[Reader-list] Review of Irshad Manji's book

[Shohini Ghosh]

Dear Vikhar Ahmad: I read your review of Irshad Manji's `The Trouble  
with Islam Today' with great interest. I agree to a very large extent  
with your comments about her (frequently naive) political stance on  
many issues, most notoriously, on the Israel Palestinian conflict.  
Your review however underplays the dillemma that she outlines very  
early in her book : "Can Islam and homosexulaity be  
reconciled?"  (Page 23) I think this idea is pretty central to the  
book. Whether or not one agrees with her formulations, it has to be  
taken seriously.   Had you engaged with the powerful role that desire  
plays - of which sexual orientation is an integral part - you may  
have hesitated to conclude that  "She [Irshad Manji] doesn't talk  
about female suicide bombers and we can be sure that they don't blow  
themselves up because of the seventy virgins in paradise". Well, we  
can't be so sure, can we?  Besides, how many better reasons are there  
to die? Warmly Shohihi 
   
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