"Yet another distressing visit to the bookstore.

I compare the size of the Islam section to the Christian and Jewish sections, and the Islam section pales in comparison. The titles of books in the Islam section are the same week after week. Once again, I complain to the managers and, once again, they cite the lack of sales in the Islam section. "There is movement in the Christianity and Judaism sections, but not Islam," I am told. I know from experience that Muslims hardly read - not even the Qu'ran for that matter. If Muslims do pick up a book from one Conference or another, they search for a book that affirms what they already know.

Muslim roads to knowledge are blocked by dogma, apologetics, laziness, and simple idiocy. But most of all, Muslim roads are blocked by a near total disregard for the value of the intellect and the role it plays in the pursuit of knowledge. Muslims today prefer to construct buildings rather than minds.

While the world discourses on Islam, Muslims exalt Islam and pretend that the world does not exist. All too often, discourses on Islam engage Muslims as subjects and not participants. In the United States and the West, academic presses such as Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard or Westview publish on Islam and Muslims all the time. The authors of these works are most often not Muslim. Universities and government institutions fund and support research and teach courses. Popular presses, whether in book or journal form, report on Islam and Muslims everyday. Politicians, journalists, legislators, educators, and others base their impressions on Islam on these mainstream discourses. Muslims do not impact the mainstream discourse in any significant sense.

The Muslim response is to build Islamic Centers, organize camps and conferences, and pretend that the mainstream does not exist. Although Islamic Centers are necessary for generating a basic sense of community and identity, they are rarely a serious avenue for knowledge or discourse on Islam. As to the camps, conventions, and conferences, all too often they are no more than pep rallies or cheerleading events.

In the contemporary age, whoever controls the flow of information controls the discourse. Muslims do not shape or control the discourse on Islam; Muslims are discoursed about but do not discourse back. The flow of information about Islam rarely originates, or even passes through, Muslim avenues.

[...]

It is reported that the Prophet said, "A Muslim will not tire of knowledge until he reaches Heaven." The problem occurs when one does not tire of knowledge but tires of the dogma, slogans, and cliched rhetoric encountered in Islamic centers and conferences all over the United States - where does one go after that? Or when those who wish to pursue knowledge must either live in poverty or accept easy money from those who offer easy solutions. The problem is when every wealthy Muslim prefers to build a building than support a mind...

-Khaled M. Abou El Fadl, Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam, p. 74-75