Profile: Irshad Manji

The Trouble Maker

She's a feminist, a lesbian - and a Muslim. In her book "The Trouble with Islam" Irshad Manji (35) questions Islam's practice of terror and oppression of women. She is not only one of the faithful, but also a troublemaker.

Irshad Manji, TV-celebrity and bestseller author, leans across the table. Her black eyes stab at me from under jet black, golden striped hair: "Be honest. Go on. Totally honest. Am I being naive?"

I reflect. Are you being naive when you want a liberal reform for Islam? Are you being naive when you, despite being criticized and condemned, despite receiving almost daily death threats, despite having to live behind bullet-proof windows and having a personal bodyguard, when you still believe that Muslims, one billion of them, many illiterate, wants to stop terrorism, violence and oppression and look at the Koran and Islam with new eyes? Is that being naive?

- Well, I say. - You certainly are idealistic.

The previous evening in Amsterdam: Irshad Manji is speaking at the "international centre for women's movement". She's in town to promote her book "The Trouble with Islam", a bestseller in both Canada and USA and selling in 17 countries. This is Irshad's story on how she and her family fled from dictator Idi Amin's regime and "ethnic cleansing" in Uganda and moved to Canada when she was four years old. About her growing up with a violent father, who thought his foremost duty was to knock disobedience and joy out of his family. And about how Irshad, at the Islam madresa (Koran school), was told that to doubt or to ask questions about Islam is wrong. As a Muslim, Irshad was taught, you're supposed to listen, obey and keep your mouth shut. When she was unable to do that, she was promptly kicked out of school.
Today, more than 20 years later, Irshad is still unable to obey and keep her mouth shut. And despite her thinking that the practice of Islam is oppressive, anti-Semitic and excessively fundamentalist, she still considers herself a Muslim.
- What is happening in the name of my Allah? Reports from Amnesty International show that there are two honour killings a day in Pakistan. In Tunisia, men can marry outside the faith, while women can't. And in Iran a woman will be stoned is she is as much as suspected of being a lesbian. As a journalist - and as a person of conscience - I cannot sit still and watch this.
Irshad Manji believes that the old Islamic tradition of Itjihad, independent thinking, needs to resurface for Islam to update itself to the 21st.century.
- A thousand years ago independent thinking was accepted in Islam. We need to find back to this. And it is women who have to reform the Muslim world, she claims.
- Soft power is better than hard ammunition. Muslim women need financial independence. The Muslim world is actually wasting 50 % of its resources when women are oppressed. This reform is in everybody's interest, including men’s. It's true what they say: "Educate a boy, and you educate only him. Educate a woman, and you educate the whole family."
Irshad Manji also refers to new research that shows that parts of the Koran might be misinterpreted. One example: the part about a martyr being rewarded with virgins.
- It is a known fact that the Koran promises virgins to the martyrs, she continues.
- Mohamed Atta, the group leader of the hijackers on September 11. 2001, refers to this in his suicide note. But is it correct? The Arabian word "hur", which for centuries have been translated as "dark-eyed virgins" may well mean "white raisins". Maybe the martyrs reward is based on a huge misunderstanding? Maybe the suicide bombers are sacrificing their lives for a handful of raisins? And if the Koran - or the interpretation of Koran - can be mistaken about this, maybe there are other words and passages that have been misinterpreted as well?
After the talk, a woman in head wear, stands up:
- Allah sent the Koran in Arabic! That's because it should be read in Arabic! If you cannot read the Koran in the original language, you have no right to doubt or question the content, she says, aggression rising off her in waves.
- How can asking questions threaten a religion? And why didn't Allah create us all Arabs then, which was in His Divine power, if that is the only right thing? ask Irsjad Manji.

The next morning I'm meeting Irshad Manji at her hotel. During her 14 hours in Amsterdam she been lecturing, discussing, book signing and meeting well wishers, as well as being filmed by three Dutch TV-stations, interviewed by the papers, recognized by talkative American tourists and e-mailed by her partner. This doesn't reduce her energy or enthusiasm one bit. She shrugs her shoulders when I ask about yesterday's debate:
- This is a healthy debate. This is a necessary debate. I get many reactions on the book and on my speeches, some are very personal. But this is the book I've wanted to write my whole life. I believe in this reform. And I'd much rather commit the sin of being optimistic than the sin of being pessimistic. My website shows that I get support from Muslim men and women all over the world. And optimism is constructive. I don't think there will be a wave of people raising their hands and shouting "We want Itjihad". Many of those who support me fear persecution from the Muslim community - even those who live in an open society like Norway or USA. But there will be an underground movement. No revolution.
- How come you're still a Muslim?
- Muslims need to have humility to disagree and discuss, and we must make sure the freedom to explore is there for everybody. Anything else undermines Allah’s position as the final judge and jury. This interpretation of the Koran goes along with my ideals as a Western woman. I call myself a liberal Muslim. And I cannot give up Islam - at least not yet. It is from within I can help Muslims understand that Itjihad is their right. But if I don't see a potential for reform, I will consider leaving the faith. Because my conscience won't allow me to stay in a faith that causes so many people so much pain.
- How do you practice your faith?
- There was a time where I used to fast because I thought lightning would strike med dead if I didn't. But it's not like that anymore. I fast in the month of Ramadan because it helps me discipline myself and emphatize with the poor. These are values I really believe in. I also give to charity - every Muslim has to - but I give more than I "have to". I also used to pray five times a day, but eventually this ritual became meaningless. So now I have more spontaneous conversations with Allah, often up to 10-15 times a day.
- Do you really believe Muslims want a liberal reform?
- Yes, I do. Because it was young Muslims who encouraged me to write this book. In the period before September 11. 2001, I used to travel around university campuses and speak about diversity. This is one of my most important values. And all the time, after the speech, I was approached by young Muslims who told me: "Our religion need voices like yours". They told me they needed someone to fight for them. And they asked me, a TV-host and a Muslim - who happened to love diversity - to help them. And that's what I want to do. Help people to find their own voices.
- But why would Muslim men voluntarily give up the power fundamentalism give them?
- Exactly! Why should they give it up? They're not gong to do that. And there lies the greatest challenge for any form of reform. All religions have some kind of patriarchy, but in the Arab world is it particularly crushing, and there are some massive hurdles that need to be overcome here. But I believe that Muslims are beginning to understand that a reform is in Islam's best interest. It is in everybody's interest that women's financial positions improve. Because the men will realize that they too are gaining something when the women in their lives are allowed to think freely and make money.
I'm trying to be realistic. I don't say that Operation Itjihad is the only way, or that it will happen. But it is a way to a broader solution. It's easy to be critical. I want to be constructive.

Constructive or not, women in head dresses are not the only ones who are angry at Irshad. Almost daily she receives death threats, mostly via e-mail.
- Just last night I got a letter that said: "So, Irshad Manji, you are travelling. Just let me know your flight number, so I can hijack the plane." Of course all death threats go straight to the police, and for security reasons I can't say too much about this. But not so long ago, in an airport in USA, there was a man coming straight up to me and formed his hand as a firing gun.
- How did you react the first time you received a death threat?
- I wasn't surprised. Not at all! I had a conversation with Salman Rusdie in 2001 I asked him: "Why should I write a book that will create as much havoc and violence in my life as your book did in yours?" And without hesitating he said: "Because a book is more important than a life." I said: "What!!??"
And he said: "When an author writes his thoughts, it can be judged and condemned, but it cannot remain unthought-of. Your idea will live forever, even if you don't. And that's the gift the author gives the world."
I thought a lot about this as I wrote my book, and it was a source of inspiration. So when I received the first death threat - to be honest, it rolled right off me. I already had bullet proof windows in my home, I already had a state-of-the-art security system, I already had a lock on my mailbox. So I live with it just fine. I receive threats on a regular basis, and many are very specific. It is obvious that some people have fantasized in great detail about how they want to kill me.
- What is all this like for your family?
- They are worried! Everyone is worried about me! And I have a responsibility to the people who love me, but my job is to be as effective and as persuasive as I can. I want to show Muslims that is possible. And that includes taking a risk sometimes. I have the full support of my mother and my sisters. My father I don't have contact with. He was very violent to us when we were kids, and for a few years I hated him. When my parents separated 15 years ago, I broke off all contact. I needed distance. After a while, I started feeling somewhat indifferent towards him. Lately I've been thinking - even if I don't for a minute excuse the violence - that he is a human being also, and that his actions are a result of the way he was raised. And deep inside me there is a little voice that says that maybe I should talk to him again before he dies. Or before I die.
- What about your partner, what does she say?
- I have been with Michelle for six years, and this has been tough on our relationship. She's got to live with all this security as well, looking over her shoulder all the time. But Michelle is one tough lady. In the late 80-ies she was kicked out of the Canadian army because she was lesbian. She sued - and won. This created a precedent, and contributed to erase the Canadian ban on homosexuality. Afterwards she was invited to testify in front of the U.S. Sentate's Committe of American Defence. And guess who was listening to her words? Bill Clinton. He was a presidential nominee at the time, and he wrote her afterwards and said: "Your testimony has inspired me to lift this ban in the US, and that's what I will try to do if I get elected." And in his first week in the White House he tried to do just that. But it was too early, so it didn't go through. Later a similar case went to court in USA, and this American case was later filmed, with Glenn Close in the leading role ("Serving in Silence, the Margerethe Cammermeyer Story"). Today Michelle is a senior advisor to the Canadian Minister of Justice. So she's a good ally to have!
- Talking about presidents, what do you think about President Bush?
- It's not my style to hate politicians. But I think Bush is doing himself a great disservice. He claims to have moral clarity about the terror in the world, but just the fact that he nurses a close relationship to Saudi-Arabia gives him a credibility problem. He invites Imans and Mullahs to the White House, but he has never officially held them responsible for their silence about terror. So this moral clarity of his is pure opportunism. If I should give him advice, it would be to be consistent in his views on terror. Confront these people with their crimes against humanity. We let Muslim countries get away with too much. A lot of Western people are afraid of being called racists if they question what happens in Muslim countries. But to quote Martin Luther King: "If you don't expect more of people, it reveals what you really think about them." So I ask the Western world: Why do you keep treating Muslims like children?
- Perhaps the world has changed since Martin Luther King junior…?
- Yes, but principles are principles. Human right are human rights.
- There's your idealism.
- I know, I know! But I cannot be silent. I hear this silence from too many in the Western world. How will this silence help Muslims - not to mention non-Muslims? Why do we look at ourselves as fighters for human rights when our silence - and our tolerance - breeds intolerance? Who are we doing a favour when we switch off the moral-button?