A MUSLIM'S CALL FOR REFORM IN HER FAITH

PART I

Some random excerpts from the book entitled THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM, written by Irshad Manji, a Moslem (Inidan/Pakistani) girl born in Uganda, emigrated to Vancouver area in Canada when she was four:-

Seems to me that in Islam, Arab cultural imperialists compete with God for the mantle of the Almighty. The Koran insists that "to God belongs the east and the west. Whichever way you turn there is the face of God." Why, then, MUST Muslims blow to Mecca five times a day? Isn't that a sign of being desert-whipped?

Call me superficial, but desert tribalism can be detected even in what Muslims are instructed to wear. Millions of Muslim women outside of Arabia, including the West, veil themselves. They accept that it's an act of spiritual submission. It's closer to cultural capitulation. Do you know where Iranian women got the design for their post-revolutionary chadors-- the ones that don't let you reveal a wisp of hair? From a Mullah who led shias in Lebanon. Now that's a heavy-duty import. While the Koran requires the Prophet's wives to veil, it never decrees such a practice for all women. Why, indeed, should it? Veils protect women from sand and heat -- not exactly a pressing practical concern beyond Arabia, Saharan africa, and the austalian outback. This means I could wear turtleneck and baseball cap to meet the theological requirements of dressing modestly. To cover my face because "that's what I'm supposed to do" is nothing short of a brand victor for desert Arabs, whose style has become the most trusted symbol of how to package yourself as a Muslim woman. Tell me: Should Allah operate like Prada?

To parrot the desert peoples in clothing, in language, or in prayer is not necessarily to follow the universal God. But you wouldn't know it by the myths with which Islam has been propagated through the centuries. These myths have turned non-Arab Muslims into clients of their Arab masters -- patrons who must buy what's being sold to them in the name of Islamic 'enlightenment'.

to continue in Part II.....