Ibn Warraq
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Ibn Warraq is a scholar and the bestselling author of several books on Islam. He currently lives in the United States. He is an outspoken critic of Islam who has written extensively on what he views as the oppressive nature of Islam and religion in general.
The name Ibn Warraq (Arabic ابن وراق, most literally "son of a papermaker") is a pseudonym that has traditionally been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam.
Among the few personal details known about his life is that he was born in 1946 in Rajkot, India, to Indian-Muslim parents who soon emigrated to Pakistan, and that he studied at the University of Edinburgh under the scholar Montgomery Watt, who wrote a widely-read biography of Muhammad in two volumes.
Ibn Warraq has written several books, some of which are scholarly and gather together critical research on such topics as the origins of the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad. Other books seek to promote secular humanist values among Muslims.
In March 2006 a letter he co-signed entitled with eleven other individuals (most notably Salman Rushdie) was published in response to violent and deadly protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Works
- Why I Am Not a Muslim, Ibn Warraq, foreword by R. Joseph Hoffmann, Prometheus Books, 1995, hardcover, 428 pages, ISBN 0879759844
- , edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2003, hardcover, 320 pages, ISBN 1591020689
- What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2002, 600 pages, ISBN 157392945X
- Quest for the Historical Muhammad, edited and translated by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 2000, hardcover, 554 pages, ISBN 1573927872
- Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book, edited by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, 1998, hardcover, 420 pages, ISBN 157392198X
- "[Essay on Edward Said's Orientalism:"Debunking Edward Said: Edward Said and the Saidists: or Third World Intellectual Terrorism]"
See also
External links
- [Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society]
- Boston Globe: [Losing His Religion]
- [Why I am not a Muslim: The Origins of Islam]
- [Profile: Ibn Warraq]
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