People like Neta Golan and Justin Podur are the real heroes. Irshad Manji is more huckster than hero.

This review of her book does an excellent job of making the point I think needs to be made about Manji generally. If she was genuinely interested in helping to heal the problems that exist with the cultural expression of the Islamic faith, she would do it in a way that brings about her stated objectives. But she is not doing that. The way she is going about it (being more concerned with self-promotion than with really helping to bring about social change), is producing exactly the opposite result than the one she says she wants. It is further dividing people into polarized camps, and it is doing more to spread hate than tolerance. I'm posting the text because you have to join to read the article, but here's a link for those who want to join...


http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20051121&fname=Booksb&sid=1


The article -

"In early February 1989, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was watching the gains of a decade-old Islamic revolution slipping away amid unemployment, inflation and corruption. No longer was it enough to denounce the "Great Satan" in Washington or recycle memories of the Shah�s twisted rule. Theocracy just wasn't delivering the goods.

Then in the streets of the English city of Bradford, an opportunity presented itself to the crafty old man in Tehran. Local Muslims - Pakistani, Kashmiri and British-born - were rioting, burning a mysterious book. It was called The Satanic Verses and the writer, Salman Rushdie, was the real opportunity. An Indian-born, secular Muslim with the sensibilities of the London literary salon and a pointed pen, Rushdie became Khomeini's political salvation. Within a few weeks, the bearded old satrap had declared his now infamous fatwa against Rushdie. The writer was doomed to years of insecurity while the Ayatollah spent the rest of his life basking in the flames of Muslim anger that resurrected his reputation in Iran and the Islamic world.

Irshad Manji is no Rushdie. But she might just be the Ayatollah. The Trouble with Islam Today is a vitriolic broadside against an entire faith and its Arabic followers. It's a bitter, ill-researched and awkwardly written pamphlet that purports to be an open letter to Muslims. I hesitate to call this a book for that would give it a heft and substance it lacks. This is the work of an agent provocateur, and it suffers from so many shortcomings that listing them all would be pointless and as tedious as the polemic itself.

Not that books like this should not be written. Ziauddin Sardar, Stephen Schwartz and Bernard Lewis have all asked probing questions about Islam and the modern world and we're the richer for it. No faith is sacrosanct, whatever obscurantists in Tora Bora or the Vatican would have us believe. Religion comforts and kills by turns and we need to constantly understand its role in our lives.

But to return to the late Ayatollah, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Manji isn't just actively courting the wild attention that this publication has garnered so far. Its critics are many and frequently unreasonable. Often, they are Muslim. They point out that she's gay, as she does countless times in her writing. They question her credentials as a member of an Islamic sect - Ismaili - that some orthodox Sunnis see as heretical, however much this proves her contention that modern Islam is mired in crises of resentment, intolerance and hate. None of these points matters a whit.

What does is her motive in producing these pages of anger and scorn. Is she generally interested in provoking a debate among Muslims about the very real problems of their faith? Or is she looking to be declared a heretic by some mullah somewhere and garner even more attention than she has already attracted, a martyr-in-the-making who might otherwise have languished in Toronto as an obscure TV personality.

Those who already hate the faith founded by the Prophet Mohammed will take great comfort from The Trouble with Islam. Muslims who believe in lurid conspiracy theories about Israel, Jews and the West are hardly likely to change their minds after wading through Manji's erratic, often bewildering text. Her call for ijtihad, for Islam to be reformed and debated in the modern context, lack all credibility when it is served up in a sauce of glib, repetitive mockery of the faith.

Those looking for cogent critiques of Islam should avoid this book at all costs. In fact, I don't think anyone should read it."

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However, for those who see her as a hero, I do like most of what she says in the following quote, one which, I think, is contrary to the motives of most people who like to use her words to try to make points (and in many cases, to spread hate). I might actually have some respect for her as a social activist had she bothered to say "some Muslims" rather than making a blanket condemnation of all Muslims. But the fact that she does not bother to do so, pretty much ever, shows her true motivations, which are don't have anything whatever to do with promoting tolerance...


"I hope I'm not splitting hairs when I point out that there are no 'laws' as such in the Koran. There are words, and those words are interpreted by men to shape laws. The key words here are 'interpreted' and 'men'. That is, the Koran says a daughter should receive half the inheritance of her brother, because her brother is expected to share his inheritance with family members in need. There are claims on a man's income that, in theory, there aren't on a woman's. In reality, of course, this principle gets distorted by sharia courts, which in turn are influenced by patriarchal prejudices and convenient cultural biases. I hope I don't sound like a Muslim apologist when I point out that in cases like this, Islam is not the problem; Muslims are. However, the fact that under almost every interpretation of Islam today, women suffer second-class status (at best) suggests that a deep problem does exist within Islam today. No apologia on my part. And, hopefully, no sarcasm either."