The Trouble with Islam Today

Journalist, iconoclast and rebel Irshad Manji calls herself a Muslim Refusenik. ‘That doesn’t mean I refuse to be a Muslim,’ she writes. ‘It simply means I refuse to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah.’ These automatons, Manji argues, include many so-called moderate Muslims in the West. In blunt, provocative and deeply personal terms, she unearths the troubling cornerstones of Islam as it’s widely practised: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-semitism and an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final, and therfore superior, manifesto of God. But THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM TODAY goes deeper, offering a practical vision of an Islamic reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities and fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives Islam’s lost tradition of independent thought. In that spirit, Irshad Manji travels throughout the world with her challenge for both Muslims and non-Muslims: dare to ask questions - out loud. THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM TODAY is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.