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The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith | 
 enlarge | Author: Irshad Manji
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  227 reviews
Sales Rank: 102872
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312327005
Dewey Decimal Number: 297
EAN: 9780312327002
ASIN: 0312327005
Publication Date: March 16, 2005
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Amazon.com Review
This "call for reform" reads like an open letter to the Muslim world. Irshad Manji, a Toronto-based television journalist, was born to Muslim parents in South Africa. Her family eventually fled to Canada when she was two years old. Manji shares her life experiences growing up in a Western Muslim household and ask some compelling questions from her feminist-lesbian-journalist perspective. It is interesting to note that Manji has been lambasted for being too personal and not scholarly enough to have a worthwhile opinion. Yet her lack of pretense and her intimate narrative are the strengths of this book. For Muslims to dismiss her opinions as not worthy to bring to the table is not only elitist; it underscores why she feels compelled to speak out critically. Intolerance for dissent, especially women's dissent, is one of her main complaints about Islam. Clearly, her goal was not to write a scholarly critique, but rather to speak from her heartfelt concern about Islam. To her fellow Muslims she writes: I hear from a Saudi friend that his country's religious police arrest women for wearing red on Valentines Day, and I think, Since when does a merciful God outlaw joyor fun? I read about victims of rape being stoned for "adultery" and I wonder how a critical mass of us can stay stone silent. She asks tough questions: "What's with the stubborn streak of anti-Semitism in Islam? Who is the real colonizer of the Muslims-America or Arabia? Why are we squandering the talents of women, fully half of God's creation?" This is not an anti-Muslim rant. Manji also speaks with passionate love and hope for Islam, believing that democracy is compatible with its purest doctrine. Sure, she's biased and opinionated. But all religions, from Christianity to Buddhism to Islam should be accountable for how their leadership and national allegiances personally affect their followers. One would hope that this honest voice be met with a little more self-scrutiny and a little less anti-personal, anti-feminine, and anti-Western rhetoric. --Gail Hudson
Product Description
"I have to be honest with you. Islam is on very thin ice with me.... Through our screaming self-pity and our conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We're in crisis and we're dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it's now. For the love of God, what are we doing about it?"
In this open letter, Irshad Manji unearths the troubling cornerstones of mainstream Islam today: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-Semitism, and an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final, and therefore superior, manifesto of God's will. But her message is ultimately positive. She offers a practical vision of how Islam can undergo a reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities, and fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives "ijtihad," Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. In that spirit, Irshad has a refreshing challenge for both Muslims and non-Muslims: Don't silence yourselves. Ask questions---out loud. The Trouble with Islam Today is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 222 more reviews...
 Junk that promotes bigotry and hatred October 13, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book reminds me of watching a sensational TV show into which one does not have to put any effort whatsoever. It's easy to see who the bad guy is, and who the good guy is. It's all set up for us. We can sit back and watch, lazily knowing that we don't have to work hard at anything, it will all be placed before us, solved and wrapped up within an hour's time.
The author takes us on her adventure, and we can sit back, lazily read the words, and see, with great ease, who the bad guy is. Islam is bad. Bad, bad, bad. It's easy. There's no effort involved in "getting it."
The words come without explanations that satisfy more curious minds (dates, history, statistics, sources, etc.), however, and the lack of even basic thesis style orientation rendered me twisting my mouth and lifting one eyebrow (disapproving) not too far into the book.
There's something suspiciously easy about it all...the result is that I can't take it at all seriously.
Unfortunately, though, I believe that many people are looking for easy reads, and this pulp -- as well as being an easy read -- is supposedly "educational." Certain readers will feel as though they've learned a good deal about the Middle East and the religion of Islam. You know, from "a real one!" Yikes. So discouraging.
 Caught between two worlds. October 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book, and came to respect the author. Mind you, it was different from what I expected. For one thing, Irshad Manji turned out to have more in common with me than I expected -- she grew up in Richmond, just up the road a couple hours, and in many ways seems more a Northwesterner than a "Muslim" in her outlook.
Manji is not a scholar, as many negative reviewers below point out. But she also does not fit easily into anyone's easy stereotypes or set caricatures, the same reviewers to the contrary. (My own caricatures of lesbians and journalists took blows.) It seems to me this book is the record of a sincere and passionate search for truth. She's a good writer, with great stories to tell. She's read a lot -- I often found her citing sources I'd stumbled across in obscure places -- and asked a lot of brash questions.
Admittedly, her position does seem incoherent. What part of Islam does she believe? God? Apparently, but that would make her a theist, unless Mohammed is His prophet. It's not at all clear she thinks he is. I certainly don't, which is why I'm not a Muslim. But you begin wondering if the only reason she calls herself a Muslim is so she can write books like this one -- either that, or out of the more respectable desire to maintain ties with some she loves.
Some seem offended by her views. Understandably. "To this day, Muslims use the white man as a weapon of mass distraction -- a distraction from the fact that we've never needed the 'oppressive' West to oppress our own." "Those who wish to flog women on the flimsiest of charges can get the necessary backup from the Koran . . . Then again, those who seek equality can find succor, too." (She flirts a bit with that kind of relativism at times, but usually pulls away from it at the last second.) "What else aren't we Muslims telling ourselves so we can keep surfing on sympathy and subsisting on victimhood?" "Despite obscenely overstuffed money vaults and a whole lot of land to spare, the Saudis won't take in Palestinians as citizens. They will, however, broadcast telethons to raise millions for the financing of suicide bombers."
Maybe the best way to understand Manji is as a second-generation child of immigrants. It is hard under the best of circumstances to fit between two cultures. When your parents' culture seems at war with the world, and the culture you grow up in itself faces the challenge of clashing tradition and modernism, and if to boot you add a domestic tyrant like Manji's father seems to have been, this is the sort of thing that can result -- more Canadian bacon than Kehbab, but plenty of spice and a fair chunk of meat, too. I hope she continues to search, and finds what she's truly looking for.
Haha... September 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Oddly enough, I'm not surprised at the obscene amount of negative feedback on here. It's almost exactly what I expected. I particularly enjoyed one reader's saying that "She's just the tool of Zionists and Christian fundamentalists in an attempt to discredit Islam!" LOL.
I enjoyed this book because, to me, it's an effort to open at least a discussion about Islam and its place in the world today. Is this such a far-fetched idea? Is it such a horrible one? I understand trying to preserve faith and practice, but when some members of that faith think it a good idea to start blowing up publishing offices and embassies over a string of cartoons...maybe a group discussion is in order.
Irshad presents some interesting ideas concerning bringing Islam into the modern world. She proposes, among other things, dialogue with Israel, dialogue between Muslim sects and the reconsideration of Quranic scripture. This last one is probably a little scary. As a student of Islamic and Arab histories, I have a vague understanding of the light of supreme perfection under which the Quran stands. So perhaps her ideas are a little...let's say...overly liberal. But at least she's bringing in new ideas.
I am not a Muslim. I am not a resident of a predominantly Muslim country. Therefore it's unfair of me to really venture an opinion, as the book was not directed towards me. However, I will just say that it's an interesting read, like seeing "The Last Temptation of Christ" is an interesting flick for a practicing Christian, like myself. It's jarring, a little frightening, but in the end, fascinating for its radicalness.
Yeah, something here DEFINITELY NEEDS A REFORM August 8, 2008
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
and this thing is this woman! Comparing the prophet, peace be upon him, to Osama Bin Laden...Wow! The most ridiculous, the most offensive, the most close-minded thing that ever lived. Trying to make money with such NASTY, grossly false assertions, no scholalry work whatsoevr, everyhting as RADICAL and as selective as ever. She should compare Osama bin Laden with HERSELF! If you're a blinded, racist, hateful beast, then this is just a treat for you. If you're not any of the above, then stay away!!
Finally - something to fill the gaps. August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author presents a much needed gap filler for why Islam, current events, and insufferable Western politically correct apologizing can't tell us why modern Islam is the way it is.
The thrust of the book describes the influence of tribalism and an Arab-centric viewpoint as the driving factor behind Islam as perceived and practiced today. So much of the anti-intellectualism, intolerance and inter-Islamic factionalism seen among Muslims is directly related to 14th century Arab tribal behavior that came about through racism and classism. She calls this trend "desert Islam", appropriately enough.
The decline in Arab-language printing, inventions, universities, and free thinking in general can all be traced to the backward looking doctrine of "desert Islamicists" hell bent on preserving tribal loyalty, which eventually was interpreted as Islam itself. With original thinking punished, pretty soon all the books start to sound the same, and eventually, authors stop bothering to write many new ones - what would be the point of risking your neck? This may not be Islam, but even among the mainstream, old habits of conformity are hard to break.
Think my comments are a little harsh? Read some of the negative comments for an indication of how permeated the followers are with the "desert Islam" branding. Now you know why I don't put my real name on Amazon. Maybe if the day comes when Islam cleanses itself of violent retribution towards dissent I won't have to do this for the sake of my family.
As one might expect, the author has serious doubts about her faith, but to her credit she has not abandoned it. However, the fact remains that there is not a version of the Koran printed anywhere in the world which accepts or advocates an openly lesbian lifestyle and living together with a same sex partner. It's forgiveable to wonder how committed she might be to sorting out the troubles with Islam today versus how she might have a more personal bone to pick with the true tenants of the faith. Nevertheless, even if she were motivated by personal interests, there are too many examples and too many important questions brought up to dismiss this book as the disgruntled rant of an apostate.
The concomitant aspect of violence coupled with an insatiable need for Westerners to blame themselves first explains why a book like this was never written, but I'm glad that it was.
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