Anab Whitehouse

Mountains of Ignorance Anab Whitehouse

'Mountains of Ignorance' is a critical exploration of the published dialogue between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz entitled: 'Islam and the Future of Tolerance'. Dr. Harris claims that he is interested in peace, harmony, co-operation, and tolerance. Yet, when it comes to Islam and Muslims, he does not appear to exhibit the same commitment to, or fervor for, the aforementioned ideals. More specifically, Dr. Harris seems to be willing to recklessly endanger innocent lives - both Muslim and non-Muslims - by fraudulently promoting a false idea about the nature of Islam, and this seems rather incongruous with some of his stated values. One can't help but wonder what his underlying motives actually are because there seems to be little rhyme or reason to his insistence on maintaining such a jaundiced and factually challenged view of Islam unless his purpose is something other than peace, harmony, co-operation, tolerance, and the like. The fact that Dr. Harris appears to be willing to identify fundamentalists, extremists, and militants as constituting the only "true" Muslims, while referring to other non-violent Muslims as acting out of disingenuous and hypocritical pretense (simply because the latter individuals refuse to accept the delusional and ignorant ranting of fundamentalists) also causes one to wonder what the actual underlying motives of Dr. Harris are. Dr. Harris and Maajid Nawaz present themselves as individuals who have understanding of, and insight into, the nature of Islam. But they do not possess such understanding or insight, and the present book: Mountains of Ignorance' documents the foregoing contention.