The Great Ignorance

In The Great Ignorance, Bulent Kuyumcu tries to answer the same question that Bernard Lewis posed about the Muslim World: What went wrong? The answer is clear: Islam. Not Islam per se, but Islam as it has been imposed on Muslims by the clerical and ruling classes for the past 1,400 years--an Islam that is not practiced in accordance with the Qur'an and God's commandments. Muslims have been forced to obey the letter of their sacred text, which is tantamount to imposing conditions prevalent 1,400 years ago on today's society. Institutionalized Islam has valued form over content and memorization over thinking. This runs counter to all logic and wisdom. As a consequence, Muslim societies are mired in despair and failure. Under such circumstances, citizens of the Muslim world can only succeed outside of their own countries. This book attempts to pinpoint the fundamental mistakes that led to this situation and offers ways of correcting them.