Interrogating the Sacred: Radical Religious Revisionism, Agnosticism and Atheism in the Modern Arab World

Abstract

The article analyzes the thought of modern Arab Muslim and Christian critics of religion (believing radical and left liberal revisionists, agnostics, and atheists) who have challenged prevailing religious repertoires of both Islamists and their liberal opponents. Topics include: traditional Orientalist understandings of the fragile role of reason in Arab societies; the construction of religion in the modern West and non-West; the influences that account for the emergence and nature of Arab critiques, their similarities and differences, and the various responses that they have engendered; the degree to which the critiques have paralleled those of the modern West, and their influence on modern Arab thought; the variety of genres, including the novel, short story, poetry, fable, drama, Qur’anic exegesis, scientific theory, philosophy, metaphysics, and historical studies, in which these critiques have appeared.