Agreed; needs promoting; will do. And then there's the slow burn of torching standard Islamic narratives of "the man, the book and the place"...

Submitted by Deirdre Cripps (United Kingdom), Oct 5, 2021 at 06:26

I heartily agree. Thank you for this excellent article. I had not realised that the 5 'stans' were opposed to receiving Afghans; is this partly due to the incomers being of a different tribe or clan, I wonder? The situation has me wondering about terraforming, creating a new landmass or two somewhere for Sunni and Shia (not to be confused with the '60s singing duo; and not to be near any non-Muslim civilisations, as the latter would suffer risk)...but this would open another can of worms.

Merciless as it might superficially seem, one way forward seems to be to demolish the credibility of the religion among its most hidebound devotees. Alas, this will not happen fast, as data has to circulate widely enough, in relevant languages, and be absorbed. Robert Spencer's evidence-based book "Did Muhammad Exist?" has been updated and recently republished. Other pertinent current/living researchers and presenters of such research include Daniel Brubaker (Variant Quran), Dan Gibson, Al-Fadi (CIRA Int'l), Gerd Puin, Hatun Tash (DCCI), Jay Smith (PfanderFilms), Joe (Red Judaism), Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Mel (Sneaker's Corner), Murad (Sneaker's Corner), Odon Lafontaine, Robert Hoyland, Ibn Warraq. Evidence-based research that would challenge and defeat standard Islamic narratives on "the man, the book and the place" is plentiful, and some is not new. One of the earlier researchers mentioned by Jay Smith was Hungarian scholar Ignaz Goldhizer (1859-1921). Jay's teacher, Patricia Crone (1945-2015), also produced potentially demolishing research. The task seems to be to get the data out there, widescale, and in necessary translations.

I would anticipate that evidence-based paradigm-shattering may pave the way to enhancing the spirit of free honest enquiry, critical thinking skills, respect for fact-based reasoning (not to restifle honest enquiry), and also (being a reasonable principle and not itself invented by, and so dependent on, a specific religion) emergence of ethics that better reflect 'the golden rule'.

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