Irshad Manji travels the world trying to re-ignite a tradition of critical, independent thinking in Islam. PHOTO: MARTIN KRISTIANSEN

Speaking at Nordic Media Days in Bergen, Manji, a Muslim herself, spoke of the challenges in communication with the Muslim world.

Manji, the author of The Trouble with Islam Today and the maker of acclaimed documentary Faith without Fear, discussed the open spread of extreme Islamism in the West, and the importance of communication as a support to reform-friendly Muslims.

"Western journalists are too careful. They feel ignorant and do not dare to ask the critical questions. Western ignorance is a form of racism in the worst sense, and fundamentalism gets off too lightly," Manji said.

Manji also revealed unique footage of an interview with a leading fundamentalist from the Arab world, which she had been advised not to show for security reasons. In the interview she asked where in the Koran it says that suicide attacks make a person a martyr, a question that gave the subject great difficulties answering.

"When Canada nearly had its own Sept. 11 last year, when 17 terrorists were arrested in Toronto, the police did not mention that it had anything to do with Islam or Muslims, not a word. We must get the religious side of this story out," Manji said, and claimed that religious terrorism will likely only increase in the Western world.

"Jihad is an increasing phenomenon also in the West. I get more death threats from Western Europe than from the Arab world. Many of them in fact are from Scandinavia and Norway," Manji said.