Muslim reformation and small players like Irshad Manji

Submitted by Pund Kamath (Canada), Oct 8, 2003 at 09:58

To me you Irshad Manji looks like a a little candle which keeps the flame of courage, truth and reason etc. alive dispelling darkness of ignorance. Others will gain courage from her example. She does not have a pedigree of impressive lettered academic credentials , backing of power, influence, fame and money . But she is not afraid to speak the truth. Others who were- small and big, well-known and also unknown in history have done it before her. All movements start always with a small seed until they become strong. I believe she is on the RIGHT PATH and DIRECTION.

Once Rushdie wrote sometime ago in the NY Times that there are some who try very hard to open the doors of the world of Islam to the outside world for reasons of modernity, reason, humanism, dialogue, and understanding of the vast world of humanity etc. whereas the majority in the Islamic community like to keep the doors shut. Persons like her give courage to others.

Islam , I believe, is under intense scrutiny, and bogged down by centuries of lethargy, atrophy , ignorance and enemies within and it will take quite sometime to shed the baggage accumulated over a long time. But, one has to start somewhere. and therein lies the beginning of a Muslim Reformation.

But I would like to say that world will lose a great deal if the contributions of Islam are forgotten.. If a majority of the Islamic world are not prepared to accept a changing world, one can predict only tensions and conflicts. And Muslims will be the greatest losers, engineered and betrayed by Islamists themself!

Kamath

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