Armin Navabi is the Founder of the Atheist Republic. One of the most popular pages on Facebook for atheists that faced repeated censorship and shutdown from Facebook authorities. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and raised as a Muslim. Now, he is a former Muslim and an atheist living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here we explore, in an educational series, the figures in the Abrahamic faiths from the view of a leading former Muslim, this is session 1.
*Audio interview edited for clarity and readability.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, I asked about doing a series. We did an interview for Conatus News. I wanted to focus on The Good Men Project. In particular, masculinity within Islam and outside of it, and progressive developments that come from leaving it – and some that are inside of it. But you mentioned something about scripture and female and male figures, that you wanted to explore within Abrahamic faiths.
Armin Navabi: Yes, I think most ancient religions before the Abrahamic religions, if you look at their pantheon of gods, you can see female and male gods. People look at gods as parental figures, sometimes. If they look at the male gods as father figures, then the female gods as mother figures.
People they pray to when they need help. One thing I think was missing inside of the different versions of the Abrahamic faiths were the female figures. They were missing the female or mother deity. They miss something emotionally.
If you look at Catholics, they dealt with this through Mother Mary. Even though, the Bible has no reference to Mother Mary as holy or divine. This has been known scholars and Catholics. You can see Catholic doctrine introducing her assumption to heaven; it was a popular story at the time for them.
Based on popular demand, they made this canon. They added it to the doctrine. If you compare Catholics and Protestants, the Protestants focus on Jesus and God and pray to them. The Catholics pray to saints.
They ask for favors from saints. They do something Protestants don’t do, which is praying to figures other than God. One of the figures is Mother Mary. Protestants do not see Mother Mary as holy, but Catholics do.
When I was in the Philippines and Mexico, I felt as if Mother Mary is even more popular than Jesus. Some people prefer a father figure. It comes with someone who has power or control or wants to bring about wrath or punishment.
The mother figure is often someone we would want to appeal to for her compassion or sympathy. That is where Mother Mary comes in for a lot of Christians because the Christian doctrine didn’t have such as a female role or a mother role.
The Catholic’s added that role for Mother Mary based on popular demand, even though there is no mention of her rising to heaven in the Bible. In Islam, we see something similar in Shia Islam. As with Protestant’s focus on Jesus and God, you see something similar with Sunnis, as they only pray to Allah.
Even though they revere Muhammad so much, sometimes, it can be considered worship they themselves claim that Muhammad is never worshiped, and worship only belongs to God. Sunni Islam’s four Khalifas are not revered remotely close to how Muhammad is. They are not holy by any means.
In fact, there is a famous quote by Abu Bakr, the first Khalifa, right after Muhammad’s death: “He who worships Muhammad (peace be upon him) Muhammad is dead now, but he who worships Allah he is ever living and never dies.”
Their reason Sunnis revered Muhammad is that he is the role model of Allah and the perfect way to live, but not divine in any means.
The Shia have 12 Imams rather than 4 Khalifas. One of the Imams is the same as the fourth Khalifas of the Sunnis. The way the Shia look at the Imams is different than the way the Sunnis look at their Khalifas. These are holy infallible figures.
Shias pray and appeal to the Imams. They make requests, what is called dua. For Sunnis, this is Shirk. Shirk is one of the greatest sins in Islam. Shirk is the act of partnering others with God in worship.
Shias don’t consider this worship, but many Sunnis do, and because it is worship it is shirk. For example, when Shias put the shrine between them and Kabba while praying towards the Kabba, they are in effect also praying to the shrine of the Imams. This is highly offensive to many Sunnis.
If you look at Shia shrines, in Shia dominated countries, like Iraq or Iran, they are glamorously designed and in beautiful temple-like shrines. Shias consider these holy ground. But in Sunni dominated countries, like Saudi Arabia, where imams are buried, their burial is much more simple.
Even Sunnis look down on praying on Muhammad’s burial ground, the kings of Saudi Arabia are buried with very little ceremony because the dead should not be worshiped, even somebody as high as Muhammad.
For example, when Shias go to Sunni dominated countries to the burial grounds of their Imams, they are not allowed to pray to them. There are many reports of the religious police beating them because they found them praying to imams, which is an act of idolatry, dead worship, or shirk in their mind.
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