“The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith” by Irshad Manji

This is a book written with passion from a love for God as revealed in Islam and a hatred of what Islam has become in the contemporary world.

Irshad Manji is a Muslim woman who was expelled from Uganda as a child with other Asian families by Idi Amin and started a new life in Canada. In Toronto she experienced the contrast of western freedom and the harsh, closed minded, unreflective attitudes of the Islamic classes in the madrassa where thinking was actively discouraged. The book is written as an open letter to Muslims to encourage them to be reflective and to engage with the western modernity.

The book is full of detail on the rich history of Islam. She has a lengthy chapter on the recent history of Palestine in which she discovers that the Israelis are self critical in a western democratic way and the Islamists are responsible for much more than they will admit. Uncritical support for Palestine and an anti-Jewish stance is sometimes the only thing that unites Muslims from different parts of the world. The book is worth it for this frank and thorough analysis alone.

Her survey indicates that what is wrong with Islam is tribal insularity, deep seated anti-Semitism, and an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final and therefore superior manifesto of God’s will. The Koran is learned by rote in a language alien to most Muslims and its contradictions and inconsistencies are ignored as it is interpreted by authoritarian male dominated conservative societies. Her vision is of a reformed Islam that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities and fosters a competition of ideas. She wants to revive the idea of “ijtihad” the lost tradition of independent thinking that flourished in a past golden age of liberal Islam.

She identifies the ambiguous relationship of Islam to the west and especially the USA. Muslim voices continually chant anti-American propaganda but educated Muslims choose Western education and American products. In the USA Muslims are free to practice their religion as they choose which contrasts with the freedoms they are denied in conservative Islamic societies. She is most critical of desert tribal Islam which is single minded, harsh, Arabic, Koranic and fundamentalist and with Saudi money is now highly influential in other traditionally more tolerant Islamic communities around the world.

She bases her hope form change on a new agenda in which women are empowered in Islamic societies to become citizens and not just property. Through economic independence they will reform society from within and below. For democracy to grow, desert Islam needs to be opened so that other Muslim viewpoints can be heard.

Manji calls on the west not to be too polite in our conversations with Muslims. She suggests that we must not be afraid to challenge them on such issues as human rights abuses, discriminatory practices, and treatment of women under the dictatorship of Sharia law.

“Had I grown up in a Muslim country I’d probably be an atheist in my heart. Its because I live in this corner of the world where I can think, dispute and delve further into any topic that I’ve learned why I shouldn’t give up on Islam just yet.”(p.208) Irshad Manji has had death threats and hate mail yet continues to work as a writer, journalist and human rights campaigner.

This is a must read book that leaves you with an impressions of what is wrong with Islam today even if you cannot remember all the detail she cites. I found I wanted to go back and re- read sections so that I could reflect more deeply on the points that she makes.