Author: Sheldon Gordon
Publication: Forward.com
Date: December 1, 2003
Prominent Israeli personalities
such as novelist A.B. Yehoshua and strategic analyst Barry Rubin were among
the speakers earlier this month at the Toronto Jewish Book Fair. The biggest
draw, however, was a Muslim Canadian author calling for an Islamic Reformation
that would purge the Muslim world of antisemitism. Irshad Manji, a Toronto
broadcaster and self-described observant Muslim, delighted a sell-out crowd
of some 600. Heavy security, including her personal Israeli bodyguard,
accompanied the slim, 34- year-old woman as she explored the themes of
her new book "The Trouble With Islam: A Wake Up Call for Honesty and Change."
A best seller in Canada, the book has been published in six other countries
and is scheduled to go on sale in the United States in January.
The book's highly-publicized Canadian
launch has resulted in anonymous death threats against Manji for being
what she terms a "Muslim refusenik." ("It doesn't mean I refuse to be a
Muslim," she explained to one questioner, "but I refuse to join an army
of robots in the name of God.")
The charismatic and self-assured
Manji, an avowed feminist and a lesbian, shocked her audience by describing
how she visited local mosques incognito, dressed in a full-length burka,
and heard the clergy talk of a "Western, Jewish-led conspiracy against
Islam and declare that it is the responsibility of Muslims in the West
to support the jihadis, with their money, if not with their sons."
Manji emphasized the need for Muslims
to revive the concept of ijtihad, or self-jihad, an Islamic tradition of
independent thinking, in which Muslims study the Koran and reach their
own interpretations, which she called an "almost Talmudic process." The
Koran includes harsh commentaries on Jews, she said, "but it also reminds
us of the Jews' 'exalted nationhood' and validates the sovereign role of
Jews in the Holy Land."
The Koran "gives ample opportunities
to be respectful of Jews; it's a matter of what to emphasize and what to
downplay," she said, "so why have so many Muslims chosen hate?" She said
that independent thinking in Muslim scholarship disappeared by the 11th
century, "as unity came to be confused with uniformity." For 1,000 years,
"Muslim scholars have been imitating each other's prejudices."
Manji predicted that the Islamic
Reformation that she advocates "may very well begin in the West, where
we enjoy the precious freedoms to think, challenge and be challenged without
fear of state reprisals." She was careful to include Israel, which she
has visited, among the multiethnic, pluralistic states she admires. "Mainstream
Israel bathes itself in self-examination, as it should. It's time for mainstream
Islam to catch up."
Manji explained that she arrived
at her nonconformist views early in life. Born in Uganda to a south Asian
family, they immigrated to Canada to escape the racist oppression of former
dictator Idi Amin. In British Columbia, she attended both public and religious
schools.
In her Islamic religious school,
she was taught that "women are inferior and Jews are treacherous - not
to be trusted." When, at age 14, she challenged her teacher to prove those
claims, she was expelled - "with no right of return and no desire for one."
Manji insists she has been bucking
the Muslim establishment ever since. Certainly, the Canadian Islamic Congress
has no kind words for her.
"Everybody's writing a book [on
Islam] nowadays," said the group's vice president, Wahida Valiante. "Irshad
Manji's is only another book added on to the heap of garbage that is being
written about Muslims and Islam. The community has made its point of view
known that we are not really impressed by it; she doesn't speak for us.
It's like someone writing about Torah who doesn't understand it. Those
who work toward building bridges and creating understanding and harmony
are generally people who don't go around making outrageous statements."
At the book fair she declared that
an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would have little effect in defusing
Muslim antisemitism, noting that even during the medieval golden age of
Islam, Jews and Christians were forced to practice self-abasing behavior
in the presence of Muslims. "We cannot point to the 'ill-conceived creation
of Israel' as the root of our antisemitism," Manji said. "It emerged hundreds
of years before the Jewish state was a gleam in anyone's eye."
Manji's skepticism about a peace
agreement troubled officials of the dovish Canadian Friends of Peace Now,
the event's sponsor.
"It was refreshing to hear a Muslim
asking members of her faith to question their assumptions, because as a
Jew I do the same thing of other Jews," said board member Tamar Ishaky.
"But there were almost echoes of right-wing Israelis in her words. For
me, it was disturbing, but I can totally understand it. I thought she handled
herself marvelously."
Manji said she is disappointed that
not one mosque had invited her to speak and that, until recently, Muslim
community leaders had refused to debate with her on television. She is
heartened, however, by "how much affection and love I'm hearing from individual
Muslims - and that doesn't just include my mother."
Especially pleasing, she said, is
that many young Muslims seem open to her message, she said. Formerly, the
host and executive producer of a television show for gays and lesbians,
she is now president of a start-up called VERB TV, a channel geared toward
young people.
Manji will soon be addressing many
more young people. Coinciding with the U.S. launch of her book in January,
she will begin a nationwide speaking tour of university campuses. "I represent
a generation [of Muslims] that knows there's a need for a discussion and
actually craves it," she said.
