Defeating Global Poverty

Manji is a gay, practicing muslim who grew up in Vancouver area, Canada (my home town) and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She is a journalist and now activist for reform in Islam. Manji describes herself as a muslim refusenik who is fed up with the stuck-in-the-6th-century, refusing to think mainstream muslim culture dominated by “desert Islam” religious despots.The anti-dote? Revive “ijtihad”, Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking. Regarding poverty, she asks her fellow muslims some very poignant questions about why they support (primarily through silence) oppressive Islamic regimes which keep women as 2nd class citizens and create enduring poverty in so much of the world. While this is not strictly a defeating poverty-type book, it is very helpful to hear a muslim insider explain Islam today.

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Labels: book reviews, islam, poverty