The Trouble with Islam

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Original cover of The Trouble with Islam
Original cover of The Trouble with Islam

The Trouble with Islam, published in some editions as The Trouble with Islam Today , is a 2004 book critical of Islam written by Irshad Manji, in which she writes:

"The Trouble with Islam is an open letter from me, a Muslim voice of reform, to concerned citizens worldwide – Muslim and not. It's about why my faith community needs to come to terms with the diversity of ideas, beliefs and people in our universe, and why non-Muslims have a pivotal role in helping us get there." - "That doesn't mean I refuse to be a Muslim, it simply means I refuse to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah."

Irshad Manji is openly gay.

Contents

[edit] Contents

  • "The Letter"
  • "How I Became a Muslim Refusenik"
  • "Seventy Virgins?"
  • "When Did We Stop Thinking?"
  • "Gates and Girdles"
  • "Who's Betraying Whom?"
  • "The Hidden Underbelly of Islam"
  • "Operation Ijtihad"
  • "In Praise of Honesty"
  • "Thank God for the West"

[edit] Editions

Translations

  • Finnish: Islamin kahdet kasvot, Tammi (paperback), 2004, ISBN 951-31-3076-2, translated by Tiina Sjelvgren

[edit] Criticism

  • In 2003, Tarek Fatah, who was acknowledged at the beginning of The Trouble with Islam (for the discussions he had with the author), has criticized the book: "In one fragment of a sentence, "Muslim Complicity in the Holocaust," Ms. Manji places all these warriors on the wrong side of the trenches." . He also generally called the book a "diatribe against Muslims", concluding: "Had it been written in good faith, I would have understood her reasoning, even if I did not agree with her. However, her book is not addressed to Muslims; it is aimed at making Muslim haters feel secure in their thinking." and asked his name to be removed from future editions. [1]

Irshad Manji answered: "[Tarek Fatah] should have read the very next paragraph in my book, which acknowledges that some Muslims refused to hitch themselves to Hitler -- despite Haj Amin's effort to recruit them. I emphasized that "Bosnian Muslims not only resisted his charms, but actively hid Jews in their homes." Yet we hear nothing about this from Mr. Fatah, the à la carte critic of a fast-food historian." and "[Tarek Fatah] bellowed, "This book was written by the Jews for the Jews!" It's painful to hear such words fly from the mouth of a self-declared Muslim reformer". [2]

  • In January 2005, Canadian activist Linda Belanger [1] of Women Against Occupation stated: "By page 30 of her book, Manji starts to sound like the pro-war, pro-Zionist, Islam bashing columnists from the pages of Canwest Global newspapers [...] Again, her enthusiasm for Western societies seems to be very ill informed. Women's rights are a relatively new thing in Canada. [...] The trouble with The Trouble with Islam is that it is a biased, poorly researched and negative book."[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tarek Fatah. "Thanks, but No Thanks: Irshad Manji's Book Is for Muslim Haters, Not Muslims". (November 27, 2003, in The Globe and Mail)
  2. ^ Irshad Manji. "The trouble with à la carte critics". (December 2, 2003, in The Globe and Mail)
  3. ^ Linda Belanger. "The Trouble with The Trouble with Islam". canpalnet-ottawa.org (January 1, 2005)

[edit] External links

From the author's official website:

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