019 so far:Cibola Burn Nemesis Games The Dictator's Handbook The Mythical Man Month Ready Player One The Myth of Sisyphus and Other EssaysThe Fountainhead Wrinkle in Time The Men who Stare at Goats The Coddling of the American Mind Babylon's Ashes The Strange Death of Europe Persepolis Rising - It is factual to say that some cultures more than others are more conducive to the general well being of everyone, especially if we can agree on the baseline that the worst possible suffering for everyone is BAD, and everything else is better and you build up from that.
Some scriptures have seriously bad ideas in them, such as direct calls for violence against certain minority groups and people professing different beliefs from the majority. Some cultures are so integrated or intwined with these scriptures that it would be intellectually dishonest to say they do not influence and play a major part in the culture. The link is stronger in some cultures than what we are used to in a modern mostly secular west. Currently some cultures are simply not the best place for women or non heterosexuals to be in, that is a fact.
Change towards bettering these cultures can not happen if ideas can not be discussed openly and the cultures and some of their core tenets can not be criticized. It is not racism or racist or whateverphobic to criticize islam the religion and certain similar aspects of cultures surrounding it in muslim majority countries.
That is not to say that other cultures don't have issues but for example Buddha did not call for killing gays and unbelievers and spreading the faith through violence, even if some people in countries that profess being majority buddhist do cause violence. [1] I just don't think it's feasible to throw the Pali canon or core tenets of buddhist thought at someone to manufacture suicide bombers of them.
Majid Nawaz, a former radical islamist who was jailed in Egypt for being part of what could be called an extremist (or even terrorist?) organization has been making rounds talking about having a 'war of ideas' and the need for reforming islam. [2] He co-authored a book with Sam Harris called 'Islam and the Future of Tolerance'. The book explores islam and some of its dangerous doctrines and how the muslim world needs to embrace reform to bring their culture to the 21st century. [3]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Rohingya_persecution_in_M...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wE2jHf3RKk
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_the_Future_of_Tolera...
