Irshad Manji

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Irshad Manji on BBC Newsnight
Irshad Manji on BBC Newsnight

Irshad Manji (born 1968) is a Canadian author, journalist, and activist. She is a lesbian feminist and critic of Islamic fundamentalism and orthodox interpretations of the Qur'an. She was once described by The New York Times as "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare".[1] Irshad is an advocate for the use of critical thinking, known as ijtihad in Islamic tradition.

Her bestselling book The Trouble with Islam (since renamed "The Trouble With Islam Today") has been translated in more than a dozen languages, including Arabic, Persian and Urdu. Manji's articles have appeared in many publications, and she makes appearances on television networks including the BBC, MSNBC, CSPAN, CNN, FOX News.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Manji was born in Uganda in 1968 into an Ithnāˤashariyya household. Her family moved to Canada when she was four, as a result of Idi Amin expelling all South Asians from Uganda. In her book, Manji describes her turbulent youth, which includes being expelled from her Madrasah for questioning whether or not the Prophet Muhammad commanded his army to kill a Jewish tribe, and an incident when her father chased her around the house holding a knife.

Manji holds a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of British Columbia, and won the Governor-General's Medal as top graduate. She has worked as a legislative aide in the Canadian parliament, press secretary in the Ontario government, and a speechwriter for the leader of the New Democratic Party. She has been a national affairs editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen. She has hosted or produced several public-affairs programs on television, including Q Files (CityTV), In The Public Interest (Vision TV) and Big Ideas (TVOntario), is President of VERB, a Canadian channel aimed at young people and specializing in diversity. She is also a writer-in-residence at Hart House in the University of Toronto.

Since May 2005 she has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Manji was awarded Oprah Winfrey's first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction". She is also a recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Award of Valor.[3] Manji has spoken at a number of forums and is involved in the international public speaking circuit.

Manji is a friend of controversial writer Salman Rushdie and, like Rushdie, has received numerous death threats. The windows of her apartment are fitted with bullet-proof glass.

[edit] Views

Irshad is an outspoken proponent for Ijtihad; she describes it as Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking which went into a decline toward the end of the 11th century and was replaced by a stricter literal version of Islam. [1]

Manji has been a critic of orthodox Islam, especially the treatment of women by some Muslims. She believes that wearing the hijab is a personal choice.

She has stated her support of the state of Israel, and referred to it as a model for other Middle Eastern nations. [2] Furthermore, she tends to defend Israeli treatment of Palestinians by blaming Palestininians for their circumstances. This includes criticism of the Palestinian leadership use of terrorism; intolerant opinions of some Muslims about Israel; lack of introspection among the Palestinian people; and a desire to play victim.[3] This puts her at odds with many in her community.

In March 2006 a letter she co-signed entitled MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism with eleven other individuals (most notably Salman Rushdie) was published in response to violent protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

She questions historical interpretations of the Qur'an.

[edit] Criticism

Manji has also been criticised for her book The Trouble with Islam. One notable example being Tarek Fatah, a liberal Muslim, who repudiated the acknowledgement she gave him at the beginning of The Trouble with Islam after she accused Muslims of "complicity in The Holocaust" and generally alleged that her book "is aimed at making Muslim haters feel secure in their thinking." [4]

Other criticisms of the work claim a double standard between her criticism of Muslim nations, and her defense of Israel. [4] This point has been made quite strongly in a book review by Laila Lalami in The Nation.[5]

Acknowledging anti-Semitism in some parts of the Arab world, therefore, should not require us to gloss over anti-Arab and anti-Muslim feelings in Israel. This reductionist way of thinking permeates The Trouble With Islam Today and gets tiresome very quickly.

[edit] Personal life

A lesbian, Manji has argued that condemnation of homosexuality by most strains of traditional Islam is at odds with Qur'anic doctrine that "Allah makes excellent everything which He creates." Her partner is Canadian gay rights activist Michelle Douglas.


[edit] References

  1. ^ Krauss, Clifford. "An Unlikely Promoter of an Islamic Reformation", nytimes.com, 2003-10-04. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
  2. ^ Manji, Irshad. Interviews with Irshad and book reviews - Archives. Muslim-refusenik. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
  3. ^ Lungen, Pual. "Dallaire recounts Rwanda genocide at tribute to Nazi hunter", The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
  4. ^ Fatah, Tarek (2003-11-27). Thanks, but No Thanks: Irshad Manji's Book Is for Muslim Haters, Not Muslims. Muslim WakeUp!. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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