Arnold Yasin Mol is a Lecturer of Islamic thought, comparative theology, and philosophy of religion at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR), a PhD Fellow and Lecturer in philosophy and Islamic studies at Leiden University. After reading the Dutch translation of the Qur’an, he embraced Islam in 2003. Since then, he has conducted his research around philosophy, intellectual history and Islamic studies, and broad subjects surrounding the humanities i.e., philosophy of religions and worldviews, religious studies, hermeneutics, and ethics.
How would you introduce yourself to people who do not know you and are curious about you?
I’m Arnold Yasin Mol from Leiden, The Netherlands. I’m a Lecturer of Islamic thought, comparative theology, and philosophy of religion at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR), a PhD Fellow and Lecturer in philosophy and Islamic studies at Leiden University, and a Researcher at the Dutch National Support Center for Extremism. Within my research, I specialize in the Hanafi-Maturidi school of thought, theological anthropology, ethics, and human rights, tafsir studies, religion and culture, ethics of belief, and religious conversion. Next to my academic studies, I study traditional madrassa with Deoband, Arabic, and Turkish scholars. I also try to use my identity as a convert in a constructive way by engaging both Muslim and non-Muslim audiences on these topics, in and outside academia, through public lectures and media.
Do you have any recollection of where you first heard about Islam?
While growing up, there were Muslim refugees in our neighborhood. It was only later, in 2002, during my biochemistry studies while in conversation with a fellow student that I really heard about the Qur’an and Islam.
How did your journey to embrace Islam begin?
It was during my biochemistry studies, at the age of 20, when a fellow student from a Moroccan background, offered me to read his Qur’an translation. We had been discussing God and the meaning of life a lot, and he was curious how I would experience a text like the Qur’an. He gave it to me in September 2002, and although it was only a year after 9/11, there wasn’t rampant Islamophobia in the Netherlands at that time. So, when we were discussing Islam, we never talked about 9/11 or terrorism. He gave me his Dutch Qur’an translation, without any instructions or advice. I just started to read it, just as I had read the Bible, Buddhist texts, and Bhagavad Gita before it. But the Qur’an felt different, it spoke to me so directly that in November 2002, I decided I wanted to become a follower of the Qur’an. I didn’t even have the right vocabulary for what that would entail i.e., I didn’t know that this meant religious conversion and becoming a Muslim. I discussed it with my fellow student and we went to his elder brother, but nobody really knew back then what conversion entailed. Thus, I decided to visit the local mosques, and even they didn’t know what to do with me for at that time they were not used to converts yet. So, my pronouncement of the Shahada only happened in April of 2003, about six months later. Some elderly Muslim men, Moroccans, and Turks, guided me a bit, but I was mainly left on my own.
So these first years were lonely and difficult, with almost no literature or scholarly guides available to me. Yet I was an avid reader of both Dutch and English, so I was able to attain more and more English literature on Islam. Then in 2005, I started some Arabic classes and later also studied religion and theology at several universities. But it was in 2008 while meeting multiple Muslim academics that I was motivated to pursue an academic career in Islamic theology and religious studies. That changed everything for me.
What was your attitude towards Islam or Muslims before you were a Muslim?
As I said above, in those days people were more defined by their ethnicity than their religion. Although I was brought up as a Catholic Christian, visible religion had mainly disappeared from Dutch society. Multiculturalism emphasizes ethnic differences, whereby religious identities have a secondary or even no status. So my friends were defined as being Moroccan, Turkish, Dutch Caribbean, or Indonesian, but not by their religions. Today this has changed, partially due to Islamophobia, but also because the second and third generation of Muslims see themselves as embodying multiple cultures while identifying with one religion. So today’s generation of Muslims in the West emphasize their religious identity more than their ethnic identity.
How did your family and close friends react to your decision to become a Muslim? How did you tell them?
I told everybody with a deep enthusiasm, even though many gave negative responses. These negative responses were different forms of Islamophobia. Some found it strange that I became religious, through which they expressed their religiophobia. Others found it weird that I chose what was deemed an immigrant religion, through which they expressed their xenophobia. Then, there were also people specifically rejecting me embracing Islam, through which they expressed their clear Islamophobia. So, I lost most of my childhood friends, either because I used to of course go to clubs with them, or because we simply couldn’t understand each other anymore. Our worldviews became too different. That loneliness was difficult in the first years, as it is also difficult to integrate into the Muslim community. They welcome you in their mosques, but not really in their homes and families. My own family also gave these mixed responses, but being family, they were stuck with me. For my parents, their main fear was that they would lose their son, but we all tried to stay connected and their support and tolerance of my life choices has always been my greatest blessing. Seeing your child convert to another religion, which is alien to you in beliefs and customs, can be frightening. Yet my parents always supported my academic and traditional studies, both morally and financially. The fact is that I was a difficult child growing up. So, my conversion to Islam got me out of that lifestyle and made me focus on work and studies. My father eventually said, “You had to become a Muslim to finally become a normal man.” When he said that, I realized they had accepted my conversion as having a positive impact on their son. They are proud of what I do as an academic and as a convert, seeing that their upbringing aligned me with Islam.
What aspect of Islam impressed you the most?
The Qur’an enchanted me because it was so direct in its language. Other religious texts mainly talk about how God talks to other people, and people in history. However, the Qur’an also speaks directly to its reader. Suddenly, God was speaking directly to me. I was only halfway to Surah al-Baqara when I knew this text was true for me. In my later studies of Islam, it was the deep philosophical and psychological thought present among classical Muslim scholars that deeply impressed me. When I teach Farabi, Maturidi, Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Razi, Kemalpashazade, and others, I discuss their deep psychological, rational, and moral understanding of reality and what it means to be human. My academic publications not only want to show this deep intellectualism, but also how it can enhance the contemporary world.
Looking at what you’ve studied, we see that you’ve studied the Qur’an very deeply. What is it about the Qur’an that caught your attention the most?
As said earlier, the very direct address to its reader is what impresses me. But also, the way it combines multiple themes into a very small text. Classical scholars were able to discuss any science and discipline in their commentaries of the Qur’an (tafsir), as the Qur’an has theological, philosophical, psychological, ethical, and social openness. This is the reason why I started to work on tafsir studies, as I was fascinated by how Muslim scholars connected any type of human discourse and knowledge to the Qur’an.
What would you like to say to those who are curious to know about Islam? What should they pay attention to when researching Islam?
Islam is a 1400-year-old worldview, with about 1,7 billion followers across hundreds of cultures. Both within Islam as a religion and as a multicultural civilization you will find thousands of ideas, histories, politics, and social customs. The unity in diversity is both beautiful and overwhelming, as it is difficult where to look and who to listen to. You will find beautiful people in your local mosque, but maybe also cultural ideas that feel too different from your own. If you really want to understand Islam, try to experience it through its different cultures and intellectual history. Read a Qur’an translation, read other books like Rumi or Ghazali, read about its historical civilization, talk to Muslims, and visit Muslim countries. Istanbul has always been my second home. I visited it a couple of months after my conversion in December of 2003 and I have been constantly visiting it since. It is both a cosmopolitan city and a center of the Muslim world, representing the openness of Islam. Start with the Qur’an, and start with Istanbul I would say.
