The idea that the Palestinian people have only been able to persist because of their religion is ridiculous to me. They are resisting because colonialism, apartheid and genocide are very bad things to which nobody would want to be subjected, not because of Islam. If Palestinians were atheists, is he suggesting that they wouldn’t have the strength or the will to resist? Would their lack of a belief in the supernatural turn them into doormats for Isn’treal?
I like Hakim’s content, but his position on religion is quite frustrating. He is a Muslim first and a Marxist second. Also, Joram van Klaveren is still a right-winger.
I’m not. In fact, despite my atheism and anti-clericalism, all of this chatter increased my general curiosity about the Quran and I picked up a copy of a translation that now sits (digitally) alongside my Oxford Annotated Bible, my JPS Jewish Study Bible, and my JPS Jewish Annotated New Testament. (If you know of a modern, annotated, interfaith English translation of the Quran comparable to the above, please let me know. For now I’ve incidentally ended up reading only the same Study Quran that Hakim recommended.) I started reading it this morning!
What I’m opposed to is the notion that the post in the OP somehow constitutes Marxist analysis. I’m also opposed to the confusion of the dialectical interplay between base and superstructure with a confounding of the distinction between base and superstructure. I also think it’s dishonest and silly to characterize the recommendation of a reading list comprised exclusively of intrafaith texts as anything but proselytism.
Edit: see also my edit to the grandparent comment.