The Trouble with Islam Today

I was browsing Barnes and Noble the other day and a particular book on Islam caught my eye at the forefront of the store. The Trouble with Islam Today, written by Irshad Manji, is a self-described "wake-up call for honesty and change on everybody's part," according to her website. She clearly has been the subject of controversy among her fellow Muslims, both here in the West and abroad. Just from reading some of the emails she receives, which she conveniently posts on the front page of her site, it is a sure bet that she is making a lot of Muslims unhappy with her criticisms. One self-proclaimed "Uberstrong Muslim" from New York City even had the nerve to open the letter to Irshad with "Dearest Lesbian."

I must admit, the topic of this book interests me greatly, and I wish I had more time on my hands to read and consider it. Islam and Middle Eastern issues has no doubt become a hot subject in the post-9/11 world, and many in the West seem to be struggling with what Irshad calls "mainstream Islamic literalism." The section of her website titled "The book" gives a very good synopsis of what, in essence, she is trying to argue.

The themes I'm exploring with the utmost honesty include:

• the inferior treatment of women in Islam;
• the Jew-bashing that so many Muslims persistently engage in; and
• the continuing scourge of slavery in countries ruled by Islamic regimes.

I appreciate that every faith has its share of literalists. Christians have their Evangelicals. Jews have the ultra-Orthodox. For God's sake, even Buddhists have fundamentalists.

But what this book hammers home is that only in Islam is literalism mainstream. Which means that when abuse happens under the banner of Islam, most Muslims have no clue how to dissent, debate, revise or reform.

I have to say, a lot of this really hits home with me. My experience on an interfaith council has shown that mainstream Muslims, even those seemingly willing to engage in dialogue with other faiths, are still very literalist relative to their Jewish, Baha'i, or Christian counterparts (again, that's not to say that fundamentalists don't exist within those respective faiths, quite the contrary actually). Passages in the Qur'an are very often read without considering any alternative meanings, allegories, or metaphors. Every meaning has already been spelled out in its most literal form by Islamic mullahs and to take certain imagery-filled verses with a grain of salt is more or less unheard of.

In any case, even though some religious observers may say that Islam has just yet to hit its "Second Vatican" if you will, I still don't think it should really excuse the issues that Irshad is trying to address, considering this is the 21st century. The inferior treatment of women, while allowed in many Qur'anic verses (the Islamic judicial system, for example, lists two female witnesses as being equivalent to one male witness), certainly does not extend to the nature of violence against them that we are seeing in Muslim countries. The inferiority of women, as sanctioned by the Islamic faith, is to me a product of the conditions under which the religion was born. To make two women witnesses equal to a man in a court of law was extremely revolutionary for Arabian tribes during the Middle Ages. Any more rights given to women would undoubtedly have resulted in an outrage, leading to a full rejection of the Prophet's message. And then where would that have left them? But circumstances today suggest that many are going too far, with violence against women in many Islamic countries becoming the norm. It's time to stop.

On the subject of Jew-bashing, the Muslim community's problem in this area stems from the establishment of a false link between the Prophet Muhammed's defense of Islam from those who would see it destroyed to the present-day political situation in the Middle East. Islam's own Sacred Text reveals that the station of Christians and Jews is that of the "People of the Book." Unbelievers or not, these people are held in high regard by the Qur'an. That is not to say that there wasn't plenty of harm done against them throughout Islam's violent history, however, those campaigns were fought (at least from my own perspective) only with the intention of defending an infant faith from being annihilated by its enemies. Yet, from this, the idea of holy war against non-Muslims remains even today. The present situation in the Middle East, with Israel struggling to contain the militant threat both inside and outside its borders, has continued to fuel this anti-Jewish sentiment. A complicated issue, I know, but still worth examining.

And finally, the subject of slavery/human rights abuses in countries ruled by Islamic regimes. What can really be said? Enough is enough. There is no excuse, period. This problem has its roots more in politics than religion I think. The world has no doubt seen its share of so-called Christian states falling under the dredges of tyranny and oppression. This really has more to do with the flawed state of the human condition and the perversion of religion than the nature of religion itself. Hopefully, in due course, the face of the Middle East will slowly shift from its current state of despotism to a more modern, democratically- driven society.

But until that hope on the horizon manifests itself, I think Irshad's got a point. There is definitely some trouble with Islam today.

I'm asking Muslims in the West a very basic question: Will we remain spiritually infantile, caving to cultural pressures to clam up and conform, or will we mature into full-fledged citizens, defending the very pluralism that allows us to be in this part of the world in the first place?

My question for non-Muslims is equally basic: Will you succumb to the intimidation of being called "racists," or will you finally challenge us Muslims to take responsibility for our role in what ails Islam?

Indeed.