Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq — Book Review

Ibn Warraq is not the author’s real name. Why would he use a fake name? Well, Warraq is considered an apostate because he once was a Muslim and now he is not. Many Muslims believe that apostasy is rightfully punishable by death. So Warraq is protecting himself from adherents of the “religion of peace.” In a book I’ll be briefly reviewing written by a Muslim (Dr Shabir Ahmed Choudhry) who does not believe apostates deserve death, he nonetheless admits that

the majority of Islamic scholars are of the view that an apostate, murtad, must be killed. Also, they agree that Zandeeq, an apostate who abandoned Islam but has hidden that, must be killed.²

I left my Christian faith some decades ago (I’m back, by the way), but I never feared that other Christians might hunt me down and kill me. I never feared that my two best friends might show up at my door one night to shoot me. I never feared that my wife or son might deem it necessary to ostracize me or kill me in the middle of the night because I left Christianity. Not once. It never crossed my mind.

But if you’re a Muslim and renounce your faith, it’s something you have to think about.

This is the story of why I left Islam. I have kept my name secret for obvious reasons—in Islam apostates (people who leave the religion) are given a death sentence. — Sheraz Malik, “A Journal of My Escape from the Hell of Islam”³

Warraq’s book was first published in 1995. The saddest thing about that is that Western countries did not and have not heeded the warnings presented by Warraq and others 30 years ago. Our political leaders rushed down the path to destruction by allowing an ideology that is incompatible with Western Civilization to operate freely and be actively imported within the borders of countries that once cherished the freedoms they are now giving up to capitulate to people who not only have no desire to assimilate into our great cultures, but want to destroy them, replacing them with a barbaric system that considers a man who leaves the Islamic faith no better than a murderer.

This is an excellent book. Warraq is detailed and thorough. This is not an autobiographical account of why he left Islam, it is an intellectual treatise on why he is not a Muslim and why you or anyone else should also not be a Muslim. It’s far more scholarly than some of the other books I’ve read, so if you’re detail and historically oriented you will love this book. I skipped some of the repetitive sections but still read 90-95% of the book.

If you were only to read one chapter, the last chapter, “Islam in the West,” is worth your time.

Unless great vigilance is exercised, we are all likely to find British society greatly impoverished morally, and all the gains, social and moral, may well be squandered in an orgy of multicultural liberalism.⁴

Warraq called that! Thirty years later London has a Muslim mayor and Muslims are bold enough to say exactly what they want to happen in Britain: Islam should be the country’s only religion. The West through self-hatred and multiculturalism is destroying itself. How strange is it that LGBTQ adherents defend Islam when if they were in an Islamic state they would be imprisoned, tortured or worse?

The truth is that not all cultures have the same values, and not all values are worthy of respect.⁵

We in the West have to stop apologizing for being part of the greatest culture in the world, a culture and belief system that has given the common man freedom and liberty that so often in the past was not available and never to this degree for so many people. We need not defend ourselves against “Islamophobia.” We need to own it.

“You are Islamophobic!”
“You’re damn right I am, and here’s why.”

Accept it. Defend it. Stop attempting to explain why you’re not Islamophobic. We are Islamophobic and we have good, logical reasons to be. Make Muslims explain why we shouldn’t be. Make them explain their treatment of women. Make them explain the violence of Muhammad. Make them explain why Muslims kill Christians all over the world. Make them explain why Muslims are terrified to leave Islam. Make them explain why Muslims create “no go zones” in host countries. Make them explain why so many Muslims are unwilling to assimilate into their host cultures. Make them explain why their religion allows them to lie to infidels (If you’re not a Muslim—sorry to break this to you—you’re an infidel.). Make them explain why Muslims murder people who express opinions about Islam they don’t like. Make them explain why men can have four wives but Muslim women can’t have four husbands. Why? Why? Why?

And if they argue that those are just the “radical” Muslims, the Muslims that have “misunderstood” Islam, then make them explain why so many Muslims have those monumental “misunderstandings” and why they’ve had them for so many centuries.

While liberals speak of the need for diversity with equality, Islamists see this as a sign of weakness. Liberalism tends not to teach its proponents to fight effectively. What is needed, rather, is almost a contradiction in terms: a liberal militancy, or a militant liberalism that is unapologetic and unabashed. — Judith Miller⁶

Warraq begins his book with the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa (“fatwa: a legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader”⁷) on Salman Rushdie in 1989 for publishing his book Satanic Verses. Warraq calls it a “watershed” moment because so many Westerners decided it was a good idea to trash free speech to relate with Muslims who were offended by the book, one (Professor Trevor-Roper) even approving of Rushdie’s possible murder.⁸ Warraq comments:

Nowhere in any of these articles is there any criticism of the call to murder. Even worse, a recommendation was made that Rushdie’s book be banned or removed from circulation. Astonishingly, there was no defense of one of the fundamental principles of democracy, the principle without which there can be no human progress, namely, the freedom of speech.⁹

I was not aware, until recently, that the “Satanic Verses” is a reference to an incident in Muhammad’s life. Satan spoke through Muhammad via a revelation saying it was okay to worship three pagan goddesses of the Quraysh, something that contradicted Muhammad’s teachings up until that point. The Quraysh were a pagan Arab tribe that controlled Mecca. Muhammad did receive a new revelation correcting his error, but the incident is problematic for many Muslims.

It also casts doubts on Muhammad’s sincerity: Even if Satan had really put the words in his mouth, what faith can we put in a man so easily led astray by Satan? Why did God let it happen? How do we know there are not other passages where Muhammad has not been led astray?¹⁰

Warraq follows this opening chapter (“The Rushdie Affair”) with chapters on the origins of Islam, problems with sources, Muhammad’s message, the Koran, the totalitarian nature of Islam, it’s compatibility with Democracy and human rights, Arab Imperialism and Islamic Colonialism, Arab conquests, Islamic heretics, the influence of Western philosophy and science on Islam, Islamic mysticism, women in Islam, taboos in Islam, final assessment of Islam and lastly, Islam in the West.

His approach is comprehensive and methodical. I’m amazed how relevant the book is since it was originally published over 30 years ago.

The Koran, Hadith and Muhammad Biographies

One of the things I’ve learned over the last few months is that Islam is not just about the Koran. There are two other important sources that contribute to Islamic life and practice:

• The Hadith. A collection of sayings and actions attributed to Muhammad
• Muhammad Biographies. Warraq points out that Muhammad died in 632 A.D. and the first biography that we have was written around 750 A.D.

Koran commentators are also important. Warraq lists seven of them ranging in dates from 923 – 1505 A.D.

Someone I’ve just started reading on Substack and who I highly, highly recommend is A.C. Rosenthal. He wrote this recently:

The Qur’an is not the only source within that system, and it never has been. Islamic law, as it has been understood and practiced, is not constructed from scripture alone, but from a layered interaction between the Qur’an, the recorded words and actions of the Prophet preserved in hadith, and the juristic tradition that interprets, reconciles, and applies both.¹¹

Two Muhammads

Another important aspect of Muhammad to understand is the two distinct periods in his life:

1. Meccan period (Mecca)
2. Medinan period (Medina)

In very simple terms the Meccan period reveals a kinder, gentler Muhammad, but the Medinan period gave us the warrior Muhammad. In my reading of the Koran I noticed very obviously that Muhammad was unhappy that so many people did not accept him as the prophet. I suspect this is a big reason he changed his tactics in the Medinan period.

Warraq quotes Sir William Muir (1819-1905) from his four volume Life of Mahomet:

Simultaneously with the anxious desire to extinguish idolatry and promote religion and virtue in the world, there arose . . . a tendency to self-indulgence; till in the end, assuming to be the favorite of Heaven, he justified himself by “revelations,” releasing himself in some cases from social proprieties, and the commonest obligations of restraint.¹²

One of the things I like about this book is that Warraq quotes a lot of different people both outside and inside Islam. Many of the quotes are much longer than the one above.

There’s a lot, lot more in this 360 page book and of the dozen or so books on Islam that I have read so far, this is the one I would recommend beginning with. Warraq ends the book with this:

The West needs to be serious about democracy, and should eschew policies that compromise principles for short-term gains at home and abroad. The rise of fascism and racism in the West is proof that not everyone in the West is enamored of democracy. There, the final battle will not necessarily be between Islam and the West, but between those who value freedom and whose who do not.¹³

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Notes

1. Renan, E., quoted in Warraq, Ibn, Why I Am Not a Muslim, Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 2003 (first published in 1995), the epigraph.
2. Choudhry, Dr Shabir Ahmed. Apostate - Murtad and his punishment in Islam: Let the verdict of the Holy Quran prevail. ‘Let there be no compulsion in religion’, the Holy Quran., Kindle Edition. pp. 2-3.
3. Warraq, Ibn (editor), Escaping Islam: Apostates Speak Out, Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 2003. p. 159.
4. Warraq, Ibn, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 353.
5. Ibid. p. 356.
6. Ibid. p. 360.
7. “Fatwa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Source. Accessed 4 May. 2026.
8. Warraq, Ibn, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 9.
9. Ibid. p. 9.
10. Ibid. p. 102.
11. Rosenthal, A. C., "My Response To: 'Punishment of Apostasy in Islam': Under 'The Two Muhammads' Audit," A. C. Rosenthal, April 26, 2026, Source
12. Warraq, Ibn, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 88, quoting Sir William Muir
13. Ibid. p. 360.