Irshad Manji

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Irshad Manji

Irshad Manji, 2007. Photo by Raquel Evita Saraswati.
Born 1968
Uganda
Nationality Flag of Canada Canadian
Notable work(s) The Trouble with Islam Today, Faith Without Fear
Notable award(s) Honorary Doctorate, University of Puget Sound, 2008 , World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader"
Official website

Irshad Manji (born 1968) is a Canadian Muslim feminist, author, journalist, activist and professor of leadership. Manji is Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University[1]. The Moral Courage Project aims to teach young leaders to speak truth to power in their own communities.

Manji is a well-known critic of radical Islam and orthodox interpretations of the Qur'an. The New York Times has described her as "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare".[2] Manji is founder and president of Project Ijtihad, an international charitable organization working to "build the world’s most inclusive network of reform-minded Muslims and non-Muslim allies."[3].

Manji's book, The Trouble with Islam Today, has been published in more than 30 languages, including Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian[4]. Manji has produced a PBS documentary, "Faith Without Fear", chronicling Manji's attempt to "reconcile her faith in Allah with her love of freedom".[5] As a journalist, her 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. She has appeared on television networks around the world, including Al Jazeera, the CBC, BBC, MSNBC, C-SPAN, CNN, PBS, the Fox News Channel, the CBS Evening News, and Real Time with Bill Maher[6].


Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

Manji was born in Uganda in 1968 to parents of Egyptian and Gujarati Indian descent[7][8]. 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. 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 honours 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.

[edit] Career

Manji 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.

Manji participated in a regular segment on TVOntario's Studio 2 in the mid-1990s, representing liberal views in debates with conservative journalist Michael Coren. She later produced and hosted QT: QueerTelevision for the Toronto based Citytv in the late 1990s. Among the program's coverage of local and national LGBT issues, she also produced stories on the lives of gay people in the Muslim world. When she left the show, Manji donated the set's giant Q to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.[9][10]

In 2002, she became writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House, from where she began writing The Trouble with Islam Today. From 2005 to 2006, she was a visiting fellow with the International Security Studies program[11] at Yale University. She is currently a senior fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels[12]. In January 2008, Manji joined New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service to spearhead the Moral Courage Project, an initiative to help young people speak truth to power within their own communities[13].

Manji has received numerous death threats[14][15]. In an interview with Glenn Beck, Manji stated that the windows of her apartment are fitted with bullet-proof glass, primarily for the protection of her family.[16]

[edit] "Muslim refusenik"

"Muslim refusenik" is a phrase Manji uses to identify herself as someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God"[17]. "Refusenik" is an English-Russian portmanteau word first used for Russian Jews refused permission to emigrate, and then for Israeli conscientious objectors who refused to do army service on the West Bank.

[edit] The Trouble with Islam Today

Main article: The Trouble with Islam Today

Manji's book The Trouble with Islam Today was published by St. Martin's Press in 2004. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Manji offers several translations of the book (namely Arabic, Indonesian, Urdu, Malay and Persian) available for free-of-charge download on her website. To date, the Arabic translation alone has been downloaded more than a quarter of a million times[18].

[edit] Praise

Praise for the book 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)."[19]

Hesham Hassaballa, a columnist with Muslimwakeup.com said that he "was deeply surprised by what she had to say. And deeply grateful."[20]

Quantara.de, a website promoting interfaith dialogue, mentions that "Irshad Manji breaks every taboo in the book while also challenging our prejudices about Islam. What's more, she does so as a Muslim, not as a Westernized woman preaching from the pulpit of a feminist ivory tower."[21]

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.”[22]

The New York Times ran a positive review of The Trouble with Islam by Andrew Sullivan: "Its spirit is undeniable, and long, long overdue. Reading it feels like a revelation."[23] The Times of India reviewed "The Trouble with Islam Today", and said that Manji's "courage is to be commended"[24]. The Pakistan Friday Times encouraged Pakistan to set a "positive example" by letting the book be distributed and discussed freely[25].

[edit] Criticism

Criticism to Manji's work 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 position on Israel.[26]

As'ad Abu Khalil, political scientist at California State University, Stanislaus, accuses Manji of disproportionately targeting Muslims, ignoring the peripheral context within which most Muslims live, and not applying the same critiques to other groups, notably those with allegedly more power in society such as conservative Christians. Abu Khalil also asserts Manji is not trained in Islamic scholarship, history, or the Arabic language, and as such ignores the multiplicity of debates and traditions within Islam.[27]

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."[28]

Khaled Almeena, editor of the Arab News in Saudi Arabia, complains that "This fraudulent book has now become a guide to Islam."[29]

[edit] Awards

Manji was awarded Oprah Winfrey's first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction"[30]. Ms. Magazine named her a "Feminist for the 21st Century"[31], and Immigration Equality gave her its Global Vision Prize[32]. In 2006, The World Economic Forum selected her as a Young Global Leader[33]. She has also been named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement[34]. In May 2008, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Puget Sound[35].

[edit] Works

Books
Articles
Film
  • Faith without Fear a 2007 PBS documentary produced by Irshad Manji that alleges the existence of pervasive Islamism in Muslim communities in Yemen, Europe and North America. She also claims to have taken a personal risk by calling for reform and human rights in the Muslim world.[36]. In 2007, it was a finalist for the National Film Board of Canada's Gemini Prize[37]. It also won Gold at the New York Television Festival in 2008. In the same year, Faith Without Fear launched the 2008 Muslim Film Festival organized by the American Islamic Congress.[38]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://wagner.nyu.edu/faculty/facultyDetail.php?whereField=facultyID&whereValue=536
  2. ^ Krauss, Clifford. "An Unlikely Promoter of an Islamic Reformation", nytimes.com, 2003-10-04. Retrieved on 2006-07-11. 
  3. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/project-ijtihad
  4. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/the-book
  5. ^ http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/about/show_faith_without_fear.html
  6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/irshadmanjitv
  7. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/wp-content/files/2008/05/jakarta_post_weekender.pdf
  8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjbDqUY6eY0&feature=PlayList&p=CCA9FE2C434AD508&index=1
  9. ^ Irshad Manji's Official Website
  10. ^ Irshad's Myspace Page.
  11. ^ freeSpeech: Irshad Manji Sept. 18, 2006
  12. ^ http://www.europeandemocracy.org/AboutUs/WhoWeAre/tabid/529/Default.aspx
  13. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/moral-courage-project
  14. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/photos/death-threat-ummah-com.jpg
  15. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/im-memo-to-youtube-dont-censor-death-threats
  16. ^ "". Glenn Beck. CNN. 2007-02-13.
  17. ^ http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/05/864f16fb-db35-4fa1-9eb1-71bad5afda63.html
  18. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/the-book
  19. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/may/09/religion.world
  20. ^ http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2005/03/002709print.php
  21. ^ http://www.quantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-52/i.html
  22. ^ http://www.macmillanacademic.com/Academic/book/BookDisplay.asp?BookKey=2165376
  23. ^ The Trouble with Islam January 25, 2004 . Book review off "The Trouble with Islam".
  24. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_Specials/Book_Mark/Calling_all_believers_to_a_conversation_on_Islam/articleshow/msid-1326998,curpg-1.cms
  25. ^ http://www.irshadmanji.com/news/fridaytimes-04-08-27set.html
  26. ^ The Trouble With Irshad Manji October 3, 2004
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ Thanks, but No Thanks: Irshad Manji's Book Is for Muslim Haters, Not Muslims November 27, 2003
  29. ^ http://www.brickenden.com/pdf/pdf-1150811199-BioManjiIrshad.pdf
  30. ^ http://www.oprah.com/spiritself/omag/slide/ss_o_slide_200405_chutzpah_04.jhtml
  31. ^ Sept/Oct 1997 issue of Ms, p. 104
  32. ^ 2007 Annual Benefit, New York City
  33. ^ http://www.younggloballeaders.org/scripts/Modules/Addresses/yglsearchAddress.aspx?srh=1&ddlYear=2006&ddlStakeholder=&ddlRegion=&ddlSex=1&ddlCountry=&pg=4&ipp=10&idn=1
  34. ^ http://asmasociety.typepad.com/mlt/
  35. ^ http://www.ups.edu/x27840.xml
  36. ^ Irshad Manji calls on her fellow Muslims to reform
  37. ^ http://www.nfb.ca/about/news.php?id=1584
  38. ^ http://www.muslimfilm.org/schedule.html

[edit] Works Critical of Manji

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NAME Manji, Irshad
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DATE OF BIRTH 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Uganda
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