The Logic of Ibn Warraq’s Islamic Apostasy

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201113.041How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Anomaly, apostasy, epistemology, fundamental and sacredness, paradigm theory

Abstract

Apostasy, sociologically, is a despicable behavior, because it is an act of betrayal against the fundamentals of a religion. Let alone, if the apostate ventured into public space to spread his ideas of apostasy, the consequences of his act would be more severe. But epistemologically, apostasy cannot be judged as a terrible action, because the ways of thinking in an epistemological framework is not religion, but is measured by paradigmatic-objective rationality. Paradigmatically, apostasy is a conversion or a change of religious conviction. The apostate usually underwent an anomalous process, before critically reconstituted his new religious knowledge which he or she believed is more true. This happened to be Ibn Warraq. This paper tries to discuss the case of his apostasy, epistemologically, by using Thomas Khun’s paradigm theory. Findings of this study indicates that Ibn Warraq’s apostasy is based on three anomalies of Islamic thoughts. They are anomaly of the Qur’anic knowledge, of the prophecy and of the Muslims’ attitudes. These anomalies were then developed by Warraq through three critical paradigms of thinking: a historical dialectics that is anti-hermeneutic, partial reductionism, and rational realism. By this he wanted to build an understanding of Islam that is applicable to Western religious cultures, that is, anti fundamentalism, anti sacredness, anti intolerance, and anti totality in religion.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Erfan Efendi
AU  - Yuli Yanti
AU  - Ayu Nur Shawmi
AU  - Mashur Imam
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/13
TI  - The Logic of Ibn Warraq’s Islamic Apostasy
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st Raden Intan International Conference on Muslim Societies and Social Sciences (RIICMuSSS 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 217
EP  - 221
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201113.041
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201113.041
ID  - Efendi2020
ER  -