The Trouble With Islam (pt. 2)

Irshad Manji frames her book, The Trouble With Islam, as a letter to “fellow Muslims.” As a Catholic, there are many ways in which Manji isn’t addressing me, but I still took much from The Trouble With Islam. And, in fact, there are several moments when Manji does directly address the responsibilities of non-Muslims. While this certainly wasn’t her main focus, I definitely appreciate how The Trouble With Islam works to challenge Muslim and non-Muslims alike to be more reflexive about problems and struggles, and most importantly, to challenge us all to take actions to make the world better for us all.

The tone which Manji uses throughout her “letter” is somewhat of a casual/intimate one. It was almost as if I could “hear” her talking with me as I read her words on the page. Numerous passages demonstrate Manji’s wry sense of humor, her outrage at contradiction and injustice, and her dedication to her faith. In this way, The Trouble With Islam is crafted to reveal Manji to her readers on a personal level, and hence to foster her readers to feel similarly connected. (It also helps to make the book a quick read).

Although I wasn’t familiar with many of Manji’s references, to passages in the Koran, to Islamic customs and practices, to the nuances of conflict in the Middle East, etc. I found the text accessible. Manji offered a lot of knowledge to those, like me, who have only a rudimentary understanding of Islam and Muslim culture. Yet, at the same time, I’m confident that fellow Muslims would also find the text to offer them valuable insight to Islam. In her own quest to understand Islam, Manji describes the struggles she faced, as well as the conclusions she came to. Far from insisting that readers come to the same conclusions, she instead presents her findings for others’ to consider and evaluate for themselves. Indeed, it is individuality that Manji proposes as the guiding value that will move us all forward to a better world—not the kind of individuality that is selfish, but the kind that prizes our infinite differences and ultimate uniqueness. As she writes, the differences among us should serve as “incentives to know one another.”

Manji’s argument here is clear: once we truly respect this level of individuality, the plurality of interpretations which she is so keen to facilitate and support as the means to end the “trouble” with Islam, becomes that much more attainable.