Islam - Required Reading

Well, I think so, anyway.

I'm still sticking rather to the shallow end of the swimming pool, but inching deeper.

I read these three books about a year ago, give or take. The author is Jean Sasson, writing for Princess "Sultana", who lives in Saudi Arabia. If the things she writes about do not hurt your brain and make you want to cry, I'm going to suspect you of not being human.

Also, I picked up "The Caged Virgin" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the library the other day. She was born in Somalia, lived in the Netherlands under a death threat, and is currently living in the US. She works for the emancipation of Muslim women and had this to say (in 2005) about Islamic reform which she feels is hugely necessary:

"I am optimistic, and I normally would have looked to the West for help in reforming Islam, from secular liberals, Westerners who are traditionally opposed to the enforcement of religious beliefs and customs. In certain countries, "left-wing," secular liberals have stimulated my critical thinking and that of other Muslims. But these same liberals in Western politics have the strange habit of blaming themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the world as victims. To them, victims are to be pitied, and they lump together all pitiable and suppressed people, such as Muslims, and consider them good people who should be cherished and supported so that they can overcome their disadvantages. The adherents to the gospel of multiculturalism refuse to criticize people whom they see as victims. Some Western critics disapprove of United States policies and attitudes but do not criticize the Islamic world, just as, in the first part of the twentieth century, Western socialist apologists did not dare criticize the Soviet labor camps. Along the same lines, some Western intellectuals criticize Israel, but they will not criticize Palestine because Israel belongs to the West, which they consider fair game, but they feel sorry for the Palestinians, and for the Islamic world in general, which is not as powerful as the West. They are critical of the native white majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as Islamophobia and xenophobia.

I cannot emphasize enough how wrongheaded this is. Withholding criticism and ignoring differences are racism in its purest form. Yet these cultural experts fail to notice that, through their anxious avoidance of criticizing non-Western countries, they trap the people who represent these cultures in a state of backwardness. The experts may have the best of intentions, but as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

I still have more to read. I was going to check out a copy of the Koran and read it, but chickened out due to OMG HUGE. I did find a book called "The Essential Koran" so am going to read that one.

Inching deeper, but still holding on to the side....