A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent Is Vital to Islam and America (Hardcover)

by Anouar Majid (Author)
Key Phrases: gnostic gospels, United States, New York Times, Middle East (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Majid, a professor of English at the University of New England, argues that the practice of discussion and dissent, which he broadly dubs heresy, has died in Islamic cultures and in America, resulting in a dangerous stagnation of thought in both groups—a trait the two groups have in common despite their opposition to each other. Majid is tough on Muslims for reacting to the challenge of modernity by desperately clutching to their faith, even where he believes it's unwarranted as with the use of hijab... He says that Muslims, and some Americans, are incapable of engaging in critical self-examination, afraid to suspend their beliefs even briefly for analysis. He laments that his own native, once cosmopolitan Morocco is currently being overtaken by Wahhabism. Heresy, he believes, will revitalize both societies and rescue them from their current suffocation by right-wing conservatives on both sides. His assertion that the Qur'an is of mixed and possibly nondivine origin will certainly not win any Muslim readers to his view, and his assessment of American culture as too religious is not particularly surprising. Majid mainly and excessively quotes other scholars' works, whereas Majid's own original arguments are preferable but too infrequent. (Sept.)
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Product Description

A Call for Heresy discovers unexpected common ground in one of the most inflammatory issues of the twenty-first century: the deepening conflict between the Islamic world and the United States. Moving beyond simplistic answers, Anouar Majid argues that the Islamic world and the United States are both in precipitous states of decline because, in each, religious, political, and economic orthodoxies have silenced the voices of their most creative thinkers—the visionary nonconformists, radicals, and revolutionaries who are often dismissed, or even punished, as heretics.

The United States and contemporary Islam share far more than partisans on either side admit, Majid provocatively argues, and this “clash of civilizations” is in reality a clash of competing fundamentalisms. Illustrating this point, he draws surprising parallels between the histories and cultures of Islam and the United States and their shortsighted suppression of heresy (zandaqa in Arabic), from Muslim poets and philosophers like Ibn Rushd (known in the West as Averroës) to the freethinker Thomas Paine, and from Abu Bakr Razi and Al-Farabi to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. He finds bitter irony in the fact that Islamic culture is now at war with a nation whose ideals are losing ground to the reactionary forces that have long condemned Islam to stagnation.

The solution, Majid concludes, is a long-overdue revival of dissent. Heresy is no longer a contrarian’s luxury, for only through encouraging an engaged and progressive intellectual tradition can the nations reverse their decline and finally work together for global justice and the common good of humanity.


Anouar Majid is founding chair and professor of English at the University of New England and the author of Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age; Unveiling Traditions: Postcolonial Islam in a Polycentric World; and Si Yussef, a novel. He is also cofounder and editor of Tingis, a Moroccan-American magazine of ideas and culture.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press (September 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816651272
• ISBN-13: 978-0816651276
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #677,114 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN IMPORTANT FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON US HISTORY by Hazel Henderson , author ,Ethical Markets:Growing The Green Economy , October 30, 2007

By	Hazel Henderson Ethical Media LLC - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Author Anouar Majid compares religious fundamentalist trends with similar trends in Islamic societies. He presents a view of American history that helps us understand today's issues of separation of church and state. In an insightful Chapter titled "Regime Change," he discusses the US-imposed constitutions on Afghanistan and Iraq. These constituions differ from the US Constitution in that they enshrine a religion, Islam, and place its laws as supreme, with the secular principles of human rights, freedom, democracy, as secondary. This is the opposite of the US Constitution which specifically does not allow any religion to be established. This book is fascinating and traces many of the themes in today's Islamic societies that fuel terrorism, as well as helping us understand why Western societies and capitalistic consumption-led globalization is seen as such a threat, not only to Muslims, but many other cultures around the world.
Majid believes that the best antidote to fundamentalism in all monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism, is open-minded vigorous dialogue and dissent. Amen !

Hazel Henderson, President of Ethical Markets Media

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading the ill-informed, July 9, 2009

By	Daniel Hansen (Glendale, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent Is Vital to Islam and America (Paperback)

Majid's book was required reading in my graduate level class, and we actually had a chance to talk with him over a webcam. I will give him credit for being a very likable and pleasant person. But there the credit ends.

His thesis is elegant, beautiful and is very appealing to Westerners, particularly in that it strikes a chord that is harmonious with our ingrained belief best represented by the quote, "While I may disagree with what you say I will defend to death your right to say it." Tailored to his experience, he states we need to listen to the criticisms of the "heretics", or else we shall cease to progress. It appeals to secularists. But in defending his thesis he actually does more to convince us that we should ignore the heretics rather than to embrace them.

He most certainly is no economist, though he presumes to have the knowledge of one. His first flaw is in utterly refusing to acknowledge that globalization has had a positive influence on society, in any way. And it unequivocally has. Along this note, he ignores the fact that in the past decade, over 200 million people have been lifted out of poverty in SE Asia alone as a result of increased globalizing forces (mainly due to China accepting free-market reforms ). Truth be told, globalization has benefitted enormously most nations in the world, with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. The true study must thus be on these regions and how or why they have fallen behind while the rest of the world has benefitted, and to determine any negatives associated with globalization. But Majid never once mentions the China example or these 2 regions. He doesn't analyze substantial UN data which suggests a strong correlation between globalization and prosperity. These are glaring oversights, and represent very wide research gaps.

His methodology is also flawed. He states a perspective, without actually arguing it. For example, he mentions the Argentinean economic collapse of the early 2000's and suggests that it was caused by globalization. In point of fact, it was caused by a lack of monetary discipline by the government (causing their exchange-rate regime to implode). Even more critical, is that Majid ignores the fact that the Argentinean recovery was so quick because of their globalized markets - hence, globalization did not cause it, it in fact helped significantly in their economic recovery. But Majid never discusses any of this - he simply states it as though it is self-evident or universally recognized, in which case both are flatly false. He does this throughout the entire book - making claims without truly substantiating them or even discussing them with much depth. The danger is that the reader will not be as well-versed on these issues and will therefore be led to erroneous conclusions (I, for example, would not have known how bad a hijacking it was of the Argentina example if I had not studied it beforehand).

This is simply not a sophisticated analysis of these issues. He is given to making ridiculous claims without providing any real evidence to support them. The one or two good points that he makes are thus drowned out by this fact. Furthermore, he confuses and does not recognize the distinction between globalization and capitalism, which hinders him in the book. A well-versed reader will recognize that he is criticizing one thing, but in actuality is talking about the other. The fact that I can recognize these egregious short-comings casts certain doubt on the subjects of which I am less-informed (Islam, instead of economics for example).

If you want a thoughtful and well-reasoned critique of globalization, America or Islam, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you go elsewhere. This book will mislead more than it will inform.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and eminently readable, December 1, 2007

By	Brian A. Mclaughlin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dr. Majid has written a lucid and detailed essay extolling the virtue of heresy and issues a call for heresy today. Detailing both a history of heresy in Islam and Christianity and its impact of those world faiths, he has made an exceptional case for the importance and virtual necessity of dissent both from religious orthodoxy and political conformity. Citing the devastating impact that the imposition of orthodoxy has had on the evolution of Islamic culture he warns of the risk faced by a society that adopts an inflexible religious basis for citizenship. While also citing the errors of Western culture's misuse of Christian doctrine, he certainly acknowledges the positive impact that the adaptability of Christianity has had over the last 2,000 years.

Ultimately, he sees the slow slide to the institutionalizing of Christianity in politics in the US as destructive of what he sees as the strength of the original idea of the United States. In his view "Freethinking", including heresy and dissent, is what is needed at this time rather than the rigidity of orthodoxy.

Reading at times like a book of quotations from both Islamic and American "freethinkers", he is able to capture the wonder of discourse and point out the ultimate importance of open-mindedness, something that he sees as being lost in this world in which consumption and the accumulation of wealth has become too important and defines the bases for the Islamic condemnation of "modernity". I found the book pastoral, in the sense of one of those wonderfully inspiring Sunday homilies I hear too infrequently today. It is a call to our better selves and the wonder of being free to think and allow our minds to go where our thoughts take us.