Brilliant book on Islam

[Oatley1]

I have just finished this book "The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith" by Irshad Manji, and I must say that it is brilliant.

A gay Moslem activist, living in Canada, of Pakistani origin, via Southern Africa. Witty and insightful, it speaks of her coming to terms with her faith in light of recent events, and her analysis of just why the extremists have arisen. I read it in a day, and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Here is the amazon.co.uk link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312326998/qid=1080962944/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/026-2974390-1228465

And here is her website:
http://www.muslimrefusenik.com

 

[AntonyF]

My first thought was "a book?". No one really talks about books, even thugh it's in the forum title!

That does sound an interesting book... I will have to add it to my "want to read list".

 

[KoshN]

My first thought was "a book?". No one really talks about books, even thugh it's in the forum title!

That does sound an interesting book... I will have to add it to my "want to read list".

Yes, especially since it's a subset of Other TV-Related Forums. Probably should go under Off-Topic.

Anybody know how Islam views homosexuality? IIRC, I thought they were flat against it, i.e. it would be considered an abomination.

 

[hypatia]

My first thought was "a book?". No one really talks about books, even thugh it's in the forum title!

That does sound an interesting book... I will have to add it to my "want to read list".

Yes, especially since it's a subset of Other TV-Related Forums. Probably should go under Off-Topic.

Anybody know how Islam views homosexuality? IIRC, I thought they were flat against it, i.e. it would be considered an abomination.

A subset of Other TV-Related Forums?
It's a book. "Non-B5 books, TV & films" seems to fit the bill pretty well to me.

And they are merciless about homosexuality, I believe. At least the strict Islamics are, IIRC.

 

[Nancy]

And they are merciless about homosexuality, I believe. At least the strict Islamics are, IIRC.

So are strict Christians.

I heard about this book, I'll add it to my must-read list.

 

[KoshN]

My first thought was "a book?". No one really talks about books, even thugh it's in the forum title!

Yes, especially since it's a subset of Other TV-Related Forums. Probably should go under Off-Topic.

A subset of Other TV-Related Forums?
It's a book. "Non-B5 books, TV & films" seems to fit the bill pretty well to me.

Look at the forum title at the top of the page:

Other TV-related forums >> Non-B5 books, TV & films

 

[Oatley1]

Look at the forum title at the top of the page:
Other TV-related forums >> Non-B5 books, TV & films

Well, in my defense, she does host her own gay and lesbian TV show in Canada...

And yeah, Islam is very intolerant of gays and lesbians. Reading some of the quite disgusting emails she receives from people, and you wonder how she keeps on light heartedly writing them off, let alone how she can reconcile it with her faith.

She does call for an Islamic version of the Reformation, so that can't help.

 

[AntonyF]

I'd say her being Islamic has not got much to do with anything then. To me she just sounds like a sensible, non-prejudiced woman.

 

[GKarsEye]

And therefore will be ignored and ostracized by the very people that need to listen to her.

 

[hypatia]

And therefore will be ignored and ostracized by the very people that need to listen to her.

To me that is a kind of underlying karmic undertide here.

I admit, I don't like the anti-woman attitude expressed by many Islamic theocracies. But then I think: Germany attacked the Jews and we may have gotten the atomic bomb because of it. (The scientists that could have helped Germany get it first had fled Germany.)

By supressing half of your population, how much more will your culture miss out on?

I don't know, it's an interesting question. But I seriously suspect that when she wrote the book she knew who her intended audience was. She knew who would be reading it and who, at least for now, wouldn't.

There are an awful lot of books of this type on the market these days. A sort of 'explain Islam to the Western folk' books. Has anyone read any of them? What did you think?

 

[Jade Jaguar]

By supressing half of your population, how much more will your culture miss out on?

This is a VERY important point. I read somewhere, a few years back, that Japan had made a decision to allow women more or less equal rights in the work place, even though it is a very male dominated society, because they realized that it was necessary, to be competitive in the world today. It's ironic that while Islam was the most enlightened society, Europe was in the dark ages, and now, some elements of Islam seem to want to take us ALL back to the dark ages.