To Fix Islam, Start From the Inside

Positive Reflective Piece of Writing if woman can educate families then families will produce both male and females which in turn will produce the changes needed to provide a solution...yes women need to find and employ those educative mechanisms that will empower them to bring about those much needed changes of perceptions both from a religious standpoint as well as social standpoint. The morale responsibility that every woman has when holding a child in their arms to engender love, to ensure her family her husband included are safe and secure and indeed educated to accept change that these very basic desires will help in shaping a better world for those beloved children who`s perceptions are from the onset perceptions that engender innocence and vulnerability. Then the history of conflict should produce that first step in changing their perceptions and desires for everyone and so a better world for us all

Very Insightful article, well written, and just proves my point that women should be running the countries, not men. Men always look to war to solve things. Women resolves issues by talking and working things out.

malikrose, I understand your pointk, but from an outsiders view, Islamic law is VERY brutal, and while I personally know know nothing about it, it supposed to come from God, and he is a loving entity. I truly cannot believe that He would condone the brutality of stoneing women for any reason. Brutality is a man made condition, not from God. It is God's word taken to the etreme, and twisted to incite fear to keep the church followers in line. Definitely NOT what God intended.

Irshad Manji, please speak for yourself and not for Islam or Muslims. Just the title of this article alone is offensive to me as a muslim. All muslims need continuous improvemnt like any other people, but Islam is eternal. That is the premise of the Islamic faith. If you don't know that much then please dont misinform people in this subject.

Irshad Manji, please speak for yourself and not for Islam or Muslims.

Lol.......Irshad Manji it is Idiots like you who need to be fixed by Islam.......

did you ever hear of

terrorists called
IRA
AFRICAN -NELSON MANDELA
BASQUES
BAADER MEINHOFF
AND CHE GUEVERA
ALSO FIDEL CASTRO
AND THERE IS A LIST AS LONG AS THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION OF ALL THE MEXICANS AND CUBANS AND COLOMBIANS
LOLZ
TERRORISTS MY FOOT

i love it when all these muslim haters come and abuse islam ,pakistan and burkas
it becomes such a caricature that you can easily miss watching big brother on tele
this is entertainment galore

and true indian is the true indigenous clown in this show
i am sure he has a name like indu indrani or indigo hindustani
lolz

keep it up
good fun

TheGardener,
I think it's hypocritical of you to call Muslim men immature. In my opinion, it's immature of you not to realize that one sixth of the world's population, that's over one billion people, CANNOT all be "taken for a ride". It's the same concept as going to war with a country. Each country has it's reasons for fighting, each side thinks they are just and each soldier out there has a reason to be where they are. That applies to understanding other religions as well. Regardless of all the issues people may see with a religion, every person has a reason to follow what they follow and believe what they do.

"Islamic law can be brutal; no amount of cultural theorizing erases this fact. But as a faithful, feminist Muslim, I know that seventh-century cruelty is not inevitable in the 21st century."
The writer of this article is either a dreamer or an ignorant to the true nature of Islam.

"To Fix Islam, Start From the Inside: The best way to fight radicalism is to empower Muslim women worldwide."
That would mean To Change the Quran and All the Laws.
The Islamic Males are too immature and submissive to analyze their horrific mental state of mind and slavery to an ideology that is a complete hoax. Nobody likes to admit they are being taken for a ride. However that would have to be the first realization.

Islam is a political party with a god-belief and an insult to human dignity.

I am about to write something somewhat tongue-in-cheek which might also have a grain of truth. I will then make a proposal.

I've taken the liberty of playing anthropologist (which I am not), and attempted to understand in the most fundamental and universal terms the sorts of constraints traditional Islam appears to put on the lives of women. My conclusion is that many of these constraints, ostensibly to protect women's "virtue" and family "honor" are ultimately aimed at protecting the capacity to determine the paternity of children. I suspect that this conclusion may actually be a no-brainer for most anthropologists, though I welcome the comment of any fully trained anthropologists out there. There's nothing necessarily wrong with wanting to know a child's paternity. It is a concern that derives immediately from core evolutionarily inspired drives shared by all people. However it is an artifact of history and economy that has left so many women in the Moslem world so thwarted in their worldly aspirations. Specifically, the artifact may relate to the nomadic and herding economy of the ancient Middle East, and of Arabia in particular, that required that men leave their wives alone in their isolated homes for extended periods of time. It is not entirely surprising that in such a socioeconomic environment unusual social customs would develop that reflected the specific challenges there to ensuring and demonstrating paternity.

Let's suppose then that the underlying barrier to the liberation of Moslem women is a persistent, historically driven, deep-seated, barely conscious concern on the part of Moslem men that they are at risk of unwittingly raising the children of other men. What would then be the surest, fastest way to shift the social dynamics that constrain Moslem women? The answer may be as simple as providing inexpensive reliable paternity testing throughout the Moslem world. There would be no more need for burqas, no need for male family members to be escorting, or rather guarding, all fertile Moslem women whenever they may want to venture outside the home, no need for restrictions on the casual, business, and educational interactions that would otherwise be quite natural between men and women. With both women and men knowing that the paternity of every child would (or could) be determined with ease, women would be duly motivated to avoid illicit sex, as would be their potential lovers. Would be rapists as well would recognize an additional risk. Just as the advent of reliable birth control changed the nature of sexual and family relations in the West, and ultimately the economic status of Western women, so might something as technical and as mundane as reliable and inexpensive paternity testing might cause an unwitting but quite positive shift in the social and economic status of women in the Middle East.

Crazy idea???? Or the seed of something wonderful?

The CIA is the biggest monster that needs serious containing. It seems to elect itself in every arising conflict and exercises powers beyond what is requested of them. Remember, this was the reason RFK was not on good terms with the CIA and it is thought that the CIA was involved in his and his brother, John's assassinations.
Anyway, perhaps the CIA ought to gather some useful information, like how the world feels about what the American administration is doing globally.
For the record, Islam does not need any fixing; those that poison it with their own political and social agendas are the ones in need of fixing.

The first paragragh of this article is so offensive that unfortunately the whole article was lost on me. This is not good writing style to get opinions across! U.S. moral authority in the Islamic world -- give me a break! Many americans can't even spell the word moral. Besides, establishing moral authority in the Islamic world is the job of muslims, muslim feminists like yourself (article author) and NOT that of the US President. In sum, I agree with GeorgeC_74, but with slightly less abrasive language.

Bull shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhit..........the best way of fight Islamic extremism is that America and the west stop exploiting Islamic nations....unless west don't change its policies towards Islam...the Islamic radicalism will remain like never ending chain reaction.

this is very amusing
it is journalism at its exploitative worst
to attract attention
look at the demeanour
shrouded white woman against mosque aqsa in israel
i could not stop laughing
it is definitely even worst then jim carreys yes man
and that is a total no no
please i just saw the pic and the heading
i really cannot be bothered to read what is underneath as even the pic is clownish and erected to look like a jaded houri from the middle ages of medieval europe rather then anything to do with islam
lolz

How about america stays the f \/ c k out of everyone elses business for a change.

Before I state my opinion, I would like to say that I was born and raised in the Catholic Faith. It is true that I do not practice said faith anymore, however, once you have been trained in a faith, it is hard to disregard its teachings. Irshad Manji???s article is a very thought-out suggestion to the problems engrained in radicalism, and for the comments I???ve seen posted, radicalism is a two way street. Before anyone criticizes her religion and her conclusions in this article, one should not forget ???The Crusades???: which were a series of religion-driven military campaigns done by Christina Europe against external and internal opponents of the Christian religion.