'The Trouble With Islam' by Irshad Manji

Can you say Salman Rushdie?

Following on from my last post about Yvonne Riddley I found this on The BBC. Scroll down to the bottom where it says: You asked author Irshad Manji on 'The Trouble With Islam' . It will open up a transcript and an audio link.

Some things that stood out for me.

Azher Mir, Blenheim, New Zealand asks: What did you hope to achieve with writing a book with such a provocative title?

... "I must tell you that I’m hearing primarily from young Muslims and from Muslim women who are saying thank you – expressing their gratitude and their relief that somebody is finally going public. And that’s the key, going public, with thoughts that they’ve only ever allowed themselves to keep private. "

Phil, London asks: Why is the only response for a call to change and reform within Islam is a threaten to kill those who call for it?

Irshad Manji:
And it does have a problem with pluralism at this point. And that wasn’t always the case. I must emphasise that there was a time – and I go into detail in the book about it – when Islam epitomised pluralism.

Newshost:
And dissent was encouraged, wasn’t it?

Irshad Manji:
Well yes. It was the leader of progress and debate and critical thinking. This was during the golden age of Islam, for example, when Jews and Christians and Muslims worked together to preserve the works of Plato and Socrates and so forth.

There was a time when critical thinking was embraced and that tradition was called ijtihad. I know it sounds a lot like jihad to non-Arab ears and in fact it comes from the same root – to struggle. But unlike violent struggle ijtihad is all about independent reasoning and independent thinking.

I explain in the book that towards the end of the 11th century, for very political reasons - which we can go into if you are interested - the gates of ijtihad were deliberately closed; 135 schools of thought were whittled down to only four schools of thought. And today a thousand years later, most Muslims have inherited that legacy of a ban on independent thinking.

And I am asking my fellow Muslims, especially in the West but not only in the West, what is stopping us from rattling at the gates of ijtihad at the very least and if nothing else ripping off the lock and saying, it is time that we rediscovered our tradition of critical thinking.

[...]

Isa, UK: Irshad does not speak Arabic so how can she claim to reinterpret the Koran.

Irshad Manji:
I don’t claim to reinterpret the Koran. Again Razia, as you yourself have said, Islam is in many ways a very personal and private spirituality between creature and creator and so I am not expecting, never mind asking, anybody to accept my personal interpretation. Rather I am reminding Muslims – and I can’t emphasise this enough – that there was a time when we had a tradition of critical thinking.

I’m asking the person who asked me her question, why is it so unreasonable to suggest that we Muslims ought to rediscover that glorious tradition of independent thought. Remember it is that tradition of independent thought that allowed Arab Muslim civilisation at one time to lead the world in curiosity, creativity and cultural independence. Is that such an Islamic thing to advocate?

[...]

... " And here’s the bottom line, as I say in the book, that if we as Muslims can unhinge the practise of Islam from Arab cultural imperialism then frankly I think we’ve got a hope in hell of reform but if we can’t, I don’t hold out too much hope."

Yvonne, buy the book.