Ali A. Rizvi

Last updated

Ali A. Rizvi
AAR-Iceland.jpg
Ali A. Rizvi in Iceland, August 2023
Born
Ali Amjad Rizvi

(1975-05-29) 29 May 1975 (age 48)
NationalityCanadian
Education Oncologic pathology
Alma mater Aga Khan University
University at Buffalo
McMaster University
Occupations
Known forAtheist and secular activism, science communication
Website atheistmuslim.com

Ali Amjad Rizvi (born 29 May 1975) is a Pakistani-born Canadian [1] atheist ex-Muslim and secular humanist writer and podcaster [2] who explores the challenges of Muslims who leave their faith. [2] He wrote a column for the Huffington Post and co-hosted the Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment podcast together with Armin Navabi.

Contents

Early life

Rizvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1975 [3] into a "moderate to liberal Muslim family." [4] He spent his early childhood in Libya, later moving to Saudi Arabia where he attended the American International School in Riyadh, which he describes as a school exclusively for the children of ex-pat families living in Riyadh, limiting his exposure to Saudi culture and customs. [5] Both his parents were educated in North America, and taught at a Saudi university. [6] Rizvi's family and other expats referred to a square in Riyadh where public beheadings took place as "Chop-chop Square". [6]

The family lived in Saudi Arabia for over ten years. [4] As Ithna’Asheri Shia Muslims, they had to be careful when practicing their faith, [3] disguising a religious service as "dinner" when watching a Shia mullah preach on television, ready to switch it off in case the religious police would raid the house. [7] Rizvi and his parents had little understanding of the Quran nor the daily prayers, since these were in Arabic, a language they barely understood. Rizvi says that when he bought an English translation of the Quran one day and started reading it, he was shocked by statements about decapitating unbelievers in Islam (Quran 8:12-13), amputation of the hands of thieves (Quran 5:38) and violence against women (Quran 4:34), amongst other things. He confronted his parents with it; he claims they were equally dumbfounded. Rizvi then undertook a diligent study of the Quran and the Sunnah; this caused him first to question and eventually to lose his faith. [6] [7]

Rizvi finished medical school at Aga Khan University in Karachi, then immigrated to Canada [7] as a permanent resident in 1999. [8] At McMaster University he earned a Master of Science in biochemistry and later spent five years specializing in pathology at State University of New York at Buffalo. [9] [10]

Career

As well as his formative work in oncologic pathology [1] and now medical communications, Rizvi has written for news outlets including Huffington Post , CNN.com and New York Post . He has spoken and written about issues affecting ex-Muslims and Muslims, as well as his own experiences of being an apostate, and challenges widespread misinformation about Muslims. [3] He says that he rejects the conflation of radical Islam with the general Muslim population and stated "Human beings have rights and are entitled to respect. Ideas, books, and beliefs don't, and aren't." [8] He rejects the validity of the term Islamophobia, which he claims shames critics of religion to be silent. [11] He has also spoken about western attempts to legislate on the wearing of the burqa and niqab, [3] saying, "Freedom of choice also means the freedom to make bad choices, and to me, the best way to fight bad ideas is with good ideas, not bans." [12]

By 2011 his writing and secular interests were taking precedence so he changed career to medical communications to be able to devote more time to writing. [13]

In 2015 Rizvi made a special report for CNN bringing attention to the case of his friend Raif Badawi, a Saudi author and dissident imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on several charges including apostasy. [14]

In 2017, Rizvi launched the Secular Jihadists from the Middle East podcast together with ex-Muslims Armin Navabi (Atheist Republic), Faisal Saeed Al Mutar (Global Secular Humanist Movement) and Yasmine Mohammad (Confessions of an Ex-Muslim). [15] In January 2018, the show was renamed Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment, with Rizvi and Navabi as co-hosts, which fans can support through Patreon. [16]

In 2018, Rizvi appeared in Islam and the Future of Tolerance, a documentary based on a conversation between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz. In the documentary, Rizvi shares his personal experiences growing up in a Muslim-majority country.[ citation needed ]

The Atheist Muslim

Maryam Namazie interviews Rizvi about The Atheist Muslim.

Rizvi is the author of The Atheist Muslim: A Journey From Religion to Reason published by St. Martin's Press in 2016. It is a combination of personal biography and analysis of arguments in favour of rejecting Islam through "reformation; secularism; and, finally, enlightenment." [2] It has been described as "thoughtful, articulate, well documented, logical" by The New York Times, [1] "a treasure of compelling logical arguments and gripping personal stories" [17] and praised for presenting "Rare and intriguing arguments in the debate over Islam." [18] The Globe and Mail described it as "passionate, timely but, ultimately, muddled plea for reform in Islam." [2]

Rizvi describes the meaning of the title as follows: "In the Muslim world, there are countless freethinkers, atheists and agnostics who cannot openly speak about their views. These are people who are irreligious in their minds, but they have to pretend to be Muslim. They all live a contradictory life. That's the contradiction in my title. Secondly, it satirises the idea that you can always cherry-pick religious traditions. I have a friend who calls herself a 'feminist Muslim'. What does that mean, I asked her? Like a meat-eating vegetarian? Well, she said, of course there are passages that discriminate against women in the Quran that I take issue with, but everyone cherry-picks, and so do I." [19]

According to Rizvi, writing his book "would have been unthinkable about 20 years ago", recalling the outcry against Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988 and onwards) and the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (2005–2006), but arguing that criticism of Islam had been largely normalised by the late 2010s. [20] :15:18

As of April 2018, The Atheist Muslim has been translated into Indonesian and Dutch, and an Arabic version is underway. [19]

Rizvi was the 2016 winner of the Morris D. Forkosch book award for The Atheist Muslim. [21]

Views

Rizvi lecturing on the Muslim Enlightenment in Amsterdam (2018). Ali A. Rizvi lecturing in Amsterdam 2018.jpg
Rizvi lecturing on the Muslim Enlightenment in Amsterdam (2018).

In interviews and speeches, Rizvi frequently quotes a statement from ex-Muslim activist Maryam Namazie: "The Internet is doing to Islam what the printing press did to Christianity." [6] [20] :19:49 "Thanks to the Internet, Muslims see more of the world. They look for translations of Quranic texts, and discuss them in chatrooms and forums. Secularism amongst Muslims is therefore much more visible and becomes normal." [6]

He opined that "some parts of the Old Testament do sound a lot like the handbook of Islamic State, but by far most Christians and Jews don't take it seriously at all anymore, because they no longer regard their books as the literal, infallible word of God. ... This provides them a way out. However, by far most Muslims still do consider the Quran the literal, infallible word of Allah. In countries where the Pew Research Center surveyed this, more than 80% of Muslims believe this. This figure is the same in the United States, where Muslims are better educated and integrated into society than in Europe." [6]

The fact that many Muslims support execution for apostasy, but exempt their relatives and friends, is an example of what Rizvi calls "the cognitive split in many moderate Muslims' minds: on the one hand they wish to remain loyal to the ideology, but it's unclear to what degree they actually support it. They live in two worlds. ... When I ask some of my extended family members [whether apostates should be killed], they agree. But when I ask them whether I should be killed too, because after all, I'm an apostate myself, they say: 'No, not you; you are a nice guy.'" [6]

I criticise both the left and the right. The left should realise criticism of Islam is to be encouraged because it will make the world more liberal and free. The right should realise not all Muslims are bad and should be sent back or bombed. [6]

– Ali A. Rizvi

Rizvi has stated that right-wing populist politicians are correct in challenging "authoritarian, totalitarian ideas that are in the scriptures", although many other people including Muslims themselves have also done that throughout the ages. On the other hand, Rizvi opposes special Muslim profiling, demonisation of Muslims and a ban on Muslim immigration to the West, because that unfairly discriminates and excludes people, including vocal ex-Muslim critics of Islam. He laments the fact that both the regressive left and the far-right make no "distinction between Islam – the ideology; and Muslims – the people." [20] :17:27 He argued that radical groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas popularised the term 'Islamophobia' on purpose, to equate bigotry against Muslims with 'completely legitimate criticism of Islam' as a religion, in order to silence the latter. [6] [22]

Islamic terrorism itself is utterly unable to defeat the West, Rizvi argues, but if Western governments take away the Enlightened values and civil liberties to appease paranoid citizens' sense of security, "that's how they [the terrorists] will win." [20] :20:42

Personal life

Rizvi has been married 3 times and was until recently married to feminist and secular activist Alishba Zarmeen [3] and lives in Toronto. He plays guitar in the rock band Dead Shyre with his brother Zameer Rizvi. He describes himself: "I'm a liberal myself, and I vote liberal." [4]

Rizvi has said that he and his ex-wife would regularly receive death threats from Muslim fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, and members of the far-right, mostly from people outside Canada. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined as the abandonment of Islam by a Muslim, in thought, word, or through deed. It includes not only explicit renunciations of the Islamic faith by converting to another religion or abandoning religion, but also blasphemy or heresy by those who consider themselves Muslims, through any action or utterance which implies unbelief, including those who deny a "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam, An apostate from Islam is known as a murtadd (مرتدّ).

<i>Leaving Islam</i> 2003 book by Ibn Warraq

Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out is a 2003 book, authored and edited by ex-Muslim and secularist Ibn Warraq, that researches and documents cases of apostasy in Islam. It also contains a collection of essays by ex-Muslims recounting their own experience in leaving the Islamic religion.

Rizvi or Rizavi is the Urdu variant of the Arabic surname Ridhawi and the Persian surname Razavi. It is a Muslim surname commonly associated with the branch of Husaynids, who claim descent from the Imam Ali al-Ridha, a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Husayn ibn Ali and Hasan ibn Ali. Their lineage also traces back to Muhammad and Abd ar-Rahman, the sons the prominent companion of the Islamic prophet, and the first Rashidun caliph, through his great-grandmother Umm Farwa. Since the Rizvi clan traces their lineage to Fatimah, many of them often use the prefix Sayyid in front of their name.

Discrimination against atheists, sometimes called atheophobia, atheistophobia, or anti-atheism, both at present and historically, includes persecution of and discrimination against people who are identified as atheists. Discrimination against atheists may be manifested by negative attitudes, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, or intolerance towards atheists and atheism or even the complete denial of atheists' existence. It is often expressed in distrust regardless of its manifestation. Perceived atheist prevalence seems to be correlated with reduction in prejudice. There is global prevalence of mistrust in moral perceptions of atheists found in even secular countries and among atheists.

Irreligion is present among a minority of mainly young people in Pakistan. Atheists in Pakistan face discrimination, persecution, and prejudice in society. Pakistan is reported by some sources to be among the thirteen countries where atheism can attract capital punishment, but according to the Library of Congress of the United States, "there is no specific statutory law that criminalizes apostasy in Pakistan." On the other hand, the Pakistani government can impose the death penalty for blasphemy.

Irreligion in Iran has a long historical background, but is difficult to measure, as those who profess atheism are at risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and the death penalty. Non-religious citizens are officially unrecognized by the Iranian government. In the official 2011 census, 265,899 persons did not state any religion. Between 2017 and 2022, the World Values Survey found that 1.3% of Iranians identified as atheists, and a further 14.3% as not religious. In the 1999-2004 cycle, the WVS had found 1% identified as atheist and 3% as not religious.

Irreligion in the Middle East is the lack of religion in the Middle East. Though atheists in the Middle East are rarely public about their lack of belief, as they are persecuted in many countries where they are classified as terrorists, there are some atheist organizations in the Middle East. Islam dominates public and private life in most Middle East countries. Nonetheless, there reside small numbers of irreligious individuals within those countries who often face serious formal and, in some cases, informal legal and social consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regressive left</span> Pejorative term for overly tolerant left-wing politics

Regressive left, also referred to as regressive liberals or regressive leftists, is a pejorative term to describe by its proponents a branch of left-wing politics that is accused of being accepting of, or sympathetic to, views that conflict with liberal principles, particularly by tolerating Islamism and other authoritarian positions, like promoting censorship. Among those who have used the term are the British political activist Maajid Nawaz, American political talk-show hosts Bill Maher and Dave Rubin, and New Atheist writers, such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauzia Ilyas</span>

Fauzia Ilyas is a Dutch Pakistani speaker, political activist, and the president and co-founder of Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan. Ilyas, an open atheist and apostate of Islam, fled from Pakistan after receiving threats to her life and faced potential legal charges for blasphemy in Pakistan. Ilyas received asylum in the Netherlands, where she is now a critic of Islam and campaigner for feminism, secularism, and atheist rights in Pakistan.

<i>Non-believers: Freethinkers on the Run</i> Dutch TV series or program

Non-believers: Freethinkers on the Run is a 2016 Dutch documentary on the situation of atheists, especially Muslim apostates, in Dutch refugee camps (AZCs). The film is directed by Dorothée Forma and produced by HUMAN with the support of the Dutch Humanist Association. It is the sequel of Among Nonbelievers (2015), which dealt with some of the situations of former Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Haider</span> Pakistani-American ex-Muslim activist

Sarah Haider is a Pakistani-American writer, public speaker, and political activist. She cofounded the advocacy group Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA), which seeks to normalize religious dissent and to help former Muslims leave the religion by linking them to support networks. She is the former executive director for EXMNA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armin Navabi</span> Iranian-born ex-Muslim atheist and secular activist

Armin Navabi is an Iranian-Canadian ex-Muslim atheist, author and podcaster, currently living in Vancouver, Canada. In 2012, he founded the online freethought community Atheist Republic, a Canada-based non-profit organisation which now has hundreds of branches called "consulates" in several countries around the world such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, enabling non-believers to interact in societies where irreligion, apostasy, and blasphemy are often criminalised and repressed. As an author, he debuted with the book Why There Is No God (2014), and in 2017 he became a co-host of the Secular Jihadists from the Middle East podcast with Ali A. Rizvi, Yasmine Mohammad and Faisal Saeed Al Mutar. In January 2018, the show was renamed Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment, with Rizvi and Navabi as co-hosts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Syed</span> Pakistani-American ex-Muslim activist

Muhammad Syed is a Pakistani-American writer, speaker, and political activist. He created the Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA) advocacy group in 2013 which seeks to normalize religious dissent and to help former Muslims leave the religion by linking them to support networks. He is the co-founder, executive director, and currently the president of EXMNA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliyah Saleem</span> British author and secular activist

Aaliyah Saleem, is a British secular education campaigner, writer and market researcher. She is an ex-Muslim atheist, feminist and humanist activist, and co-founder of advocacy group Faith to Faithless. She has also written under the pseudonym of Laylah Hussain.

Zara Kay is an ex-Muslim atheist, secular activist and women's rights activist, based in London. She is the founder of Faithless Hijabi, an international non-profit organisation that seeks to support the rights of Muslim-raised women, especially those who are in the process of leaving or have left Islam.

Ex-Muslims are people who were raised as Muslims or converted to Islam and later left the religion of Islam. Challenges come from the conditions and history of Islam, Islamic culture and jurisprudence, and sometimes local Muslim culture. This has led to increasingly organized literary and social activism by ex-Muslims, and the development of mutual support networks and organizations to meet the challenges of abandoning the beliefs and practices of Islam and to raise awareness of human rights abuses suffered by ex-Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apostasy in Islam by country</span>

The situation for apostates from Islam varies markedly between Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority regions. In Muslim-minority countries, "any violence against those who abandon Islam is already illegal". But in some Muslim-majority countries, religious violence is "institutionalised", and "hundreds and thousands of closet apostates" live in fear of violence and are compelled to live lives of "extreme duplicity and mental stress."

References

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