I’ve just finished My Isl@m by Amir Ahmad Nasr. It was a riveting read and an important education.
I was particularly interested in reading Nasr’s story as I knew his journey traversed several different ‘world views’. He goes from an orthodox traditional upbringing, through adopting a modern outlook and love for evidence-based rationality, and then on to embracing a post-modern egalitarian appreciation of difference and freedom of speech.
In addition—both unusually and intriguingly for me—Nasr also strives to view Islam through an integral perspective, a philosophical lens that ‘transcends and includes’ all the aforementioned world views.
I find commonality and overlap with much of Nasr’s thinking, and some of his lines of questioning have saved me time and helped direct my own research! I am also putting together some of my key ‘takeaways’ from having read his book, that I will post separately, and which may be of help to others on similar paths of self-inquiry.
In Summary
Nasr was one of the key bloggers who helped catalyze the social media revolution in the Middle East that led to the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011. His story is intimate and personal, and completely takes you in. And his approach is rigorous and unrelenting, in wanting to arrive at some kind of philosophical, spiritual and cultural integrity in himself.
The book starts with his experience as a young Sudanese Muslim boy who loves the reverberating call of the azaan in his local mosque and diligently keeps prayer. It then chronicles his life as a troubled teenager grappling with the questions he’s been told not to entertain. Rebelling from the dominion of indoctrination, Nasr then emerges as an uncensored activist who fiercely questions, and rejects the dogma he was conditioned to believe.
His questioning takes him deep into the blogosphere, and traveling across continents, meeting all manner of thinkers—muslims, and non-muslims alike. And as his journey unfolds, he becomes more and more tightly knitted into the social media network of Muslim bloggers who propelled the drive for socio-political revolution across the Middle East.
It’s inspiring to read Nasr’s story as a first-hand and behind-the-scenes account of how the thirst for freedom bubbled up across the internet and out onto the streets of Tunisia, Egypt and further afield.
Finally, Nasr finds peace with his Islam. Not through any kind of intellectual resting, or coming to a final ‘right’ answer, but through his own thirst for ongoing inquiry, and love for the Eternal.
Book Trailer
Bio
Amir A. Nasr is the formerly anonymous sociopolitical blogger behind The Sudanese Thinker. He is the author of the searing memoir and banned book My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind – And Doubt Freed My Soul, recommended by Foreign Policy among 25 books to read in 2013. He is also the founder of Assertive & Co. a content strategy consultancy. Amir has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, and The Wall Street Journal, among many others, and has shared the stage with Nobel Peace Laureates, former presidents, and fellow entrepreneurs. He lives in the land of beavers and maple syrup, aka beloved Canada.
Blog
Read Amir Nasr’s blog, and visit his website. Since the publication of his book and the reinforced oppression and socio-political unrest following the Arab Spring, Nasr recently put up this new blog post on his site: Breaking the Silence, April 14th, 2015
Dear Aterah
I’m not Muslim, but I can tell you that your inner experience of God is quite true.
I like to read Neale Walsch. He and other spiritual people claim that acts of violence, violent ideologies or violent religions most often are a result of people lacking contact with their higher self.
So the cure for a lot of the problems in the Muslim world or the Middle East would be to give people methods which can help them find their inner self.Some people have spontaneous or instinctive experiences of their higher self- but most adult people have not – because of cultural or religious upbringing they are so far removed from their own true self that they need a method or spiritual practice to connect to their inner light. I’m here speaking of all people, not just Muslims. This problem is perhaps just worse in the Muslim part of the world.
I know of 3 methods that are easy, fast and cheap and can perhaps be used to create emotional healing in for instance the Middle-East. All of the methods can be used to give people relief from post-traumatic stress.
The methods are:
EFT- Gary Craig –
Search for “EFT manual + languages” to find free manuals – English, French and Arabic
Trauma Buster Technique – Rehana Webster –
This is a mixture of EFT and NLP, made especially to help people with post-traumatic stress.
Book and DVD in English. Look at Rehana’s webpage for more information + watch her free video on YouTube (78 min) where she demonstrates the technique with a client.
Core Transformation NLP – Connirae and Tamara Andreas
This is spiritual NLP- it lets you experience your higher self.
Book in English and French (Transformation Essentielle)
There is some free material of this process – all free material show the basic proces – you need to read the book in order to know about the advanced processes that can heal a traumatic past or transform serious emotional problems.
Free Webinar with Tamara + 4 video-clips with Nigel Hetherington + client Andy.
Free material – questionnaire + excerpts of book – in French on the site of French Publisher, La Temperance. You can also find audio-tapes and videos on Youtube.
Lots of hugs
Annbirgit
Dear Annbirgit,
Thank you for your comments, and the resources you posted. I agree with you that more people need to find direct contact with the spiritual dimension, in whatever way that works for them. But it needs to be real, and not a second-hand theoretical understanding.
All the best to you
Aterah