Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty (50 page)

31.
Qur’an 109:6, M. Pickthall translation,
http://www.islam101.com/quran/QTP/index.htm
.

32.
As discussed in chapter 1.

33.
In classical Islam, there is no concept of an “Islamic economy.” The idea emerged in the twentieth century, crystallizing in the 1960s as part of Islamist thinking. Timur Kuran, “On the Notion of Economic Justice in Contemporary Islamic Thought,” in Haleh Esfandiari and A. L. Udovitch, eds.,
The Economic Dimensions of Middle Eastern History
(Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, Princeton, 1990), p. 94.

CHAPTER TEN: FREEDOM TO SIN

1.
Alexis de Tocqueville, “Letter to Beaumont,” quoted in Jack Lively,
The Social and Political Thought of Alexis de Tocqueville
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), p. 13.

2.
Qur’an 107:4, 6, Bewley translation, with Arabic words anglicized.

3.
Qur’an 2:256, Shakir translation.

4.
Qur’an 10:99, Shakir translation.

5.
Qur’an 3:104, Shakir translation.

6.
Cook,
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought
, p. 22.

7.
Ibid., p. 23.

8.
Ibid., p. 24 (emphases by Cook).

9.
Ibid., p. 24.

10.
Ibid., pp. 427–59.

11.
Qur’an 2:256.

12.
Van Ess,
Flowering of Muslim Theology
, p. 30.

13.
Mead,
God and Gold
, p. 370.

14.
Ibid., p. 371.

15.
The Qur’an (24:27–28, Shakir translation) states: “O you who believe! Do not enter houses other than your own houses until you have asked permission and saluted their inmates; this is better for you, that you may be mindful. But if you do not find any one therein, then do not enter them until permission is given to you; and if it is said to you: Go back, then go back; this is purer for you; and Allah is Cognizant of what you do.”

16.
Cook,
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought
, p. 542.

17.
Ali Kurani,
Amr Bah Ma‘ruf wa Nahy Az Munkar
, Tehran 1373 sh., 3.9, 7.12; quoted in Cook,
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought
, p. 556.

18.
Robert Lacey, “The Secret Behind the Veil: Saudi Women Find Solace in ‘Safe Love,’”
Sunday Times
, October 18, 2009.

19.
Muhammad Sa‘id Al-‘Ashmawi, “Shari‘a: The Codification of Islamic Law,” in
Liberal Islam
, ed. Kurzman, p. 52.

20.
Even traditional scholars made a distinction between extramarital and premarital sex; they prescribed stoning for the former (which doesn’t exist in the Qur’an) and lashes for the latter (which is the real punishment dictated by the Qur’an for adultery and the calumnious accusation of it). Meanwhile, the beginning of the Sura Noor (chapter 24 of the Qur’an), which specifies the punishment for adultery, speaks about the married woman and her husband, which might suggest that adultery happens only when there is a married couple and the bond of marriage between them is violated.

21.
For a defense of this argument, see Charfi,
Islam and Liberty
,
p. 58. Charfi is a law professor in Tunis.

22.
For those who might be horrified by the idea that extramarital sex can be penalized, it might be worthwhile to note that laws in twenty-four of America’s fifty states still regard adultery as a crime. Jonathan Turley, “Of Lust and the Law,”
Washington Post
, September 5, 2004.

23.
“Diyanet’ten Van kriterleri: Islam dünyasında bir ‘ilk’” [A First in the Muslim World: The Van Criteria from the Diyanet],
Hürriyet
, June 5, 2008.

24.
sükrü Küçüksahin, “Koç: Insanın günah isleme özgürlügü var,”
Hürriyet
, July 20, 2006. Minister of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koç, quoted in this story, also said, “It is against the spirit of religion to try to create heaven on Earth” and “Herkesin günah isleme özgürlügü var” [Everyone has the freedom to sin],
Vatan
, January 10, 2009; Fatma K. Barbarosoglu, “Günah isleme özgürlügü” [Freedom to Sin],
Yeni Safak
, October 1, 2004. I, too, have written about the freedom to sin: Mustafa Akyol, “Bırakınız Içsinler” [Let Them Drink],
Star
, June 20, 2009.

25.
Qur’an 16:61, Shakir translation.

26.
Qur’an 103:3, Shakir translation.

27.
Qur’an 5:94, Bewley translation, with Arabic words anglicized.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: FREEDOM FROM ISLAM

1.
“U.S. Cautiously Backs Afghan Christian,” WorldNetDaily (www.wnd .com), March 22, 2006.

2.
No Place to Call Home: Experiences of Apostates from Islam, Failures of the International Community
(New Malden, Surrey, UK: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 2008), p. 4.

3.
Ibid.

4.
Sahih Bukhari
, vol. 4, bk. 52, no. 260.

5.
No Place to Call Home
, p. 8.

6.
A. E. Mayer,
Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), p. 27.

7.
Qur’an 18:29.

8.
Qur’an 4:137, Shakir translation.

9.
Avcı,
Osmanlı Hukukunda Suçlar ve Cezalar
, pp. 388, 389.

10.
Friedmann,
Tolerance and Coercion in Islam
, p. 126.

11.
Afsaruddin,
First Muslims
, p. 27.

12.
El-Affendi,
Who Needs an Islamic State?,
pp. 61–62.

13.
Friedmann,
Tolerance and Coercion in Islam
, p. 126.

14.
David Forte, “Islam’s Trajectory,”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles
/2006/08/islams_trajectory.html
, accessed October 23, 2006.

15.
Friedmann,
Tolerance and Coercion in Islam
, p. 101.

16.
Kamali,
Freedom of Expression in Islam
, p. 93.

17.
Ibid.

18.
Avcı,
Osmanlı Hukukunda Suçlar ve Cezalar
, p. 383.

19.
Kamali,
Freedom of Expression in Islam
, p. 97.

20.
Ibid., p. 96.

21.
Hourani,
Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age
, p. 237.

22.
“Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: ‘Not Every Conversion Is Apostasy’” (in Persian).
BBC Persia
Service, October 14, 2009.

23.
For a list, see Mohammad Omar Farooq, “On Apostasy and Islam: 100+ Notable Islamic Voices Affirming the Freedom of Faith,”
http://apostasyandislam.blogspot.com/
.

24.
Friedmann,
Tolerance and Coercion in Islam
, p. 5.

25.
Qur’an 6:108, Bewley translation, with Arabic words anglicized.

26.
That slogan and others, such as “Butcher those who mock Islam” and “Slay those who insult Islam,” were carried on placards during a London rally held to protest Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. “Arrest Extremist Marchers, Police Told,”
The Guardian
, February 6, 2006.

27.
Leviticus 24:16.

28.
Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica
2:2, q. 13.

29.
Kamali,
Freedom of Expression in Islam,
p. 249.

30.
Ibid., p. 249.

31.
Qur’an 4:140, Shakir translation.

32.
Qur’an 6:67, Shakir translation.

33.
Qur’an 28:55, Shakir translation.

34.
Qur’an 4:152, Shakir translation, with Arabic words anglicized.