1st Edition

Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World

Edited By Jack David Eller, Natalie Khazaal Copyright 2025
284 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

284 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

284 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World offers a contemporary, cross-cultural look at nonbelief and nonreligion in Islam. Providing historical, conceptual, statistical, and ethnographic data on nonbelievers from Morocco to Egypt, Turkey, and Bangladesh, it explores the unique nature and challenges of nonreligion for Muslims. It includes 11 chapters by experts on nonbelief,... Read more

Introduction: On Being a Nonbeliever in a Muslim Society

Jack David Eller

1. Patterns of Disbelief: Anti-Religious Discourse in the Heartlands of Islam, Past and Present

Brian Whitaker 

2. Mapping the Landscape of Non-belief, Freethinking and Secular Muslimness in the Arab World

Sebastian Elsässer

3. Once a Muslim, always a Muslim?

Lena Richter

4. A Critical Juncture? Atheism in Bangladesh and its (Dis)connections

Mascha Schulz

5. The Secular-Religious Divide in Iran: An Analysis of GAMAAN’s Online Surveys

Pooyan Tamimi Arab and Ammar Maleki 

6. The Cognitive Landslide: Pathways of Egyptian Atheists

Anthon Jackson 

7. Impious Camouflage: Egyptian Atheists Posing as Negligent Muslims

Wael Al-Soukkary

8. Impoliteness and Religionormativity: Arab Atheists on Talk Shows

Natalie Khazaal

9. Shoe-ing the Atheist: Emotional Responses towards Nonreligion in Egypt

Karin van Nieuwkerk

10. Leaving a Home that Won’t Leave Her: A Mētic Understanding of Ex-Muslim Women’s Experiences  

Dania Ammar

11. Did Political Islam Fail? The Discursive Construction of Atheism and Nonreligion in Turkey

Pierre Hecker

Conclusion

Natalie Khazaal

 

Index

Biography

Jack David Eller is a cultural anthropologist and Head of Anthropology of Religion with the Global Center for Religious Research, USA. He specializes in religion and nonreligion and authored Introducing Anthropology of Religion and Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence across Culture and History.

Natalie Khazaal is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech, USA, and an American Council of Learned Societies fellow. She has published on Arab atheists’ use of pseudonyms, engagement of gender during television appearances, and embedding atheism in literary works.