In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents' religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media-the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam-as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas-without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.
"Rizvi presents an empathetic, well-argued, and hopeful case for a more secular humanistic Muslim path."
Library Journal
"[Rizvi] approaches his subject with the kind of scientist's rationality that ushered in the Age of Reason, yet he does so also with a passion for humanity that is inspiring. . . His open personality and earnestness make this book so compelling that Rizvi may well become the Dawkins or Hitchens for the millennial generation."
New York Times Book Review
"Rizvi brings nuance to understanding the connections among religion, frustration, and violence for young Muslims....By demanding a space for questioning Islam openly that does not devolve into attacking individual Muslims, the work pushes towards the possibility of a cultural Islam that maintains family and ethnic traditions without requiring belief."
