The Trouble With Irshad Manji

The fact of the matter is that every accusation against Islam that have been raised by Danial Pipes and his diciples has been adequately responded to at every forum possible. If they do not wish to understand that then so be it, there is no compulsion in our religion. Personally, I do not think that issues raised by them have anything to do with so called ``reform`` that they demand from Islam, it has everything to do with the propaganda war, that has been unleashed to justify stealing natural resources from Muslim lands, occupation, and death and destruction upon Muslims. Being an anti-zionist and opposing the divide of human beings on racial basis like in neo-appartied Israel is not equal to anti-semitism. Resisting occcupation anywhere in the world is not terrorism. Stealing natural resourcing from helpless nations is anti-humanism and murdering them in cold blood to justify occupation is the terrorism. Irashad manji can take her reform package and shove it; besides it is little late for the propaganda phase of war. Now who is who and who stands where has become totally evident. No place for masqurades now.

Muslims have been throwing filth at every other religion on Earth since Muhammed saw the angel. Now they are getting upset because some people are *snivel snivel* subjecting their claims of supremacy to scrutiny. Get used to it. It will never stop now.

there is No denying Ijtehad is the Need of the hour.....

As far views about Messers Manji are concenred.... Since I have neither Read the Book..

nor have heard anything...... significant .....so its better to Observe......Not comment Yet...

Just like sex sells, Islam bashing sells too. Irshad figured that being a lowly columnist in the jewish family owned National Post of Canada was not meeting her ambitions. The timing was ripe, the west was craving information about Islam, so lets come up with a book. An equally, and more damning book about christianity could be written too, but it wouldn`t sell as well.

At a time when Izzy Asper, the owner of National Post and a staunch zionist, was busy muffling diversity of opinions in his sizable media empire in Canada by putting restrictions on columnists or by firing them if they did not toe the line, Manji - the `lightening rod` againts `repressive` Islam, did not come to the aid of her fellow journalists under repression.

She must have wished so much that a fatwa be issued on her life which would enable her to get more publicity. But alas for her, it did not come through. She underestimated the `tolerance` of muslims in regards to her ignorant rants. Perhaps she is secretly outraged at not getting the Muslims outraged enough. She will have to be a bit more intelligent, and outrageous, in her next book.

My only regret - with columns such as these, she ended up getting more exposure than her narrow intellect deserved. There are far more intellectual heavy books in regards to the critique of Islam in the market which did not get the light they deserved.

Bruce Lee,

Your $hit is nothing new. Ever since the Romans translated the first Quran in Latin, they have been trying to discredit it. We are used to it and we`re going to come back with a venegance. But thanks for the heartfelt empathy.

Umer M.

what a shame!!

Manji is probably the only reformist out there in the field trying to reform and rescue Islam. And look what the ``educated`` muslim elite are doing to her? Instead of supporting her in this noble venture - they are trying to run her down.

``Instead of supporting her in this noble venture - they are trying to run her down.”

What do you mean by ``support,`` Mohar? As far as I know, many Muslim intellectuals have actually embraced Irshad Manji with open arms. What they don`t do, however, is read her tract uncritically. ``Support`` mustn`t be confused with indulgence.

--Ibn

It is about time that adherents of Islam see and realize that extremists - irrespective of words-mongering - have been holding the entire moderate muslim population for executing their out of date policies.

About time the moderates rise to move in the Nineteenth century!! Rest of the world has embarked on the twentyfirst !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Malik99

I just received this e-mail from the I.S.O.J.N & Z.B.C (International Society of Jewish Necrophiliacs & Zionist Baby Cannibals)

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Shalom Bruce Lee

Ma nishma?

Please continue to monitor the output of Malik99 on the terrorist website for Plastic-Arabstanis

We want to deduce his precise location so we can perform satanic mass and eat his babies…(Bete`avon)

We have already infiltrated his mind and Jewish Goblins with hook noses are circling in large numbers there…please goad him to cause distraction so we can send more of our agents to hide behind his doors, wardrobes and underneath his bed…also find out about young relatives under the age of seven…we are hungry for the flesh of Pakistani children which we want to eat at the Synagogue with matzos and bagels

Please find out if he suspects us for the time when he was walking along the road in Sialkot aged 12 and a donkey f@rted in his face…that donkey was a Zionist agent…also when he wet his bed and soiled his underpants in Lahore in front of his first girlfriend, his loose bowels and prostate was caused by Mossad….Thanks for all your good work

Please continue with your devious plot to keep hidden the fact from the hairy ones and the world that the dinosaurs were on the verge of converting to Islam before the Jews made them extinct with that meteorite…and so was the duck billed platypus too…

Ani Ohev et Israel

Shalom and Mazel Tov

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Basically, Malik99, you are screwed ;-)

UmerMurtaza

You misunderstand me. Muslims are evangelical in spreading their faith and that involves denouncing other religions and creeds in open and insidious ways. The squeals of pain from fanatics like you are irrelevant. This scrutiny in the modern democratic secular and non secular world is the inevitable response to the screeds and slander that Islam has propagated throughout history across the world and against most other religions in order to spread and prosletyse itself. This is the inevitable response to its call to usurp all other faiths and in particular in response to the war it calls to be waged on the unbeliever. It will never halt, the critical scrutiny of Islam will increase, so there is no use complaining. In short, Islam has been sh1tting on every other religion since it began and in a crude way, this is the inevitable result of that.

By the way, I don’t have any empathy or sympathy for you, I am just explaining things.

BruceLee,

`You misunderstood me.`

No I did not misunderstand. You are talking out of your pie hole.

`Muslims are evangelical in spreading their faith and that involves denouncing other religions and creeds in open and insidious ways.`

Can you please expand upon the word, `Muslims`. Which Muslims do you mean? Males? Females? Upper class? Lower class? Jamaatis? Irshad Manjis? European. Asian? African? Those from this century or those throughout the entire 14 centuries? Actually, since we`re on the subject, perhaps you can tell me the time when conversion amongst the infidels started to be promoted. What I do know is that it wasn`t right at the start of the religion, when the faith was at its simplest and purest. And if Muslims are spreading their faith, so what? What is your problem? Aap ki majj ko kissi musalmaan ne mara hai? You`re most welcome to spread your ideas also?

Insidious ways? What would they be? Care to expand?

You use the word evangelical? The last time I checked, evangelical was an English word (and not Arabic) associated with Christianity. So I take it that Islam isn’t the only religion responsible for such denunciations, no?

`The squeals of pain from fanatics like you are irrelevant.`

Oh if only I was a fanatic. Alas, I`m not. What a shame.

`This scrutiny in the modern democratic secular and non secular world…`

Please, enough. Someone give me an air freshner. This scrutiny? What scrutiny? Where`s the scrutiny when people can overlook the invasions of their governments?

Scrutiny by whom? And what is the motivation of those who scrutinise? Don’t get me wrong, I`m all for scrutiny and criticism of the religion because Islam should be able to defend itself. Islam is not my property. It’s out there for everyone to take, understand and shape or reject. Not my problem. What many Muslims have a problem with is the motivation of those who scrutinise?


`[This] is the inevitable response to the screeds and slander that Islam has propagated throughout history across the world and against most other religions in order to spread and prosletyse itself. This is the inevitable response to its call to usurp all other faiths and in particular in response to the war it calls to be waged on the unbeliever. `

Could you please provide me with some statistics?

`It will never halt, the critical scrutiny of Islam will increase, so there is no use complaining.`

Would you like to wipe your lips. You`re foaming. No one is complaining. Criticise the religion all you want. But the spirit of criticism must be motivated by the desire to learn and discover - not blind hatred - such as the one exhibited by yourself.

`In short, Islam has been sh1tting on every other religion since it began and in a crude way, this is the inevitable result of that.`

Again you are wrong. Without going into too many details, I believe the concept of prosletysation was not prevalent through Muslim occupied territories for some time.

`By the way, I don’t have any empathy or sympathy for you, I am just explaining things.`

My heart bleeds...no it really does. I don`t know how I will ever live with myself.

Umer M.

Maji reminds me of our own Ferzana. No wonder she is getting critical acclaim ;-)


malik99
``Irshad figured that being a lowly columnist in the jewish family owned National Post of Canada was not meeting her ambitions.``

Canada has zionist newspapers? This is a big news. Is this newspaper big? I had an (perhaps misguided) impression of Canda as a land of uber-liberals with overwhelming supoprt for Bantustani Freedom Struggle. Do people actually buy this newspaper, or merely hold protests in front its office every day. Unless offcourse it this is some minor rag, in which case Irshad must do whatever to get a new job, and we support her as she after all is our own, and a woman.

Having read Irshad Manji`s book, I concur with Bina`s views. If this book had been written before 9/11, no respectable publishing house would even have printed the book.

Unfortunately people like Irshad Manji fail to make a big impact in Islamic world simply because they lack legitimacy. Martin Luther, Gandhi, Shah Walliullah, Nizamuddin Auliya, Imam Ghazali, etc also attacked the established practices of their time. But their attacks were backed with a reputation of intellectual honesty, fairness, knowledge and courage.

Manji will become a celebrity in US and UK. But she will fail to win any sizable following within the Muslim world. (But she probably knows that already).

PS: If anybody on this forum is really interested in reading about Muslim reformers, they should read the works of Abdul Karim Soroush and Rachid Ghanouchi. The former is an Iranian cleric who was banned from lecturing at Tehran University because his sermons were considered anti-Revolution. The second man is a Tunisian scholar. He also has angered the Mullahs with his espousal of modernity and criticism of fundamentalist ideology.

Re:#6

Mohar, there are amazing similarities between George Bush and the muslim intellectuals. They are both convinced that they are right and their ideology is perfect. They will never waver from that. If someone tries to criticize either of them, they are immediately insulted as traitors or as being against the religion respectively. It does not take rocket science to realize that the Islamic world needs some serious introspection, given that the rest of the world is virtually at war with them across the globe. However, just like a stubborn George Bush will not change policies, muslim intellectuals will not recognize any problem with their faith. A few more years, a couple of 9/11s and the war on terrorism will morph into a war on Islam. That would be a catastrophe for the whole world.

If Irshad`s Manji is not the right messenger, fine. How about other muslim intellectuals coming up with an alternate plan to build bridges between Islam and the rest of the world? If you want to avoid a world war, it is time to do something about it.

i think irshad manji should be sent on an all expense paid vacation to qayamganj/azamgarh/rampur. after spending few weeks in the close company of the khan sahabs her opinion about islam will certainly become more favorable.

10
//...As far as I know, many Muslim intellectuals have actually embraced Irshad Manji with open arms. ...//

If this is true - then that`s a very welcome development. The movement towards reformation of Islam is a nascent one... hence its so fragile. And so are the nouveau ``reformers``. The reformers are inexperienced with no past tradition of reformation from which to draw inspiration. And they are part of a community packed with ulta-orthodoxy and all kinds hisorical baggage, and very little tolerance towards dissent.

So of course these folks are not very sure-footed, they don`t know where to start, how to do go. So I am sure - they are making some ``mistakes`` along the way - saying a wrong word here and commiting a ``blasphemy`` there.

For example - Manji`s ``caustic attitude and tone`` - as pointed out by this author. That tone, the author complains, is driving the muslim youth away. But a ``caustic tone`` is minimum that the reformer must use - because there may not be any ``nice`` way to pass the message.

So whether you indulge or castigate the reformers - that`s upto you. Whether you give them your qualified support or un-quallified support - that`s your decision. But let me tell you from the outset: If the ``caustic tone`` or a mis-spelled verse, or criticism of koran bothers you - then reformation is not your cup of tea. Because the way things stand right now - there is no nice you to say ``Folks - you are screw!d up - it`s time to shape up``.

It`s like de-toxifying an incorrigible alcoholic. There are no easy methods.