Irshad Manji

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Irshad Manji (born 1968) is a Canadian feminist Muslim, author, journalist, and activist. She is a well-known critic of radical Islam and orthodox interpretations of the Qur'an, calling herself a "Muslim refusenik". The New York Times has described her as "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare".^[1] Manji advocates a revival of critical thinking, known as ijtihad in Islamic tradition. She has launched Project Ijtihad[1], a program dedicated to encourage Muslim youth to question traditional and orthodox interpretations of Islamic scriptures and to create a network of Muslims interested in reforming Islam.

Her book The Trouble with Islam Today has been published in 25 languages, including Arabic, Persian and Urdu. Manji's articles have appeared in many publications, and she has addressed audiences ranging from Amnesty International to the United Nations Press Corps to the Democratic Muslims in Denmark to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Manji has made appearances on television networks including the BBC, MSNBC, CSPAN, CNN, FOX News, PBS.^[2]

Contents 1 Biography 2 Views 3 Praise 4 Criticism 5 Books 6 Audibooks 7 Film 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] Biography

Manji was born in Uganda in 1968 to devout Muslim parents of Egyptian and Indian background. Her family moved to Canada when she was four, as a result of Idi Amin's expulsion of South Asians. She and her family settled near Vancouver in 1972, and she grew up attending both a secular and an Islamic religious school, known as a madressa. Manji excelled in the secular environment but, by her own account, was expelled from her religious school for asking too many questions. For the next twenty years, she studied Islam via public libraries and Arabic tutors.

Manji earned an honors degree in the history of ideas from the University of British Columbia. In 1990, she won the Governor-General's Medal for top humanities graduate. She worked as a legislative aide in the Canadian parliament, press secretary in the Ontario government, and speechwriter for the leader of the New Democratic Party. At age 24, she became the national affairs editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen and thus the youngest member of an editorial board for any Canadian daily. She has hosted or produced several public-affairs programs on television, one of which won the Gemini, Canada’s top broadcasting prize. In 2002, she became writer-in-residence at Hart House in the University of Toronto, from where she began writing The Trouble with Islam Today. From 2005 to 2006 she was visiting fellow at Yale University and is currently a senior fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels.

As an out lesbian, Manji produced and hosted QueerTelevision for the Toronto based CityTv in 1998. Here she produced stories on the lives of gay people in the Muslim world. She also produced and hosted another gay and lesbian based program called The Q-Files from 1998 to 2001. Upon the demise of the show, Manji donated the set's giant Q to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.

Manji was awarded Oprah Winfrey's first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction". Ms. Magazine named her a "Feminist for the 21st Century", and Immigration Equality gave her its Global Vision Prize. The World Economic Forum selected her as a Young Global Leader. The Jakarta Post in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country - identified Manji as one of three Muslim women creating positive change in Islam today.

Manji is a friend of controversial writer Salman Rushdie, who was subject to a fatwa for his novel The Satanic Verses. Like Rushdie, she has received numerous death threats. In an interview with Glenn Beck, aired on CNN 02-13-07, Manji stated that the windows of her apartment are fitted with bullet-proof glass, primarily for the protection of her family.

[edit] Views

Manji is an outspoken proponent of ijtihad; she describes it as Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking, which went into a decline toward the end of the 11th century CE and was replaced by more narrow and rigid interpretations of the Qur'an. In an interview given to Johann Hari of The Independent in May 2004, she explains: "what was true for ninth-century Mecca and Medina may not be the best interpretation of Allah's message today."^{[citation needed]} She believes economic empowerment of women in the Muslim world is the key to reviving and democratizing the spirit of ijtihad. She also argues that Muslims in the West are best positioned to re-discover ijtihad because “it is here that we have the precious freedoms to think, express, challenge and be challenged on matters of religion, without fear of government reprisal." [2]

In March 2006 she co-signed the high-profile MANIFESTO OF TWELVE: Together Facing The New Totalitarianism [3]. The manifesto defends freedom of conscience and denounces violence as a response to offensive expression. The Manifesto emerged after violent protests in many countries surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

Manji is impressed by the State of Israel: the "freedom of expression epitomized by a ferociously free press", open debate and self-criticism and the government's responsiveness to it, its multicultural nature, and tolerance of different religious groups and sexual orientations. She believes that the Muslim world should follow Israel's example of democratic freedom. By that, she is often praised by pro-Israel groups.[4]

[edit] Praise

The Trouble with Islam Today has created debate worldwide. The praise comes from both Muslim and non-Muslim sources. Khaleel Mohammed, an imam and professor of Islam at San Diego State University, wrote in his foreword to Manji's book that "Irshad wants us to do what our Holy Book wants us to do: end the tribal posturing, open our eyes, and stand up to oppression, even if it's rationalized by our vaunted imams... She remains obedient to the Divine Imperative: 'O you who believe! Be upholders of justice, witnesses for God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents and kin' (Quran, 4:135)."

Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values at Harvard University, says that “all is not lost if people of Irshad Manji's capacity can carry a fresh and convincing message to the coming generation. I cannot urge her more strongly to maintain her frank, open and intelligent approach. This cause is, I believe, the most important new movement in several decades.”

The New York Times Book Review wrote a positive review of The Trouble with Islam. Although Sullivan found some of Manji's "prescriptions for change in Islam ... dwarfed by the scale of the problem", he nevertheless considers Manji "a nerve ending for the West -- shocking, raw, but mercifully, joyously, still alive."[5]

The Sydney Morning Herald also wrote a positive review.[6]

[edit] Criticism

Criticism also comes from within Islam and from secular sources. Some of Manji's critics allege that she goes too far in her criticisms of Islam and Muslims. Some claim there is a double standard between her criticism of Muslim states and her staunch defense of Israel.[7]

As'ad Abu Khalil, professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus, charges Manji with disproportionately targeting Muslims, ignoring the peripheral context within which most Muslims live, and not applying the same critiques to other groups, notably those with significantly more power like conservative Christians. Abu Khalil also asserts Manji is not trained in Islamic scholarship, history, or even the Arabic language and as such ignores the multiplicity of debates and traditions within Islam.[8]

Tarek Fatah, a liberal Canadian Muslim, wrote in his critical review of The Trouble With Islam that the book "is aimed at making Muslim haters feel secure in their thinking." [9] Others have been more blunt: Khaled Almeena, editor of the Arab News in Saudi Arabia, complains that "This fraudulent book has now become a guide to Islam."

One critic charges Manji misunderstands the Quran's view of homosexuality. [10]

[edit] Books

Author

• The Trouble with Islam Today, 2004, ISBN 1-8401-8837-5
• The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith, 2005, ISBN 0-3123-2700-5
• Mis Dilemas Con El Islam, Spanish 2005, ISBN 8496231321
• Risking Utopia: On the edge of a new democracy, 1997, ISBN 1-5505-4434-9

[edit] Audibooks

• Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, at the 92nd Street Y on The Trouble with Islam, by Ali, Irshad, Ayaan Hirsi Manji, audiobooks, 2006 ISBN 0312326998

[edit] Film

• Faith without Fear 2007 documentary produced by Irshad Manji that documents the pervasive Islamism she finds during her travels through Muslim communites in Yemen, Europe and North America and the personal risk she has taken in her life as her result of her calls for reform and human rights in the Muslim world.^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Risking Utopia: On the Edge of a New Democracy (1997)
• The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith (2002)

[edit] See also

• Liberal movements within Islam
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• Asra Q. Nomani
• Raquel Evita Saraswati
• Islamic scholars

[edit] External links

• Irshad Manji's Official Website
• Project Ijtihad
• Manifesto of 12: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism
• Irshad's Myspace Page
• Project Ijtihad's MySpace Page
• Truth and Consquences - 2004 profile of Manji in Toronto Life magazine by Geraldine Sherman
• Interview with Andrew Denton
• Critique of Manji from a socialist perspective
• Muslim reformists threaten the faith
• Free and Equal under the Qur'an - an analysis by Havva G Guney-Ruebenacker
• Thanks but no thanks: Irshad Manji's book is for Muslim-haters, not Muslims by Tarek Fatah
• The Missionary Position, a book review by Laila Lalami
• The trouble with à la carte critics Manji's response to Fatah
• Irshad Manji: Long list of articles and interviews
• Denial is scourge of Islam
• Critique of Manji from an Islamic perspective
• Debate with As'ad AbuKhalil Debate with As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University, on the 2006 cartoon controversy and the worldwide protests.
• Irshad Manji interview:Muslims need critical thinking
• Profile: Irshad Manji and further discussion Manning the Firewalls
• "How to be a Muslim Reformer"
• "The Trouble with the Trouble: Irshad Manji and the Cost of Progressive Islam" - Book Review by Haroon Moghul
• Manji on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms