A very bold book. Manji is funny, but I doubt if her sense of humor would be tolerated by most Muslims who read her book. Tough love. That’s what she calls it. Muslims (or Islam today) needs someone to shake them/it into waking up to the reality of today. She argues that Islam is in big trouble – basically stemming from her own inability to fully accept what she has been taught in school regarding a faith that deprives her from the right to ask questions. And it is our job as Muslims to rescue Islam.
“By writing this open letter,” Manji begins her book, “I’m not implying that other religions are problem-free. Hardly. The difference is, libraries abound in books about the trouble with Christianity. There’s no shortage of books about the trouble with Judaism. We Muslims have a lot of catching up to do in the dissent department. Whose permission are we waiting for?” (4)
She then talks about attending Saturday classes for Muslims in Toronto where “wherever classes congregated within the side expanse of that room, a partition would tag along. Worse was the partition between mind and soul. In my Saturday classes I learned that if you’re spiritual, you don’t think. If you think, you’re not spiritual.” (11)
Her biggest problem, it seems, is that Islam, or modern practices of Islam, not only lack any tolerance for other religions, but lack tolerance for any interpretations of the Quran that go against the general agreement reached years ago, and against the laws decreed by a few clergy who all belong to only a small portion of the Muslim world today.
In her books she calls for a reform of Islam, but she is not shy to argue that such reform can take on any issue, including issues of whether or not the Quran, as we have it today, is perfect (citing examples of its deliverance to the Prophet and the final accumulation of it under hasty circumstances).
To the Arab reader, her attack on modern Islam might not be the worst. She almost directly praises the Israeli government and people for their ability to create a country, though based on religion, but one that is more open for freedom of thought and interpretation, an open-mindedness that she sees to be the cause of the major problem with Islam today.
But as she says in the first few pages: “Is that a heart attack you’re having? Make it fast.” (2)
Hanan 