Irshad Manji part 2

I blogged about this woman back when her book, The Trouble with Islam Today, was just becoming popular. Now she's being profiled by The London Times (thanks Glenn). Some highlights:

Doesn’t the violent Muslim minority show Islam is flawed? “I ask myself the same question,” she grimaces. Far from regarding Muslims as oppressed they have a “supremacy complex — and that’s dangerous”. This, she contends, is true even among moderates. “Literalists” who consider the Koran the “perfect manifesto of God” have taken over the mainstream; and far from misreading Islam, as Tony Blair and the Muslim Council of Britain insist, terrorists can find encouragement for murder in the Koran.

The perfect manifesto of God, yes. The perfect manifesto for killing innocents, no... these two things do not coincide. The literalism aspect is key here. I've witnessed it firsthand, and it's ugly.

Muslims, adds Manji, must find positive role models rather than jihadists: “Martyrs are the rock stars of the Muslim world, shown on the internet against a background of funky music. They feed on the self-esteem crisis of young Muslims.” That could be addressed by history lessons paying greater tribute to the Muslim contribution to the Renaissance.

Muslims feel beaten down by the West when they don't realize how much they have contributed to its development. I am utterly convinced, from a historical perspective, that the Renaissance would not have come about without the spread of Muhammad's Revelation. All of Manji's points in this regard hold a lot of water.