The Trouble With Irshad

[Qutuz]

It did not happen.


No fatwa against the author. No sudden disappearance into hiding. No public book-burnings. Weeks after its publication, Irshad Manji's The Trouble With Islam still has not drawn even the mildest condemnation from any Canadian Islamic organization.


Prominent Muslim leaders have declined invitations to debate her on TV talk shows. And she has not become the widespread subject of Friday Khotbas (sermons) by Imams in Canadian mosques.


Instead, Manji is freely traveling across Canada to personally promote her new book. As a founding member of a new Toronto-based Muslim group, she has been given the strong support to which she is entitled. And that's as it should be. After all, this is Canada in 2003.


But all this quiet recognition must be a<b> great disappointment </b>to the author, her publisher, and some of this country's sensation-seeking media, who'd predicted a major backlash from hordes of so-called “fundamentalists.” It did not happen. Not one Canadian Muslim -- "fundamentalist" or otherwise -- bothered to picket any outlets selling the book. It's all been <b>a big yawn</b>, in spite of the media hype, some of which Manji herself encouraged.


"A Canadian Muslim who tomorrow releases a book critical of her religion is drawing a very high level of awareness from police because of a feared backlash from fundamentalists," proclaimed The National Post, which led the Canadian print media in running long excerpts from The Trouble With Islam amid alarmist reports of its supposed volatile effect on the national Muslim community.


“In some countries, <b>Irshad Manji would be buried up to her neck and stoned to death</b>," The Ottawa Citizen assured its readers.


"Call her crazy or call her courageous...,” said the Toronto Star in an interview with the author.


And the Globe and Mail reported, "Some weeks ago, Irshad Manji suggested to her downstairs tenant that it might be a good idea if she packed up and left." That accompanied few days later a long book review and even a column by one of Canada's leading writers.


But this is Canada, and it is 2003.


Canadian Muslims are, above all, Canadian. And Canadians are nice folks, with the best sense of decency in the world. Their protests are usually mild, reflecting the hope that people in general are smart enough to decide for themselves if a book like The Trouble With Islam is worth its hype.


More importantly, Canadian Muslims have learned a hard lesson from the Salman Rushdie affair in 1989. It began when British Muslims burned his novel, The Satanic Verses, triggering violent protests in India, Mr. Rushdie’s country of birth. The Indian government gave in to international pressure to ban the book. And then a fatwa was issued for Rushdie's death by the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for allegedly spreading hate against Islam, for being blasphemous, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammed. The rest is history, a bitter history for all Muslims, but especially those living in the West.


I have always maintained, however, that Islam doesn't need this kind of negative defense. After all, it is a world religion. It is robust. For more than 1400 years, it has consistently attracted at least 20% of the world's population. It still attracts many millions every year among those who seek, learn, and come to believe that Islam is the best faith for them.


Islam does not have a hierarchical priesthood, nor any provision (like excommunication) for revoking membership. Muslims are forbidden to prejudge others, whether they are of the same faith or not. Islam also teaches that actions, deeds, and the art of persuasion -- including dialogue, debate, logic, and rational argument -- are superior means of proactively engaging those with opposing views. Thus Ms. Manji, a Toronto journalist, lesbian, and active feminist, can go on calling herself a Muslim for as long as she feels like it


Although I believe Islam needs no defense, the same is not true for Muslims themselves, and this tension is vividly illustrated by The Trouble With Islam. Ms. Manji is entitled to speak her mind, but <b>the book's title is misleading</b>. It should have been called The Trouble With Irshad Manji’s Life. Now in her 30s Ms. Manji reveals that she did not enjoy her parent's love and affection in her formative childhood and teenaged years. And like many who've experienced similar disappointments, she blames her religion, its Holy Book and its teachings. She has not found enough reason, however, to leave Islam altogether. Instead, she calls for reform, holding Islam responsible for all the ills she has observed among Muslims.


Fair enough.


But as much as Ms Manji has the right to speak her mind, the religious interpretations of other Muslims must also be defended. No one has ever suggested (successfully, at least) that the Old Testament, holy to both Jews and Christians, be revised so that verses advocating killings and violence, tribal or racial superiority, the suppression of women's or gay/lesbian rights, be deleted. This is because the writings in any holy book are subject to the diversity and fallibility of human interpretation. So it is false and disingenuous for Ms Manji to assume that the Qur’an is somehow different in this regard from other holy scriptures.


I doubt if any reputable publisher would touch a book written by a non-specialist that advocated a revision of the Old Testament, or questioned its divine origin. It would be a risky business, not because of any anticipated furor, but because the media would most likely ignore it. And faith-based groups, if they were to protest such a release at all, would give it mere token attention.


<b>When it comes to anti-Islam, Muslim-bashing, smearing the Qur’an, or insulting the Prophet Muhammed in print, however, both publishers and authors stand to make money from the venture. </b> But here in Canada, the land where decency and sober second thought prevail? I hope not.


(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. He is the author of several books on Islam, faith and spirituality, including his upcoming The Qur’an: 365 Selections for Daily Reading. He can be reached at np@canadianislamiccongress.com)


http://www.ottawamuslim.net/Ottawa_News/fe...misry_Manji.htm

[radiyah]

Alsalam 'Alaykom


Jazzak Allah khayr brother. I think ignorance for such people is best. And soon she will be obleviant and past history which has no importance.


Wasalam 'alaykom WR WB

[Rasha03]

salamsalaikum


"Use and Abuse of Fame: A Review of Irshad Manji's Daring Book" By Derrick Abdul-Hakim


One is obliged to inquire: what are the credentials for a good systematic critique of Islam? A sharp intellect with scholarly acumen, robust sensitivity, voluminous knowledge of Islam and common sense seem to be the most obvious criterion one must posses to decipher questions concerning Islam. Sadly to admit that, in this era, all one must posses is an Arabic name, the unrelenting courage to dare take Islam head-on, and a meager journalistic writing reputation. In this case, Irshad Manji is our center scope. Irshad Manji has carved out a niche for herself in only four months of her newly released manuscript. Her book has already overwhelmed and stocked the bookshelves at any book store one travels to. In her book “The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith”, Irshad Manji endeavors on a quest to challenge Muslims to reform (revise) their faith to suit the needs and demands of the liberal democratic west. Her fervid and effrontery will to challenge the faith that has dared to put some of the most prudent writers (Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen) on the run “qualifies” her to be a spokeswoman on the faith. But, in the opinion of this reviewer, the only talent that Manji really possesses is scurrility, self-serving opinions, and the ability to peddle old-fashioned arguments and statements that other, more notable, individuals have put forth earlier.


Picking up Irshad's attention-grabbing book, I had an overwhelming desire to absorb all of her much anticipated research that has been amiss in the air, hoping that it would deliver an actual proclamation to reform. On the flip side, I was spoon-fed a bloated account of a bothered journalist with the insight to head the next street tabloid over excessively trying to link the gap between desktop trash and intellectual reading.


Typically as she does, Irshad consistently chicken dances around the obvious material that deal specifically with facts (as one reviewer puts, probably due to her own emaciated academic qualifications), only relying on her tendentious and lapsed opinion.


She heavily assumes that her readers have never really “researched” Islam, which leads her to inject opinions that were doctored by none other than herself. By divulging her own inadequacy about the subject, she relies on rage and religious phobia that is prevalent in the years following 9/11 to incubate her points.


More serious is the author’s agenda. One can obviously sense that Irshad Manji is not interested in delivering Islam from the depths of terrorist nihilism and frivolity. Instead, she despises Islam with the contempt and vigor to equate her with the famous (or infamous) anti-Islamologue Ibn Warraq. She does invoke positive aspects, grudgingly, about Islam but later recants. To Manji, Islam is a 7th century faith that sanctions intellectual capacity and free sexuality--ultimately hers. Manji after all is a lesbian who was born into a south Asian (Pakistani) family with a religion which holds no room for acceptance of her homosexuality. Such led her to be bitter and malevolent which eventually carried her on a “divine” mission to exploit the “mentally stagnate” faith and then serve it up on the emotions of the Westerners who experienced the 9/11 holocaust.


The book overall is a misfortune for those trying to understand the phenomena known as Islam and ultimately for the intended audience—the Muslims. A book that is pregnant with predisposed opinions of the author and lacks the anecdotal evidence to support it will likely mislead an unwary reader. One must bear in mind that the book is essentially secular and proudly westernized. Written by an author who probably never really admired her faith, the book essentially plays on the hurt sensibilities of the West who already hold a preconceived position on Islam. This kind of self-satisfying grandstand needless to say stymies any future effort to purge out true Islam from the terrorist frenzy. How on earth does she plan to engage her fellow Muslims in dialogue—much less convince them to reform?


The trouble with “The Trouble with Islam” is that it’s essentially a book hurried under the pseudonym of “reform” with the hidden agenda to embarrass Islam—tightly knitted together with references about the author’s faith (Islam) with the intention to lure in the western reader. It is subsequently mashed together with recycled arguments and ploys that were orchestrated before—sprinkled with predisposed opinions by the author that further add to the chagrin of the reader. It sounds as if Manji is searching for Aguste Comte’s “Religion of Humanity.” After all, what Manji really wanted in life was a Teletubby coloring book; what she got was the Quran. What Manji really wanted in life was a free-loving society where pink dogs live with blue cats; what she got was Islam.


By Derrick Abdul-Hakim