Book Review on Ishrad Manji’s The Trouble with Islam Today
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Abstract The paper is a review on the controversial book of Ishrad Manji entitled “The Trouble with Islam Today”. It discusses the content of the book, its purpose and how it affects its readers on their perception about Islam. Moreover, this paper also analyzes the writing style of the author, her background and credibility in writing such a publication.
Introduction Irshad Manji has awakened the minds and curiosity of the world both Muslims and not Muslims when she wrote the book The Trouble with Islam Today. Raised in Canada, she is known as a feminist, journalist and an activist who is also…show more content… It has awakened concerns not only to the Muslim community but absolutely to all citizens who have read it. Manji bravely and honestly express her opinion of demanding and calling for change in Islamic community. With her fortitude and sincerity she had courageously asked her readers to face the troubling questions that the society has faced in the present especially on the religion of Islam. Being a Muslim, Manji bravely exposes the distressing secrets and facts of Islam as it is practiced all over the world- from its tribal narrow-mindedness, deep-rooted anti-Semitism and unsuspecting recognition of the Koran as the ultimate manifesto of God. Though the book criticize and questions some of Islam practices it also demands for change and revival of the Islam teaching. Manji as a self-proclaimed Muslim started the book with her own experiences being a Muslim. Among the experiences she shared are the instances she had in her childhood years of having a debate with her teacher who couldn’t give her the exact answer to Manji’s curiosity on why girls couldn’t lead prayers, the incident on how she discovered the things that are worth reclaiming in Islam and to the shocking realizations that Manji made about the conflict between Arab and Jews after she had made a travel to…show more content… However, she bravely related the possibilities of finding the answers to those questions if one will just keep striving in looking for those answers, just like what happened to her as she curiously journeyed her Muslim life from childhood to adulthood. In the first two chapters of her book, Manji enumerated some of her queries about Islam particularly on why her public school was so open and understanding while her religious school is prejudiced and narrow-minded. In Chapter 3 of her book, Manji deliberately exposed how the Islam traditions of creativity and curiosity have died out because of the political influence. She then discussed the things she had discovered about Islam when she had her journey to the Middle East and to other Islamic countries. She even discussed in detail her insights about Islam being colonized not by America but by Arabia because of the idea of “foundamentalism” especially that Islam was founded in the land of Arabia and the Koran language is in