Sept. 11 was a twisted way to introduce Islam to most of America. On reflection, though, it might have taken nothing less than a cataclysm for Americans to think about my religion at all.
During the decade before, I'd been writing about the need for Muslims to reform ourselves. Non-Muslims would reply, "That's none of our business." And Muslims would tell me, "Don't air dirty laundry," as if this is a purely internal conversation. But 9/11 taught us that what happens within Islam affects countless lives outside the fold. We're slowly realizing that Muslim reform is everybody's business.
To me, it's a frustratingly slow realization -- tense and tepid. That's because fear paralyzes us even more than it did in the days after 9/11. In my experience, liberal Muslims are afraid to discuss our beliefs on the record. We fear being declared "traitors" by Islam-supremacists and "terrorists-in-waiting" by Islam-bashers. Likewise, liberal non-Muslims are afraid to question Islam openly because they can't abide being called "bigots" by Islam's supposed spokespeople.
Given such a polarized culture, the next decade has to be about reconciliation -- not just between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also between faith and freedom, respect and honesty. Here, interfaith dialogue often fails because it degenerates into an exchange of platitudes.
So, as a faithfully free Muslim, I say: Dare to ask uncomfortable questions. When you do, you're showing faith in my capacity to think. You're also giving me an opportunity to deepen my relationship with Allah by remembering Him.
Above all, questions themselves convey respect: I honor you when I refuse to infantilize your mind.
Fear will always bamboozle us into silence, which is a non-starter for change. Over the next decade, let's develop the moral courage to transcend the seductive groupthink triggered by words like "Islam" and "the West." Groupthink is the real enemy of liberty.
My fellow Muslims, in particular, can't keep chanting that we're victims of stereotyping when we stereotype our own by stifling freedom of thought. As I see it, Muslims have the chance to lead all Americans in living out a glorious passage of the Quran: "God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is inside themselves." That's chapter 13, verse 11. I consider it a 13:11 solution to the 9/11 abomination.
Irshad Manji is Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and author, most recently, of "Allah, Liberty and Love" (Free Press, 2011).
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How can one say that the problems are not in Islam, when at the very basic level, we can't even agree on a single method to start and end Ramadan?
How can we say the problems are not in Islam, when women are given half the inheritence that of a man sibling of her even though she has worked to earn a living and contributing equally (or even greater than) to her man siblings?
She is 100% right when she suggests that [the solution to our (Muslims') misery] is in Qur`an 13:11: "God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is inside themselves."
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How is this a problem? I really do not see it as one, nor do millions of other Muslims. The Qur'an states that Eid occurs when the new moon is sighted. That's it. It is how this is interpreted where the division occurs. Some believe that the moon must be sighted with the naked eye, while others believe that the use of telescopes and other devices compliant.
People had taken one day off and they had Eid dinner but half of them did not attend because they were fasting.
The Muslims need to realize that celebrating Eid together in a small city is more important than the methods and interpretations they adopt to make Eid determination.
That was my point.
Quite obvious here that you know little about this subject. What money a woman earns is hers to keep, and hers to spend however she wants. Her husband, brother, father, father-in-law, etc. have no right to that money at any time, so I'm not sure where you are getting that she has contributed equally. Contributed to what? If a father wills his daughter to have an equal share as his son, he is allowed to do that. The injunction of half of her male siblings is a guideline that was put in place due to men having to share their wealth with their wives and family, whereas women who inherit money are not obligated to share it with their husbands. A greater burden is placed on husbands in terms of finances than wives.
While in many traditional societies women are always taken care of, I have seen examples when they are not.
I know of one case in my own family in which a young widow was not taken care of by her brothers and she looked after her mother. Yet, her mother was compelled to give her half the share to her brothers because she followed the letter of the law.
What is needed is to properly contextualize the inheritence laws and make them dependent upon the individual circumstances so that if men are not carrying out their responsibilities as enjoined by the Qur`an, then they don't get the double share, which is what the original law assumes.
I am quite aware of what you presented above, but sadly the traditional societies have broken up, even in some traditional Muslim countries where men's wages are no longer enough to keep a household running and women must also work and contribute equallly to the running of the household.
Qur`an: "MEN SHALL take full care of women with the bounties which God has bestowed more abundantly on the former than on the latter, and with what they may spend out of their possessions."
If they are not, they don't deserve it.
If the role changes and its the women who "are taking full care of MEN with the bounties which God has bestowed more on WOMEN..." for whatever reasons, then the women should get double the share.
It's all common sense, practicality, fairness and justice.
I admire her honesty and directness in that she courageously wants the Muslims to self-reflect and clean their own house, and that she turns to the Qur`an, which is the Source Book of Islam, first.
There is a lot written about Islam over the past 1400 year.
All of it needs to be examined in light of the Qur`an, since the Qur`an itself calls itself "The Criterion" (Al-Furqan), which also happens to be its another name.
Many Muslims think that the problem within the universe of Islam are because of "others".
But the fact of the matter is that the problem with Islam is within Islam.
How can one say that the problems in Islam, which are a major cause of Islamophobia, are not within the universe of Islam, when we see an un-Qur`anic Blasphemy Law in Pakistan, when gays are given death sentences in Iran, and when adulterers are stoned to death in Saudu Arabia, Nigeria and Iran?
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I saw your interview on MSNBC today, and I love your viewpoint. I love how you are fighting the toxicity of hatred that surrounded the building of the Mosque near Ground Zero. Regardless of one's opinion of it, I think that tolerance should be exercised, that ignorance be combated. I also love how you see the optimism undercurrent in America. We need to stay positive in light of these events, and we must be thankful for what we have now. I am proud to see the strength of the victims who have turned this into a positive push for our country, and I hope that this shard of humanity remains ever present in America.
As you ( Quran Compared ) state : Quran 13:11 / Third sentence " .... when Allah ( God in Arabic), intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it " It implies , that when people become Immoral & go astray, God takes corrective action, In God's Court, people know that, they have done wrong. But God is Merciful & gives small warnings.
In the Old Testament, God ( Yahweh ) ' Commanded ' the Israelites, to KILL all the Canaanites, except one lady, who was a prostitute. This was apparently to punish the Canaanites, who had gone astray and to reward the ' Lady ' , as she had helped the Israeli spies.