Recordings › Salman Rushdie & The Satanic Verses | Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Aug 2022 › Segment 11 of 21

Should all religions be free to compete without state backing?

muftis deen al-din ad-deen ad-din

Rational choice theory: should every religion simply compete freely?

QuestionLive chat · questioner not identifiedAnswered 19 Aug 2022Segment 11 of 21 in the recording2022-08-19-S11

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This segment55:22 to 56:41 · 1 min 19 sGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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Mufti Abu Layth agrees religion should not be forced on anyone and that people may criticise it freely, but says criticism with an objective is different from insults meant only to hurt.

In more detail

A questioner suggests applying rational choice theory to religion, letting every religion flourish and compete instead of having a state-backed [?] Islam. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that nobody has the right to force religion on others and that people have the right to criticise and show where something does not make sense. He repeats that analytical criticism, which has an objective and lets people see the point, is different from insult, which he calls petty, with no end other than to hurt.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified
What about applying rational choice theory to religion: instead of having a state-backed [?] Islam, let every religion flourish and compete?

Some terms in this segment are uncertain

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says nobody has the right to force religion on others and that people may criticise religions freely, but that analytical criticism differs from insult, which only aims to hurt.

In his words

“people have the right to criticize things if you don't believe in something you have the right to criticize criticize it you have the right to show where it doesn't make sense”

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Transcript

machine55:22 to 56:41 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary

54:58

[Laughter] it was uh you know let's move on let's move on uh let's not get distracted by uh by the by the runway i wanted to actually discuss the satanic verses themselves so before that let's just move to some questions um right what's

55:31

uh aptly rational choice theory to religion instead of having to state back islam let's just just let all flourish let every religion compete like them sure look i'm not saying people have the right to shove religion down your throat they don't and i have no qualms i feel that people who do not people have the right to criticize things if you don't believe in something you have the right to criticize criticize it you have the right to show where it doesn't make sense but there's a difference between just being rude and insulting and between

56:10

being analytically critical about something because that has a an objective to it you see when i criticize something when i critique something when i satirize something and i show the points people can see oh yeah that makes sense when i just insult something just call their mama this uh call the wife for this call them this this is just this is just dumb it's petty it's like there's no end game to that except just like a little child i'm just um trying to get hurt you i'm trying to

Paragraphs overlapping 55:22 to 56:41. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2022-08-19-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/11/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7

Mufti Abu Layth. (2022, August 19). Should all religions be free to compete without state backing? [Video, segment 2022-08-19-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/11/

Chicago author-date

Mufti Abu Layth. 2022. "Should all religions be free to compete without state backing?" Video, segment 2022-08-19-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded August 19, 2022. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/11/

BibTeX

@misc{abulayth-2022-08-19-S11,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Should all religions be free to compete without state backing?}},
  year = {2022},
  month = {8},
  date = {2022-08-19},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/11/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/11/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2022-08-19-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}

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