Today I finally finished reading The Trouble With Islam by Irshad Manji, a Canadian, a lesbian, and a Muslim. It is her open letter to her faith, a faith that casts her out for her choices; and one which she has come dangerously close to casting out of her own life because of its prejudices.

I would urge all my fellow right-wingers, but more importantly, all those liberal leftists out there, to read this book. I can see it now: all the Righties nodding their heads, wondering what the next move should be. And all the Lefties, crying racism, and wanting to arm Islam for the Jihad. But that's not what this book is about. This is not another Michael Moore trying to undermine a system. It is a lone woman, looking at her religion objectively (a freedom she could only have here in the West), and asking What went wrong? and How do we fix it? She is calling for reform.

It is not the Extremists who raise her ire, but the Moderates of Islam - those who silently accept the status quo without argument, regardless of what they think is right. It is to them that Irshad directs the bulk of her letter, telling them to stand up for themselves and their religion - not to let the autocrats turn it into a political tool, as they have done for so long. She wants to take back Islam from those who seek to destroy in Its name.



It starts off "I have to be honest with you. Islam is on very thin ice with me." and ends with a joke. But the joke you'll have to read for yourself. You learn about her life in Richmond, British Columbia, as a child - even then she was questioning what she was being taught about Islam. The majority of the book is a close inspection of the practices of Islam over the span of Its lifetime, with special attention being paid to the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, and her visit to Israel. Of course, given her own views, there is much ranting over the state of women within the faith, but although excessive, it's true. Muslims to not value their women, the treat them like property. They can't vote, can't travel without permission, they are considered minors - children.

Her note to non-Muslims: Dare to ruin the romance of the moment. When Muslims insist "We're democracies in our own way," you need to pose only one question: What rights do women and religious minorities actually exercise? You'll doubtless hear in reply that the West should take a hard look at how it's mutilating women through breast implants and tummy tucks for the sake of social acceptance. Agreed, the West should look hard. Still, in all my years as a feminist in the West, I've never met a girl whose parents have disowned her because she wouldn't inject silicon into her boobs - and yet more than a few Muslim parents have rejected their daughters for resisting ciscumcision. Non-Muslims do the world no favors by pushing the moral mute button as soon as Muslims start speaking. Dare to ruin the moment.

About Americans beating up on America, and how this is part of the freedom of America:
There's a second reason that it feels like fair ball to question non-Muslim Americans - and Westerners in general - but not Muslims. People of the West don't make a habit of physically damaging you for dissenting with officialdom. Not every American welcomes the fact that the New York Times Magazine skewered the FBI's estimated number of Al-Qaeda recruits in America, calling it "more or less a wild guess." But, were the magazine's offices set ablaze, as happened in Nigeria when a columnist inadvertently ticked off the ruling Muslims?

Get this book. Read it now! Share it with your friends - Right and Left! It's about time someone from the inside had the courage to stand up and say what's wrong with the so-called religion of peace. I only hope that nothing bad happens to her because of this.