Islamic Reform: Craig Considine's Bridge to Nowhere

Islamic Reform: Craig Considine’s Bridge to Nowhere

Craig Considine

In the latest issue of New English Review, Campus Watch Fellow A.J. Caschetta trains his eye on Rice University professor and self-described social media influencer Craig Considine, whom he aptly labels “one of the most enthusiastic apologists for Islam in all of academia.” Portraying Islam’s prophet Muhammad as a social justice warrior, smearing critics as “Islamophobes,” excoriating Israel, and engaging in shallow, ahistorical scholarship, Considine “embodies the intellectual shortcomings of contemporary Middle East studies.”

Considine, who makes much of his Catholicism, clearly admires [Karen] Armstrong, herself a former nun. In an apparent attempt to out-Armstrong Armstrong, he writes, “I consider Muhammad to be a quintessential anti-racist figure because he promoted peace and equality. Without a doubt, he advanced human rights in an area of the world that had no previous experience with this practice.”

Following Armstrong’s lead in attempting to contextualize Muhammad’s behavior within seventh-century Arab standards, Considine presents him as far more progressive than his contemporaries and even compares him to George Washington. Both sidestep all aspects of Islamic tradition that don’t fit their narratives, making them guilty of the same “cherry-picking” they complain about in the work of others. Both rely heavily on obscure passages from questionable sources written centuries after Muhammad’s death. And both ignore any evidence of violence advocated in the Koran, especially the 9th Sura.

To read the entire article, please click here.

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Rice University Islamophobia

Cinnamon Stillwell

Cinnamon Stillwell analyzes Middle East studies academia in West Coast colleges and universities for Campus Watch. A San Francisco Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco State University, she is a columnist, blogger, and social media analyst. Ms. Stillwell, a former contributing political columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written on a wide variety of topics, including the political atmosphere in American higher education, and has appeared as a guest on television and talk radio.