A Muslim Refusenik

I was reading the Malaysian news paper as part of my daily routine and was tuck on the article on Islam. It discussed the people who have a different point of view on Islam and try to interprets the religion in their own way. One of them was Irshad Manji the best-selling author of 'The Trouble with Islam' that has been translated into many languages. She is a feminist, fighter for human rights, a lesbian and a Muslim-Refusenik. That does not mean she refuse to be a Muslim, but it simply means she refuses to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah. This triggered me to buy her book.



So I bought the book and now in the second chapter of the book. I respect her opinion though. Judging from her background, I do not put the entire blame on her. She was brought up in a rather shaky family of refugees in the early 1970's. I'd blame the community. This is the real trouble with Islam. We are facing with a lot of difficulties even to propagate the teaching among our people. People like Irshad and many more out there is just the results of the society being ignorant to their obligations towards fellow Muslims. She was groomed in a scenario where no one is ready to answer her curiosity, where no one around her was able to guide her in the true way of Islam. She is a well-known celebrity now in Canada. She has a TV Program that broadcasts the life of Muslim gays and lesbians that fled to western world due to the forbidden act in their countries. She is trying to rope in people towards her belief and I am not surprise if she has more than a million Muslim fans out there that has been influenced by her. The causes are small but the implications are enormous. Beginning from the very person that fail to convince her about the true Islam, she is now converting more into her beliefs.



I am just trying to view this in a positive way other than to put the blame on her alone. Of course she is wrong in her coures to find the truth, no doubt about that. But the question here is should we just focus the blame on her alone of should we change our community's mind frame that has conceived this kind of people? I'd say we take the latter. Root out the source rather than the implications.



Irshad Manji, Salman Rushdie, Ibn Warraq and many more are the 'victims' of the community's or more accurately the Muslim's ignorant towards their own responsibilities in propagatting the faith. I blame myself for that as well. I just hope that one day that Allah will give her hidayah and lead her back to the right teachings of Islam.

**Flying to Sydney tonight at 12.10am for interview and spending a week there(Sydney and Melbourne) for a quick holiday.