Toward a More Perfect Union: Book

I first must say that this is the first review I've done of a book by an author who openly questions things that are widely-held tenets of Muslims such as the divine origin of the Qur'an, its complete transmission to us today, the infallibility of the Messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم , the necessity of obeying the shari'ah (doing the ritual prayers, avoiding the consumption of prohibited items such as wine, etc.) and the reality of the Day of Judgment. While I do believe in these statements and I hope that one day my actions catch up with them, I have felt for a long time the necessity of embracing those who don't subscribe to these items.

The first benefit of embracing these people is that they often are producers in their societies, meaning driving them away impoverishes the nation. How many cities in the United States thrive because of concentrations of gays and lesbians? Did not Iran lose a lot when so many Iranians left the country after the 1979 revolution? And while there are many reasons people leave predominantly Muslim countries, there's no need to add repression to that list.

Second, and more importantly, the energy we "orthodox" Muslims spend discussing the errors of their ways distracts us from improving ourselves. We can even get to the point where we think attacking the kāfir, zindīq and fāsiq is a substitute for good deeds. When I was in Egypt and would read in the paper of a mob attack on Christians, I often suspected that the very people who would rush to "defend" Islam by attacking Christians may never have done a rak`a. Or at least I could not imagine how someone with an iota of fear of Allah could participate in these activities.

complete review available at