No god but God (Updated Edition): The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

In true Kharijite fashion, Jihadists segregate all Muslims into “the People of Heaven” (themselves) and “the People of Hell” (everyone else). Anyone whose interpretation of scripture and observance of the Shariah does not correspond to the Jihadist model is considered a member of the latter…

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The problem is that it is practically impossible to reconcile the Traditionalist view of the Shariah as a sacred and divinely revealed set of laws requiring no human interpretation or historical context with the requirements of a modern constitutional state, let alone the most minimum standards of democracy and human rights. The principal fallacy o

Of course, the problem with fundamentalism is that it is by definition a reactionary movement; it cannot remain tied to power. The Saudi kingdom discovered this from the very beginning when, suddenly flush with money, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud began using his newfound wealth to build a life befitting a king. Soon Saudi Arabia was awash in modern technol

For the Rationalists, who rejected the notion of an uncreated Quran, the only reasonable method of exegesis was one that accounted for the temporal nature of the Revelation. For this reason, the Rationalists stressed the primacy of human reason in determining not just the essence of the Quran, but also its meaning and, most importantly, its histori

Long before his messianic rise to power in Iran, however, Khomeini was a devoted disciple of the great mystics of Islam: the Sufis.

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We believe in God, and in that which has been revealed to us, which is that which was revealed to Abraham and Ismail and Jacob and the tribes [of Israel], as well as that which the Lord revealed to Moses and to Jesus and to all the other Prophets. We make no distinction between any of them; we submit ourselves to God. (3:84)

As with all Muslim rituals, salat can begin only after the intention to pray is voiced, and only while the Muslim faces toward Mecca,…

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As the Quran suggests over and over again, and as the Constitution of Medina explicitly affirms, Muhammad may have understood the concept of the Umm al-Kitab to mean not only that the Jews, Christians, and Muslims shared a single divine scripture but also that they constituted a single divine Ummah.