The Muslim Refusenik

I caught Irshad Manji on the second installment of Bill Maher the other night. Ms. Manji is the author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith," a book that has the distinction of having been banned in a number of countries.

So what’s her reaction to that? Ms. Manji is posting free translations of her book in Arabic, Urdu and Persian on her website. This is one tough lady and I am very much impressed. She calls herself a “Muslim Refusenik.”

I wish Bill had let her talk more on the show. Then again, it is his show so I guess he didn’t want to get upstaged too badly. Ms. Manji has free rein on her web site though and it’s certainly worth a visit.

http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/

Since I can’t resist playing with my e-mail, I sent off this (the subject came up as “Change the World” when I hit the “Contact” button).

Change the world? I guess one child at a time would work, but that's not what I'm writing to you about.

I saw you on the Bill Maher show which in turn led me to your website which in turn led me to send you this e-mail.

I wish Bill Maher would have let you say more on the show. Now I guess I'll have to read your book. I absolutely promise to do so at the first opportunity but I’m still wading through Israel Finkelstein’s “Unearthing the Bible” at the moment.

I enjoyed your website immensely although some of the negative comments you’ve received, and especially the vulgar ones, depressed me terribly. I wish I could say that they surprised me, but unfortunately they didn’t.

While I can see the value of religion in keeping the poor (and ignorant) from murdering the rich as well as its value from a historical, cultural and psychological perspective, I have trouble seeing any value in its mystical aspects. To my mind the “God Question” is unanswerable, always has been unanswerable and probably always will be unanswerable.

As far as the moral aspects, I see religion as no more than one possible, and very selective, source for the establishment of a code of ethics. Let’s face it, for every acceptable moral position in the Koran or Bible you can find a position (slavery, treating women like property, capital punishment) that modern western society would find anathema and outdated.

So, after that long winded and boring introduction, my question is what value do you see in adhering to Islam? Or is it that your adherence is more cultural than religious?

Off the top of my head I would have said that the trouble with Islam (as well as with Christianity) is its acceptance of the existence of Absolute Truth. When you’re convinced that you’re implementing God’s will, it’s a little tough not to want to impose what you “know” (the religious always seem to confuse belief and knowledge) absolutely to be true on everyone else, not to become exasperated with non-believers and, as a necessary corollary, want to suppress anyone else’s “truth.”

As for supporting your Project Ijtihad, I think I'll wait on that one until after I've read your book although I have to admit, that anything that helps to substitute rational discussion for irrational action has to be a good thing.

Anyway, keep up the good work. Perhaps, as Bill said, you are one of the “good ones.”

In other news on the Bill Maher front, I thought Gary Hart was going to split a gasket during Bill's New Rules segment. He looked like he was pain he was laughing so hard.