The Trouble With Islam Today

1. The Trouble With Islam Today David D’Achiardi AP English Language October 23, 2011

2. In the first pages of The Trouble With Islam TodayIrshadManji judges the sincerity of her contact with Islam throughout her childhood. By acknowledging discontent with her faith and the actual interpretation of the Koran in respect to her condition, a culturally active woman with religiously unacceptable sexual orientations, she breaks down the arguments she has encountered for both the orthodox and reconciling interpretations of the sacred book. She reports some of her early experiences in the madressa, where she had to accept some of the traditional rules regarding the separation of the sexes, the unquestioned faith for the preacher’s interpretation and the unavailability of other information sources. Subsection 1: Cultivating Curiosity

3. Manji urges us to highlight the privation of truthful contact with the sacred book, emphasizing the nonexistence of two equal or similar interpretations of important statutes regarding the mandated relationship between the sexes. By revising her childhood and first job experiences, the author suggests an overwhelming and ever-present discrimination due to her disregard for traditions and orthodox thinking. Soon enough, the author reveals her troubles with reconciling her faith with some of the shocking practices and the personal attacks received by her religion. The unstoppable questioning about an accurate interpretation of the sacred book reveal her discomfort of practicing a religion that doesn’t allow for her lifestyle. The critique offered by Manji regarding an Islamic childhood turns out to be a motive for her professional career standpoint and her inquiring, religious self. Subsection 1: Cultivating Curiosity

4. Manji demands answers for her questions regarding the acceptance of women, gays and alternative interpretations from the Koran. Some of her research attempts end up with the requisite of blind, unreasonable faith, such as her inquiry regarding the real recipient of her donations, an inquiry which simply ended with the assurance of the recipient being a Muslim. While studying some of the prominent philosophers, interpreters and the history of Islam, she stumbles across the tradition of ijtihad. This tradition urged Muslims to be in constant debate regarding their beliefs, using the Koran to support their arguments. The reader is instantly transported to the golden age of Islam, a time of peace and cooperation between the Abrahamic faiths, a time when religious toleration involved the participation in inter-religious debates and philosophic quandaries. Section 2: Back to the Text

5. Manji exemplifies the arena in which Islam is now presented by reporting on Muslim organizations and leaders in the US and Europe which plead for pardon and distanced themselves from the 9/11 attacks. The need for Muslims of today to either adhere to Western culture or to repudiate it through the means of physiological manipulation and ignorance reveals an immense hole in the religious education of this people according to Manji. The lost tradition of ijtihad, the adaptive, ever-changing force which demands tolerance and independent thinking is the clear culprit of the current motivations and practices. Corroborating the use and benefits of ijtihad for religious coexistence in a difficult time period serves the author to conclude about the need for a reestablishment of the old practice. Section 2: Back to the Text

6. Manji offers a clear critique of Islam’s prejudices against those who don’t follow the Koran, or at least the commonly accepted interpretation of the sacred book. She changes her object of study from her own experience to that of the Jews in the Middle East. The author offers a realistic view of the mutual hatred and overwhelming discrimination between the Abrahamic faiths in present-day Israel over the last century, annotating that “If you combine a ban on thinking with a long-practiced code of discrimination [. . .] you get imitation of intolerance” (65). The need for a religious answer regarding every single aspect of life spreads into the need of a specific list of enemies and appropriate behaviors. The lack of religious debate and participation within the community from an early stage only leaves the door wide open to blind and ignorant imitation. Q2 Section 1: The Lost Tradition

7. Throughout the book, Manji expresses a discomfort of the generalized preconception of the Koran’s judgmental and often discriminatory principles. By offering the example of the Pact of Umar, a code of conduct for non-Muslims, the author separates Islam’s holy book from other political interpretations or regulations that are commonly associated with the religion as official sources. In regards to these human-brought laws, Manji maintains that “God didn’t choose it; a bunch of godfathers did. Plenty of us buy into parts of the system, but we don’t have to swallow any of it” (67). By insisting on the lack of religious awareness, the author invites us to revise our own set of beliefs and raises the alarming conclusion of the existence of false credentials and prejudices dangerously permeating all societies. Q2 Section 1: The Lost Tradition

8. Traveling to the most conflictive region of the world, the true mecca of religious differences, Israel, provides different perspectives in regards to religious tolerance. Manji questions the vision of Israel as an imperialist, apartheid state where there is a separate treatment for Muslim citizens. However, the author suggests that there is a clear need for tolerance initiatives, not only on the political arena but on the religious one as well. Manji includes the testimony of a Palestinian returning to Israel after many years of living abroad. In relation to Islam’s treatment of other beliefs he claims that “Elevating oneself above criticism is not so much self-confidence as a sign of encapsulating oneself, closing oneself off from the rest of the world” (93). Suggesting a lack of conviction, a lack of belief originating from the Islamic faith, the critic blames Muslims for not revising their beliefs and preferring material promises in the afterlife. This is similar to the catholic promise of heaven for the materially poor. Q2 Section 2: The Promised Land

9. Furthermore, the author suggests a lack of religious renovation, of abundant antique practices in an ever-changing, globalized setting. This vision corresponds to a generalized tendency in religious criticism, the idea that traditional religious practices manipulate the mind and corrupt the spirit. Manji foreshadows such commentaries and provides her own vision of Islam as compared to other religions when she asserts that “in the hands of those who use spirituality as a machete, Islam has been no solution at all” (106). The societal danger associated with religious manipulation is simply devastating. The power of corrupting the mind, the heart and of truly convincing the human spirit of a certain set of obsolete and damaging beliefs is clearly depicted as the terminal, delicate situation in which Islam is embroiled today. Q2 Section 2: The Promised Land

10. Manji offers a critical point of view in regards to Arab Muslims’ control of the interpretation of religious principles that must be followed by all Muslims. The overwhelming discrimination expressed by this people in relation to other Muslims, like the Palestinians or the Shia Muslims, creates marked divisions within the Muslim community, in many cases leading to violent uprisings and insulting international remarks. The Arab way of life, the one commonly associated by Westerner’s to all Muslims, offers a generalized vision of the religious decay and the outstanding resistance to reevaluate their beliefs and practices. The author suggests that “equality can’t exist in the desert, not if the tribe’s integrity is to remain intact” (137). This statement complicates matters further, as a missive against Arab’s desert-like existence and their intentions to subjugate all other divisions of the religious practice into their way of life. Q3 Section 1: Muslim vs. Arab

11. Though I concede that the historical oppression of Arab Muslims towards all others portions of the Muslim devotees has been unreasonable, I still insist that the solution to greater religious toleration and peace in the Middle East can’t be the disintegration of the Muslim world. The “tribe’s integrity” can’t be questioned, given that the added religious division would create greater conflict in a region of unreasonable chaos. There must be some kind of mediation between Arab and non-Arab Muslims, given that the divisions present within the Arab world create worse conditions for all parties. The fact that only sixteen to eighteen percent of all Muslims are Arabs and that this is the majoritarian group illustrates the situation. By all means necessary, international and regional organizations must help for the survival of a Muslim identity, one that is much more open to ijtihad and other religious practices. Q3 Section 1: Muslim vs. Arab

12. Manji offers her own solution to the trouble with Islam today through women’s empowerment. By promoting a system similar to the Grameen Bank, in which low-resource, dependent women can loan funds to create their own businesses, Manji promises to solve many of the Muslim worlds injustices, conceiving a sustainable, economically sound system. The proposal’s mission asserts the idea that women’s empowerment is the “best chance for busting institutional monopolies that enrich clerics and their paymasters at the expense of ordinary people” (166). According to this plan, the destruction of profound sex prejudices evolves into a change in mainstream Muslim beliefs, taking the power off elite Arab hands and returning it to the individuals. The patriarchal society encapsulated in the prohibition of women’s property is replaced by a model of independence and equality. Q3 Section 2: Women of the Muslim World

13. I’m of two minds about Manji’s claim that women’s empowerment is the solution to the problems of the Muslim World. On the one hand, I agree that an economical model that unites the people and helps them benefit from the available resources and the entrepreneurship opportunities at their disposal is necessary. On the other hand, I’m not sure if the target population, oppressed women, is completely adequate. I believe Manji is trying to solve too many of the current issues of the Muslim World under one model. The deep-rooted sexual discrimination of Muslim women by their fathers and husbands needs to be transformed on many fronts. By implementing the same financial model, without targeting only women but all the poor as the main beneficiaries, it might be welcomed by the community, in much the same way as the Grameen Bank was conceived. Possibly, the main recipients to the proposal will be women, which will eventually begin to shatter the oppressive patriarchal customs. Q3 Section 2: Women of the Muslim World