The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith by Irshad Manji is the book I have been waiting for. I just saw Manji's promotion of the book on C-Span and wow I was impressed. What an amazing woman! It's nice to see a Muslim women acknowledge that some Muslims are using Islam as a means to justify human rights abuses. Ms. Manji has received several death threats for the bold ideas stated in her book. Check out her captivating lecture on Real Player or Windows Media here. Here's also the C-SPAN link. As we've outlined in this blog several times, Muslim clerics use Islam to justify domestic violence and in some cases, female genital mutilation. While she addresses terrorism, Manji tackles this issue head on by distinguishing between moderate Muslims who remain silent on extremist interpretations of the Koran, and Muslim reformers who wish to debate these interpretations in her column in this week's NY Post:
While the vast majority of Muslims aren't extremists, a more important distinction must start being made - the distinction between moderate Muslims and reform-minded ones. Moderate Muslims denounce violence in the name of Islam - but deny that Islam has anything to do with it.
By their denial, moderates abandon the ground of theological interpretation to those with malignant intentions - effectively telling would-be terrorists that they can get away with abuses of power because mainstream Muslims won't challenge the fanatics with bold, competing interpretations.
To do so would be admit that religion is a factor. Moderate Muslims can't go there.
Reform-minded Muslims say it's time to admit that Islam's scripture and history are being exploited. They argue for re-interpretation precisely to put the would-be terrorists on notice that their monopoly is over. Re-interpreting doesn't mean re-writing. It means re-thinking words and practices that already exist - removing them from a seventh-century tribal time warp and introducing them to a twenty first-century pluralistic context.
We say it's high time for these interpretations to tackle how women are treated within society.
