Irshad Manji

Manji was born in 1968 near Kampala, Uganda to an Indian (Gujarati) father and Egyptian mother.

When Idi Amin expelled non-Africans from Uganda in 1972, 4 year old Irshad moved with her family to Richmond, British Columbia, near Vancouver, Canada.On Saturdays she attended a religious (madrasah) school until age 14 when she was expelled for asking too many questions.

In 1990, she earned a bachelor's degree with honors, in the history of ideas from the University of British Columbia and won the Governor General's Medal for top humanities graduate.

Early 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 the age of 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 was also a columnist for Ottawa's new LGBT newspaper Capital Xtra!.

Manji has since hosted or produced several Public affairs programs on television, one of which won the Gemini, Canada's top broadcasting prize. She 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.

University

• 2002 - Manji became writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House, from where she began writing The Trouble with Islam Today.

• 2005 to 2006 - she was a visiting fellow with the International Security Studies program at Yale University.

• 2006 to 2012 - she was a senior fellow with the Brussels-based European Foundation for Democracy.

• 2008 to 2016 - Manji was a visiting professor at New York University 2008 – 2016.

• 2016 to present - Manji is a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy where she is working on a new book and "designing an online course to equip teachers who want to mentor their students in building moral courage".

Moral Courage Project

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. Since 2017 The University of Southern California is where Irshad and her team teach "moral courage."

Writings

Manji has received numerous death threats. In a CNN interview, Manji stated that the windows of her apartment are fitted with bullet-proof glass, primarily for the protection of her family. "Muslim extremists storm Irshad's book launch in Amsterdam in December 2011, and ordered her execution.""When Irshad Manji, a courageous Canadian Muslim liberal and open critic of Islam was speaking with another reformist Muslim at an event this past December in Amsterdam, 22 male Islamic jihadists burst into the venue and attempted to physically assault her".

In her book The Trouble with Islam Today, Manji calls herself a "Muslim refusenik": Someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God." "www.muslim-refusenik.com"was the name of Manji's original website. ... The website is partially available on the web archives.

Manji also calls herself a Muslim pluralist. In her 2011 book, Allah, Liberty and Love, she writes about the "occupations of both Israeli soldiers and Arab oligarchs," asserting that each occupation needs to be fought nonviolently. In a recent column for Globe and Mail, she applauded young Palestinians who issued the Gaza Youth Manifesto for Change, which calls for freedom and warns that "we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel [and] beaten up by Hamas...There is a revolution growing inside of us..."

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, those in the Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian languages) available for free-of-charge download on her website. 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 accused it of disproportionately targeting Muslims or lacking thorough scholarship.

In the book, Manji says that Arabs have made a mistake by denying that Jews have a historical bond with Palestine. Manji writes that the Jews' historical roots stretch back to the land of Israel, and that they have a right to a Jewish state. She further argues that the allegation of apartheid in Israel is deeply misleading, noting that there are in Israel several Arab political parties, that Arab-Muslim legislators have veto powers, and that Arab parties have overturned disqualifications. She also writes that Israel has a free Arab press, that road signs bear Arabic translations, and that Arabs live and study alongside Jews.

However, in 2003, Manji also condemned Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, voicing her opposition to "illegal Jewish settlements, assault helicopters, checkpoints [and] curfews..." "Day in and day out," she writes of Palestinians, "they witness what I've only glimpsed: young Israeli women and men with guns strapped to their chests. Miles of dusty road to tread between checkpoints. Brusque soldiers who won't utter a word of Arabic, even if they know how. ID cards, razor wire, armored tanks, sprawling Jewish settlements that look like suburbs and would take years to dismantle, delaying Justice for Palestinians that much longer."

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".

Allah, Liberty and Love

Since publishing The Trouble with Islam Today, Manji has taken an aspirational approach to issues of reform. In her 2011 book Allah, Liberty and Love, she invites Muslims and non-Muslims to transcend the fears that stop many from living with integrity: the fear of offending others in a multicultural world as well as the fear of questioning their own communities. Manji asserts that change must start from within.

As with Manji's other writings, Allah, Liberty and Love has been received with some negative criticism; scholars complain that "Manji may lack the seriousness to make her points and turn her ideas into action".

Omar Sultan Haque, 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 [a liberal and open] future [of Islamic Interpretation] a reality." Haque often describes Manji's ideas in a 'patronizing' manner", as Howard A. Doughty, who critiques Haque illustrates with a quote: "Manji’s God resembles an extremely affectionate and powerful high school guidance counselor:"Rayyan Al-Shawaf, a Beirut-based writer and another critic, argues that Manji promotes ijtihad while overlooking (if that is possible) that "ijtihad is a sword that cuts both ways."Rayyan 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."

Doughtery summarizes his observations of many Manji's critics: "What 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."

Other controversy surrounded the international launch of "Allah, Liberty and Love". During her world 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 supporters in Yogyakarta. Dozens were beaten and many had to be treated in 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.

In 2012, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, "a 36-year-old Malay woman planning for her wedding and in the midst of a marriage course at her local mosque, happened to be on shift as manager of the Borders Bookstore." She was arrested for selling Irshad Manji’s "Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta". " After three years of legal battles with the authorities who had prosecuted her for selling Irshad Manji’s "Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta", Nik Raina emerged victorious: The Federal Court dismissed the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department’s (JAWI) bid to appeal a lower court ruling favouring the Borders bookstore manager".

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

• 1997 – Feminist for the 21st Century named by Ms. Magazine

• 2004 – Chutzpah Award Oprah Winfrey's first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction"

• 2005 – Positive Change in Islam Today named by The Jakarta Post as one of three women making a positive change in Islam today.

• 2006 – Young Global Leader selected by The World Economic Forum

• 2007 – Global Vision Prize Immigration Equality's highest honor

• 2008 – Honorary Doctorate University of Puget Sound

• 2009 – Muslim Leader of Tomorrow from the American Society for Muslim Advancement

• 2012 – The Ethical Humanist Award from New York Society for Ethical Culture's highest honor

• 2014 – Honorary Doctorate Bishop's University

Books

• 1997 - Risking Utopia: On the edge of a new democracy, ISBN 1-55054-434-9.
• 2003 - The Trouble with Islam Today
• 2011 - Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and FreedomISBN 1-4516-4520-1, ISBN 978-1-4516-4520-0

Film

• 2007 - Manji's PBS documentary, Faith without Fear, follows her journey to reconcile faith and freedom. Faith without Fear depicts the personal risks Manji 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.
• 2007 - Faith Without Fear: finalist for the National Film Board of Canada's Gemini Award
  
• 2008 - Faith Without Fear: nominated for an Emmy
  
• 2008 - Faith Without Fear: won Gold at the New York Television Festival
  
• 2008 - Faith Without Fear launched the Muslim Film Festival organized by the American Islamic Congress