A Brave Vision for an Old Religion for a Future New World
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Although many moderate political and religious leaders of one of the World's oldest religions have said this line, it is surprising that one can find the same being written by a Woman from this supposedly conservative religious community.
Muslim woman seeks radical Islamic reform
Lesbian intellectual draws fire after criticising religion in her book and urging others to join her
TORONTO - As a Muslim, Ms Irshad Manji never eats pork, never drinks alcohol and reads the Quran regularly.
Otherwise she is Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare.
At 35, Ms Manji - a lesbian intellectual with spiky hair, a sharp tongue and a rapid-fire delivery - is a Canadian television journalist who admires Israel and applauds the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
More than that, she has issued a searing critique of her religion in a new book, The Trouble With Islam (Random House Canada), calling for radical change.
While every religion has its fundamentalists, she notes, 'only in Islam is literalism in the mainstream', a recipe for generating hatreds that can spawn suicide bombers.
There are other Islamic liberals who say the Sept 11, 2001, attackers did more than hijack four planes: They hijacked an entire religion.
Ms Manji, whose family left Uganda after Idi Amin expelled Indians, goes much further, saying that Islam has deep-rooted problems with Jews, women, slavery and authoritarianism that go back centuries.
Her goal is a thoroughly liberal reform, started by Muslims living in the West. 'If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it's now,' she argues in her book.
'If we're sincere about fighting the asphyxiating despotism' that Al-Qaeda seeks to spread, she adds, 'we can't be afraid to ask: What if the Quran isn't perfect? What if it's not a completely God- authored book? What if it's riddled with human biases?'
As a long-time broadcaster and public affairs talk-show host on Canadian television, Ms Manji has a ready platform for her ideas.
These ideas have already set off a searching debate. In the first weeks after the publication of her book, she has made front-page news across Canada and received immediate attention in Germany, where the book was also released.
In the next few months the book will reach the United States (St Martin's Press), Australia, other parts of Europe and most probably Israel.
The book has also provoked death threats.
She takes no chances.
A hefty bodyguard stands on the porch of her Toronto home, and she has put bullet-proof glass in some windows.
She insists that her house not be described in detail to avoid giving a hint of where she lives.
Her central call is for Muslims to join her in critical thinking.
'If Mohamed Atta, who was well educated in Germany, had grown up with questions rather than just glib answers,' she said, 'maybe then he would have stepped back before immolating himself and committing mass murder' on Sept 11 in the attacks that he helped organise.
As much as anything, she emphasises, her thirst is for inquiry, something she says she admires in Israeli society.
The goal is to 'create conversations where they have never occurred before'.
The Islam she desires, she says, is akin to the one that flourished in the 10th to 13th centuries when dissent flourished, 'poets caricatured religion with court approval' and Jews and Muslims lived together peacefully and cross-fertilised their cultures.
The immediate reply to Ms Manji's book is as fiery as her own high-octane critique.
'The book title should be The Trouble With Irshad Manji,' said Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry, dismissing her as a 'media darling'.
'She calls herself a good Muslim even though she is a lesbian and a feminist,' he added. 'She will have a shadow over her interpretation.' -- New York Times
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,213450,00.html? -
Truely, an amazing woman! Many bad things happen when ppl understand their own religion, all religions, too literally, and overlook the intent and the messages the texts carry. Be it Islam, be it Buddhism, Sikhism, what i believe in the meanings of these religions is peace and renunciation of hatred and other evils.
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haha muslim should think abt what they are doing...
whether they were programmed or did they make a choice -
Not much thinking seems to be done for the last 50 years of constant struggle by the Muslims.
This has led the Malaysian PM MM, who chaired the recent conference of the Organisation of Islamic Countries, to include his opening speech - as posted in the thread:
PM MM as Leader of OIC - Shoots from the Hip
If we use the faculty to think that Allah has given us then we should know that we are acting irrationally. We fight without any objective, without any goal other than to hurt the enemy because they hurt us. Naively we expect them to surrender. We sacrifice lives unnecessarily, achieving nothing other than to attract more massive retaliation and humiliation.
It is surely time that we pause to think. But will this be wasting time? For well over half a century we have fought over Palestine. What have we achieved? Nothing. We are worse off than before. If we had paused to think then we could have devised a plan, a strategy that can win us final victory. Pausing and thinking calmly is not a waste of time.
But think. We are up against a people who think. They survived 2000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking. They invented and successfully promoted Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also. -
muslims.. they would hv done better for themselves if they dun fight the jews
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Truely, an amazing woman! Many bad things happen when ppl understand their own religion, all religions, too literally, and overlook the intent and the messages the texts carry. Be it Islam, be it Buddhism, Sikhism, what i believe in the meanings of these religions is peace and renunciation of hatred and other evils.
Is'nt it amazing how thick and dense some people can get? WHy back in the middle ages and earlier, present day Iraq and Muslim people were the centre of all learning and civilisation. Whereas the Christian states of Europe wages wars, burned old women for being old and witch like, had inquisitions, launched crusades to loot and pillage and plunder; wiping out entire civilisations in their wake.
But now... since Europe had the Renaissance, and Christianity and Western culture became refined and all nice; what we know today as "the thing to aspire to..."
Whereas, the Muslims, fell because they read too deep into their Quaran, becoming what we know today as table-cloth wearing religious fanatics strapped with C4, hi-jacking planes with the sole purpose of killing innocent blue-eyed babies.
I just find it intrigueing whenever I see the blunders of human culture and their own accursed religions. WHich makes me slightly attracted to Communism because they outlawed religion, and more importantly, they shot fanatical Christians, much like the Romans fed them to the lions in the old days. -
For your humanistic information: Communism itself was responsible for millions of deaths within the last century, a rate quite unprecedented...Originally posted by men_@_arms:I just find it intrigueing whenever I see the blunders of human culture and their own accursed religions. WHich makes me slightly attracted to Communism because they outlawed religion, and more importantly, they shot fanatical Christians, much like the Romans fed them to the lions in the old days. -
The Muslim has committed one great mistake that the European has corrected, that is the acceptance that religion, science and politics should not be mixed together.
If they still insists that religious leaders be held as political leaders, if they insists that the Quran holds more knowledge than science, then they will always have a great disadvantage over other people.
BTW, I am a free thinker -
considering a good number of christians consider the bible bigger than science as well, that makes them even.Originally posted by socrates:If they still insists that religious leaders be held as political leaders, if they insists that the Quran holds more knowledge than science, then they will always have a great disadvantage over other people.
BTW, I am a free thinker -
[quote]The Muslim has committed one great mistake that the European has corrected, that is the acceptance that religion, science and politics should not be mixed together.
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That is where we are different from those Muslims, we had a renaissance, they did not. -
If u think about it, hardship and the need to overcome fierce competition breeds success eventually. Europe was one of the poorest regions, with their people facing cold winters and lack of food in the past. the thus had no choice except to further themselves through science and better organisation of society and resources.
muslim societies on the other hand tend to avoid science which does not seek to promote their religion, thus the reason for their decline as a society when compared to others. the chinese faced fierce internal competition, but instead of using organisation and technology to gain leverage, the basically kept the same weapons for many years in the past, thus they easily conquered by invading powers.
in modern times, middle east countries, despite being blessed with oil resources, have somehow managed to turn themselves into a region of violence, unrest, and, for many of the men in the street, poverty. somehow, having so much resource at hand doesn't seem to be of any use. . . perhaps its time that muslim society listen to some of its critics, especially critics who are themselves muslim... -
For chinese many factors are to be blamed...
Although Chinese aren't deeply religious in the traditional sense (unless you consider Confuciousism, spelling unsure) Their education system focus on literature, art and history, both are not as useful as science in development of society. The English, from the past till present, have been facinated with their number and maths. This help in improving their science. They have sine cosine and pythagoras and pi for ages. And the Roman numberical system is more efficient than all other races.
The boat makers or other skilled workers like carpentry, pottery etc kept their secrets tightly, teaching only a few selected people in one generation. Thus there are very few changes to the technology level in Chinese. The English have a thing called patent, thus encouraged people to share their knowledge. With sharing, then there will not be cases of reinventing the wheel, people working to improve the current level of science and not working to re-discovering the same old things again. Only with sharing of knowledge then the pace of technological advancement be quicken.