In Open Letter To Muslim World, French Muslim

Philosopher Says Islam Has Given Birth To

Monsters, Needs Reform

November 5, 2014
In an essay published October 3, 2014 in the French newspaper Marianne, French Muslim
philosopher Abdennour Bidar, author of Self Islam: A Personal History of
Islam(Seuil, 2006); Islam without Submission: Muslim Existentialism (Albin Michel, 2008),
and A History of Humanism in the West (Armand Colin, 2014), wrote that Muslims cannot
make do with denouncing and repudiating terrorist barbarism, but must acknowledge that its
roots lie within Muslim society, and especially within the Islam that is prevalent in the Arab
world today. He points out that Islam, like all religions, has throughout its history been a source
of much good, wisdom and enlightenment, but that todays mainstream Islam rejects the
freedom and flexibility that are advocated by the Koran and instead promotes rigidity and
regression that ultimately give rise to terrorism. The Muslim world, he concludes, must
therefore reform itself, and especially its education systems, based on principles of freedom of
religion and thought, equality, and respect for the other.
The following are translated excerpts from his essay:

Abdennour Bidar (image: aujourdhui.ma)

"I See That You Are Losing Yourself And Your Dignity, And Wasting Your Time, In Your
Refusal To Recognize That This Monster Is Born Of You"
"Dear Muslim world: I am one of your estranged sons, who views you from without and from
afar from France, where so many of your children live today. I look at you with the harsh
eyes of a philosopher, nourished from infancy on tasawwuf (Sufism) and Western thought. I
therefore look at you from my position of barzakh, from an isthmus between the two seas of the
East and the West.
"And what do I see? What do I see better than others, precisely because I see you from afar,
from a distance? I see you in a state of misery and suffering that saddens me to no end, but
which makes my philosophers judgment even harsher, because I see you in the process of
birthing a monster that presumes to call itself the Islamic State, and which some prefer to call
by a demons name Daesh. But worst of all is that I see that you are losing yourself and your
dignity, and wasting your time, in your refusal to recognize that this monster is born of you: of
your irresoluteness, your contradictions, your being torn between past and present, and your
perpetual inability to find your place in human civilization.
"What do you [Muslims] say when faced with this monster? You shout, Thats not me! Thats
not Islam! You reject [the possibility] that this monsters crimes are committed in your name
(#NotInMyName). You rebel against the monsters hijacking of your identity, and of course you
are right to do so. It is essential that you proclaim to the world, loud and clear, that Islam
condemns barbarity. But this is absolutely not enough! For you are taking refuge in your selfdefense reflex, without realizing it, and above all without undertaking any self-criticism. You
become indignant and are satisfied with that but you are missing an historical opportunity to
question yourself. Instead of taking responsibility for yourself, you accuse others, [saying]:
You Westerners, and all you enemies of Islam, stop associating us with this monster! Terrorism
is not Islam! The true Islam, the good Islam, doesnt mean war, it means peace!
"The Root Of This Evil That Today Steals Your Face Is Within Yourself; The Monster Emerged
From Within You"
"Oh my dear Muslim world, I hear the cry of rebellion rising within you, and I understand it.
Yes, you are right: Like every one of the great sacred inspirations in the world, Islam has,
throughout its history, created beauty, justice, meaning and good, and it has [been a source of]
powerful enlightenment for humans on the mysterious path of existence Here in the West, I
fight, in all my books, [to make sure that] this wisdom of Islam and of all religions is not
forgotten or despised. But because of my distance [from the Muslim world], I can see what you
cannot and this inspires me to ask: Why has this monster stolen your face? Why has this
despicable monster chosen your face and not another? The truth is that behind this monster
hides a huge problem, one you do not seem ready to confront. Yet in the end you will have to
find the courage [to do so]
"Where do the crimes of this so-called Islamic State come from? Ill tell you, my friend, and it
will not make you happy, but it is my duty as a philosopher [to tell you]. The root of this evil

that today steals your face is within yourself; the monster emerged from within you. And other
monsters, some even worse, will emerge as well, as long as you refuse to acknowledge your
sickness and to finally tackle the root of this evil!
"Even Western intellectuals have difficulty seeing this. For the most part they have forgotten
the power of religion for good and for evil, over life and over death to the extent that they
tell me, No, the problem of the Muslim world is not Islam, not the religion, but rather politics,
history, economics, etc. They completely forget that religion may be the core of the reactor of
human civilization, and that tomorrow the future of humanity will depend not only on a
resolution to the financial crisis, but also, and much more essentially, on a resolution to the
unprecedented spiritual crisis that is affecting all of mankind."
"I See In You, Oh Muslim World, Great Forces Ready To Rise Up And Contribute To This
Global Effort To Find A Spiritual Life For The 21st Century"
"Will we be able to come together, across the world, and face this fundamental challenge? The
spiritual nature of man abhors a vacuum, and if it finds nothing new with which to fill the
vacuum, tomorrow it will fill it with religions that are less and less adapted to the present, and
which, like Islam today, will [also] begin producing monsters.
"I see in you, oh Muslim world, great forces ready to rise up and contribute to this global effort
to find a spiritual life for the 21st century. Despite the severity of your sickness, you have
within you a great multitude of men and women who are willing to reform Islam, to reinvent its
genius beyond its historical forms, and to be part of the total renewal of the relationship that
mankind once had with its gods. It is to all those who dream together of a spiritual revolution,
both Muslims and non-Muslims, that I have addressed my books, and to whom I offer, with my
philosophers words, confidence in that which their hope glimpses."
"Forward-Looking Muslims Understand All Too Well That Al-Qaeda, Jabhat Al-Nusra, AQIM,
And The Islamic State Are Only The Most Visible Symptoms Of An Immense Diseased Body"
"But these Muslim men and women who look to the future are not yet sufficiently numerous,
nor is their word sufficiently powerful. All of them, whose clarity and courage I welcome, have
plainly seen that it is the Muslim worlds general state of profound sickness that explains the
birth of terrorist monsters with names like Al-Qaeda, Jabhat Al-Nusra, AQIM, and Islamic
State. They understand all too well that these are only the most visible symptoms of an
immense diseased body, whose chronic maladies include the inability to establish sustainable
democracies that recognize freedom of conscience vis--vis religious dogmas as a moral and
political right; chronic difficulties in improving womens status; the inability to sufficiently
free political power from its control by religious authority; and the inability to promote
respectful, tolerant and genuine recognition of religious pluralism and religious minorities."
"Could All This Be The Fault Of The West? How Much Precious Time Will You Lose, Dear
Muslim World, With This Stupid Accusation[?]"

"Could all this be the fault of the West? How much precious time will you lose, dear Muslim
world, with this stupid accusation that you yourself no longer believe, and behind which you
hide so that you can continue to lie to yourself?
"Particularly since the eighteenth century its past time you acknowledged it you have been
unable to meet the challenge of the West. You have childishly and embarrassingly sought
refuge in the past, with the obscurantist Wahhabism regression that continues to wreak havoc
almost everywhere within your borders the Wahhabism that you spread from your holy places
in Saudi Arabia like a cancer originating from your very heart. In other ways, you emulated the
worst [aspects] of the West with nationalism and a modernism that caricatures modernity. I
refer here especially to the technological development, so inconsistent with the religious
archaism, that makes your fabulously wealthy Gulf elite mere willing victims of the global
disease the worship of the god Money.
"What is admirable about you today, my friend? What do you still have that is worthy of the
respect of the peoples and civilizations of the world? Where are your wise men? Have you still
wisdom to offer the world? Where are your great men? Who is your Mandela, your Gandhi,
your Aung San Suu Kyi? Where are your great thinkers whose books should be read
worldwide, as they were when Arab or Persian mathematicians and philosophers were spoken
of from India to Spain? You are actually so weakened behind [the mask of] self-confidence that
you always display You have no idea who you are or where you want to go, and it makes you
as unhappy as you are aggressive You persist in not listening to those who call on you to
change by finally freeing yourself from the dominion that you have granted to religion over all
[aspects of] life.
"You chose to consider Muhammad a prophet and king. You chose to define Islam as a moral,
political, and social religion that must rule as a tyrant in the state as well as in civilian life, in
the street and in the home, and in every mans conscience. You chose to believe that Islam
means submission and to impose that belief while the Koran itself declares that there is no
compulsion in religion You have made [the Korans] cry for freedom into the reign of
coercion. How can a civilization so betray its own sacred text? I say that, in Islamic
civilization, the time has come to institute this spiritual freedom the most sublime and
difficult of all [freedoms] in place of all the laws invented by generations of theologians!"
"Numerous Voices That You Refuse To Hear Are Rising Today In The Ummah To Denounce
This Authoritarian Religion That Cannot Be Questioned"
"Numerous voices that you refuse to hear are rising today in the ummah [Islamic nation] to
denounce this authoritarian religion that cannot be questioned Many believers have so
internalized the culture of submission to tradition and to the masters of religion (imams,
muftis, sheikhs etc.) that they dont understand us when we talk to them about spiritual freedom
or personal choice vis--vis the pillars of Islam. This is a red line for them so sacred to
them that they dare not allow their own conscience to question it. And there are so many
families in which this confusion between spirituality and servitude is implanted from such an
early age, and in which spiritual education is so meager, that nothing concerning religion may
be discussed."

"But this [taboo] is clearly not imposed by the terrorism of some crazy fanatics No, this
problem is infinitely deeper. But who is willing to hear this? In the Muslim world, there is only
silence regarding this matter; in the Western media, they listen only to all those terrorism
experts who increase the general myopia day by day. Do not delude yourself, my friend, by
pretending that by eliminating Islamist terrorism we will settle all of Islams problems. Because
what I have described here a tyrannical, dogmatic, literalist, formalistic, macho, conservative,
and regressive religion is too often the mainstream Islam, the everyday Islam, which suffers
and causes suffering to too many consciences, the irrelevant Islam of the past, the Islam that is
distorted by all those who manipulate it politically, the Islam that always ends up strangling the
various Arab Springs and the voice of the young people who are demanding something else. So
when will you finally bring about this revolution in society and conscience that will
make spirituality rhyme with liberty?
"Of course, there are pockets of spiritual freedom in your great territory: families that hand
down [to their children] an Islam of tolerance, personal choice and spiritual depth. There are
places where Islam still gives the best of itself: a culture of sharing, honor, pursuit of
knowledge, and spirituality in search of the sacred place where man and the ultimate reality
called Allah meet. In the land of Islam, and in Muslim communities worldwide, there are strong
and free consciences. But they are condemned to exercise their freedom without the recognition
of real rights, facing the peril of community control or sometimes even of the religious police.
Never has the right to say I choose my Islam or I have my own relationship with Islam been
recognized by the official Islam of the dignitaries, who fight to impose [the view] that the
doctrine of Islam is unique and that obeying the pillars of Islam is the only right path
"This denial of the right to freedom of religion is one of the roots of the evil from which you
suffer, oh my dear Muslim world; it is one of those dark wombs in which, in recent years,
monsters have grown, and from whence they leap out at the frightened faces of the whole
world. For this iron religion imposes excruciating violence upon all your societies; it too
closely confines your daughters and your sons in the cage of good and evil, the lawful (halal)
and the illicit (haram), chosen by none but imposed on all. It traps the wills, it conditions the
mind, it prevents or hinders every personal life choice. In too many of your countries, you still
tie together religion with violence against women, against bad believers, against Christians
and other minorities, against thinkers and free spirits and against rebels so that religion and
violence ultimately blend within the most unbalanced and vulnerable of your own sons in the
monstrous form of jihad.
"You Must Begin By Reforming Education Based On Universal Principles"
"So, I beg of you, dont pretend to be amazed that demons such as the so-called Islamic State
have taken your face. Monsters and demons steal only those faces that are already distorted by
too much grimacing. And if you want to know how to refrain from bringing forth such
monsters, I will tell you. Its simple yet difficult: You must begin by reforming the education
you give your children, in its entirety, in all your schools and all your places of knowledge and
power. You must reform them according to [the following] universal principles even if you

are not the only one violating or disregarding [these principles]: freedom of conscience,
democracy, tolerance, civil rights for [those of] all worldviews and beliefs, gender equality,
womens emancipation from all male guardianship, and a culture of reflection and criticism of
the religion in universities, literature, and the media. You cannot go back, and you can do no
less than this. For it is only by doing so that you will no longer give birth to such monsters. If
you do not do so, you will soon be devastated by [these monsters] destructive power.
"Dear Muslim world: I am but a philosopher, and as usual some will call the philosopher a
heretic. Yet I seek only to let the light shine forth once again indeed, the name that you have
given me commands me to do so: Abdennour, Servant of the Light. If I did not believe in you, I
would not have been so harsh in this essay. As we say in French, He who loves well, punishes
well and those who today are not tough enough with you, who want to make you a victim,
are doing you no favors. I believe in you. I believe in your contribution to build the future of
our planet, to create a world that is both humane and spiritual!
Salaam, peace be upon you.