Criticism of Islam

The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are found in the writings of Christians such as John of Damascus. He viewed Islamic doctrines as a mix of ideas taken from the Bible and claimed that Muhammad was influenced by an Arian monk.{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/stjohn_islam.aspx|chapter= St. John of Damascus's Critique of Islam|title=Writings by St John of Damascus|series=The Fathers of the Church|volume=37|location=Washington, DC|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|year=1958|pages= 153–160|access-date=8 July 2019}}

Other notable early critics included Arabs like Abu Isa al-Warraq and Ibn al-Rawandi.{{cite book |last=Hecht |first=Jennifer Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/doubthistory00jenn |title=Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson |publisher=Harper San Francisco |year=2003 |isbn=0-06-009795-7 |page=224 |author-link=Jennifer Michael Hecht}}{{rp|224}} al-Ma'arri, an eleventh-century antinatalist and critic of all religions. His poetry was known for its "pervasive pessimism."{{Cite web|title = Abu-L-Ala al-Maarri Facts|url = http://biography.yourdictionary.com/abu-l-ala-al-maarri|website = biography.yourdictionary.com|access-date = 13 July 2015}}{{Cite book|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/abu-bakr-al-razi/|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|first=Peter|last=Adamson|chapter=Abu Bakr al-Razi |editor-first=Edward N.|editor-last=Zalta|date=1 November 2021|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|via=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/150301-aristotle-archimedes-einstein-darwin-ptolemy-razi-ngbooktalk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303021204/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/150301-aristotle-archimedes-einstein-darwin-ptolemy-razi-ngbooktalk|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 March 2021|title=Is Islam Hostile to Science?|date=28 February 2015|website=Adventure}} He believed that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth.{{Cite book| last=Moosa| first= Ebrahim | title=Ghazālī and the Poetics of Imagination | publisher=UNC Press | year= 2005 | isbn=0-8078-2952-8| page=9}}{{cite book |last=Hecht |first=Jennifer Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/doubthistory00jenn |title=Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson |publisher=Harper San Francisco |year=2003 |isbn=0-06-009795-7 |page=224 |author-link=Jennifer Michael Hecht}}{{rp|224}} Apologetic writings, attributed to the philosopher Abd-Allah ibn al-Muqaffa ({{Died in|{{circa|756}}}}), include defenses of Manichaeism against Islam and critiques of the Islamic concept of God, characterizing the Quranic deity in highly critical terms.Tilman Nagel Geschichte der islamischen Theologie: von Mohammed bis zur Gegenwart C.H. Beck 1994 {{ISBN|9783406379819}} p. 215Camilla Adang, Hassan Ansari, Maribel Fierro, Sabine Schmidtke Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr Brill, 30 October 2015 {{ISBN|9789004307834}} p. 61 The Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammuna, criticized Islam,Ibn Warraq. Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 3. Prometheus Books, 1995. {{ISBN|0-87975-984-4}}Norman A. Stillman. The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book p. 261. Jewish Publication Society, 1979{{ISBN|0-8276-0198-0}} reasoning that Sharia was incompatible with the principles of justice.Norman A. Stillman. The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book p. 261. Jewish Publication Society, 1979 {{ISBN|0-8276-0198-0}}{{Cite journal|doi=10.3390/rel10010063|doi-access=free|title=Muhammad, the Jews, and the Composition of the Qur'an: Sacred History and Counter-History|year=2019|last1=Firestone|first1=Reuven|journal=Religions|volume=10|page=63}}

During the Middle Ages, Christian church officials commonly represented Islam as a Christian heresy or a form of idolatry.{{Cite book|author=Erwin Fahlbusch|title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 2|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1999|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=yaecVMhMWaEC|page=759}}|page=759| isbn=9789004116955}}Christian Lange Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions Cambridge University Press, 2015 {{ISBN|9780521506373}} pp. 18–20 They viewed Islam to be a material, rather than spiritual, religion and often explained it in apocalyptic terms.Christian Lange Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions Cambridge University Press, 2015 {{ISBN|9780521506373}} pp. 18–20{{Cite book|author=Erwin Fahlbusch|title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 2|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1999|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=yaecVMhMWaEC|page=759}}|page=759| isbn=9789004116955}} In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European academics often portrayed Islam as an exotic Eastern religion distinct from Western religions like Judaism and Christianity, sometimes classifying it as a "Semitic" religion.{{cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|pages= xxi – xxxii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC|isbn=9781438126968}}{{Cite book|author=Erwin Fahlbusch|title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 2|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1999|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=yaecVMhMWaEC|page=759}}|page=759| isbn=9789004116955}} The term "Mohammedanism" was used by many to criticize Islam by focusing on Muhammad's actions, reducing Islam to merely a derivative of Christianity rather than acknowledging it as a successor of Abrahamic monotheisms.{{cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|pages= xxi – xxxii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC|isbn=9781438126968}}{{cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|page= 477|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC|isbn=9781438126968}} By contrast, many academics nowadays study Islam as an Abrahamic religion in relation to Judaism and Christianity. The Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton criticized Islam as a heresy or parody of Christianity,G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 1925, Chapter V, The Escape from Paganism, [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100311.txt Online text]{{cite web |last1=Villis |first1=Tom |title=G. K. Chesterton and Islam |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336105840 |website=Research Gate |publisher=Modern Intellectual History |access-date=January 16, 2014 |year=2019}} David Hume ({{Died in|1776}}), both a naturalist and a sceptic,{{Cite book| edition = Summer 2017| publisher = Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|editor= Edward N. Zalta | last1 = Russell| first1 = Paul| last2 = Kraal| first2 = Anders| title = The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy| chapter = Hume on Religion| access-date = 3 December 2018| date = 2017| chapter-url = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/hume-religion/}} considered monotheistic religions to be more "comfortable to sound reason" than polytheism but also found Islam to be more "ruthless" than Christianity.{{Cite book| publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-1-134-60914-7| last1 = MacEoin| first1 = Denis| last2 = Al-Shahi| first2 = Ahmed| title = Islam in the Modern World (RLE Politics of Islam)| date = 24 July 2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZQqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22}}

The Greek Orthodox bishop Paul of Antioch accepted Muhammed as a prophet, but did not consider his mission to be universal and regarded Christian law superior to Islamic law.Hugh Goddard A History of Christian-Muslim Relations New Amsterdam Books, 5 September 2000 {{ISBN|9781461636212}} p. 65. Maimonides, a twelfth-century rabbi, did not question the strict monotheism of Islam, and considered Islam to be a instrument of divine providence for bringing all of humankind to the worship of the one true God, but was critical of the practical politics of Muslim regimes and considered Islamic ethics and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts.[https://web.archive.org/web/19990508062628/http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9902/novak.html The Mind of Maimonides], by David Novak. Retrieved 29 April 2006.

In his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, the cultural critic Edward Said suggests that the Western view of Islam is particularly hostile for a range of religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity." In his view, the general basis of Orientalist thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study, thus forming a considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up.{{cite web |author=Edward W. Said |date=2 January 1998 |title=Islam Through Western Eyes |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/islam-through-western-eyes?page=full |work=The Nation}}

In an alleged dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos ({{Reign|1391|1425}}) and a Persian scholar, the emperor criticized Islam as a faith spread by the sword.Dialogue 7 of Twenty-six Dialogues with a Persian (1399), for the Greek text see Trapp, E., ed. 1966. Manuel II. Palaiologos: Dialoge mit einem "Perser." Wiener Byzantinische Studien 2. Vienna, for a Greek text with accompanying French translation see Th. Khoury "Manuel II Paléologue, Entretiens avec un Musulman. 7e Controverse", Sources Chrétiennes n. 115, Paris 1966, for an English translation see Manuel Paleologus, Dialogues with a Learned Moslem. Dialogue 7 (2009), chapters 1–18 (of 37), translated by Roger Pearse available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/manuel_paleologus_dialogue7_trans.htm here], at [http://www.tertullian.org/ The Tertullian Project] [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/manuel_paleologus_dialogue7_trans.htm here], and also [https://www.scribd.com/doc/40389472/Manuel-Paleologus-Dialogue-with-a-Learned-Muslim-Scholar-Dialogue-7-15th-century here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211201618/http://www.scribd.com/doc/40389472/Manuel-Paleologus-Dialogue-with-a-Learned-Muslim-Scholar-Dialogue-7-15th-century |date=11 December 2013 }}. A somewhat more complete translation into French is found [http://www.cypress.fr/UserFiles/File/manuel-paleologue.html here] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210137/http://www.cypress.fr/UserFiles/File/manuel-paleologue.html |date=2016-03-03 }} This matches the common view in Europe during the Enlightenment period about Islam, then synonymous with the Ottoman Empire, as a bloody, ruthless, and intolerant religion.{{Cite book| publisher = Clarendon Press| isbn = 978-0-19-925188-9| last = Hume| first = David| title = A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition| date = 2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K-VbQ2TPA70C&pg=PA139}} More recently, in 2006, a similar statement of Manuel II,{{efn|"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached," he said.}} quoted publicly by Pope Benedict XVI, prompted a negative response from Muslim figures who viewed the remarks as an insulting mischaracterization of Islam.{{Cite news |date=16 September 2006 |title=In quotes: Muslim reaction to Pope |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5348436.stm |via=news.bbc.co.uk}}{{Cite news |date=17 September 2006 |title=Pope sorry for offending Muslims |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5353208.stm |via=news.bbc.co.uk}} In this vein, the Indian social reformer Pandit Lekh Ram ({{Died in|1897}}) thought that Islam was grown through violence and desire for wealth,"Américo Castro and the Meaning of Spanish Civilization", by José Rubia Barcia, Selma Margaretten, p. 150. while the Nigerian author Wole Soyinka considers Islam as a "superstition" that it is mainly spread with violence and force."Debating the African Condition: Race, gender, and culture conflict", by Alamin M. Mazrui, Willy Mutunga, p. 105

This "conquest by the sword" thesis is opposed by some historians who consider the transregional development of Islam a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon. The first wave of expansion, the migration of the early Muslims to Medina to escape persecution in Mecca and the subsequent conversion of Medina, was indeed peaceful. In the years to come, Muslims defended themselves against frequent Meccan incursions until Mecca's peaceful surrender in 630. By the time of his death in 632, many of the Arabian tribes had formed political alliances with Muhammad and adopted Islam peacefully, which also paved the way for the subsequent conquests of Syria, Iran, Egypt and (the rest of North Africa) after the death of Muhammad. Islam nevertheless often remained a minority religion in conquered territories for several centuries after the initial waves of conquest, indicating that the conquest of territories beyond the Arabian Peninsula did not instantly result in large conversions to Islam.{{efn|Scholarly research suggests that there was an inverse relationship between where Muslim political power centres were and where the most conversions occurred, which was on the political periphery. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, conquest was just one of several elements that helped Islam spread throughout the world. The systematisation of Islamic tradition, trade, interfaith marriage, political patronage, urbanisation, and the pursuit of knowledge must also be acknowledged. Along trade routes and even in the most isolated regions, Sufis contributed to the spread of Islam. The yearly hajj to Mecca, which brought together scholars, mystics, businesspeople, and regular believers from various nations, should be particularly noted as a contributing factor. Despite taking on more contemporary forms, these factors are still in force today. The expansion of Islam into western Europe, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand has been facilitated by them.}}

File:AndalusQuran.JPGn Quran]]

{{Main|Criticism of the Quran}}

{{See also|History of the Quran|The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran|Historicity of Muhammad}}

In the lifetime of Muhammad, the Quran was primarily preserved orally and the written compilation of the whole Quran in its current form took place some 150 to 300 years later, according to some sources.Yehuda D. Nevo "Towards a Prehistory of Islam," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, vol.17, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1994 p. 108.John Wansbrough The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1978 p. 119Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, Princeton University Press, 1987 p. 204. Alternatively, others believe that the Quran was compiled shortly after the death of Muhammad in 632 and canonized by end of the caliphate of Uthman ({{Reign|644|656}}).{{Sfn|Modarressi|1993|pp=16{{ndash}}18}}{{Sfn|Amir-Moezzi|2009|p=14}}{{Sfn|Pakatchi|2015}} The idea that Quran is perfect and impossible to imitate as asserted in the Quran itself is disputed by critics.See the verses {{Cite quran|2|2|style=ns}}, {{Cite quran|17|88|end=89|style=ns}}, {{Cite quran|29|47|style=ns}}, {{Cite quran|28|49|style=ns}} One such criticism is that sentences about God in the Quran are sometimes followed immediately by those in which God is the speaker.[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=363&letter=K&search=Koran "Koran"]. From the Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 January 2008. The modern historian John Wansbrough believes that the Quran is in part a redaction of other sacred scriptures, in particular the Judaeo-Christian scriptures.Wansbrough, John (1977). Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural InterpretationWansbrough, John (1978). The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History. The Christian theologian Philip Schaff ({{Died in|1893}}) praises the Quran for its poetic beauty, religious fervor, and wise counsel, but considers this mixed with "absurdities, bombast, unmeaning images, and low sensuality."Schaff, P., & Schaff, D. S. (1910). History of the Christian church. Third edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Volume 4, Chapter III, section 44 "The Koran, And The Bible" The Iranian journalist Ali Dashti ({{Died in|1982}}) criticized the Quran, saying that "the speaker cannot have been God" in certain passages.{{cite book|last1=Warraq|title=Why I am Not a Muslim|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=0-87975-984-4|page=106|url=http://download.iranville.com/books/%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C%20%D8%A7%D9%86%DA%AF%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%B3%DB%8C/Ibn%20Warraq%20-%20Why%20I%20Am%20Not%20a%20Muslim.pdf|year=1995|access-date=16 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150117072713/http://download.iranville.com/books/%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C%20%D8%A7%D9%86%DA%AF%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%B3%DB%8C/Ibn%20Warraq%20-%20Why%20I%20Am%20Not%20a%20Muslim.pdf|archive-date=17 January 2015|url-status=dead}} Similarly, the secular author Ibn Warraq gives Surah al-Fatiha as an example of a passage which is "clearly addressed to God, in the form of a prayer." The orientalist Gerd Puin believes that the Quran contains many verses which are incomprehensible, a view rejected by Muslims and many other orientalists.{{cite magazine |last=Lester |first=Toby |author-link=Toby Lester |date=January 1999 |title=What is the Koran? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199901/koran |magazine=The Atlantic}} Apology of al-Kindy, a medieval polemical work, describes the narratives in the Quran as "all jumbled together and intermingled," and regards this as "evidence that many different hands have been at work therein."Quoted in A. Rippin, Muslims: their religious beliefs and practices: Volume 1, London, 1991, p. 26.

File:Bible.malmesbury.arp.jpg

Critics point to various pre-existing sources to argue against the traditional narrative of revelation from God. Some scholars have calculated that one third of the Quran has pre-Islamic Christian origins.G. Luling asserts that a third of the Quran is of pre-Islamic Christian origins, see Über den Urkoran, Erlangen, 1993, 1st ed., 1973, p. 1. Aside from the Bible, the Quran relies on several Apocryphal and sources, like the Protoevangelium of James,Leirvik 2010, pp. 33–34. Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and several infancy gospels.Leirvik 2010, p. 33. Several narratives rely on Jewish Midrash Tanhuma sources, like the narrative of Cain learning to bury the body of Abel in Quran 5:31.Samuel A. Berman, Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu (KTAV Publishing House, 1996), 31–32.Gerald Friedlander, Pirḳe de-R. Eliezer, (The Bloch Publishing Company, 1916) 156 Norman Geisler argues that the dependence of the Quran on preexisting sources is one evidence of a purely human origin.Geisler, N. L. (1999). "Qur'an, Alleged Divine Origin of". In: Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Richard Carrier regards this reliance on pre-Islamic Christian sources as evidence that Islam derived from a Torah-observant sect of Christianity.[https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/8574 Did Muhammad Exist? (Why That Question Is Hard to Answer)], in richardcarrier.info

{{Main|Criticism of Hadith}}{{See also|Historiography of early Islam}}

It has been suggested that there exists around the Hadith (Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah (words and deeds) of Muhammad) three major sources of corruption: political conflicts, sectarian prejudice, and the desire to translate the underlying meaning, rather than the original words verbatim.Brown, Daniel W. "Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought", 1999. pp. 113, 134.

Muslim critics of the hadith, known as Quranists, reject its authority on theological grounds, arguing that the Quran itself is sufficient for guidance, as it claims that nothing essential has been omitted.Quran, Chapter 6. The Cattle: 38 They believe that reliance on the Hadith has caused people to deviate from the original intent of God's revelation to Muhammad, which they see as adherence to the Quran alone.Donmez, Amber C. "The Difference Between Quran-Based Islam and Hadith-Based Islam"Quran, Chapter 6. The Cattle: 38 Ghulam Ahmed Pervez was one of these critics and was denounced as a non-believer by thousands of orthodox clerics.Ahmad, Aziz. "Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan, 1857–1964". London: Oxford University Press. In his work Maqam-e Hadith he considered any hadith that goes against the teachings of Quran to have been falsely attributed to the Prophet.Pervez, Ghulam Ahmed. [http://www.tolueislam.com/Parwez/mh/mh.htm Maqam-e Hadith] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113215748/http://www.tolueislam.com/Parwez/mh/mh.htm |date=13 November 2011 }}, [http://www.tolueislam.com/Urdu/mhadith/mh.htm Urdu version] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004044003/http://www.tolueislam.com/Urdu/mhadith/mh.htm |date=4 October 2011 }} Kassim Ahmad argued that some hadith promote ideas that conflict with science and create sectarian issues.Latif, Abu Ruqayyah Farasat. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200823050931/http://calltoislam.com/pdf/The%20Quraniyoon%20of%20the%20twentieth%20century%20-%20Abu%20Ruqayyah%20Farasat%20Latif.pdf The Quraniyun of the Twentieth Century], Masters Assertion, September 2006Ahmad, Kassim. "Hadith: A Re-evaluation", 1986. English translation 1997

John Esposito argues that modern Western scholarship has raised doubts about the historicity and authenticity of hadith,{{sfn|Esposito|1998|p=67}} while Joseph Schacht argued that there is no evidence of legal traditions prior to 722. Schacht concluded that the Sunna attributed to the Prophet consists of material from later periods rather than the actual words and deeds of the Prophet.{{sfn|Esposito|1998|p=67}} However, scholars like Wilferd Madelung have argued that a complete dismissal of hadith as late fiction is "unjustified".{{cite book | last=Madelung| first=Wilferd | title=The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1997 | isbn=0-521-64696-0 | page=xi}}

Orthodox Muslims do not deny the existence of false hadith, but believe that through the scholars' work, these false hadith have been largely eliminated.By Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza, "Shi'ism", 1988. p. 35.{{cite book | last=Madelung| first=Wilferd | title=The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1997 | isbn=0-521-64696-0 | page=xi}}

File:SanaaQuoranDoubleVersions.jpgs of the Quran]]

The traditional view of Islam has faced scrutiny due to a lack of consistent supporting evidence, such as limited archaeological finds and some discrepancies with non-Muslim sources.{{cite web|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/mohammed_3866.jsp|title=What do we actually know about Mohammed?|work=openDemocracy|access-date=13 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090421171853/http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/mohammed_3866.jsp|archive-date=21 April 2009|url-status=dead}}Donner, Fred Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing, Darwin Press, 1998{{rp|23}} In the 1970s, a number of scholars began to re-evaluate established Islamic history, proposing that earlier accounts may have been altered over time.Donner, Fred Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing, Darwin Press, 1998{{rp|23}}{{cite web|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/mohammed_3866.jsp|title=What do we actually know about Mohammed?|work=openDemocracy|access-date=13 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090421171853/http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/mohammed_3866.jsp|archive-date=21 April 2009|url-status=dead}} They sought to reconstruct early Islamic history using alternative sources like coins, inscriptions, and non-Islamic texts. Prominent among these scholars was John Wansbrough.{{rp|38}} Additionally, Gerd R. Puin's study of the Sana'a manuscripts revealed some variations in text and verse order, suggesting that the Quranic text may have evolved over time.

{{See also|Criticism of Muhammad}}

The Christian missionary Sigismund Koelle and the former Muslim Ibn Warraq have criticized Muhammad's actions as immoral. In one instance, the Jewish poet Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf provoked the Meccan tribe of Quraysh to fight Muslims and wrote erotic poetry about their women,{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam Online |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |author-link=William Montgomery Watt |editor=P.J. Bearman |issn=1573-3912 |author=William Montgomery Watt |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs}} and was apparently plotting to assassinate Muhammad.Uri Rubin, The Assassination of Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf, Oriens, Vol. 32. (1990), pp. 65–71. Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b, and he was consequently assassinated by Muhammad ibn Maslama, an early Muslim.{{cite book |author=Ibn Hisham |title=Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya |year=1955 |volume=2 |location=Cairo |pages=51–57 |author-link=Ibn Hisham}} English translation from Stillman (1979), pp. 125–26. Such criticisms were countered by the historian William M. Watt, who argues on the basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards and norms of his own time and geography, rather than ours.{{Cite book |last=Watt |first=W. Montgomery |url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadprophets00watt/page/229 |title=Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1961 |isbn=0-19-881078-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/muhammadprophets00watt/page/229 229] |access-date=27 May 2010}} The fourteenth-century poem Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri contains images of Muhammad, picturing him the eighth circle of hell as a Heresiarch, along with his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.G. Stone Dante's Pluralism and the Islamic Philosophy of Religion Springer, 12 May 2006 {{ISBN|9781403983091}} p. 132Minou Reeves, P. J. Stewart Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-Making NYU Press, 2003 {{ISBN|9780814775646}} p. 93–96 Dante does not blame Islam as a whole but accuses Muhammad of schism for establishing another religion after Christianity. Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself. 'Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscript of unknown origins, describes how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation: God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their deviation from the faith. He then sent an angel to the Christian monk Osius who ordered him to preach to the Arabs. Osius, however, was in ill-health and instead ordered a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders. Ozim set out to follow his orders, but was stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believed him to be the same angel that had spoken to Osius before. The evil angel modified and corrupted the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renamed Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to Tultusceptru.J. Tolan, Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam'' (1996) pp. 100–01

{{Main|Islamic ethics}}

File:Quran rzabasi1.JPG]]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, while there is much to be admired and affirmed in Islamic ethics, its originality or superiority is rejected.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10424a.htm "Mohammed and Mohammedanism"]. From the Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 January 2008.

Critics stated that the Quran 4:34 allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them.Kathir, Ibn, "Tafsir of Ibn Kathir", Al-Firdous Ltd., London, 2000, 50–53 – Ibn Kathir states "dharbun ghayru nubrah" strike/admonish lightly There is however evidence from Islamic hadiths and scholars such as Ibn Kathir that demonstrates that only a twig or leaf can be used by a man to "strike" their wife and this is not allowed to cause pain or injure their wife but to show their frustration.{{cite journal|date=2017| title =Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition: Book Review|journal= Journal of Islamic Ethics| volume=1|issue=(1-2)|pages= 203–207| doi= 10.1163/24685542-12340009|doi-access=free| last1 =Osman| first1 =Amr}} Moreover, confusion amongst translations of Quran with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them",Laleh Bakhtiar, The Sublime Quran, 2007 translation "beat","The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary", Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Amana Corporation, Brentwood, MD, 1989. {{ISBN|0-915957-03-5}}, passage was quoted from commentary on 4:34 – Abdullah Yusuf Ali in his Quranic commentary also states that: "In case of family jars four steps are mentioned, to be taken in that order. (1) Perhaps verbal advice or admonition may be sufficient; (2) if not, sex relations may be suspended; (3) if this is not sufficient, some slight physical correction may be administered; but Imam Shafi'i considers this inadvisable, though permissible, and all authorities are unanimous in deprecating any sort of cruelty, even of the nagging kind, as mentioned in the next clause; (4) if all this fails, a family council is recommended in 4:35 below." Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary (commentary on 4:34), Amana Corporation, Brentwood, MD, 1989. {{ISBN|0-915957-03-5}}. "strike lightly" and "separate".Ammar, Nawal H. (May 2007). "Wife Battery in Islam: A Comprehensive Understanding of Interpretations". Violence Against Women 13 (5): 519–23 The film Submission critiqued this and similar verses of the Quran by displaying them painted on the bodies of abused Muslim women.{{cite web|url=http://www.opzij.nl/opzij/show?id=23669&framenoid=19755|title=Welkom bij Opzij|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225432/http://www.opzij.nl/opzij/show?id=23669&framenoid=19755|archive-date=27 September 2007}}

Some critics argue that the Quran is incompatible with other religious scriptures as it attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions.Gerber (1986), pp. 78–79"Anti-Semitism". Encyclopaedia Judaica[http://www.hudson.org/files/pdf_upload/saudi_textbooks_final.pdf Saudi Arabia's Curriculum of Intolerance] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318224903/http://www.hudson.org/files/pdf_upload/saudi_textbooks_final.pdf |date=18 March 2009 }} (pdf), Freedom House, May 2006, pp. 24–25. Sam Harris interprets certain verses of the Quran as sanctioning military action against unbelievers as it said "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled."(Quran 9:29)Sam Harris [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/who-are-the-moderate-musl_b_15841.html Who Are the Moderate Muslims?] However, the Islamic hadiths and scholars such as Dr Zakir Naik refer to fighting and not to trust "non-believers" and Christians in certain situations or events such as during times of war.Understanding the Qurán - Page xii, Ahmad Hussein Sakr - 2000

Jizya is a tax for "protection" paid by non-Muslims to a Muslim ruler, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, and for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state.Anver M. Emon, Religious Pluralism and Islamic Law: Dhimmis and Others in the Empire of Law, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0199661633}}, pp. 99–109.{{cite book | first=Thomas | last=Walker Arnold | author-link=Thomas Walker Arnold | publisher=Constable & Robinson Ltd | date=1913 | title=Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith | url=https://archive.org/details/preachingofislam00arno | pages=[https://archive.org/details/preachingofislam00arno/page/60 60]–1 | quote=This tax was not imposed on the Christians, as some would have us think, as a penalty for their refusal to accept the Muslim faith, but was paid by them in common with the other dhimmīs or non-Muslim subjects of the state whose religion precluded them from serving in the army, in return for the protection secured for them by the arms of the Musalmans.}} ([https://archive.org/stream/preachingofislam00arno#page/60/mode/2up online]){{sfn|Esposito|1998|p=34|ps=. "They replaced the conquered countries, indigenous rulers and armies, but preserved much of their government, bureaucracy, and culture. For many in the conquered territories, it was no more than an exchange of masters, one that brought peace to peoples demoralized and disaffected by the casualties and heavy taxation that resulted from the years of Byzantine-Persian warfare. Local communities were free to continue to follow their own way of life in internal, domestic affairs. In many ways, local populations found Muslim rule more flexible and tolerant than that of Byzantium and Persia. Religious communities were free to practice their faith to worship and be governed by their religious leaders and laws in such areas as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In exchange, they were required to pay tribute, a poll tax (jizya) that entitled them to Muslim protection from outside aggression and exempted them from military service. Thus, they were called the "protected ones" (dhimmi). In effect, this often meant lower taxes, greater local autonomy, rule by fellow Semites with closer linguistic and cultural ties than the hellenized, Greco-Roman élites of Byzantium, and greater religious freedom for Jews and indigenous Christians."}}

Harris argues that Muslim extremism is simply a consequence of taking the Quran literally, and is skeptical that moderate Islam is possible.{{efn|Various calls to arms were identified in the Quran by US citizen Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, all of which were cited as "most relevant to my actions on March 3, 2006" (Q9:44,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.044|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194024/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.044 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 9:19,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.019|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194024/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.019 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 57:10–11,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/057-qmt.php#057.010|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=13 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413235435/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/057-qmt.php#057.010 |archive-date=13 April 2016 }} 8:72–73,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/008-qmt.php#008.072|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=30 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151230210409/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/008-qmt.php#008.072 |archive-date=30 December 2015 }} 9:120,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.120|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194024/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.120 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 3:167–75,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/003-qmt.php#003.167|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194019/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/003-qmt.php#003.167 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 4:66,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/004-qmt.php#004.066|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=1 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501064500/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/004-qmt.php#004.066 |archive-date=1 May 2015 }} 4:104,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/004-qmt.php#004.104|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=1 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501064500/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/004-qmt.php#004.104 |archive-date=1 May 2015 }} 9:81,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.081|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194024/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.081 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 9:93–94,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.093|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194024/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.093 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 9:100,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.100|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604194024/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.100 |archive-date=4 June 2016 }} 16:110,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/016-qmt.php#016.110|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=26 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026012552/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/016-qmt.php#016.110 |archive-date=26 October 2012 }} 61:11–12,{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/061-qmt.php#061.011|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=30 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430041717/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/061-qmt.php#061.011 |archive-date=30 April 2016 }} 47:35).{{Cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/047-qmt.php#047.035|title=Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement|date=2 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502163036/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/047-qmt.php#047.035 |archive-date=2 May 2016 }}{{cite wikisource |wslink=Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar- Letter to The daily Tar Heel |title=Letter to The daily Tar Heel |first=Mohammed Reza |last=Taheri-azar |authorlink=Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar SUV attack#Perpetrator |year=2006}}}}{{Cite book | last=Harris | first=Sam | title=The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | pages=[https://archive.org/details/endoffaithreligi00harr/page/31 31, 149] | publisher=W. W. Norton; Reprint edition | year=2005 | isbn=0-393-32765-5 | url=https://archive.org/details/endoffaithreligi00harr/page/31 }}

Max I. Dimont interprets that the Houris described in the Quran are specifically dedicated to "male pleasure".The Indestructible Jews, by Max I. Dimont, p. 134 According to Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Umar Ahmed Usmani "Hur" or "hurun" is the plural of both "ahwaro" which is a masculine form and also "haurao" which is a feminine, meaning both pure males and pure females. Basically, the word 'hurun' means white, he says.{{cite web |title=Are all 'houris' female? |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/635343 |website=Dawn.com |access-date=22 April 2019 |date=9 June 2011}}

{{Main|Islamic views on slavery|History of slavery in the Muslim world|History of concubinage in the Muslim world|Mamluk}}

File:Slaves Zadib Yemen 13th century BNF Paris.jpg in Yemen]]

According to Bernard Lewis, the Islamic injunctions against the enslavement of Muslims led to massive importation of slaves from the outside.Lewis, Bernard (1990). Race and Slavery in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-505326-5}}, p. 10. Also Patrick Manning believes that Islam seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse.Manning, Patrick (1990). Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-34867-6}}, p. 28

Brockopp, on the other hand believe that the idea of using alms for the manumission of slaves appears to be unique to the Quran ({{Quran-usc|2|177}} and {{Quran-usc|9|60}}). Similarly, the practice of freeing slaves in atonement for certain sins appears to be introduced by the Quran (but compare Exod 21:26-7). Also the forced prostitution of female slaves, a Near Eastern custom of great antiquity, is condemned in the Quran.John L Esposito (1998) p. 79 According to Brockopp "the placement of slaves in the same category as other weak members of society who deserve protection is unknown outside the Qur'an.Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Slaves and Slavery Some slaves had high social status in the Muslim world, such as the Mamluk enslaved mercenaries,{{cite book |last=Levanoni |first=Amalia |year=2010 |chapter=PART II: EGYPT AND SYRIA (ELEVENTH CENTURY UNTIL THE OTTOMAN CONQUEST) – The Mamlūks in Egypt and Syria: the Turkish Mamlūk sultanate (648–784/1250–1382) and the Circassian Mamlūk sultanate (784–923/1382–1517) |editor-last=Fierro |editor-first=Maribel |title=The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 2: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries |location=Cambridge and New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=237–284 |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521839570.010 |isbn=978-1-139-05615-1 |quote=The Arabic term mamlūk literally means 'owned' or 'slave', and was used for the White Turkish slaves of Pagan origins, purchased from Central Asia and the Eurasian steppes by Muslim rulers to serve as soldiers in their armies. Mamlūk units formed an integral part of Muslim armies from the third/ninth century, and Mamlūk involvement in government became an increasingly familiar occurrence in the medieval Middle East. The road to absolute rule lay open before them in Egypt when the Mamlūk establishment gained military and political domination during the reign of the Ayyūbid ruler of Egypt, al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb (r. 637–47/1240–9).}} who were assigned high-ranking military and administrative duties by the ruling Arab and Ottoman dynasties.{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Ayalon |author-first=David |author-link=David Ayalon |year=2012 |orig-date=1991 |title=Mamlūk |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Heinrichs |editor3-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |editor4-last=Lewis |editor4-first=B. |editor4-link=Bernard Lewis |editor5-last=Pellat |editor5-first=Ch. |editor5-link=Charles Pellat |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |volume=6 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0657 |isbn=978-90-04-08112-3}}

Critics argue unlike Western societies there have been no anti-slavery movements in Muslim societies,Murray Gordon, "Slavery in the Arab World." New Amsterdam Press, New York, 1989. Originally published in French by Editions Robert Laffont, S.A. Paris, 1987, p. 21.

which according to Gordon was due to the fact that it was deeply anchored in Islamic law, thus there was no ideological challenge ever mounted against slavery.Murray Gordon, "Slavery in the Arab World." New Amsterdam Press, New York, 1989. Originally published in French by Editions Robert Laffont, S.A. Paris, 1987, pp. 44–45. According to sociologist Rodney Stark, "the fundamental problem facing Muslim theologians vis-à-vis the morality of slavery" is that Muhammad himself engaged in activities such as purchasing, selling, and owning slaves, and that his followers saw him as the perfect example to emulate. Stark contrasts Islam with Christianity, writing that Christian theologians wouldn't have been able to "work their way around the biblical acceptance of slavery" if Jesus had owned slaves, as Muhammad did.Rodney Stark, "For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery", p. 338, 2003, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0691114366}}

Only in the early 20th century did slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, with Muslim-majority Mauritania being the last country in the world to formally abolish slavery in 1981.

Murray Gordon characterizes Muhammad's approach to slavery as reformist rather than revolutionary that abolish slavery, but rather improved the conditions of slaves by urging his followers to treat their slaves humanely and free them as a way of expiating one's sins.{{cite book|author=Murray Gordon|title=Slavery in the Arab World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l81hwFPvzYC&pg=PA19|pages=19–20|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=1989|isbn=9780941533300}}

In Islamic jurisprudence, slavery was theoretically an exceptional condition under the dictum The basic principle is liberty.{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Brunschvig, R.| year=1986 | title=ʿAbd |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|volume=1|pages=26}}

Reports from Sudan and Somalia showing practice of slavery is in border areas as a result of continuing warThe Oxford Dictionary of Islam, slavery, p. 298 and not Islamic belief. In recent years, except for some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars,{{efn|In a 2014 issue of their digital magazine Dabiq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.{{cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/islamic-state-seeks-justify-enslaving-yazidi-women-and-girls-iraq-277100|title=Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq|work=Newsweek|date=13 October 2014}}Allen McDuffee, [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/isis-confirms-and-justifies-enslaving-yazidis-in-new-magazine-article/381394/ "ISIS Is Now Bragging About Enslaving Women and Children,"] The Atlantic, 13 October 2014Salma Abdelaziz, [http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/world/meast/isis-justification-slavery/ "ISIS states its justification for the enslavement of women,"] CNN, 13 October 2014Richard Spencer, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11158797/Thousands-of-Yazidi-women-sold-as-sex-slaves-for-theological-reasons-says-Isil.html "Thousands of Yazidi women sold as sex slaves 'for theological reasons', says Isil,"] The Daily Telegraph, 13 October 2014.}}

most Muslim scholars found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality".Abou el Fadl, Great Theft, HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.{{cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/economicHistory/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Islam&SlaveryWGCS.pdf|title=Department of Economic History|access-date=9 March 2022|archive-date=25 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325013630/http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/economicHistory/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Islam%26SlaveryWGCS.pdf|url-status=dead}}Khaled Abou El Fadl and William Clarence-Smith

File:Execution of a Moroccan Jewess by Alfred Dehodencq.jpg)", a painting by Alfred Dehodencq]]

{{Main|Apostasy in Islam}}

{{See also|Freedom of religion#Islam}}

In Islam, apostasy along with heresy and blasphemy (verbal insult to religion) is considered a form of disbelief. The Qur'an states that apostasy would bring punishment in the Afterlife, but takes a relatively lenient view of apostasy in this life (Q 9:74; 2:109).

While Shafi'i interprets verse Quran 2:217{{Quran-usc|2|217|style=ns}} as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Quran, the historian W. Heffening states that Quran threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only.,W. Heffening, in Encyclopedia of Islam the historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet."Encyclopedia of the Quran, Apostasy

According to Islamic law, apostasy is identified by a list of actions such as conversion to another religion, denying the existence of God, rejecting the prophets, mocking God or the prophets, idol worship, rejecting the sharia, or permitting behavior that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery or the eating of forbidden foods or drinking of alcoholic beverages.{{cite web |author=Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, Nuh Ha Mim Keller |date=1368 |title=A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law |url=http://dailyrollcall.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/the-reliance-of-the-traveller.pdf |access-date=14 May 2020 |work=Shafiifiqh.com |page=517, Chapter O8.0: Apostasy from Islam (Ridda)}}{{cite web|url=http://www.catheyallison.com/Reliance_of_the_Traveller.pdf |title=Reliance of the Traveller |author=Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, Nuh Ha Mim Keller |date =1368|work=Amana Publications |access-date=14 May 2020}}{{cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|page=48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC|isbn=9781438126968}} The majority of Muslim scholars hold to the traditional view that apostasy is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance, at least for adults of sound mind.{{cite book|author=Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im|title=Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law|publisher= Syracuse University Press|year= 1996|page= 183 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U4e7Ph4lXzUC&pg=PA183|isbn=9780815627067}}{{cite book|last1=Kecia |first1=Ali |first2= Oliver |last2=Leaman|title=Islam: the key concepts|publisher= Routledge|year= 2008|page= 10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5-CdzqmuXsC&pg=PA10|isbn=9780415396387 }}{{cite book|first=John L. |last=Esposito|title=The Oxford dictionary of Islam|publisher= Oxford University Press|year=2004 |page= 22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&pg=PA22|isbn=9780195125597}}

Also Sunni and Shi'a scholars, agree on the difference of punishment between male and female.{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam | year=2003 | title=Murtadd}}

Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion.[http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/edumat/studyguides/religion.html STUDY GUIDE:Freedom of Religion or Belief], in Human Rights Library - University of Minnesota In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html|title=UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights}}

Some contemporary Islamic jurists, such as Hussein-Ali Montazeri[http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/02/050202_mj-montzari-renegade.shtml Ayatollah Montazeri: "Not Every Conversion is Apostasy"], by Mahdi Jami, In Persian, BBC Persian, 2 February 2005. Retrieved 25 April 2006. have argued or issued fatwas that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/02/050202_mj-montzari-renegade.shtml Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: "Not Every Conversion is Apostasy"], by Mahdi Jami, In Persian, BBC Persian, 2 February 2005. Retrieved 25 April 2006.

• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4850080.stm What Islam says on religious freedom], by Magdi Abdelhadi, BBC Arab affairs analyst, 27 March 2006. Retrieved 25 April 2006.
• S. A. Rahman in "Punishment of Apostasy in Islam", Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, 1972, pp. 10–13
• [http://www.islamicperspectives.com/Apostasy1.htm The punishment of apostasy in Islam] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090926233750/http://www.islamicperspectives.com/Apostasy1.htm |date=26 September 2009 }}, View of Dr. Ahmad Shafaat on apostasy.
• Religious Tolerance.org, [http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos.htm Apostasy (Irtdidad) In Islam], by B.A. Robinson, Religious Tolerance.org, 7 April 2006. Retrieved 16 April 2006.

According to Yohanan Friedmann, "The real predicament facing modern Muslims with liberal convictions is not the existence of stern laws against apostasy in medieval Muslim books of law, but rather the fact that accusations of apostasy and demands to punish it are heard time and again from radical elements in the contemporary Islamic world."Yohanan Friedmann, Tolerance and Coercion in Islam, Cambridge University Press, p. 5

Sadakat Kadri noted that "state officials could not punish an unmanifested belief even if they wanted to".{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ..|date=2012 |publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780099523277 |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth%3A+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law}}

The kind of apostasy which the jurists generally deemed punishable was of the political kind, although there were considerable legal differences of opinion on this matter.Asma Afsaruddin (2013), Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought, p. 242. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0199730938}}.

Wael Hallaq states that "[in] a culture whose lynchpin is religion, religious principles and religious morality, apostasy is in some way equivalent to high treason in the modern nation-state".{{cite book|last1= Wael|first1= B. Hallaq|title= Sharī'a: Theory, Practice and Transformations|date= 2009|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn= 978-0-521-86147-2|page= 319|author1-link= Wael Hallaq}}

Also Bernard Lewis consider the apostasy as a treason and "a withdrawal, a denial of allegiance as well as of religious belief and loyalty".{{cite magazine| last=Lewis | first=Bernard | title=Islamic Revolution | date=1998-01-21 | magazine=The New York Review of Books | url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4557}}

The English historian C. E. Bosworth suggests the traditional view of apostasy hampered the development of Islamic learning, like philosophy and natural science, "out of fear that these could evolve into potential toe-holds for kufr, those people who reject God."C. E. Bosworth: Untitled review of "The Rise of Colleges. Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West by George Makdisi", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1983), pp. 304–05

While in 13 Muslim-majority countries atheism is punishable by death,{{cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/atheists-death-penalty-_n_4417994.html|title=Atheists Face Death Penalty In 13 Countries, Discrimination Around The World According To Freethought Report|date=12 October 2013|work=The Huffington Post}}

according to legal historian Sadakat Kadri, executions were rare because "it was widely believed" that any accused apostate "who repented by articulating the shahada" (LA ILAHA ILLALLAH "There is no God but God") "had to be forgiven" and their punishment delayed until after Judgement Day.[http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/forty_hadith_merits_tahlil.htm#_ftnref28 Forty Hadiths on the Merit of Saying La Ilaha Illallah] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904045814/http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/forty_hadith_merits_tahlil.htm |date=4 September 2015 }}| Compiled by Dr. G.F. Haddad| (Hadith 26, Narrated by Bukhari, Muslim, Ahmad, Tayalisi, Abu Dawud, Nasa'i, al-`Adni, Abu `Awana, al-Tahawi, al-Hakim, and Bayhaqi.){{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ..|date=2012|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780099523277|page=239|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth%3A+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202174508/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heaven+on+Earth:+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAWoVChMIob7syrnZxwIVhg6SCh0fYg3Z#v=onepage&q=Heaven%20on%20Earth%3A%20A%20Journey%20Through%20Shari'a%20Law&f=false|archive-date=2 December 2016}}

William Montgomery Watt states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived."[http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/articles/2000_watt.htm Interview: William Montgomery Watt] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807045042/http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/articles/2000_watt.htm |date=7 August 2011 }}, by Bashir Maan & Alastair McIntosh

{{Main|Islam and violence|Supremacism#Islamic}}

File:North face south tower after plane strike 9-11.jpg led to debate on whether Islam promotes violence.]]

Quran's teachings on matters of war and peace have become topics of heated discussion in recent years. On the one hand, some critics claim that certain verses of the Quran sanction military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after.Warrant for terror: fatwās of radical Islam and the duty of jihād, p. 68, Shmuel Bar, 2006

Jihad, an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims meaning "striving for the sake of God".{{cite book|title=Essential Islam: a comprehensive guide to belief and practice|last=Morgan |first=Diane|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36025-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/essentialislamco0000morg/page/87 87] |url=https://archive.org/details/essentialislamco0000morg|url-access=registration|access-date=5 January 2011}}{{cite encyclopedia | editor=Wendy Doniger | title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions | publisher=Merriam-Webster | year=1999 | isbn=0-87779-044-2 | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440 }}, Jihad, p. 571{{cite encyclopedia | editor=Josef W. Meri | title=Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia | publisher=Routledge | year=2005 | isbn=0-415-96690-6}}, Jihad, p. 419John Esposito(2005), Islam: The Straight Path, p. 93{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Diaspora communities|volume= 2 |last1=Ember |first1=Melvin |first2=Carol R. |last2=Ember|first3= Ian |last3=Skoggard |year=2005 |publisher=Springer|isbn=0-306-48321-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA183}}

It is perceived in a military sense (not spiritual sense) by Bernard LewisBernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 72.Lewis, Bernard, The Crisis of Islam, 2001 Chapter 2 and David Cook.Cook, David. Understanding Jihad. University of California Press, 2005. Retrieved from Google Books on 27 November 2011. {{ISBN|0-520-24203-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-520-24203-6}}. Also Fawzy Abdelmalek{{cite book |title=The Turning Point: Islam & Jesus Salvation|first=Fawzy T. |last=Abdelmalek |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2008 |page=210 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REW7sYxFyBYC&q=Quran+violence&pg=PA210|isbn=9781468534290 }} and Dennis Prager argue against Islam being a religion of peace and not of violence.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436571/orlando-shooting-left-gives-islam-free-pass|title=What If the Orlando Murderer Had Been a Christian?|website=National Review|date=13 June 2016}} John R. Neuman, a scholar on religion, describes Islam as "a perfect anti-religion" and "the antithesis of Buddhism".John Newman, "[http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/jiabs/article/download/8878/2785 Islam in the Kālacakra Tantra]"{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1998 Lawrence Wright argued that role of Wahhabi literature in Saudi schools contributing suspicion and hate violence against non-Muslims as non-believers or infidels and anyone who "disagrees with Wahhabism is either an infidel or a deviant, who should repent or be killed."{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7093423.stm|title=Jihad and the Saudi petrodollar|date=15 November 2007|via=news.bbc.co.uk}}

Most Muslim scholars, on the other hand, argue that such verses of the Quran are interpreted out of context,Sohail H. Hashmi, David Miller, Boundaries and Justice: diverse ethical perspectives, Princeton University Press, p. 197{{cite web|url=http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~khaleel/|title=Khaleel Mohammed|publisher=San Diego State University Religious Studies Department|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708102707/http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~khaleel/|archive-date=8 July 2008}} and argue that when the verses are read in context it clearly appears that the Quran prohibits aggression,Ali, Maulana Muhammad; [http://www.aaiil.org/text/books/mali/religionislam/religionislammuhammadali.shtml The Religion of Islam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421092242/http://aaiil.org/text/books/mali/religionislam/religionislammuhammadali.shtml |date=21 April 2018 }} (6th Edition), Ch V "Jihad" p. 414 "When shall war cease". Published by The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement{{cite book|last=Sadr-u-Din|first=Maulvi|title=Qur'an and War|page=8|publisher=The Muslim Book Society, Lahore, Pakistan|url=http://www.aaiil.org/text/books/others/sadrdin/quranwar/quranwar.shtml|access-date=8 October 2012|archive-date=8 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308202015/http://www.aaiil.org/text/books/others/sadrdin/quranwar/quranwar.shtml|url-status=dead}}[http://www.aaiil.org/uk/newsletters/2002/0302.shtml Article on Jihad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829203630/http://www.aaiil.org/uk/newsletters/2002/0302.shtml |date=29 August 2017 }} by Dr. G. W. Leitner (founder of The Oriental Institute, UK) published in Asiatic Quarterly Review, 1886. ("Jihad, even when explained as a righteous effort of waging war in self-defense against the grossest outrage on one's religion, is strictly limited..") and allows fighting only in self-defense.[http://www.aaiil.org/text/articles/bash/quraniccommandmentswarjihad.shtml The Qur'anic Commandments Regarding War/Jihad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426223211/http://www.aaiil.org/text/articles/bash/quraniccommandmentswarjihad.shtml |date=26 April 2018 }} An English rendering of an Urdu article appearing in Basharat-e-Ahmadiyya Vol. I, pp. 228–32, by Dr. Basharat Ahmad; published by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam{{cite book|first=Ali|last=Maulana Muhammad|title=The Religion of Islam (6th Edition), Ch V "Jihad"|pages=411–13|publisher=The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement|url=http://www.aaiil.org/text/books/mali/religionislam/religionislammuhammadali.html}}{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Charles Mathewes characterizes the peace verses as saying that "if others want peace, you can accept them as peaceful even if they are not Muslim." As an example, Mathewes cites the second sura, which commands believers not to transgress limits in warfare: "fight in God's cause against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits [in aggression]; God does not love transgressors" (2:190).{{cite book |title=Understanding Religious Ethics |first=Charles T. |last=Mathewes|publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2010 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EyCsZE_iHp4C&q=Koran+%22sword+verses%22&pg=PA197|isbn=9781405133517 }}

Orientalist David Margoliouth described the Battle of Khaybar as the "stage at which Islam became a menace to the whole world".Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., pp. 362–63). New York; London: G. P. Putnam's Sons; The Knickerbocker Press. In the battle reportedly Muslims beheaded Jews.{{Cite book |last=Faizer |first=Rizwi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZknAAAAQBAJ |title=The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi's Kitab Al-Maghazi |date=5 September 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-92114-8 |pages=252 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Ashath |first=Hafiz Abu Dawud Sulaiman |url=http://archive.org/details/SunanAbuDawudVol.111160EnglishArabic |title=Sunan Abu Dawud |date=12 October 2014 |volume=5 |pages=45 |language=en, ar}} Margoliouth argues that the Jews of Khaybar had done nothing to harm Muhammad or his followers, and ascribes the attack to a desire for plunder

He wrote that this became an excuse for unfettered conquest."That plea would cover attacks on the whole world outside Medinah and its neighbourhood: and on leaving Khaibar the Prophet seemed to see the world already in his grasp. This was a great advance from the early days of Medinah, when the Jews were to be tolerated as equals, and even idolators to be left unmolested, so long as they manifested no open hostility. Now the fact that a community was idolatrous, or Jewish, or anything but Mohammedan, warranted a murderous attack upon it: the passion for fresh conquests dominated the Prophet as it dominated an Alexander before him or a Napoleon after him." Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 363). New York; London: G. P. Putnam's Sons; The Knickerbocker Press.

Montgomery Watt on the other hand, believes Jews' intriguing and use of their wealth to incite tribes against Muhammad left him no choice but to attack.Watt 189

Vaglieri and Shibli Numani concur that one reason for attack was that the Jews of Khaybar were responsible for the Confederates that attacked Muslims during the Battle of the Trench.Veccia Vaglieri, L. "Khaybar", Encyclopaedia of IslamNomani (1979), vol. II, pg. 156Samuel Rosenblatt, Essays on Antisemitism: The Jews of Islam, p. 112 Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt has said that Muhammad's policies were not directed exclusively against Jews (referring to his conflicts with Jewish tribes) and that Muhammad was more severe with his pagan Arab kinsmen.Samuel Rosenblatt, Essays on Antisemitism: The Jews of Islam, p. 112Pinson; Rosenblatt (1946) pp. 112–119

The September 11 attacks have resulted in many non-Muslims' indictment of Islam as a violent religion.{{cite book |title=Religion, power & violence: expression of politics in contemporary times|first=Ram |last=Puniyani |publisher=SAGE |year=2005 |pages=97–98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fd5Fm79VMk8C&q=Islam+%22violent+religion%22&pg=PA98 |isbn=9780761933380}}

In the European view, Islam lacked divine authority and regarded the sword as the route to heaven.

Karen Armstrong, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad's teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Quran alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.{{Cite book| last=Armstrong | first=Karen | title=Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet | url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadbiograph00kare | url-access=limited | publisher=HarperSanFrancisco | year=1993 | isbn=0-06-250886-5 | page=[https://archive.org/details/muhammadbiograph00kare/page/165 165]}}

According to Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the 20th-century Indian independence movement, although non-violence is dominant in the Qur'an, thirteen hundred years of imperialist expansion have made Muslims a militant body.The Gandhian Moment, p. 117, by Ramin Jahanbegloo.Gandhi's responses to Islam, p. 110, by Sheila McDonoughCold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital, p. 81, Bhakti Shringarpure, Routledge.

Other self-described Muslim organisations have emerged more recently, and some of them have been associated with jihadist and extreme Islamist groups. Compared to the entire Muslim community, these groups are sparsely populated. They have, however, received more attention from governments, international organisations, and the international media than other Muslim groups. This is as a result of their participation in actions intended to combat alleged enemies of Islam both at home and abroad.

Years later however, Al-Qaeda has yet to succeed in gaining the support of the majority of Muslims and continues to differ from other Islamist organizations in terms of both philosophy and strategy.

{{Main|Nikah mut'ah|Nikah Misyar}}

{{transliteration|ar|DIN|Nikāḥ al-Mutʿah}} is a fixed-term or short-term contractual marriage in Shia Islam. The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. For this reason, nikah mut'ah has been widely criticised as the religious cover and legalization of prostitution.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6714885.stm Iran talks up temporary marriages], by Frances Harrison, BBC News, Last Updated: 2 June 2007.

• [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901850.html Temporary 'Enjoyment Marriages' In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis], by Nancy Trejos, The Washington Post, 20 January 2007.[https://archive.org/details/lawofdesiretempo0000haer/page/6 Law of desire: temporary marriage in Shi'i Iran], by Shahla Haeri, p. 6.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=zPXu561ZpvgC&q=false&pg=PT192 Islam For Dummies], by Malcolm Clark.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=Lq2fxfbb0i4C&q=false&pg=PT85 Islam: a very short introduction], by Malise Ruthven. Shi'a and Sunnis agree that Mut'ah was legal in early times, but Sunnis consider that it was abrogated.Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim, Volume 1 p. 74 [http://www.answering-ansar.org/answers/mutah/en/chap4.php answering-ansar.org] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502030724/http://www.answering-ansar.org/answers/mutah/en/chap4.php |date=2 May 2012 }} Currently, however, mut'ah is one of the distinctive features of Ja'fari jurisprudence.{{cite web |url=http://www.al-islam.org/rightsofwomeninislam/7.htm |title=The rights of woman in Islam, Fixed-Term marriage and the problem of the harem |first=Morteza |last= Motahhari |publisher=al-islam.org |access-date=10 January 2011}}

Sunnis believe that Muhammad later abolished this type of marriage at several different large events,[https://web.archive.org/web/20130703043411/http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/059-sbt.php#005.059.527 Bukhari 059.527] Most Sunnis believe that Umar later was merely enforcing a prohibition that was established during Muhammad's time.{{Cite web|url=http://www.zawaj.com/articles/mutah.html|title=ZAWAJ.COM: Articles and Essays|website=www.zawaj.com}}

Shia contest the criticism that nikah mut'ah is a cover for prostitution, and argue that the unique legal nature of temporary marriage distinguishes Mut'ah ideologically from prostitution.[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mota Temporary marriage], Encyclopædia Iranica{{Cite web|url=https://www.al-islam.org/muta-temporary-marriage-islamic-law-sachiko-murata|title=Muta', Temporary Marriage in Islamic Law|date=27 September 2012|website=www.al-islam.org}}

Children born of temporary marriages are considered legitimate, and have equal status in law with their siblings born of permanent marriages, and do inherit from both parents. Women must observe a period of celibacy (idda) to allow for the identification of a child's legitimate father, and a woman can only be married to one person at a time, be it temporary or permanent. Some Shia scholars also view Mut'ah as a means of eradicating prostitution from society.Said Amir Arjomand (1984), From nationalism to revolutionary Islam, page 171

Nikah Misyar is a type of Nikah (marriage) in Sunni Islam only carried out through the normal contractual procedure, with the provision that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy, the wife's rights to housing, and maintenance money ("nafaqa"), and the husband's right of homekeeping and access.{{Cite web|url=https://fiqh.islamonline.net/en/misyar-marriage/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104035953/http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaE&cid=1119503544160|url-status=dead|title=Misyar Marriage|date=6 July 2006|archivedate=4 January 2011|website=Fiqh}} Essentially the couple continue to live separately from each other, as before their contract, and see each other to fulfil their needs in a legally permissible (halal) manner when they please.

Misyar has been suggested by some western authors to be a comparable marriage with Nikah mut'ah and that they find it for the sole purpose of "sexual gratification in a licit manner"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEkmJAeJYBkC&q=misyar+muta&pg=PA59|title=Islam and the West|isbn=9781612046235|last1=Lodi|first1=Mushtaq K.|date=1 July 2011|publisher=Strategic Book }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S2kZfdrEBlAC&q=campaigns+Encyclopedia+&pg=PA51|title=The Islamic Shield|isbn=9781599424118|last1=Elhadj|first1=Elie|year=2006|publisher=Universal-Publishers }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4Eye4ilLVkC&q=Mutah&pg=PA50 | title=Muslim World: Modern Muslim Societies | publisher=Marshall Cavendish | date=1 September 2010 | access-date=5 April 2013 | author=Pohl, Florian | pages=52–53| isbn=9780761479277 }}

Islamic scholars like Ibn Uthaimeen or Al-Albani claim that misyar marriage may be legal, but not moral.[http://www.bab-albahrain.net/forum/showthread.php?p=329473#post329473 Bin Menie, Abdullah bin Sulaïman : fatwa concerning the misyar marriage (and opinions by Ibn Uthaymeen], Al-albany{{dead link|date=March 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}) (in Arabic) [http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20000407-042210-7478r Yet another marriage with no strings – fatwa committee of al azhar against misyar]{{dead link|date=March 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}

{{See also|Criticism of Muhammad#Aisha|l1=Criticism of Muhammad (Aisha)|Child marriage}}

According to Sunni hadith sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married to Muhammad and nine when the marriage was consummated.{{harvnb|Armstrong|1992|p=157}}{{harvnb|Spellberg|1996|p=40}}{{harvnb|Watt|1960}}{{harvnb|Barlas|2002|pp=125–26}} The Muslim historian al-Tabari ({{Died in|923}}) reports that she was ten, while Ibn Sa'd ({{Died in|845}}) and Ibn Khallikan ({{Died in|1282}}), two other Muslim historians, write that she was nine years old at marriage and twelve at consummation.{{harvnb|Afsaruddin|2014}} Muhammad Ali ({{Died in|1951}}), a modern Muslim author, argues that a new interpretation of the Hadith compiled by Mishkat al-Masabih, Wali-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Khatib, could indicate that Aisha would have been nineteen.{{harvnb|Ali|1997|p=150}} Similarly, on the basis of a hadith about her age difference with her sister Asma, some have estimated Aisha's age to have been eighteen or nineteen at the time of her marriage.{{cite book |first=Asma |last=Barlas |date=2012 |title="Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an |publisher=University of Texas Press |page=126 |quote=On the other hand, however, Muslims who calculate 'Ayesha's age based on details of her sister Asma's age, about whom more is known, as well as on details of the Hijra (the Prophet's migration from Mecca to Madina), maintain that she was over thirteen and perhaps between seventeen and nineteen when she got married. Such views cohere with those Ahadith that claim that at her marriage Ayesha had "good knowledge of Ancient Arabic poetry and genealogy" and "pronounced the fundamental rules of Arabic Islamic ethics.}}{{sfn|Ali|1997|p=150}}{{cite web |url=http://www.valiasr-aj.com/fa/page.php?bank=question&id=699 |title=Ayesha married the Prophet when she was young? (In Persian and Arabic) |last=Ayatollah Qazvini |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926234317/http://www.valiasr-aj.com/fa/page.php?bank=question&id=699 |archive-date=26 September 2010 }}{{cite book |last1=A.C. Brown |first1=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan A.C. Brown |title=Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy |date=2014 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=978-1-78074-420-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/misquotingmuhamm0000brow/page/146 146–47] |url=https://archive.org/details/misquotingmuhamm0000brow/page/146 }} At any rate, Muhammad's marriage to Aisha may have not been considered improper by his contemporaries, for such marriages between an older man and a young girl were common among the Bedouins.C. (Colin) Turner, Islam: The Basics, Routledge Press, p.34–35 In particular, Karen Armstrong, an author on comparative religion, writes, "There was no impropriety in Muhammad's marriage to Aisha. Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger than Aisha."Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: Prophet for Our Time, HarperPress, 2006, p. 167 {{ISBN|0-00-723245-4}}.

{{Main|Women in Islam}}{{See also|Islam and domestic violence|Muslim women in sport}}

The meaning of Quran 4:34 has been the subject of intense debate among experts. While many scholarsHajjar, Lisa. "Religion, state power, and domestic violence in Muslim societies: A framework for comparative analysis." Law & Social Inquiry 29.1 (2004); see pp. 1–38Treacher, Amal. "Reading the Other Women, Feminism, and Islam." Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4.1 (2003); pp. 59–71 claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women,John C. Raines & Daniel C. Maguire (Ed), Farid Esack, What Men Owe to Women: Men's Voices from World Religions, State University of New York (2001), see pp. 201–03{{cite web|url=http://www.alim.org/library/quran/ayah/compare/4/34/men-are-given-authority-over-women-and-corrective-measures-for-disobedient-women-and-arbitration-in-family-disputes|title=Surah 4:34 (An-Nisaa), Alim — Translated by Mohammad Asad, Gibraltar (1980)|access-date=31 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927231420/http://www.alim.org/library/quran/ayah/compare/4/34/men-are-given-authority-over-women-and-corrective-measures-for-disobedient-women-and-arbitration-in-family-disputes|archive-date=27 September 2013|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/RobertSchumanCentre/Research/InternationalTransnationalRelations/MediterraneanProgramme/MRM/MRM2011/ws04.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927154118/http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/RobertSchumanCentre/Research/InternationalTransnationalRelations/MediterraneanProgramme/MRM/MRM2011/ws04.aspx|url-status=dead|title=Salhi and Grami (2011), Gender and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa, Florence (Italy), European University Institute|archivedate=27 September 2013}} many Muslim scholars arguing that it acts as a deterrent against domestic violence motivated by rage.{{cite web|url=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/islam-and-violence-against-women-a-critical-look-at-domestic-violence-and-honor-killings-in-the-muslim-community/#.Xk6BVBdKgb0 |title=Islam and Violence Against Women: A Critical Look at Domestic Violence and Honor Killings in the Muslim Community |author1=Tesneem Alkiek |author2=Dalia Mogahed |author3=Omar Suleiman |author4=Jonathan Brown |publisher=Yaqeen Institute |date=May 22, 2017 |access-date=February 23, 2020}}{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001261.html|newspaper=Washington Post|title=Clothes Aren't the Issue|date=22 October 2006|first=Asra Q.|last=Nomani}}

Shari'a is the basis for personal status laws such as rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody which was described as discriminatory against women from a human rights perspective in a 2011 UNICEF report.{{cite web|url=http://www.unicef.org/gender/files/REGIONAL-Gender-Eqaulity-Profile-2011.pdf|title=MENA Gender Equality Profile – Status of Girls and Women in the Middle East and North Africa, UNICEF|date=October 2011|publisher=unicef.org|access-date=31 March 2015|archive-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009235624/https://www.unicef.org/gender/files/REGIONAL-Gender-Eqaulity-Profile-2011.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Allowing girls under 18 to marry by religious courts is another criticism of Islam.{{cite web|url=https://www.quandl.com/c/society/age-at-first-marriage-female-by-country|title=Age at First Marriage – Female By Country – Data from Quandl|access-date=22 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206030116/https://www.quandl.com/c/society/age-at-first-marriage-female-by-country|archive-date=6 February 2015|url-status=dead}}

Sharia grants women the right to inherit propertyHorrie, Chris; Chippindale, Peter (1991). p. 49. but a daughter's inheritance is usually half that of her brother's however that is justified by some since the brother needs to care for his family and her sister if a male guardian isn't present.{{Quran-usc|4|11}}David Powers (1993), Islamic Inheritance System: A Socio-Historical Approach, The Arab Law Quarterly, 8, p 13

Furthermore, slave women were not granted the same legal rights.

• Bernard Lewis (2002), What Went Wrong?, {{ISBN|0-19-514420-1}}, pp. 82–83;
• Brunschvig. 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill, 2nd Edition, Vol 1, pp. 13–40.{{Quran-usc|16|71}}{{Quran-usc|24|33}}{{Quran-usc|30|28}} On 14 January 2009, the Catholic Portuguese cardinal José Policarpo directed a warning to young women to "think twice" before marrying Muslim men.{{cite news |url=http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37448920090114 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116031142/http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37448920090114 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 January 2009 |title=Portugal cardinal warns of marriage with Muslims |work=Reuters |date=14 January 2009 }}{{cite news |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,601423,00.html |work=Der Spiegel |date=15 January 2009 |title=Portuguese Catholic Leader: 'Think Twice about Marrying a Muslim' }}

In contrast to the widespread Western belief that women in Muslim societies are oppressed and denied opportunities to realize their full potential, many Muslims believe their faith to be liberating or fair to women, and some find it offensive that Westerners criticize it without fully understanding the historical and contemporary realities of Muslim women's lives. Conservative Muslims in particular (in common with some Christians and Jews) see women in the West as being economically exploited for their labor, sexually abused, and commodified through the media's fixation on the female body.{{Cite book| author1=Ira M. Lapidus|author2= Lena Salaymeh | title = A History of Islamic Societies | publisher = Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition) | year = 2014| isbn=978-0-521-51430-9 | page=145}}

File:Pascal Bruckner(2).jpg has criticised the effects of multiculturalism and Islam in the West.]]

{{See also|Multiculturalism and Islam}}

Muslim immigration to Western countries has led some critics to label Islam incompatible with secular Western society.{{Cite book| title=Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach | url=https://archive.org/details/multiculturalism00modo | url-access=limited | author=Tariq Modood | publisher=Routledge | edition=1st | date=6 April 2006 | isbn=978-0-415-35515-5 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/multiculturalism00modo/page/n17 3], 29, 46}}{{cite book | last =Kilpatrick | first =William | title =The Politically Incorrect Guide to Jihad | publisher =Regnery | date =2016 | pages =256 | isbn =978-1621575771 }} This criticism has been partly influenced by a stance against multiculturalism closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers. Recent critics include Pascal Bruckner[http://www.signandsight.com/features/1146.html Pascal Bruckner – Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists? ] appeared originally in German in the online magazine Perlentaucher on 24 January 2007.Pascal Bruckner – A reply to Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash: "At the heart of the issue is the fact that in certain countries Islam is becoming Europe's second religion. As such, its adherents are entitled to freedom of religion, to decent locations and to all of our respect. On the condition, that is, that they themselves respect the rules of our republican, secular culture, and that they do not demand a status of extraterritoriality that is denied other religions, or claim special rights and prerogatives"Pascal Bruckner – A reply to Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash "It's so true that many English, Dutch and German politicians, shocked by the excesses that the wearing of the Islamic veil has given way to, now envisage similar legislation curbing religious symbols in public space. The separation of the spiritual and corporeal domains must be strictly maintained, and belief must confine itself to the private realm."{{cite news | title = Extremism flourished as UK lost Christianity | author-link = Michael Nazir-Ali | first = Michael | last = Nazir-Ali | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/06/nislam206.xml | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080110080819/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/06/nislam206.xml | url-status = dead | archive-date = 10 January 2008 | newspaper = The Sunday Telegraph | date = 6 January 2008 | location=London}} and Paul Cliteur.{{Cite web|url=http://www.libertarian.nl/NL/archives/000198.php|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013124744/http://libertarian.nl/NL/archives/000198.php|url-status=dead|title=Paul Cliteur, Moderne Papoea's, Dilemma's van een multiculturele samenleving, De Uitgeverspers, 2002|archivedate=October 13, 2007}}

Tatar Tengrist criticize Islam as a semitic religion, which forced Turks to submission to an alien culture. Further, since Islam mentions semitic history as if it were the history of all mankind, but disregards components of other cultures and spirituality, the international approach of Islam is seen as a threat.Dudolgnon Islam In Politics In Russia Routledge, 5 November 2013 {{ISBN|9781136888786}} p. 301–304.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, described Islam as the religion of the Arabs that loosened the national nexus of Turkish nation, got national excitement numb.Afet İnan, Medenî Bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün El Yazıları, Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1998, p. 364.

In the early 20th century, the prevailing view among Europeans was that Islam was the root cause of Arab "backwardness". They saw Islam as an obstacle to assimilation, a view that was expressed by one of the spokesmen of colonial French Algeria named André Servier.{{Cite book| publisher = Syracuse University Press| isbn = 978-0-8156-3074-6| last = Lorcin| first = Patricia M. E.| title = Algeria & France, 1800-2000: Identity, Memory, Nostalgia| date = 2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rj2LRm6EOUYC&pg=PA71}}

The Victorian orientalist scholar Sir William Muir criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslim countries.[https://archive.org/stream/asiakeane00kean#page/458 Asia. 2d ed., rev. and corrected. Published 1909 by E. Stanford in London.] p. 458

Jocelyne Cesari, in her study of discrimination against Muslims in Europe,{{cite web|url= http://www.euro-islam.info/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/securitization_and_religious_divides_in_europe.pdf |title=Muslims In Western Europe After 9/11: Why the term Islamophobia is more a predicament than an explanation }} finds that anti-Islamic sentiment may be difficult to separate from other drivers of discrimination because Muslims are mainly from immigrant backgrounds and the largest group of immigrants in many Western European countries, xenophobia overlaps with Islamophobia, and a person may have one, the other, or both.{{cite web |last1=Mason |first1=Rowena |title=Nigel Farage: Indian and Australian immigrants better than eastern Europeans |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/22/nigel-farage-immigrants-india-australia-better-than-eastern-Europeans |website=Theguardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424083806/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/22/nigel-farage-immigrants-india-australia-better-than-eastern-Europeans |archive-date=2015-04-24}}

{{columns-list|

• Abrogation
• Bibliolatry
• Criticism of Islamism
• Islamic fundamentalism
• Islamic terrorism
• Islam and war
• Political aspects of Islam
• Political Islam
• Sharia Law
• LGBT topics and Islam
• Quran and violence
• Criticism of Twelver Shia Islam
• Haram
• List of critics of Islam
• Apostasy in Islam
• Islamic feminism
• LetUsTalk
• Islamophobia
• Islamophobia in the media
• Islamophobia in the United States
• Orientalism
• Muslims Condemn
• Persecution of Muslims
• Predestination in Islam
• Quranic inerrancy
• Qur'anic literalism
• Superstitions in Muslim societies
• Hindu terrorism
• Violence against Muslims in independent India
• Hindutva
• War against Islam conspiracy theory

}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

Saeed, Abu Hayyan, Orientalism., Murder of History.. Facts behind the Gossips and Realities. (October 20, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4608350 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4608350

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Afsaruddin |first1=Asma |author1-link=Asma Afsaruddin |entry=ʿĀʾisha bt. Abī Bakr |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=3 |publisher=Brill Online |year=2014 |url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/a-isha-bt-abi-bakr-COM_23459 |editor-last=Fleet|editor-first=Kate |editor2-last=Krämer |editor2-first=Gudrun |editor3-last=Matringe |editor3-first=Denis |editor4-last=Nawas |editor4-first=John |editor5-last=Rowson |editor5-first=Everett |access-date=11 January 2015 |url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last1=Ali |first1=Muhammad |author1-link=Muhammad Ali (writer) |title=Muhammad the Prophet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=od6dAQKgK-YC&pg=PT150 |year=1997 |publisher=Ahamadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam |isbn=978-0913321072}}
• {{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Karen |author1-link=Karen Armstrong |title=Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet |year=1992 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0062500144 |title-link=Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Asmani |first1=Ibrahim Lethome |last2=Abdi |first2=Maryam Sheikh |date=2008 |title=De-linking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam |publisher=Frontiers in Reproductive Health, USAID |location=Washington |url=http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf |access-date=26 July 2015|archive-date=21 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221230457/http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last1=Barlas |first1=Asma |title=Believing women in Islam : unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Qur'ān |date=2002 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin, TX |isbn=9781477315927}}
• {{Cite book| last=Cohen | first=Mark R. | author-link=Mark R. Cohen | title=Under Crescent and Cross | publisher=Princeton University Press; Reissue edition | year=1995 | isbn=978-0-691-01082-3}}
• {{Cite book |last=Esposito |first=John |title=Islam: The Straight Path |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-19-511234-2}}
• {{Cite book| last=Lockman | first=Zachary | title=Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-521-62937-9}}
• {{Cite book |last2=Schmidtke |first2=Sabine |last1=Pourjavady |first1=Reza |editor2-last=Schmidtke |editor2-first=Sabine |editor1-last=Pourjavady |editor1-first=Reza |year=2006 |title=A Jewish philosopher of Baghdad: 'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) and his writings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3OppTioUPy4C |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15139-0 |access-date=2011-06-12}}
• {{Cite book| last=Rippin | first=Andrew | author-link=Andrew Rippin | title=Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices | publisher=Routledge | edition=2nd | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-415-21781-1}}
• {{cite book |last1=Rispler-Chaim |first1=Vardit |title=Islamic medical ethics in the twentieth century |date=1993 |publisher=E.J. Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-9004096080}}
• {{cite book |last1=Roald |first1=Ann-Sofie |title=Women in Islam: The Western Experience |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=London}}
• {{cite book |last1=Spellberg |first1=Denise A. |title=Politics, gender, and the Islamic past : the Legacy of ʻAʼisha bint Abi Bakr |date=1996 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-07999-0}}
• {{cite book |last1=Watt |first1=William Montgomery |author1-link=William Montgomery Watt |title=ʿĀʾis̲h̲a Bint Abī Bakr |url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/aisha-bint-abi-bakr-SIM_0440 |year=1960 |publisher=Encyclopaedia of Islam Online |isbn=978-9004161214 |edition=2nd}}
• {{Cite journal| last=Westerlund | first=David | year=2003 | title=Ahmed Deedat's Theology of Religion: Apologetics through Polemics | journal=Journal of Religion in Africa | volume=33 | issue=3| doi=10.1163/157006603322663505| pages=263–278}}

{{refend}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Modarressi |first=Hossein |title=Early Debates on the Integrity of the Qur'ān: A Brief Survey |journal=Studia Islamica |publisher=JSTOR |volume=77 |pages=5–39 |year=1993 |issue=77 |doi=10.2307/1595789 |jstor=1595789 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1595789}}
• {{cite book |title=Revelation and Falsification |author1-first=Mohammad Ali|author1-last=Amir-Moezzi |editor1-first=Etan |isbn=9789004167827 |editor1-last=Kohlberg |editor2-first=Mohammad Ali |editor2-last=Amir-Moezzi |author-link= |url=https://archive.org/details/KohlbergMoezziREVELATIONANDFALSIFICATIONTheKitabAlQiratOfAhmadB.MuhammadAlSayyariLeiden2009./mode/2up |url-access=registration |year=2009 |publisher=Brill|chapter=Information, Doubts and Contradictions in Islamic Sources|pages=12{{ndash}}23}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|first1= A.|last1=Pakatchi|year=2015|title= 'Alī b. Abī Ṭālib 4. Qur'ān and Ḥadīth Sciences|editor-last= Daftary| editor-first=F.|editor-link=Farhad Daftary|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Islamica|translator-last= Valey|translator-first= M.I.|doi=10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_0252|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-islamica/*-COM_0252|url-access=subscription}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book

|last = Esposito

|first = John L.

|year = 1995

|title = The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?

|publisher = Oxford University Press

|isbn = 0-19-510298-3

|url = https://archive.org/details/islamicthreatmyt00espo_0

}}

• {{Cite book

|last = Halliday

|first = Fred

|year = 2003

|title = Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics of the Middle East

|publisher = I.B. Tauris, New York

|isbn = 1-86064-868-1

}}

• {{Cite book

|last = Esposito

|first = John L.

|year = 2003

|title = Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam

|publisher = Oxford University Press, USA

|isbn = 0-19-516886-0

}}

• {{Cite book

| first=Norman L.

| last=Geisler

| year=2002

| title=Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross

| publisher=Baker Books

| isbn=0-8010-6430-9

}}

• Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Belknap Press. {{isbn|0-674-00877-4}}.
• Kepel, Gilles (2004). The War for Muslim Minds. Harvard University Press. {{isbn|0-674-01575-4}}.
• Ibn Warraq (1995). Why I Am Not a Muslim. Prometheus Books. {{isbn|0-87975-984-4}}.
• Ibn Warraq (2003). Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Prometheus Books. {{isbn|1-59102-068-9}}.
• Cox, Caroline & Marks, John (2003). [http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cs29.pdf The 'West', Islam and Islamism: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy?]. Civitas. {{isbn|1-903 386-29 2}}.
• [Saeed, Abu Hayyan, Orientalism., Murder of History.. Facts behind the Gossips and Realities. (October 20, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4608350 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4608350]

{{refend}}

• {{cite journal | last1 = Yılmaz | first1 = Halil İbrahim | last2 = İzgi | first2 = Mahmut Cihat | last3 = Erbay | first3 = Enes Ensar | last4 = Şenel | first4 = Samet | title = Studying early Islam in the third millennium: a bibliometric analysis | journal = Humanities and Social Sciences Communications | year = 2024 | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = Article 1521 | doi = 10.1057/s41599-024-04058-2 | doi-access = free }}

• A collection of [https://bismikaallahuma.org Muslim Responses To Anti-Islam Polemics]
• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Islam topics |collapsed}}

{{Criticism of religion}}

{{Authority control}}

Islam

Category:Islam-related controversies