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Title: The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith by Irshad Manji ISBN: 0-312-32699-8 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 16 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.97 (98 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Moral courage
Comment: I would first say that Irshad Manji has shown tremendous courage by writing this book. If the case of Salman Rushdie, or Palestinians who do not fully embrace Palestinian nationalism are indicators, she is taking her life into her own hands by suggesting a need to reform her faith. That courage is to be respected. I am a bit dissapointed that some critics here have been so harsh towards her. Works critical of Judaism and Christianity are standard fare and have led to well needed reforms of those faiths. Her work could serve a similar purpose for Islam if only it weren't dismissed by Muslims. And Islam in its current inception IS in need of reform in many areas such as (...) womens' rights, tolerance of non-Muslim minorities and other places.
For the Muslim critics, I would point out that Manji does NOT argue that Islam should be abandoned or even that a "new" form of Islam be embraced. Rather she argues for a RETURN to an earlier form of Islam as practiced in its "golden age" when there were more tolerance to diversity and dissent. Her contention is that the current form of the faith has calcified and that a RETURN to a previous more open form is desirable. That is hardly "anti-Islamic" to my mind at least. She does not deserve the smear campaign and physical danger she has been placed in for suggesting what amounts to a return to an earlier and more open form of her faith.
Rating: 5
Summary: Muslim refusenik makes me a non-confusenik
Comment: The front cover art says it all... a woman's mouth is silenced. But that was the past. Ms Manji's book is filled with rants, but fantastic rants filled with angst (she frequently gets threatened, modern Muslim architecture negates local cultural influences), humor (martyrs are actually promised 72 hur/white raisins, not 72 virgins), advice (how to speak out, liberal Western Muslims should assert their ownership of the religion), and insight (the roots of literalism). She joins a chorus of voices of Muslims who are questioning the strict, information hoarding leaders and teachers of their faith; she calls for a reformation or debate as profound as Martin Luther's or Talmudists. The twin towers Manji, 35, wants toppled are the towers of deceit and conceit. She denounces the lack of intellectual diversity in mainstream Islam, and desires ITJIHAD (the struggle for critical independent thinking) over JIHAD. Ms. Manji is a daughter many would pray for: inquisitive, intelligent, but blunt. As a teen, she confronted her teacher in a religion class who taught anti-Jewish ideas. She quoted the Koran to contradict him. She as expelled. As an older teen, she spoke out against her extended family's racism, use of slavery, and sexism. It was decided she should not visit them in Uganda. When threatened with physical abuse by a joyless parent, she fled to the roof. Many readers will say she is not religiously observant or learned enough to question Islam. Some will write her off for criticizing Muslim societies for allowing honor-killings, wife beatings, torturous clitorectomies; but this is a must read for any thinking person who wants to embrace both religion and the contemporary diverse world.
Rating: 1
Summary: Full of Mistakes
Comment: This book lacks accuracy but it is also full of mistakes. On page 44 she states that Muhammad preached for "25 years or so." All books of history tells us that Muhammad received his first revelation from Angle Gabriel at age 40 and passed away at age 63. That's 23 years. She has many other mistakes too; however, I prefer to give some facts about the life of Muhammad she should have included:
Muhammad was born in Arabia in 570 years after Christ. He was the descendant of Abraham and Ishmael. He was orphaned as a child and grew up poor. By the age 25 he came to be known for his honesty and good character. People called him Al-Ameen meaning trustworthy and truthful. At the age of 25 a wealthy widow impressed by his honesty and good character proposed marriage to him. Although she was 40 he accepted her proposal, and they lived for the next 15 years a comfortable and blissful marriage.
Until the age of 40 Muhammad had lived as a good citizen--a quiet uneventful life. One night while he was meditating in a cave Angel Gabriel appears to him and asks him to, "Read in the Name of Your Lord." Muhammad was illiterate so he said I can't read. But eventually he repeated the words after Gabriel. This began 23 years of revelation that we know now as the Qur'an. When he proclaimed the message people laughed at him. They wondered why God has chosen him instead of much wealthier more intelligent and powerful leaders of Mecca. But God chooses whomever he wills! They attacked him and early Muslims physically and verbally. At one point due to severity of persecution, a group of Muslims that migrated from Arabia to a nearby country, Ethiopia, rules by a just Christian king. At his court facing extradition to Mecca, they explained to the Christian King why they had left the religion of their forefathers in the following manner:
"O King!! we were plunged in the depth of ignorance and barbarism; we adored idols, we lived in unchastity, we ate the dead bodies, and we spoke abominations, we disregarded every feeling of humanity, and the duties of hospitality and neighborhood were neglected; we knew no law but that of the strong, when God raised among us a man, of whose birth, truthfulness, honesty, and purity we were aware; and he called to the Oneness of God, and taught us not to associate anything with Him. He forbade us the worship of idols; and he enjoined us to speak the truth, to be faithful to our trusts, to be merciful and to regard the rights of the neighbors and kith and kin; he forbade us to speak evil of women, or to eat the substance of orphans; he ordered us to fly from the vices, and to abstain from evil; to offer prayers, to render alms, and to observe fast. We have believed in him, we have accepted his teachings and his injunctions to worship God, and not to associate anything with Him, and we have allowed what He has allowed, and prohibited what He has prohibited. For this reason, our people have risen against us, have persecuted us in order to make us forsake the worship of God and return to the worship of idols and other abominations. They have tortured and injured us, until finding no safety among them, we have come to your country, and hope you will protect us from oppression."
The above summarizes the effect of Muhammad and his message on humanity. In this regard renowned British Historian Arnold Toynbee remarked in his Civilization on Trial, "The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue...This Islamic spirit (of submission to divine guidance) maybe expected to manifest itself in many practical ways, and one of these manifestations might be liberation from alcohol, which was inspired by religious conviction and which was therefore able to accomplish what could never be enforced by the external sanction of an alien law...Here then in the foreground of the future we can remark two valuable influences which Islam may exert upon the cosmopolitan proletariat of the Western society..."
Many historians have attested to this fact and consider his accomplishment nothing short of a miracle. Yet as he said through out his mission he was only a man conveying God's message.
Historian Michael Hart wrote in his book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, "My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels."
French Poet Lamartine wrote in Histoire de La Turquie, "Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a religion without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, which is Muhammad. If Greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?"
I think you get the idea that Muhammad was more than a reformer or philosopher. He brought about real change, real peace, all in the name of God, never taking credit, live a humble simple life and died with no possessions.
Thus, I believe a serious study of his life and accomplishments are something to consider, especially his claim of receiving a message from God. Please visit http://www.islam101.com.
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