Irshad Manji


Irshad Manji is a Canadian educator and the author of The Trouble with Islam Today and Allah, Liberty and Love, both of which have been banned in several Muslim countries. Her latest book, Don't Label Me, was published in February 2019. Manji is a senior fellow at the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy of the University of Southern California.
Manji also produced a PBS documentary in the America at a Crossroads series, titled Faith Without Fear, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2008. A former journalist and television presenter, Manji is an advocate of a reformist interpretation of Islam and a critic of literalist interpretations of the Qur'an.

Early life and education

Manji was born in 1968 near Kampala, Uganda. Her mother is of Egyptian descent and her father of Indian heritage.
When Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of Asians and other non-Africans from Uganda in the early 1970s, Manji and her family came to Canada as refugees when she was four years old. They settled in Richmond, British Columbia, near Vancouver. Manji attended secular public schools and, every Saturday, a religious school. Manji says that, at 14 years old, she was expelled from the madrasa for asking too many questions.
In 1990, Manji earned a bachelor's degree with honours in the history of ideas from the University of British Columbia, and won the Governor General's Academic Medal for top humanities graduate. In 2002, Manji became writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House, from where she began writing The Trouble with Islam Today. She was a visiting fellow with the International Security Studies program at Yale University in 2006 and was a senior fellow with the Brussels-based European Foundation for Democracy from 2006 to 2012.

Career

Manji began her career working in politics in the 1990s. She was a legislative aide in the Canadian parliament, then press secretary in the Ontario government, and later speechwriter for the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. At the age of 24, she became the national affairs editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen and the youngest member of an editorial board for any Canadian daily. She was also a columnist for Ottawa's new LGBT newspaper Capital Xtra! She participated in a regular "Friendly Fire" segment on TVOntario's Studio 2 from 1992 to 1994, head-to-head against right-wing writer Michael Coren.
Manji hosted and produced several public affairs programs on television, including Q-Files for Pulse24 and its successor for the Toronto-based Citytv in the late 1990s. When she left the show, Manji donated the television set's "big Q" to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.
She has also appeared on television networks around the world, including Al Jazeera, the CBC, BBC, MSNBC, C-SPAN, CNN, PBS, the Fox News Channel, CBS, and HBO.
She was also a visiting professor at New York University from 2008 to 2015. In January 2008, Manji joined NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to spearhead the Moral Courage Project, an initiative to help young people speak truth to power within their own communities. Since 2017 The University of Southern California is where Irshad and her team teach "moral courage."
Manji also founded the Moral Courage Project at Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, a course offering that aims to teach young leaders "to make values-driven decisions for the sake of their integrity – professional and personal". In April 2013 Moral Courage TV, was launched by Manji and professor/activist Cornel West. Cornel West spoke of Manji's work as a "powerful force for good." As of 2015, Manji is developing "the West Coast presence of Moral Courage" at University of Southern California, Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy.

Works

''The Trouble with Islam Today''

Manji's book The Trouble with Islam Today was published by St. Martin's Press in 2004. The book was first released in Canada under the previous title in September 2003. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Manji offered Arabic, Persian, and Urdu translations of the book available for free-of-charge download on her website. In The Trouble with Islam Today, Manji investigates new interpretations of the Qur'an which she believes are more fitting for the 21st century. The book has been met with both praise and scorn from both Muslim and non-Muslim sources. Several reviewers have called the book "courageous" or "long overdue" while others have said it disproportionately targets Muslims or lacks thorough scholarship.
Tarek Fatah, a fellow Canadian Muslim who originally criticized The Trouble With Islam, reversed his stance saying that Manji was "right about the systematic racism in the Muslim world" and that "there were many redeeming points in her memoir".
The Trouble with Islam Today is banned in many countries in the Middle East. Since July 2009, the book has also been outlawed in Malaysia.

''Faith without Fear''

In 2007 Manji released a PBS documentary, Faith without Fear. It follows her journey to reconcile faith and freedom, depicting the personal risks she has faced as a Muslim reformer. She explores Islamism in Yemen, Europe and North America, as well as histories of Islamic critical thinking in Spain and elsewhere. Faith Without Fear was nominated for an Emmy, was a finalist for the National Film Board of Canada's Gemini Award It launched the 2008 Muslim Film Festival, organized by the American Islamic Congress and won Gold at the New York Television Festival.

''Allah, Liberty and Love''

In 2011, Manji published Allah, Liberty and Love. In the book, she examines how Muslims can reinterpret the Qur'an, speak more freely, and think more independently. To support her approach, Manji cites ijtihad, the Islamic tradition of critical thinking in the interpretation of Islamic texts and doctrines. Manji asserts that any change of lasting value to Muslims can only come from within and cannot be imposed from external sources.
As with Manji's other writings, Allah, Liberty and Love generated both positive and negative responses. Rayyan Al Shawaf, a Beirut-based writer and book critic, laments Manji's focus on how the Qur'an can be reinterpreted by liberal Muslims and not on how legal limits can be set to curb the Qur'an's influence. He also argues that Manji promotes ijtihad while overlooking that "ijtihad is a sword that cuts both ways." Al-Shawaf also laments Manji's focus "on how liberal Muslims could reinterpret the Koran as opposed to how they might set legal limits on its socio-politico-economic influence." Melik Kaylan in his review for Newsweek describes the book as "a rallying cry to Muslims" and full of "snappy phrases that hover between epigrams and slogans—effective soundbites for her supporters."
Omar Sultan Haque, a researcher and teacher at Harvard University Medical School, argues that although Manji's book is important in raising consciousness, it "fails to grapple with some of the more substantial questions that would make future a reality." Haque often describes Manji's ideas in a "patronizing manner". Howard A. Doughty, a professor of political economy at Seneca College, illustrates this with a quote from Haque's review: "Manji's God resembles an extremely affectionate and powerful high school guidance counselor."
Doughty, in summarizing his observations of Manji's critics says that some scholars argue that "Manji may lack the gravitas to drive home her points and turn her ideas into action." He instead offers a defense of her approach and argues that "hat her critics seem to miss is that her ease of communication, stripped of abstract philosophical, political and economic analysis, is precisely what allows her to turn her thoughts into other people's actions."
The international launch of Allah, Liberty and Love was met with controversy. In December 2011, Muslim extremists stormed Manji's book launch in Amsterdam; twenty-two Muslim men rushed into the venue and attempted to assault her. During Manji's book tour, police cut short her talk in Jakarta due to pressure from one of Indonesia's fundamentalist groups, the Islamic Defenders Front. A few days later, hundreds of men from the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council assaulted Manji's team and her supporters in Yogyakarta. Several people were injured and at least one had to be treated in a hospital. Shortly afterwards, the government of Malaysia banned Allah, Liberty and Love. But in September 2013, a High Court in Kuala Lumpur struck down the ban. The previous year, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, a Malay woman who happened to be one of the managers of a Borders Bookstore, was arrested for selling a translation of Manji's book before the state had announced its ban. After her three-year legal battle with the authorities, Malaysia's Federal Court ruled in her favor and dismissed the government's bid to appeal.

Views

Manji has received numerous death threats because of her views. While living in Toronto, she had the windows of her home fitted with bullet-proof glass for security. Manji has been described as a Quranist.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, describing her political leanings, Manji said, "I'm not left-wing, I'm not right-wing. I'm post-wing". She has criticized the argument that US wars inspire Islamic extremism. Manji initially supported the United States' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the George W. Bush administration's War on Terror. By 2006, her views toward the war in Iraq had changed, and Manji said she was disappointed by the Bush administration. In 2011, Manji acknowledged she was "wrong" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that she had "reached a brazenly naive conclusion". On Iraq, she said she "thought the Oval Office had information that was taken into account when it made decisions." She also said, "I have been openly questioning our work in Afghanistan."
Manji has also expressed views sympathetic to Israel. She argues that Palestinians face two occupations: one imposed by the Palestinian leadership and the other by the Israeli Defense Forces. Manji adds that, in the case of Palestinian women, she believes "Israel is not the greater source of oppression."

Personal life

In 2016, Manji and her partner, Laura Albano, were married in Hawaii. They live there with their rescue dogs.

Awards and honours