What's right with Islam
by Feisal Abdul Rauf

Ebook version

Details amazon

Started reading 5 January 2008
Finished reading 7 February 2008

A very balanced treatise on closing the chasm between the Muslims and the rest of the world. The author's extensive background in Islam and his current position as an American imam gives his suggestions more credence.

But it will be an uphill and arduous struggle to see even one of his ideas bear fruit. He not only has to contend with the non-Muslims but I'm sure he'll find opposition among the Muslims themselves. It is difficult to see the whole world coming together united in overcoming our differences. We always forget that our lives would be so much better if we are united rather than clawing at each other's throats.

I've always believed that life is just too short for us to make enemies while we are temporarily living on earth. The continuous fighting with each other does not do justice to mankind's role as a superior being in the evolutionary chain ladder.

I do fervently hope more leaders will give a thought to the ideas in this book and cooler heads will prevail to prevent the current animosity between the Muslims and the rest of the world from deteriorating.

The book is just a small step towards a better understanding between the Muslims and non-Muslims but nevertheless an important step forward.

Shame

by Jasvinder Sanghera

Details hodder

Started reading 5 January 2008
Finished reading 10 January 2008

A true story. Arranged marriages and how the author escaped from such a fate and managed to overcome adversity to find her own niche in life. The scenes depicted seemed more fiction than fact, with so much hyperbole and drama, Could this tradition still be prevalent in the world.

Unfortunately all the experiences of the girls in the book are true. To compound matters, the girl's family is party to the atrocities that some of them endure at the hands of their new families. Any complaints to their own parents are set aside.

The girls are supposed to just grin and bear it since arranged marriages has been a time honoured custom since time immemorial. The saddest part was how some mothers could brush aside the maternal caring instinct on the altar of saving face even when they are so far away from their original ancestral home.

A breezy read and a reminder that women are still the downtrodden in most societies.