We Need Non-Muslim Scholars of Islam

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Some Muslims ask why we need to listen to people like Karen Armstrong and Dr. John Louis Esposito: “They are Orientalists.”  What they fail to understand is that sometimes, when the non-Muslims say good things about Islam, it carries more weight than when our scholars say it.  They have no reason to embellish it since they are not viewed as interested parties.  For another thing, a non-Muslim scholar of Islam is sometimes able to be much more objective about political and social issues within Islam.


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